Warcraft

Considering that previous video-game-based movies have run the gamut from crap (Mortal Kombat) to garbage (DOOM) to even worse crap (Super Mario Bros), I thought I’d throw out some thoughts on what was, in many ways, a not-actually-terrible movie based on a game.

I had many hopes going into this movie. Not because I have any particularly deep love for the Warcraftlore or games (Warcraft II was fun), but more because I do have a particularly deep love for the Starcraft lore and games. I figured that if Blizzard and the Hollywood studios could make a crap-ton of money on this Warcraft movie, that would improve the likelihood of them green-lighting a movie about Starcraft sometime in the near future. But while I was hopeful, I was also trying to keep my expectations in check, because, you know… game-movie adaptations have a lousy track record.

But in the end, Warcraft wasn’t bad. It wasn’t the most amazing fantasy-based action movie I’ve ever seen (The Lord of the Rings trilogy has set an almost impossibly high bar for that genre), but it was far from the worst. And it was better than many of the normal-style action movies that have come out in the past few years. It wasn’t perfect, no, but there were quite a few encouraging things.

First, the Orcs. That was an opportunity to really screw everything up, but happily the army of CG giants actually turned out pretty convincing in the end. They weren’t distracting or gross (I’m looking at you, Ninja Turtles), and they emoted pretty darn well considering the tusks. I thought they were very well done.

Second, actual acting. There were a few flat performances, but most everybody actually turned up to work. I especially liked the performances offered up by Off-Brand Orlando Bloom #3 (Dominic Cooper) as King Llane, and Paula Patton as Garona. They seemed to be convinced concerning their characters motivation’s and emotions, which is good especially considering that with Llane, I had no idea what those really were.

Third, the actual script and story weren’t bad. Sure, there were a few cringe-worthy lines and it felt somewhat choppy at the beginning, but it’s not like Warcraft was a lovingly tended character drama to begin with. If that’s what the movie had been, it would have been jarring and boring and I’m sure it would have flopped overseas instead of performing somewhat miraculously in Asia. What we got was fun, fast, and full of action, while still being internally consistent in regards to characters and location. There are character arcs, purpose to the character’s choices, and it was easy to follow what was going on. That’s really all I ask from my summer blockbusters.

Sure, there were issues. Like if a single person who stopped doing what they were doing for 30 seconds to have a brief conversation before dying would have just kept doing what they were doing for 30 seconds, we would have had a radically different ending. And much like a video game, the movie plays fast and loose with the depiction of travel time. You gamers probably won’t even notice, though.

So those were my biggest sticking points. But I enjoyed the Warcraft movie, and I recommend it. I’ll watch the inevitable sequel while praying that a Starcraft movie isn’t too far off. Here’s hoping the video game adaptation genre can keep getting better, because there are a lot of amazing stories in games that I would love to see without being in the protagonist’s head.