e [Music] e e e e e e Hello friends you are watching the very famous and super hit English movie Warcraft 2016 in this video we will inform you about the main characters actors and various interesting effects shot in the movie and complete details of the movie friends if you are new to our Channel then don't forget to subscribe the channel and like the video and support us to watch more interesting videos so that we can be motivated and bring you better videos so let's move on to the movie Warcraft alternatively known as Warcraft the beginning is a 2016 American action fantasy film based on the video game series of the same name directed by Duncan Jones who co-wrote with Charles lit it stars Travis fiml Paula Patton Ben Foster Dominic Cooper Toby Keel Ben schnetzer Robert kazinski and Daniel woo the film follows anduin lathar of Stormwind and durotan of the frostwolf clan as Heroes set on opposite sides of a growing War as the Warlock golden leads the horde to invade Azeroth using a magic portal together a few human Heroes and dissenting Orcs Must attempt to stop the true evil behind this war and restore four piece the film was first announced in 26 as a project partnership between legendary pictures and the games developer Blizzard Entertainment Warcraft premiered in Paris on May 24th 2016 and was released by Universal Pictures in the United States on June 10th 2016 the film grossed $ 47.4 million in the United States and $439 million worldwide based on its considerable success in China where grossed $225.5 million becoming the highest grossing film based on a video game at the time however it failed to reach its Break Even point of doll 45500 million after Global Marketing and distribution and the film received generally negative reviews from critics drer home world to the Orcs is being torn apart by a force known as fell magic orc warlock golden unites the orc Clans Into The Horde and creates a portal to another world Azeroth by using Fel magic to drain the life out of captive Drina golden leads a small War band through the portal to capture and sacrifice prisoners on Azeroth to bring the horde durotan Chieftain of the frostwolf clan his pregnant mate draa and his friend orgram doomhammer join this initial War band on Azeroth draa goes into labor and golden rescues Gul the dying Baby by draining the life out of a deer to revive and Infuse him with Fel magic the Orcs raid settlements throughout Azeroth anduin lathar commander of the human forces of Stormwind Kingdom finds trespassing Mage codger investigating the bodies of the slain men codger notices the bodies contain traces of fell magic stormwind's King Lenin sends them to the stronghold kajan to inform medv the guardian of tiful of the fell Magic's presence on Azeroth lothar codger and medv join a scouting team following traces of Fel magic but are ambushed by Orcs medv uses a spell to kill the Fel corrupted Orcs leaving the hord's Warchief blackand to flee along with duroan and orgram the team takes a half orc slave garona as prisoner but Lana releases her in exchange for loyalty to Stormwind garona leads the humans to spy on the orc camp where they learn of Golden's plan to bring the horde to Azeroth while studying a book found in Med's Library kodar realized izes that golden had help from someone in Azeroth opening the portal despite oram's objections derodan meets with Lenny secretly to unite the frostwolf clan and the humans against golden but the group is ambushed by blackand Medi forms a magical barrier to protect the human retreat but lothar's son Kalen is separated from the group and killed by black hand medv is weakened and garona and codger take him back to kajan to recover codger eventually realizes that is the one who helped golden having been corrupted by Fel magic at the orc Camp blackan purges the frostwolf clan orgram helps draa to escape after sending Gul down a river in a basket draa is found and killed durotan challenges golden to M Gora a duel to the death for leadership of the Orcs during the fight golden violates the honorable combat Rules by draining the life out of durotan with magic killing him and earning the dis approval of the Orcs watching he then empowers blackand with the same magic medve now in a half demonic state starts to open the portal to drer and golden begins sacrificing the captured humans to allow the rest of the horde to enter Azeroth then a leads the human Army in an assault on the orc Camp while loar and codar fight medv and destroy the demon that began to manifest on the outside medv is mortally wounded and uses the last of his strength to close the portal to drer he then opens a portal to Stormwind allowing Lana to evacuate most of the freed prisoners medv dies and the portal closes leaving lannette garona and a small number of human soldiers to fight the Orcs the secretly orders garona to kill him bringing her honor among the Orcs and putting her in a position of power to bring peace between the two races garona reluctantly does so and is welcomed Into The Horde by Golden lothar arrives to retrieve kinglin as body but is confronted by black hand who challenges lathar to M Gora with lathar defeating and killing him avenging kalen's death against Golden's demands the Orcs Bound by tradition allow lathar to depart with Len's body during Len's funeral the leaders of the other human Nations along with the High Elves and dwarves Proclaim an alliance against the Orcs and support loar as the leader of the alliance elsewhere orgam takes one of duron's tusks to one day give to Gul the basket containing Gul is found by a human in addition Terry notary provides the voice and motion capture for growash Hellscream the orc Chieftain of the war song Clan though the part is listed in the credits as pean notary also served as stunt coordinator and movement coach for the film working with cast members Keel kazinski Brown woo and Galvin on their portrayals of the Orcs And with Foster on his portrayals of magic Michael adamthe appears as king Magny bronzebeard the dwarf ruler of ironforge Glenn Close makes an uncredited appearance as a Loi an ancient Mage locked in an artifact within Darin described as the guardian before there was a guardian in the comics alodi was the first guardian of tiful and a male half elf while the character in the film is closer to that of iguin Med's mother Chris Metson who served as a co-producer and uncredited story writer for the film and is the senior vice president of story and franchise development at Blizzard Entertainment and the voice of thall in the warcraft franchise makes an uncredited Cameo appearance as a turbaned perfume vendor on the streets of Stormwind Kingdom the project was officially announced in May 2006 with blizzard initially wanting it to be set in the universe of the realtime strategy Warcraft Orcs And Humans video game from 1994 this setting was later dropped dropped because blizzard decided that it would be too similar to The Lord of the Rings initially scheduled for a 29 release the film would not see a release in that year by ComicCon 2011 the film was announced to still only be in the development stage UAB ball made a bid to direct but was turned away by blizzard who he claims to have said we will not sell the movie rights not to you especially not to you because it's such a big online game success Maybe a bad movie would destroy that ongoing income what the company has with it Sam Ry was initially attached to direct but was replaced by Duncan Jones in January 2013 upon coming aboard Jones immediately voiced his displeasure at the script which he stated was the stale fantasy Trope of humans are the good guys monsters are the bad guys with Blizzard's approval who had also been looking to change the story Jones altered the story so that it's 50/50 Jones also faced personal struggles during filming as his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer soon after Jones took over and his father David Bowie died from cancer late in production Jones thus summed up the challenge by telling the New York Times my film started and ended with cancer at San Diego Comic Con in July 2013 a concept trailer was presented featuring a battle between a human and an orc Paul donno Travis Fimmel Anon Mount and Anton yelin emerged as the Front Runners for the lead role with fiml winning the role in October 2013 2425 on December 4th 2013 the main cast of the film consisting of fiml Ben Foster Paula Patton Dominic Cooper Toby keble and Robert kazinski was announced it an AM Menzel Debbie Gibson Julie delpy Allison Eastwood and Leon Meer were also considered for the the role of garona haers on December 14 2013 Universal added Daniel woo and Clancy Brown to the cast in early March 2014 newcomer Berkeley Duffield joined the cast principal photography began on January 13th 2014 and lasted for 4 months finishing on May 23rd 2014 filming took place primarily in Vancouver among other locations post- production lasted 20 months regarding the use of computer generated imagery Jones said it's a tool like any other it can be done well and it can be done the best CGI has you forgetting that it's CGI and accepting the visual as whatever it is supposed to be like props no one has an issue with props in film do they cinematographer Simon Dugen stated the film had a long prep of about 12 weeks in addition to the 18 weeks of shooting Warcraft original motion picture soundtrack is the soundtrack this music was composed By Ramen jaadi and released on June 10th 2016 jawat was hired by Jones and legendary pictures in October 2014 the vinyl version of the soundtrack was released on September 5 2016 Warcraft was set to be released on December 18th 2015 but following the announcement of the coinciding release of Star Wars the Force awakens the release was pushed back to the following year the film premiered at the LR Rex in Paris on May 24th 2016 it was released in the United Kingdom on May 30th 2016 in the United States on June 10th 2016 and in Australia on June 16th 2016 Warcraft was released on digital download on September 13th 2016 and was released on Blu-ray Ultra HD Blu-ray Blu-ray 3D and DVD on September 27th in the United States in Canada select editions of the physical release include a digital copy of World of Warcraft along with digital bonus codes for other blizzard games to tie in with the film on Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 29% based on 232 reviews with an average rating of four 410 the website's critical consensus reads Warcraft has visual Thrills to spare but they and director Duncan Jones distinctive gifts are wasted on a sluggish and derivative adaptation of a best-selling game with little evidence cinematic value on Metacritic the film has a score of 32 out of 100 based on 40 critics indicating generally unfavorable reviews audiences pulled by cinemascore gave the film an average grade of B+ on an A plus to f scale Jeff Burkshire of variety criticized the film's attempts at adapting a source material with inherent Ridiculousness with regard to how the original game series was not meant to have a very deep narrative it's an unwaveringly Earnest film that never owns up to exactly how campy every character every conflict and every new realm truly is adow of the a club wrote that to watch Warcraft is never to be transported but to Wade through a thick morass of Mythology Exposition Gody light show effects half-ass character development and formulaic franchise groundwork while describing director cowriter Duncan Jones as a talented sci-fi fabulist who's Fallen screaming into the same CGI Abyss that consumed Peter Jackson during his unfortunate Hobbit cycle Helen Ohara reviewing for British GQ stated that although the film itself is a strong adaptation of Warcraft the script diminishes the film's impact the problem is that it just can't escape those Cod fantasy Roots there are too many mysterious proper nouns being thrown into conversation and and at least 12 major characters competing for space zipping from one to another here so quickly that they only have time for the most portentious and sometimes cliche dialogue Sher Lyon of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review citing the performances and story as highlights Brian trud of USA Today also praised the acting particularly Kel's performance as durin Kel's performance showcases the nuances of a father gripped by the no situation of having no home and his family in constant danger trud also stated that he found it was not necessary for viewers of the film to have prior knowledge of the warcraft series to enjoy the film with the film's storyline leaving Warcraft open to possible sequels Jones has expressed interest in a sequel to the film likely to be adapted from Warcraft Roman 2 tides of Darkness the second video game in the warcraft franchise on June 18th 2018 Jones tweeted that the chance of Warcraft getting a sequel doesn't look good in September 2020 it was reported that legendary is developing a new Warcraft film though it's unclear if this is a planned reboot or a sequel to Jones film or if it will continue to be distributed by Universal Pictures or transferred to legendary's current release Partners Sony Pictures Warner Bros or Netflix review of Warcraft film first a confession I I have never played any incarnation of Warcraft I'm just going to put that out there right now be upfront about it we're all friends here we should be honest with each other so I went in with an open mind to Warcraft the movie based on the video game and I'm reviewing it purely on its own merits as a standalone entity many of you out there may read this and cry foul she's never played the game she has no idea what she's talking about and I'm okay with that really I am but I'm also hoping that the game is more emotionally engaging or at least you know fun than the movie I just saw because that thing was a do mess and it brings me no joy to report that to you because Warcraft comes from a filmmaker whose work I've been a big fan of Duncan Jones with just two features to his credit Jones has shown a real knack for taking complex sci-fi stories and telling them in clever intimate ways his debut moon was my favorite movie of 29 it was about mindblowing existential stuff but it had real Verve immediacy and heart plus if one Sam Rockwell is good two Sam rockwells are great Jones 2011 followup the time travel puzzle source code felt like a bit of a let down by comparison but it was thrilling and challenging and it showed his Evolution as a filmmaker with a bigger cast and more expensive toys so it's hard to figure out what happened with Jones and Warcraft it's as if the Endeavor swallowed him whole this was clearly a formidable undertaking filled with sweeping imagery motion capture performances and tons of visual effects all being projected in overwhelming IM Max 3D in the midst of all that it's difficult to hear his voice to see his attention to detail an enormous budget and state-of-the-art Technology have resulted in a movie that looks cheesy and cartoonish a big screen version of a video game world that more closely resembles the video game commercials you see on TV but Warcraft is difficult to follow from both a visual and a narrative perspective with massive battle scenes between Orcs And humans in which it's difficult to tell who's doing what to whom similar to luggage at the airport many Orcs look alike hulking tus muscular and festooned with Fierce accoutrements they're like refugees from a Gore concert but eventually you don't know whether you're looking at a good orc or a bad orc and the CGI spectacle of it all renders everything with a glossy detached sness forgive me for wanting a little realism in my Orcs because yes that's what Warcraft is about Orcs And humans and their noisy efforts to enter each other's Realms and destroy each other but the mythology is much more dense than that the script from Jones and Charles leave it contains reams of expository dialogue yet the story itself feels mindboggling LLY convoluted and yet in between the self-serious stilted conversations we get Snippets of quippy anachronistic banter that are meant to provide humor but instead end up being jarring the film begins with orc Warrior Chief durotan Toby Keel his pregnant wife draa Anna Galvin and their Clan leaving their Dying World by passing through a portal that looks like a wall of swirly minty mouthwash on the other side is the more peaceful and pastoral Azeroth although every sparkly new Fantasy Realm we enter here calls to mind a place we visited previously at some point in The Lord of the Rings saga there's a lot of borrowing going on in Warcraft once they arrive they attack the humans for control of the land Knights led by durin's counterpart the noble but personalityfree loar Travis fiml the Brooklyn Pickle entrepreneur of Rebecca Miller's Maggie's plan but while lothar dutifully serves his King Dominic Cooper and queen Ruth Nega durotan begins to question the motives of the clearly insane and power hungry orc warlock golden Daniel wuo the fact that golden has pulsating green eyes and likes to drain people of their life force to fuel his own magical abilities may have something to do with it the humans have a powerful wizard of their own medv or the guardian as he's known he's played by Ben Foster in a bit of casting alone that suggests perhaps he's not to be trusted and sure enough Foster tries to bring glimmers of his trademark menace to the character but it's hard to act amid all the noise basically he's called upon to transport himself and others from place to place by stringing together strands of glowing blue light enchanting a few spells eventually alliances must be forged to save humanity and orc kind alike but first young Mage kodger Ben schnetzer an ally of Laars must learn the secrets hidden inside of purple room that's meant to be futuristic but looks like a rejected set from Logan's Run there's also a giant evil statue made of clay that comes to life but it's more unintentionally hilarious than frightening and before there can be any peace there is pummeling lots and lots of pummeling as the Orcs fight the humans as well as each other under hot Dusty Skies it is brutal it is repetitive it is numbing and just as it's ending Warcraft leaves all kinds of plot threads dangling for the ambitious possibility of a sequel but you'll be likely to cry game over because this first one is easily a contender for the worst movie of the year do you know your Azeroth from your acaban your frostwolf clan from your direwolf Guardian your elwin forest from your Council of Elon if you picked out the above Harry Potter Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings comparisons from those of Warcraft the RTS and mmor RPG franchise now making its movie debut congratulations you're already ahead of the game and no doubt a large chunk of the audience that director Duncan Jones Moon source code and his team are targeting with this latest fantasy franchise and it puts you at a considerable Advantage when it comes to one of the unavoidable challenges when trying to realize and orientate newcomers around a long established complex fantasy world whereas JK Rowling George RR Martin and jimr tol were able to build up their mythologies over many books and their screen adaptations across several hours of viewing Jones and Co have the unenviable task of cramming a rambling diffuse gaming Multiverse into a standalone 2hour and change epic and still lay the ground for potential sequels No Easy Task when citadels named Iron Forge and Stormwind might distract you with thoughts of 1970s heavy metal bands then help you focus on a brand new lore of the Rings what refreshing about Warcraft though is that despite the inevitable information dumped in a nutshell Warrior Orcs from Dying World dreiner find a magical Gateway into peaceful Azeroth and come up against its human and dwarf and elf inhabitants the emphasis from the very beginning is on its character indeed some may Overlook just how bold a move it is to kick off proceedings with an orc couple frostwolf leader durotan Toby keble and draa Anna Galvin prospective parents worrying about the fate of their Clan and they're newborn you don't get much more well human that that and only after their Journey Begins do we meet the actual people Chief among them lar Vikings Travis fiml right-hand man to benevolent King Len Dominic Cooper naturally the kingdom is perturbed to find signs of unwanted visitors particularly those bearing the Hallmarks of the fell dark well green actually magic that warps its users as much as its victims and surroundings a magic that ruthless orc Chieftain gold Daniel woo wields to seize Azeroth for his own slowly but surely however Warcraft shape shifts from a CG heavy experience you're watching to one you're actually immersed within other tech specs are suitably state-of-the-art the Orcs in particular move with impressively real heft and expressiveness and Game of Thrones composer Ramen jawat underscores the action with rousing tribal rhythms like Christopher Nolan Duncan Jones has gone from cerebral genre hit to slick Thriller to Major franchise opportunity and he directs the combat scenes with assuredness without ever reaching the rarified heights Peter Jackson or James Cameron but Jones's real strength and you imagine his overall priority is more personal than technical the story cribbed from the 1994 realtime strategy Warcraft Orcs And humans is pretty simple at heart but the heart teeming with frayed connections between parents and children separated lovers betrayed friends beats ever stronger the plot even does what tolkki and Jackson conspicuously skimped on give or take the odd bore miror which is to genuinely raise the stakes by killing off seemingly key characters as a result the climactic faceoffs and Cliffhangers have far more dramatic weight than you might have imagined game over truly means something here in a time when too many bloated movie Blockbusters feel like they're impersonal video games it's heartening to see that an actual game can be transformed into an authentically involving movie Yes It suffers from an overcrowded mythology occasional clunkiness a few iffy casting choices fimls loar in particular and won't attain Avatar box office or Game of Thrones level Awards but there's a genuine sense of striving to get inside what made the Warcraft games beloved by 100 million participants whether playing as human or orc and tapping into what makes fantasy feel so so personal so real game on related information the epic battle at the center of Warcraft isn't the clash between humans and Orcs that's just what takes up roughly 2 hours of screen time the true conflict comes from filmmakers trying to tell a story with soul and struggling against the inherent Ridiculousness of the commodity they're working with it shouldn't take a mage to foresee that this pricey and Preposterous adaptation of an online gaming phenomenon was pre pre-ordained for artistic mediocrity with little concern for all those already perplexed At The Mention Of Orcs and mages Warcraft plunges head first into a Fantasy Realm teaming with mythical creatures magical spells and exotically named characters and locations it's a take it or leave it approach likely to have most audience members opting for the ladder though devotees of the immersive role playing Source material may have an entirely different experience if so Universal will have to hope they storm the box office early and often otherwise the studio could be looking at one of the biggest Duds of the summer that's despite the noble effort of director Duncan Jones who helmed the lower budget sci-fi wonders Moon and source code and labors mightily here to craft a solid emotional foundation in his script with Charles lit the warcraft gains which have radically declined in popularity from a high of 12 million regular users in 2010 to a recent low of close to 5 million so low the company behind it no longer releases subscriber counts to the public were never meant to have the narrative depth of the Lord of the Rings or even Game of Thrones but the film cribs freely from both of those sources anyway as well as Star Wars Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Avatar and numerous other recent Blockbusters the Orcs a race of Giant Warrior beasts flee their dying homeland of drer through a portal to the peaceful realm of Azeroth where they wage a fullscale attack on unsuspecting humans for control of the land orc Soldier durotan Toby Keel like all orc players working in performance capture questions the brutal ways of his clansmen led by Warchief Blackhand Clancy Brown and Power hungry warlock golden Daniel woo and believes a compromise without Bloodshed is possible his counterpart on The Human Side is andwin lothar Travis fiml of TV's Vikings a knight devoted to serving his benevolent king and queen Dominic Cooper and Ruth Nea durotan's Fierce mate draa Anna Galvan delivers an adorable orc baby early on and lothar's Son Ken Berkeley Duffield is determined to impress his father on the battlefield those family ties are duly exploited for maximum melodramatic impact as the Dual protagonist rage and question and mourn and soulfully Ponder the complexity that exists on two sides of any conflict did Oona Paula Patton a slave claiming to be half orc half human who makes her way through the portal and finds herself torn between the two sides she quickly gets cozy with lothar but it's hard to take Patton or the character seriously with her Star Trek alien s green skin and the oversized fangs jutting out from her jaw looking like a last minute find in the Halloween store Bargain Bin and making her sound like she has a mouth full of magic beans and that goes to the root of the problem problems with Warcraft it's an unwaveringly Earnest film that never owns up to exactly how campy every character every conflict and every new realm truly is Ben Foster has another Central role as reclusive wizard Medi a guardian of Azeroth who has been not so subtly dabbling in dark magic he's introduced sculpting a Gollum surely you'll recall the Old Chestnut about Czech off's golum shirtless and Wildey but it takes lothar quite some time to piece together the warning signs Med should be fun but Foster's dead pan turn is like the movie around him a drag boasting more than 2,000 visual effect shots it's dispiriting to think about the time energy planning and precision that went into Warcraft when the final product brings to mind those animated advertisements for iPhone app games so good at making the most outlandish elements of his first two films seem completely credible Jones can't find a way to get this cartoony spectacle to soar his heartfelt approach to the material only underlines the silliness production designer Gavin Bak costume designer May C Rubio and visual effects supervisors Bill Weston Hofer Jeff White and Jason Smith lead the heavy lifting on the Artisan side since what the producers essentially purchased with the source material is a collection of locations wardrobe weapons and spells Warcraft ends with a setup for a sequel but also the feeling that if this is what combat looks like it's time to give peace a chance Warcraft is not a disastrously bad movie would that it were then there might be some chance that enough people would gravitate towards it over the years as a camp spectacle to redeem it as gloriously awful the Fate that has rescued so many other movies based on video games from Street Fighter to the Irv of ubal instead it's just a big doughy lump of stuff not terribly good or or bad or anything just hanging out there being intolerably mediocre this is quite possibly the most polished handsome video game movie ever made and that is in no small part why it is certainly the most boring based on the tie and novels based on the warcraft and World of Warcraft games Warcraft goes back in time to explain the story of how the Orcs first came to Azeroth and began their endless war with the humans it is not Chief among the movie's flaws that it dumps names and Concepts out with no more of a hint of explanation than I've just given you it helps that it's a grab bag of fantasy cliches and even if you can't follow any of it you can still follow pretty much all of it it's symptomatic of how disinterested Warcraft is in anything basically a more one for the fans proposition I've not seen in ages and speaking as a non-fan a large portion of the movie felt more like a slurry made up of 60% jurar toan 10% rod rer zelis and 30% crappy Game of Thrones fanfic then a dramatic construct with characters conflict and a clear ink between the two not inscrutable just hectic and uninteresting but here anyway is the meat of it the Orcs come from a different world which used to be hail and funed before the orc wizard golden Daniel W the Orcs are all moap performances began over using the Fel a sort of magical energy field that can be tapped for great power but at the cost of total corruption golden has devised a portal generator to other worlds that runs off of the life force of living creatures and he's using it to send an advanced Army of great orc Warriors to bring back enough prisoners to fuel the portal long enough for all of the Orcs to travel across Azeroth is already buckling under the weight of conflicts between humans and the other races in that world and Len win Dominic Cooper the powerful human king of Stormwind finds himself finds himself barely able to fight against the Invaders that's the best I can do for a plot synopsis Warcraft is a busy little thing telling individual stories on multiple fronts involving the inner workings of both human and orc Politics the viewer is obliged to keep track of no fewer than 11 main characters on top of the less main characters all of whom are virtually impossible to remember from scene to scene both because they have made up names and because they are all horribly rich written and played I will say that in general the orc sequences are better more interesting and More consequential in great part because the solitary engaging character is an orc this is durotan the first orc to see through Golden's treacherous maniacal plot the father of a newborn orc child played by the worst CGI that I would ever expect to see in a big budget movie in the year of Our Lord 2016 and the focal point of all the most complex Nuance treatments of Beauty and morality family and tribe peace and violence that Warcraft has to offer he's played by Toby Keel who I believe is the only person here with real motion capture experience he played the villainous chimp Koba in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and it shows through massively he's uniquely able to play things small and Earnest and durotan is the only feeling character in the whole damn movie when he gets sidelined with 3/4 of the movie left to go it's a blow from which Warcraft never remotely recovers mind you Warcraft isn't some affair with a bunch of yahoos there's some real talent wasting itself on screen nobody is more shockingly bad than the herto for Reliable Ben Foster as the human wizard Med of evil because the film is needless anal about making sure to exactly balance its human and orc halves chomping on lines like the worst kind of stage of fright stricken Community Theater actor and buried alive in a big sleeve dominated costume and a hair in makeup job that makes him look like Jesus Christ cosplaying Gandalf but Clancy Brown and an uncredited Glenn Close are also among the high-end performers flailing like idiots stepping down a rung we've got Cooper lacking the Regal presence to carry off the loopy olden days dialogue he's been saddled with and Paula Patton going stiff as a board in her joyless performance of a half human half orc given a code of digital ink and paint to give her skin the color of a martini Olive Travis fiml who's first credited so we might as well call him the lead appears constantly baffled by the actions he's performing and well he might be what's really irritating is that somewhere the guts of the thing are strong the film's world is amazing production designer Gavin Bak has whipped up a marvelous intricate and apparently Limitless set of cultures with their own visual logic everything's highly detailed and the visual effects are superb outside of the baby the risibly terrible CGI from the trailers isn't to be found anywhere it is a beautiful world executed flawlessly shot in rich saturated colors and realistically dramatic lighting by cinematographer Simon Dugen the World of Warcraft deserves something so much better than it gets as soon as people are dropped into the Landscapes everything goes right to hell and the magic dissipates director Duncan Jones who has made astounding genre masterpieces before and I desperately hope will be allowed to do so again he works well on a low budget put some attempt at grandure in the scale of shots and staging the plot matters against striking beautiful natural and no doubt computer augmented Landscapes it is a film that looks like the thing that fantasy books evoke so splendidly and fantasy movies tend to mess up that's something the film has going for it more details of Warcraft film I feel conflicted about Duncan Jones Warcraft on the one hand it's a movie that comes off as bloated loaded down with Exposition and constantly trying to service too many characters while ultimately serving almost none of them and yet it's also a film that left me wanting more Joan's ambition sucks Us in with his unabashed high Fantasy World building Warcraft is a film that is loaded with problems and yet I couldn't help but admire what it was trying to accomplish the world Orcs is dying so the dark Mage golden Daniel woo has opened a portal to the world of Azeroth the Orcs plan to capture as many humans as possible so that golden can use their souls to power the portal and bring in the remaining hordes the orc Chief and durot and Toby keville and his friend orgam Robert kazinski SE that the dark magic golden is using named the Fel is damaging orc kind and believe that in order to save their people they must Unite with the humans King King L Dominic Cooper leads the humans along with his brother-in-law lothar Travis fiml and they are assisted by the Half Breed garona Paula Patton the Mage Med of Ben Foster and the Mage in training codger Ben schnetzer Warcraft greedily wants to have all the plots but in trying to service everyone it ends up helping no one character motivations become muddled and some characters are described as interesting or have the potential to become interesting but instead remain basic for example golden is ostensibly the villain but he ends up saving durotan's newborn child when it comes through the portal that should create conflicted feelings from durotan about how he should lead his people but if he should also honor the orc who saved his child but the film never does anything with that and so a moment of potential conflict is laid by the wayside I admire Jones attempt to show both sides of the conflict and make us sympathize with the Orcs but because the Orcs are underdeveloped his attempt comes up short I constantly found myself wanting to go back to Med's storyline not just because Foster is terrific as always but because there's an interesting Dynamic at Play Between the Elder Guardian and the neoy codger if the story had focused more on this relationship it could have blossomed into something grander but it never gets the time to develop because the story is always jumping around between its many characters with such scattershot story storytelling it's difficult to latch on to anyone and while some actors give better performances than others along with Foster fiml and Keel are the standouts we still want to know them better Warcraft is this constant double-edged sword where we're getting too much and yet not getting enough of anything it's like if someone dumped a bunch of thread at your feet and told you it was a shirt the only thing that feels fully crafted in Warcraft is the world I went to see the movie with a fan of the game and she said that this is a film that definitely airs on the side of the fans and that in one scene where we see the Orcs rampaging through Villages the geography of Azeroth is spot on that's great for fans but it's lost on those who are unfamiliar with the lore or who have never booted up Blizzard's popular strategy game and yet I could still admire the high fantasy Jones brought into place rather than go for realism like Game of Thrones or even Lord of the Rings Jones Embraces the weird Ness and high fantasy aspect and it's absolutely thrilling some may find that it's a bridge too far and that it becomes silly but I was completely on board with the human smashing orc hammering bird flying spellcasting goodness on display Warcraft never makes excuses for what it is and I love that it has the confidence to be as weird as it wants I also have to give special attention to the astounding visual effects the Orcs look absolutely incredible and the the only time I was ever taken out of the movie was when I was far away and looking at a CGI horde smash up against another CGI horde up close and personal the Orcs are photoreal and Jones takes the time to let us sit with their emotions again they are going to be some viewers who can't be on board with Orcs acting like people but if you can embrace the concept you can Marvel at what industrial Light and Magic has pulled off I wouldn't go so far to call Warcraft a good movie it's crushed under its own ambition and yet that ambition is highly admirable in the same way as films like John Carter where it might not work but it earns points just for being bold and different in an increasingly homogenized landscape and while Warcraft suffers from throwing too much at the audience I would happily return for a sequel assuming it's more focused Warcraft is not a disaster or deserving of the pre-release negativity I can honestly say that if you like fantasy then you're going to like this film and if you're a fan of the game then you'll probably love the movie to be clear I have never played Warcraft I walked in fairly cold knowing the scantiest plot details I did see the initial trailer but found it spectacularly underwhelming this is why you have to see the actual movie Warcraft doesn't spoon feed you it leaps into the story Full Throttle it's a hard fantasy that you have to pay attention to understand if you do then you'll will be rewarded the Warcraft movie is entertaining and immersive the kingdom of Azeroth is being invaded by fearsome Orcs they are coming from their Dying World through a portal the orc leader golden Daniel woo has opened the gate using dark magic to fell the human King Dominic Cooper sends his Warrior brother lothar Travis fiml to face the threat but the Orcs are not what they seem the mighty but kind orc Chieftain durot and Toby keel sees what the Fel has done to his people he knows that golden Must Be Stopped to truly survive bitter enemies must find common ground and new allies to stop evil Warcraft cannot be judged purely on the visual effects they run from borderline video game CGI to impressive theatrical quality it's not entirely consistent throughout but that doesn't take you out of the story azero is fully realized as the setting I liken it to watching old episodes of star correct yes some things look unrealistic but you still believe they are in space that's an apt analogy director Duncan Jones who's taking way too much heat from the haters successfully creates Azeroth he took a stab at adapting a vast world and succeeds in his efforts the plot and characters in legendaries Warcraft are very detailed it would be an understatement to say there's a lot going on casual Watchers will get lost if they're not fully committed I I found the story to be engrossing it was not a strain to follow the characters and comprehend what they were doing in fact the actors do a pretty good job of Selling the Drama some parts lead to obvious resolves but I was quite taken by the ending it's a satisfying conclusion to the story there isn't a boring second in Warcraft the dialogue gets silly at time but not enough to derail the pacing it's also wall-to-wall action then you have the mystical element that I thought was pretty cool once again Warcraft doesn't stop to explain every point about the magic being used you have to watch listen to the characters interact and infer what they're trying to do it takes a bit of imagination to be on the warcraft ride few information about this film that doesn't mean Orcs aren't loved though for all of their growling and chest thumping drooling and pillaging they have loved ones they have families and it's his family that drives ottin the frostwolf chieftain to the human land he's seeking a new life a life where he can raise his newborn son a life free from corruption durotan isn't stupid he can see that the dark magic the shaman golden used to open a portal to this land is the same malevolent Fel magic that laid waste to his old Homeland and he can recognize that Fel is beginning to corrupt this human world of Azeroth to something must be done dur broen must consider the Long View of things stopping Golden's evil might mean bitter enemies must find common ground that foes must become allies for the greater good so he decides that the human Warrior lathar is likely the best one to approach the man is a seasoned fighter but a creature of sense it seems he also has ties to the human King if those loyal to durotan join forces with the humans they might be strong enough to Prevail of course that will make durotan a traitor in the eyes of many it won't be pretty for sure but then nothing in an orc's life is pretty self-sacrifice for those you love is a common theme on both sides of the human and orc battle lines humans and Orcs alike face impossible odds to save the innocent and besides the general sacrifice and battle durotan is willing to allow himself to be publicly pummeled by great power just to prove to his brothers that Golden's magic is a foul and corrosive thing the human King Lan for his part chooses to give up his life for the greater good it's easy to see Christ like parallels in some of those selfless acts they realizes that giving up his life could diffuse the evil at play and open a path to peace his wife later says there is no greater blessing a city can have than a king who would sacrifice his life for his people a half orc SL half human named garona shows cleavage as she reclines for the night night she states that a man who is gazing at her wants to lie with her he denies it several orc women wear midriff bearing leather outfits and an elf female wears a cleavage boosting bustier the massive male Orcs are generally barechested the battles between men and Orcs are percussive and wiw worthy the Orcs look to have generally 5 to 10 times the muscle and mass of a man and they use the girth to crush and pound men with enormous metal hand hammers those heavy strikes cave in armor plating and in a few cases appear to take soldiers heads clean off with their helmets humans slash back with swords and we see Orcs impaled and cut one human battler for instance slides between the legs of his much larger foe raking his sword up across the creature's crotch and then jumping up to stab it in the back men also use gun like boomsticks to kill their foes we see an orc's hand get blown off a young Soldier is impaled and thrown a good 10 ft a person of power lies and deceives those he pledges to protect in the vast online Realms of video games one encounters a whole lot of trolls not the mythical guardians of bridges but guys or gals who really enjoy sewing Discord and goting people and if you're a fan of the warcraft video game franchise you probably think all of them have now taken jobs as movie reviewers because the general reviewing consensus of this game based flick has been very far away indeed from two thumbs up as a movie reviewer and a game reviewer for plugged in I shall for a moment distance myself from that consensus and tell you that this movie depiction of a very popular gaming universe is actually a fairly well done Affair you don't have to have logged a single minute of online game time to understand what's going on the CGI enhanced visuals are impressive the fantasy magic tale is action-packed the good versus evil heroics are often cheer worthy and you can even find some self-sacrificial spiritual parallels worth their weight in WOW gold sure it's not the Lord of the Rings but on the plus side you won't have to spend 3/4 of a day just working your way to the end credits all of that said however there is one issue here that's going to hit many an unsuspecting viewer like an orc Hammer to the solar plexus and that's well all the orc hamers smashing into solar plexuses this PG-13 Rampage packs quite a violent punch with its bone pulverizing thumps and sharp blade hacks there's not much gor or goo but just before the camera is I Cuts away it sure feels like things would get pretty goopy if we stuck around for the after effects add in scenes of the foul Shaman golden torturing victims with his life force draining dark film magic and you've got a film that does live up to its name Warcraft is a fantasy movie based on the video game that had a large following for several years set in a fantasy world Azeroth is a land inhabited by many species including humans dwarfs ancient magicians and other creatures when a horde Of Orcs cross through a magical portal from Another Universe Azeroth is threatened however certain Orcs don't trust their power hungry leaders and want to protect their family a series of betrayals and Partnerships between characters in this Fantastical World leads to an epic battle Warcraft has a dense opening where the filmmakers try to introduce the fantasy world to viewers unlike the Mythos of The Lord of the Rings which tolki and brilliantly sculpted with Christian symbolism Warcraft seems to borrow from Eastern religious viewpoints of the supernatural eventually however evil is shown as evil and compassion kindness and sacrifice are heralded as positive virtues that are better than Magic One subplot parallels the story of Moses in the Bible in the end Warcraft is an enjoyable ride but the strong action violence and Magical elements warrant Extreme Caution strong mixed Pagan worldview with positive biblical moral Redemptive virtues extoling compassion kindness sacrifice empathy fighting for your family and not following false leaders blindly but set in a fantasy world where both good and bad magic come from the same Source implying a false religious Mythos car character makes a reference of a dead father's Spirit teaching his son no foul language other than one utterance of bloody strong action War violence between Orcs And humans humans slice and stab Orcs and shoot them with boom sticks eeka guns Orcs smash humans with hammers breaking necks and pulverizing anyone in their path multiple times with blood splatter and scary Orcs suck the life out of living creatures in a somewhat grotesque way no sexual content but woman bluntly states that a man wants to lie with her based on the looks he gives her upper male nudity and a half breed orc wears a somewhat skimpy outfit with some cleavage and midriff shown brief drunkenness no smoking or drug use and betrayal and greed for power are shown but not condoned more detail Warcraft is a fantasy movie based on the video game which had a cult-like following for several years the movie works on a few levels but ultimately will have a difficult time finding an audience if Avid fans don't show up at the box office on mass in a fantasy world that's not too far off from The Lord of the rings' Middle Earth Azeroth is a land inhabited by many species including humans dwarfs ancient magicians and other creatures the king of the humans ruler of Stormwind Kingdom Larin Dominic Cooper is a good and compassionate King he treats All Creatures and humans with kindness so as zeroth is living in a time of Peace in a separate Universe a World Of Orcs has been ravaged the leader of the Orcs golden who possesses a strong green that feeds off living life uses this magic and creates a portal that allows him to take an army to Azeroth so they can possess the land among the Orcs is durotan a clan leader who only has his wife newborn son and clan members as his priority they follow golden through the portal but durotan is skeptical of his leaders ways as soon as they enter through the portal the Orcs begin pillaging Villages and taking prisoners King Rin finds out about the attacks on their land and sets his top Warrior sir anduin lafar who also happens to be his brother-in-law to investigate anduin runs into a talented young Wizard or Mage codger who detects that the forces behind the attacks are controlled by dark magic they'll need help from the guardian medv who also wields magic if they are to defeat the Orcs eventually both deroin on the orc side and codger and anduin on The Human Side begin to question their leaders who possess magical powers all this leads to an epic battle magic is a seminal element of the plot and World in Warcraft the mythology of the world isn't explored very much at all but what is shown and discussed regarding the magic contradicts scripture unlike the Mythos of The Lord of the Rings which Tolkien brilliantly sculpted with Christian symbolism Warcraft seems to borrow from Eastern religious viewpoints of the supernatural though good magic and bad magic are clearly and distinctively shown a mysterious being says from light comes darkness and from darkness comes light implying that good and evil forces essentially come from the same Source similar to the Star Wars movies eventually however evil is shown as evil and compassion kindness and sacrifice are Herald as positive virtues that are better than magic a king sacrifices himself for his people and an orphan baby orc is put in a river and sent Downstream in a basket only to be picked up by humans a subplot that parallels the life of Moses in the Bible in the end Warcraft is an enjoyable ride but some strong action violence and the Magical elements warrant Extreme Caution cast directed by Duncan Jones written by Charles lit Duncan Jones produced by Charles Roven Stuart fenegan starring Travis fiml Paula Patton Robert Kinski Daniel woo cinematography Simon Dugen edited by Paul Hirsch music by Ramen jatti production companies legendary pictures Atlas entertainment distributed by Universal Pictures release dates May 24th 2016 running time 123 minutes country United States language English budget $160 million box office known as Warcraft the beginning is a 2016 American action fantasy film based on the video game series of the same name directed by Duncan Jones who co-wrote with Charles lit it stars Travis Fimmel Paula Patton Ben Foster Dominic Cooper Toby kebel Ben schetzer Robert kazinski and Daniel woo the film follows anduin lathar of Stormwind and durotan of the frostwolf clan as Heroes set on opposite sides of a growing War as the Warlock golden leads the horde to invade Azeroth using a magic portal together a few human Heroes and dissenting Orcs Must attempt to stop the true evil behind this war and restore peace the film was first announced in 26 as a project partnership between legendary pictures and the game's developer Blizzard Entertainment Warcraft premiered in Paris on May 24th 2016 and was released by Universal Pictures in the United States on June 10th 2016 the film grossed $ 47.4 million in the United States and $439 million worldwide based on its considerable success in China where it grossed $225.5 million becoming the highest grossing film based on a video game at the time however it failed to reach its Break Even point of1 45500 million after Global Marketing and distribution and the film received generally negative reviews from critics drer home world to the Orcs is being torn apart by a force known as Fel magic orc warlock golden unites the orc Clans Into The Horde and creates a portal to another world Azeroth by using Fel magic to drain the life out of captive Drina golden leads a small War band through the portal to capture and sacrifice prisoners on Azeroth to bring the horde Duron Chieftain of the frostwolf clan his pregnant mate draa and his friend Oram doomhammer join this initial War band on Azeroth draa goes into labor and golden rescues Gul the dying Baby by draining the life out of a deer to revive and Infuse him with fell magic the Orcs raid settlements throughout Azeroth anduin lathar commander of the human forces of Stormwind Kingdom finds trespassing Mage codger investigating the bodies of the slain men codger notices the bodies contain traces of fell magic stormwind's King Lenin sends them to the stronghold kajan to inform medv the guardian of tiful of the fell Magic's presence on Azeroth lothar codger and medv join a scouting team following traces of Fel magic but are ambushed by Orcs medv uses a spell to kill the fell corrupted Orcs leaving the hord's Warchief blackand to flee along with duroan and orgram the team takes a half orc slave garona as prisoner but Lana releases her in exchange for for loyalty to Stormwind garona leads the humans to spy on the orc camp where they learn of Golden's plan to bring the horde to Azeroth while studying a book found in Med's Library codger realizes that golden had help from someone in Azeroth opening the portal despite oram's objections duroan meets with Lenny secretly to unite the frostwolf clan and the humans against golden but the group is ambushed by black hand Medi forms a magical barrier to protect the human's retreat but lothar's son Kalen is separated from the group and killed by black hand medv is weakened and garona and codger take him back to kajan to recover codger eventually realizes that medv is the one who helped golden having been corrupted by Fel magic at the orc Camp blackan purges the frostwolf clan orgram helps draa to escape after sending Gul down a river in a basket draa is found and killed Duron challenges golden to m Gora a duel to the death for leadership of the Orcs during the fight golden violates the honorable combat Rules by draining the life out of durotan with magic killing him and earning the disapproval of the Orcs watching he then empowers blackand with the same magic medve now in a half demonic state starts to open the portal to drer and golden begins sacrificing the captured humans to allow the rest of the horde to enter Azeroth then El leads the human Army in an assault on the orc Camp while loar and codger fight medv and destroy the demon that began to manifest on the outside medv is mortally wounded and uses the last of his strength to close the portal to drer he then opens a portal to Stormwind allowing Lana to evacuate most of the free prisoners medv dies and the portal closes leaving lannette garona and a small number of human soldiers to fight the Orcs the secretly orders garona to kill him bringing her honor among the Orcs and putting her in a position of power to bring peace between the two races gona reluctantly does so and is welcomed Into The Horde by Golden lothar arrives to retrieve King L's body but is confronted by blackand who challenges lothar to M Gora with lathar defeating and killing him avenging kalen's death against Golden's demands the Orcs Bound by tradition allow lathar to depart with Len's body during Len's funeral the leaders of of the other human Nations along with the High Elves and dwarves Proclaim an alliance against the Orcs and support loar as the leader of the alliance elsewhere orgam takes one of duron's tusks to one day give to Gul the basket containing Gul is found by a human in addition Terry notary provides the voice and motion capture for growash Hellscream the orc Chieftain of the warong clan though the part is listed in the credits as pean notary also served as stun coordinator and movement coach for the film working with cast members Keel kazinski Brown wo and Galvin on their portrayals of the Orcs And with Foster on his portrayals of magic Michael adamthe appears as king Magny bronzebeard the dwarf ruler of Iron Forge Glenn Close makes an uncredited appearance as a Loi an ancient Mage locked in an artifact within Darin described as the guardian before there was a guardian in the comics elodi was is the first guardian of tiful and a male half elf while the character in the film is closer to that of iguin Med's mother Chris Metson who served as a co-producer and uncredited storywriter for the film and is the senior vice president of story and franchise development at Blizzard Entertainment and the voice of thall in the warcraft franchise makes an uncredited Cameo appearance as a turbaned perfume vendor on the streets of Stormwind Kingdom the project was officially announced in May 2006 with blizzard initially wanting it to be set in the universe of the realtime strategy Warcraft Orcs And Humans video game from 1994 this setting was later dropped because blizzard decided that it would be too similar to The Lord of the Rings initially scheduled for a 29 release the film would not see a release in that year by ComicCon 2011 the film was announced to still only be in the development stage UAB ball made a bid to direct but was turned away by blizzard who he claims to have said we will not sell the movie rights not to you especially not to you because it's such a big online game success maybe a bad movie would destroy that ongoing income what the company has with it Sam Ry was initially attached to direct but was replaced by Duncan Jones in January 2013 upon coming aboard Jones immediately voiced his displeasure at the script which he stated was the stale fantasy Trope of humans are the good guys monsters are the bad guys with Blizzard's approval who had also been looking to change the story Jones altered the story so that it's 50/50 Jones also faced personal struggles during filming as his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer soon after Jones took over and his father David Bowie died from cancer late in production Jones thus summed up the challenge by telling the New York Times my film started and ended with cancer at San Diego Comic Con in July 2013 a concept trailer was presented featuring a battle between a human and an orc Paul donno Travis Fimmel Anson Mount and Anton Yelchin emerged as the Front Runners for the lead role with fiml winning the role in October 2013 24- 25 on December 4th 2013 the main cast of the film consisting of fiml Ben Foster Paul Patton Dominic Cooper Toby keble and Robert kazinski was announced Iden am Menzel Debbie Gibson Julie delpy Allison Eastwood and Leon Meer were also considered for the role of garona haers on December 14th 2013 Universal added Daniel woo and Clancy Brown to the cast in early March 2014 newcomer Berkeley Duffield joined the cast principal photography began on January 13th 2014 and lasted for 4 months finishing on May 23rd 2014 filming took place primarily in Vancouver among other locations post- production lasted 20 months regarding the use of computer generated imagery Jones said it's a tool like any other it can be done well and it can be done the best CGI has you forgetting that it's CGI and accepting the visual as whatever it is supposed to be like props no one has an issue with props in film do do they cinematographer Simon Dugen stated the film had a long prep of about 12 weeks in addition to the 18 weeks of shooting Warcraft original motion picture soundtrack is the soundtrack this music was composed By Ramen jawadi and released on June 10th 2016 jawat was hired by Jones in legendary pictures in October 2014 the vinyl version of the soundtrack was released on September 5th 2016 Warcraft was set to be released on December 18th 2015 but following the announcement of the coinciding release of Star Wars the Force awakens the release was pushed back to the following year the film premiered at the LR Rex in Paris on May 24th 2016 it was released in the United Kingdom on May 30th 2016 in the United States on June 10th 2016 and in Australia on June 16th 2016 Warcraft was released on digital download on September 13th 2016 and was released on Blu-ray Ultra HD Blu-ray Blu-ray 3D and DVD on September 27th in the United States and Canada select editions of the physical release include a digital copy of World of Warcraft along with digital bonus codes for other blizzard games to tie in with the film on Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 29% based on 232 reviews with an an average rating of four 410 the website's critical consensus reads Warcraft has visual Thrills to spare but they and director Duncan Jones distinctive gifts are wasted on a sluggish and derivative adaptation of a best-selling game with little evident cinematic value on Metacritic the film has a score of 32 out of 100 based on 40 critics indicating generally unfavorable reviews audiences pulled by cinemascore gave the film an average grade of B+ on an A plus to f scale Jeff Burkshire of variety criticized the film's attempts at adapting a source material with inherent Ridiculousness with regard to how the original game series was not meant to have a very deep narrative it's an unwaveringly Earnest film that never owns up to exactly how campy every character every conflict and every new realm truly is AOW of the a club wrote that to watch Warcraft is never to be transport Ed but to Wade through a thick morass of Mythology Exposition Gody light show effects half-ass character development and formulaic franchise groundwork while describing director cowriter Duncan Jones as a talented sci-fi fabulist who's Fallen screaming into the same CGI Abyss that consumed Peter Jackson during his unfortunate Hobbit cycle Helen Ohara reviewing for British GQ stated that although the film itself is a strong adaptation of Warcraft the script diminishes the film's impact the problem is that it just can't escape those Cod fantasy Roots there are twoo many mysterious proper nouns being thrown into conversation and at least 12 major characters competing for space zipping from one to another here so quickly that they only have time for the most portentous and sometimes cliched dialogue Sherry Lindon of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review citing the performances and story as high highlights Brian trud of USA Today also praised the acting particularly Kel's performance as Duron Kel's performance showcases the nuances of a father gripped by the no- win situation of having no home and his family in constant danger trud also stated that he found it was not necessary for viewers of the film to have prior knowledge of the warcraft series to enjoy the film with the film's storyline leaving Warcraft open to possible sequels Jones has expressed interest in a sequel to the film likely to be adapted from Warcraft Roman 2 tides of Darkness the second video game in the warcraft franchise on June 18th 2018 Jones tweeted that the chance of Warcraft getting a sequel doesn't look good in September 2020 it was reported that legendary is developing a new Warcraft film though it's unclear if this is a planned reboot or a sequel to Jones film or if it will continue to be distributed by Universal I pictures or transferred to legendary's current release Partners Sony Pictures Warner Bros or Netflix review of Warcraft film first a confession I have never played any incarnation of Warcraft I'm just going to put that out there right now be upfront about it we're all friends here we should be honest with each other so I went in with an open mind to Warcraft the movie based on the video game and I'm reviewing it purely on its own merits as a standalone entity many of you out there may read this and cry foul she's never played the game she has no idea what she's talking about and I'm okay with that really I am but I'm also hoping that the game is more emotionally engaging or at least you know fun than the movie I just saw because that thing was a dow mess and it brings me no joy to report that to you because Warcraft comes from a filmmaker whose work I've been a big fan of dunk Jones with just two features to his credit Jones has shown a real knack for taking complex sci-fi stories and telling them in clever intimate ways his debut moon was my favorite movie of 29 it was about mindblowing existential stuff but it had real Verve immediacy and heart plus if one Sam Rockwell is good two Sam rockwells are great Jones 2011 followup the time travel puzzle source code felt felt like a bit of a let down by comparison but it was thrilling and challenging and it showed his Evolution as a filmmaker with a bigger cast and more expensive toys so it's hard to figure out what happened with Jones and Warcraft it's as if the Endeavor swallowed him whole this was clearly a formidable undertaking filled with sweeping imagery motion capture performances and tons of visual effects all being projected in overwhelming in Max 3D in the midst of all that it's difficult to hear his voice to see his attention to detail an enormous budget and state-of-the-art Technology have resulted in a movie that looks cheesy and cartoonish a big screen version of a video game world that more closely resembles the video game commercials you see on TV but Warcraft is difficult to follow from both a visual and a narrative perspective with massive battle scenes between Orcs And humans in which it's difficult to tell who's doing what to whom similar to luggage at the airport many Orcs look alike hulking tus muscular and festooned with Fierce accoutrements they're like refugees from a Gore concert but eventually you don't know whether you're looking at a good orc or a bad orc and the CGI spectacle of it all renders everything with a glossy detached sanness forgive me for wanting a little realism in my Orcs because yes that's what Warcraft is about Orcs And humans and their noisy efforts to enter each other's Realms and and destroy each other but the mythology is much more dense than that the script from Jones and Charles L it contains reams of expository dialogue yet the story itself feels mind-bogglingly convoluted and yet in between the self-serious stilted conversations we get Snippets of quippy an acronis banter that are meant to provide humor but instead end up being jarring the film begins with orc Warrior Chief durotan Toby Keel his pregnant wife Roa an a Galvan and their Clan leaving their Dying World by passing through a portal that looks like a wall of swirly minty mouthwash on the other side is the more peaceful and pastoral Azeroth although every sparkly new Fantasy Realm we enter here calls to mind a place we visited previously at some point in The Lord of the Rings saga there's a lot of borrowing going on in Warcraft once they arrive they attack the humans for control of the land Knights led by duroan counterpart the noble but personalityfree loar Travis fiml the Brooklyn Pickle entrepreneur of Rebecca Miller's Maggie's plan but while lothar dutifully serves his King Dominic Cooper and queen Ruth Nega durotan begins to question the motives of the clearly insane and power hungry orc warlock golden Daniel woo the fact that golden has pulsating green eyes and likes to drain people of their life force to fuel his own magical abilities may have something to do with it the humans have a powerful wizard of their own medv or the guardian as he's known he's played by Ben Foster in a bit of casting alone that suggests perhaps he's not to be trusted and sure enough Foster tries to bring glimmers of his trademark menace to the character but it's hard to act amid all the noise basically he's called upon to transport himself and others from place to place by stringing together strands of glowing blue light and chanting a few spells eventually alliances must be forged to save humanity and orc kind alike but first young Mage codger Ben schnetzer an ally of Laars must learn the secrets hidden inside a purple room that's meant to be futuristic but looks like a rejected set from Logan's Run there's also a giant evil statue made of clay that comes to life but it's more unintentionally hilarious than frightening and before there can be any peace there is pummeling lots and lots of pummeling as the Orcs fight the humans as well as each other under hot Dusty Skies it is brutal it is repetitive it is numbing and just as it's ending Warcraft leaves all kinds of plot threads dangling for the ambitious possibility of a sequel but you'll be likely to cry game over because this first one is easily a contender for the worst movie of the year do you know your Azeroth from your asban your frostwolf clan from your direwolf Guardian you're elwin forest from your Council of Elon if you picked out the above Harry Potter Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings comparisons from those of Warcraft the RTS and mmor RPG franchise now making its movie debut congratulations you're already ahead of the game and no doubt a large chunk of the audience that director Duncan Jones Moon source code and his team are targeting with this latest fantasy franchise and it puts you at a considerable Advantage when it comes to one of the unavoidable challenges when trying to realize and orientate newcomers around a long established complex fantasy world whereas JK Rowling George RR Martin and junr Tolkien were able to build up their mythologies over many books and their screen adaptations across several hours of viewing Jones and Co have the unenviable task of cramming a rambling diffuse gaming Multiverse into a standalone 2H hour and change epic and still lay the ground for potential sequels No Easy Task when citadels named Iron Forge and Stormwind might distract you with thoughts of 1970s heavy metal bands then help you focus on a brand new lore of the Rings what's refreshing about Warcraft though is that despite the inevitable information dump in a nutshell Warrior Orcs from Dying World dreiner find a magical Gateway into peaceful Azeroth and come up against its human and dwarf and elf inhabitants the emphasis from the very beginning is on its character indeed some may Overlook just how bold a move it is to kick off proceedings with an orc couple frostwolf leader durotan Toby keble and draa Anna Galvin prospective parents worrying about the fate of their Clan and their newborn you don't get much more well human that that and only after their Journey Begins do we meet the actual people Chief among them loar Vikings Travis Fimmel right hand man to benevolent King Len Dominic Cooper naturally the kingdom is perturbed to find signs of wanted visitors particularly those bearing the Hallmarks of the fell dark well green actually magic that warps its users as much as its victims and surroundings of magic that ruthless orc Chieftain golden Daniel woo wields to seize Azeroth for his own slowly but surely however Warcraft shape shifts from a CG heavy experience you're watching to one you're actually immersed within other tech specs are suitably state-of-the-art the Orcs in particular move with impressively real half and expressiveness and Game of Thrones composer Ramen jawadi underscores the action with rousing tribal rhythms like Christopher Nolan Duncan Jones has gone from cerebral genre hit to Slick Thriller to Major franchise opportunity and he directs the combat scenes with assuredness without ever reaching the rarified heights Peter Jackson or James Cameron but Jones real strength and you imagine his overall priority is more personal than technical the story cribed from the 1994 realtime strategy Warcraft Orcs And humans is pretty simple at heart but the heart teaming with afraid connections between parents and children separated lovers betrayed friends beats ever stronger the plot even does what tolki and Jackson conspicuously skimped on give or take the odd Bor Mir which is to genuinely raise the stakes by killing off seemingly key characters as a result the climactic faceoffs and Cliffhangers have far more dramatic weight than you might have imagined game over truly means something here in a time when too many bloated movie Blockbusters feel like they're impersonal video games it's heartening to see that an actual game can be transformed into an authentically involving movie Yes It suffers from an overcrowded mythology occasional clunkiness a few iffy casting choices fimls loar in particular and won't attain Avatar box office or Game of Thrones level Awards but there's a genuine sense of striving to get inside what made the Warcraft games beloved by 100 million participants whether playing as human or orc and tapping into what makes fantasy feel so personal so real game on related information the epic battle at the center of Warcraft isn't the clash between humans and Orcs that's just what takes up roughly 2 hours of screen time the true conflict comes from filmmakers trying to tell a story with soul and struggling against the inherent Ridiculousness of the commodity they're working with it shouldn't take a mage to foresee that this pricey and Preposterous adaptation of an online gaming phenomenon was pre-ordained for artistic mediocrity with little concern for all those already perplexed At The Mention Of Orcs and mages Warcraft plunges head first into a Fantasy Realm teeming with mythical creatures magical spells and exotically named characters and locations it's a take it or leave it approach likely to have most audience members opting for the ladder though devotees of the immersive roleplaying Source material may have an entirely different experience if so Universal will have to hope they storm the box office early and often otherwise the studio could be looking at one of the biggest Duds of the summer that's despite the noble effort of director Duncan Jones who helmed the lower budget sci-fi wonders Moon and source code and labors mightily here to craft a solid emotional foundation in his script with Charles Levi the Warcraft games which have radically declined in popularity from a high of 12 million regular users in 2010 to a recent low of close to 5 million so low the company behind it no longer releases subscriber counts to the public were never meant to have the narrative depth of the Lord of the Rings or even Game of Thrones but the film cribs freely from both of those sources anyway as well as Star Wars dawn of the Planet of the Apes Avatar and numerous other recent Blockbusters the Orcs a race of Giant Warrior beasts flee their dying homeland of drer through a portal to the peaceful realm of Azeroth where they wage a fullscale attack on unsuspecting humans for control of the land orc Soldier durot and Toby Keel like all orc players working in performance capture questions the brutal ways of his clansmen led by Warchief Blackhand Clancy Brown and Power hungry War lock golden Daniel woo and believes a compromise without Bloodshed is possible his counterpart on The Human Side is anduin lathar Travis fiml of TV's Vikings a knight devoted to serving his benevolent king and queen Dominic Cooper and Ruth Nega durotan's Fierce mate draa Anna Galvin delivers an adorable orc baby early on and lothar's Son Kellen Berkeley Duffield is determined to impress his father on the battlefield those family ties are duly exploited for maximum melodramatic impact as the Dual protagonist rage and question and mourn and soulfully Ponder the complexity that exists on two sides of any conflict ditto gona Paula Patton a slave claiming to be half orc half human who makes her way through the portal and finds herself torn between the two sides she quickly gets cozy with lothar but it's hard to take Patton or the character seriously with her Star Trek alien s green skin and the oversized fangs jutting out from her jaw looking like a last minute find in the Halloween store Bargain Bin and making her sound like she has a mouth full of magic beans and that goes to the root of the problems with Warcraft it's an unwaveringly Earnest film that never owns up to exactly how campy every character every conflict and every new realm truly is Ben Foster has another Central role as reclusive wizard Medi a guardian of Azeroth who has been not so subtly dabbling in dark magic he's introduced sculpting a golum surely you'll recall the Old Chestnut about Czech off's Golem shirtless and Wildey but it takes lothar quite some time to piece together the warning signs Med should be fun but Foster's dead pan turn is like the movie around him a drag boasting more than 2,000 visual effect shots it's dispiriting to think about the time energy planning and precision that went into Warcraft when the final product brings to mind those animated advertisements for iPhone app games so good at making the most outlandish elements of his first two films seem completely credible Jones can't find a way to get this cartoony spectacle to soar his heartfelt approach to the material only underlines the silliness production designer Gavin Bak costume designer May C Rubio and visual effects supervisors Bill Weston Hofer Jeff White and Jason Smith lead the heavy lifting on the artist inside since what the producers essentially purchased with the source material is a collection of locations wardrobe weapons and spells Warcraft ends with a setup for a sequel but also the feeling that if this is what combat looks like it's time to give peace a chance Warcraft is not a disastrously bad movie would that it were then there might be some chance that enough people would gravitate towards it over the years as a camp spectacle to redeem it as gloriously awful the Fate that has rescued so many other movies based on video games from Street Fighter to the Irv of uball instead it's just a big doughy lump of stuff not terribly good or bad or anything just hanging out there being intolerably mediocre this is quite possibly the most polished handsome video game movie ever made and that is in no small part why it is certainly the most boring based on the tie and novels based on the warcraft and World of Warcraft games Warcraft goes back in time to explain the story of how the Orcs first came to Azeroth and began their endless war with the humans it is not Chief among the movie's flaws that it dumps names and Concepts out with no more of a hint of explanation than I've just given you it helps that it's a grab bag of fantasy cliches and even if you can't follow any of it you can still follow pretty much all of it it's symptomatic of how disinterested Warcraft is in anything basically a more one for the fans proposition I've not seen in ages and speaking as a non-fan a large portion of the movie felt more like a slurry made up of 60% jurar Tolkien 10% Roger zelis and 30% crappy Game of Thrones fanfic then a dramatic construct with characters conflict and a clear ink between the two not inscrutable just hectic and uninteresting but here anyway is the meat of it the Orcs come from a different world which used to be hail and funed before the orc wizard golden Daniel who the Orcs are all moap performances began overusing the Fel a sort of magical energy field that can be tapped for great power but at the cost of total corruption golden has devised a portal generator to other worlds that runs off of the life force of living creatures and he's using it to send an advanced Army of great orc Warriors to bring back enough prisoners to fuel the portal long enough for all of the Orcs to travel across Azeroth is already buckling under the weight of conflicts between humans and the other races in that world and Len win Dominic Cooper the powerful human king of Stormwind finds himself finds himself barely able to fight against the Invaders that's the best I can do for a plot synopsis Warcraft is a busy little thing telling individual stories on multiple fronts involving the inner workings of both human and orc Politics the viewer is obliged to keep track of no fewer than a 11 main characters on top of the less main characters all of whom are virtually impossible to remember from scene to scene both because they have made up names and because they are all horribly written and played I will say that in general the orc sequences are better more interesting and More consequential in great part because the solitary engaging character is an orc this is duroan the first orc to see through Golden's treacherous maniacal plot the father of a newborn orc child played by the worst CGI that I would ever expect to see in a big budget movie in the year of Our Lord 2016 and the focal point of all the most complex Nuance treatments of Duty and morality family and tribe peace and violence that Warcraft has to offer he's played by Toby Keel who I believe is the only person here with real motion capture experience he played the villainous chimp Koba in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and it shows through massively he's uniquely able to play things small and Earnest and durotan is the only feeling character in the whole damn movie when he gets sidelined with 3/4 of the movie left to go it's a blow from which Warcraft never remotely recovers mind you Warcraft isn't some affair with a bunch of yahoos there's some real talent wasting itself on screen nobody is more shockingly bad than the here toor reliable Ben Foster as the human wizard Med of evil because the the film is needless anal about making sure to exactly balance its human and orc halves chomping on lines like the worst kind of stage of fright stricken Community Theater actor and buried alive in a big sleeve dominated costume and a hair in makeup job that makes him look like Jesus Christ cosplaying Gandalf but Clancy Brown and an uncredited Glenn Close are also among the high-end performers flailing like idiots stepping down a rung we've got Cooper lacking the Regal PR to carry off the loopy olden days dialogue he's been saddled with and Paula Patton going stiff as a board in her joyless performance of a half human half orc given a coat of digital ink and paint to give her skin the color of a martini Olive Travis fiml who's first credited so we might as well call him the lead appears constantly baffled by the actions he's performing and well he might be what's really irritating is that somewhere the guts of the thing are strong the film's world is amazing production designer Gavin Bak has whipped up a marvelous intricate and apparently Limitless set of cultures with their own visual logic everything's highly detailed and the visual effects are superb outside of the baby the risibly terrible CGI from the trailers isn't to be found anywhere it is a beautiful world executed flawlessly shot and rich saturated colors and realistically dramatic lighting by cinematographer Simon Dugen the World of Warcraft deserves something so much better than it gets as soon as people are dropped into the Landscapes everything goes right to hell and the magic dissipates director Duncan Jones who has made astounding genre masterpieces before and I desperately hope will be allowed to do so again he works well on a low budget puts some attempt at grandure in the scale of shots and staging the plot matters against striking beautiful natural and no doubt computer augmented Landscapes it is a film that looks like the thing that fantasy books evoke so splendidly and fantasy movies tend to mess up that's something the film has going for it more details of Warcraft film I feel conflicted about Duncan Jones Warcraft on the one hand it's a movie that comes off as bloated loaded down with Exposition and constantly trying to service too many characters while ultimately serving almost none of them and yet it's also a film that left me wanting more Jones ambition sucks Us in with his unabashed high Fantasy World building Warcraft is a film that is loaded with problems and yet I couldn't help but admire what it was trying to accomplish the World Of Orcs is dying so the dark Mage golden Daniel woo has opened a portal to the world of Azeroth the Orcs plan to capture as many humans as possible so that golden can use their souls to power the portal and bring in the remaining hordes the orc Chieftain durot and Toby keble and his friend orgam Robert kazinski SE that the dark magic golden is using named the Fel is damaging orc kind and believe that in order to save their people they must Unite with the humans King Len Dominic Cooper leads the humans along with his brother-in-law lothar Travis fiml and they are assisted by the Half Breed garona Paula Patton the Mage Med of Ben Foster and the Mage in training codger Ben schnetzer Warcraft greedily wants to have all the plots but in trying to ser service everyone it ends up helping no one character motivations become muddled and some characters are described as interesting or have the potential to become interesting but instead remain basic for example golden is ostensibly the villain but he ends up saving durotan's newborn child when it comes through the portal that should create conflicted feelings from durotan about how he should lead his people but if he should also honor the orc who saved his child but the film never does any anything with that and so a moment of potential conflict is laid by the wayside I admire Jon's attempt to show both sides of the conflict and make us sympathize with the Orcs but because the Orcs are underdeveloped his attempt comes up short I constantly found myself wanting to go back to Med's storyline not just because Foster is terrific as always but because there's an interesting Dynamic at Play Between the Elder Guardian and the neoy codger if the story had focused more on on this relationship it could have blossomed into something grander but it never gets the time to develop because the story is always jumping around between its many characters with such scattershot storytelling it's difficult to latch on to anyone and while some actors give better performances than others along with Foster fimel and Keel are the standouts we still want to know them better Warcraft is this constant double-edged sword where we're getting too much and yet not getting enough of anything it's it's like if someone dumped a bunch of thread at your feet and told you it was a shirt the only thing that feels fully crafted in Warcraft is the world I went to see the movie with a fan of the game and she said that this is a film that definitely airs on the side of the fans and that in one scene where we see the Orcs rampaging through Villages the geography of Azeroth is spoton that's great for fans but it's lost on those who are unfamiliar with the lore or who have never booted up Blizzard's popular strategy game and yet I could still admire the high fantasy Jones brought into place rather than go for realism like Game of Thrones or even Lord of the Rings Jones Embraces the weirdness and high fantasy aspect and it's absolutely thrilling some may find that it's a bridge too far and that it becomes silly but I was completely on board with the human smashing orc hammering bird flying spellcasting goodness on display Warcraft never makes excuses for what it is is and I love that it has the confidence to be as weird as it wants I also have to give special attention to the astounding visual effects the Orcs look absolutely incredible and the only time I was ever taken out of the movie was when I was far away and looking at a CGI horde smash up against another CGI horde up close and personal the Orcs are photoreal and Jones takes the time to let us sit with their emotions again there are going to be some viewers who can't be on board with Orcs acting like people but if you can embrace the concept you can Marvel at what industrial Light and Magic has pulled off I wouldn't go so far to call Warcraft a good movie it's crushed under its own ambition and yet that ambition is highly admirable in the same way as films like John Carter where it might not work but it earns points just for being bold and different in an increasingly homogenized landscape and while Warcraft suffers from throwing too much at the audience I would happily return for a sequel assuming it's more focused Warcraft is not a disaster or deserving of the pre-release negativity I can honestly say that if you like fantasy then you're going to like this film and if you're a fan of the game then you'll probably love the movie to be clear I have never played Warcraft I walked in fairly cold knowing the scantest plot details I did see the initial trailer but found it spectacularly underwhelming this is why you have to see the actual movie Warcraft doesn't spoon feed you it leaps into the story Full Throttle it's a hard fantasy that you have to pay attention to understand if you do then you'll be rewarded the Warcraft movie is entertaining and immersive the kingdom of Azeroth is being invaded by fearsome Orcs they are coming from their Dying World through a portal the orc leader golden Daniel woo has opened the gate using dark magic to fell the human King Dominic Cooper sends his Warrior brother lothar Travis fiml to face the threat but the Orcs are not what they seem the mighty but kind orc Chieftain durot and Toby Keel sees what the Fel has done to his people he knows that golden Must Be Stopped to truly survive bitter enemies must find common ground and new allies to stop evil Warcraft cannot be judged purely on the visual effects they run from borderline video game CGI to impressive theatrical quality it's not entirely consistent throughout but that doesn't take you out of the story azero is fully realized as the setting I liken it to watching old episodes of Star Trek yes some things look unrealistic but you still believe they are in space that's an apt analogy director Duncan Jones who's taking way too much heat from the haters successfully creates Azeroth he took a stab at adapting a vast world and succeeds in his efforts the plot and characters in legendaries Warcraft are very detailed it would be an understatement to say there's a lot going on casual Watchers will get lost if they're not fully committed I found the story to be engrossing it was not a strain to follow the characters and comprehend what they were doing in fact the actors do a pretty good job of Selling the Drama some parts lead to obvious resolves but I was quite taken by the ending it's a satisfying conclusion to the story there isn't a boring second in Warcraft the dialogue gets silly at time but not enough to derail the pacing it's also wall to--all action then you have the mystical element that I thought was pretty cool once again Warcraft doesn't stop to explain every point about the magic being used you have to watch listen to the characters interact and infer what they're trying to do it takes a bit of imagination to be on the warcraft ride few information about this film that doesn't mean Orcs aren't loved though for all of their growling and chest thumping drooling and pillaging they have loved ones they have families and it's his family that drives durotan the frostwolf chieftain to the human land he's seeking a new life a life where he can raise his newborn son a life free from corruption durotan isn't stupid he can see that the dark magic the shaman golden used to open a portal to this land is the the same malevolent Fel magic that laid waste to his old Homeland and he can recognize that Fel is beginning to corrupt this human world of Azeroth to something must be done durotan must consider the Long View of things stopping Golden's evil might mean bitter enemies must find common ground that foes must become allies for the greater good so he decides that the human Warrior lathar is likely the best one to approach the man is a seasoned fighter but a creature of sense it seems he also has ties to the human King if those loyal to durotan join forces with the humans they might be strong enough to Prevail of course that will make durotan a traitor in the eyes of many it won't be pretty for sure but then nothing in an orc's life is pretty self-sacrifice for those you love is a common theme on both sides of the human and orc battle lines humans and Orcs alike face impossible odds to save the innocent and besides the general sacrifice and battle durotan is willing to allow himself to be publicly pummeled by great power just to prove to his brothers that Golden's magic is a foul and corrosive thing the human King Lana for his part chooses to give up his life for the greater good it's easy to see Christ like parallels in some of those selfless acts they realizes that giving up his life could diffuse the evil at play and open a path to peace his wife later says there is no greater blessing a city can have than a king who would sacrifice his life for his people a half orc slash half-human named garona shows cleavage as she reclines for the night she states that a man who is gazing at her wants to lie with her he denies it several orc women wear midriff bearing leather outfits and an elf female wears a cleavage boosting bustier the massive male Orcs are generally barechested the battles between men and Orcs are percussive and wiw worthy the Orcs look to have generally 5 to 10 times the muscle and mass of a man and they use the girth to crush and pound men with enormous metal hammers those heavy strikes cave in armor plating and in a few cases appear to take soldiers heads clean off with their helmets humans slash back with swords and we see Orcs impaled and cut one human battler for instance slides between the legs of his much larger foe r his sword up across the creature's crotch and them jumping up to stab it in the back men also use gun like boomsticks to kill their foes we see an orc's hand get blown off a young Soldier is impaled and thrown a good 10 ft a person of power lies and deceives those he pledges to protect in the vast online Realms of video games one encounters a whole lot of trolls not the mythical guardians of bridges but guys or gals who really enjoy sewing Discord and goting people and if you're a fan of the warcraft video game franchise you probably think all of them have now taken jobs as movie reviewers because the general reviewing consensus of this game-based flick has been very far away indeed from two thumbs up as a movie reviewer and a game reviewer for plugged in I shall for a moment distance myself from that consensus and tell you that this movie depiction of a very popular gaming universe is actually a fairly wellone Affair you don't have to have logged a single minute of online game time to understand what's going on the CGI enhanced visuals are impressive the fantasy magic tale is action-packed the good versus evil heroics are often sheer worthy and you can even find some self-sacrificial spiritual parallels worth their weight in WOW gold sure it's not the Lord of the Rings but on the plus side you won't have to spend 3/4 of a day just working your way to the end credits all of that said however there is one issue here that's going to hit many an unsuspecting viewer like an orc Hammer to the solar plexus and that's well all the orc hammers smashing into solar plexuses this PG-13 Rampage packs quite a violent punch with its bone pulverizing thumps and sharp blade hacks there's not much gor or goo but just before the camera is I Cuts away it sure feels like things would get pretty goopy if we stuck around for the after effects add in scenes of the foul Shaman golden torturing victims with his life force draining dark film magic and you've got a film that does live up to its name Warcraft is a fantasy movie based on the video game that had a large following for several years set in a fantasy world Azeroth is a land inhabited by many species including humans dwarfs ancient magicians and other creatures when a horde Of Orcs cross through a magical Portal from Another Universe Azeroth is threatened however certain Orcs don't trust their power hungry leaders and want to protect their family a series of betrayals and Partnerships between characters in this Fantastical World leads to an epic battle Warcraft has a dense opening where the filmmakers try to introduce the fantasy world to viewers unlike the Mythos of The Lord of the Rings which tolki and brilliantly sculpted with Christian symbolism Warcraft seems to borrow from Eastern religious viewpoints of the supernatural eventually however evil is shown as evil and compassion kindness and sacrifice are heralded as positive virtues that are better than Magic One subplot parallels the story of Moses in the Bible in the end Warcraft is an enjoyable ride but the strong action violence and Magical elements warrant Extreme Caution strong mixed Pagan worldview with positive biblical moral Redemptive virtues extoling compassion kindness sacrifice and empathy fighting for your family and not following false leaders blindly but set in a fantasy world where both good and bad magic come from the same Source implying a false religious Mythos character makes a reference of a dead father's Spirit teaching his son no foul language other than one utterance of bloody strong action War violence between Orcs And humans humans slice and stab Orcs and shoot them with boom sticks EA guns Orcs smash humans with hammers breaking necks and pulverizing anyone in their path multiple times with blood splatter and scary Orcs suck the life out of living creatures in a somewhat grotesque way no sexual content but woman bluntly states that a man wants to lie with her based on the looks he gives her upper male nudity and a half breed orc wears a somewhat skimpy outfit with some cleavage and midrift shown brief drunkenness no smoking or drug use and betrayal and greed for power are shown but not condoned more detail Warcraft is a fantasy movie based on the video game which had a cult-like following for several years the movie works on a few levels but ultimately will have a difficult time finding an audience if Avid fans don't show up at the box office on mass in a fantasy world that's not too far off from The Lord of the rings' Middle Earth Azeroth is a land inhabited by many species including humans dwarfs ancient magicians and other creatures the king of the humans ruler of Stormwind Kingdom Larin Dominic Cooper is a good and compassionate King he treats All Creatures and humans with kindness so Azeroth is living in a time of Peace in a separate Universe a World Of Orcs has been ravaged the leader of the Orcs golden who possesses a strong green that feeds off living life uses this magic and creates a portal that allows him to take an army to Azeroth so they can possess the land among the Orcs is durotan a clan leader who only has his wife newborn son and clan members as his priority they follow golden through the portal but durotan is skeptical of his leader ways as soon as they enter through the portal the Orcs begin pillaging Villages and taking prisoners King Ren finds out about the attacks on their land and sets his top Warrior sir anduin mfar who also happens to be his brother-in-law to investigate anduin runs into a talented young Wizard or mate codger who detects that the forces behind the attacks are controlled by dark magic they'll need help from the guardian medv who also wields magic if they are to defeat the Orcs eventually both deroin on the orc side and codger and anduin on The Human Side begin to question their leaders who possess magical powers all this leads to an epic battle magic is a seminal element of the plot and World in Warcraft the mythology of the world isn't explored very much at all but what is shown and discussed regarding the magic contradicts scripture unlike the Mythos of The Lord of the Rings which tolken brilliantly sculpted with Christian symbolism Warcraft seems to borrow from Eastern religious viewpoints of the supernatural though good magic and bad magic are clearly and distinctively shown a mysterious being says from light comes darkness and from darkness comes light implying that good and evil forces essentially come from the same Source similar to the Star Wars movies eventually however evil is shown as evil and compassion kindness and sacrifice are heralded as positive virtues that are better than magic a king sacrifices himself for his people and an orphan baby orc is put in a river and sent Downstream in a basket only to be picked up by humans a subplot that parallels the life of Moses in the Bible in the end Warcraft is an enjoyable ride but some strong action violence and the Magical elements warrant Extreme Caution cast directed by Duncan Jones written by Charles lit Duncan Jones produced by Charles Roven Stuart fenegan starring Travis fimal Paula Patton Robert Kinski Daniel woo cinematography Simon Dugen edited by Paul Hirsch music by Ramen jawat production companies legendary pictures Atlas entertainment distributed by Universal Pictures release dates May 24th 2016 running time 123 minutes country United States language English budget $160 million box office $439.00 million so friends this was the review of today's film Warcraft and some other information hope you like this video and don't forget to support our Channel by subscribing please like the video and tell us how you like the video in comment section thanks for watching