Excitement!

Rating: 10/10 (10 June 2016)

That is exactly how I was feeling all day until the moment the movie started. FIRST OFF! The "official critics" and their reviews are garbage. I do not know how any of them are allowed to give their reviews, when they were SO far off course (not all, as some had valid points, but still very shallow reasoning for them).
Before I start on the review, a little history so you understand where I am coming from... If you want to go straight to my thoughts on the movie, skip down to "REVIEW!"
My introduction to Warcraft was when I was 5 years old. Parents were out for some reason I can't remember anymore, and I was going through my dads CD's to find a game play on the computer. I found a copied disk with the name "Warcraft II." BAM! My first game I ever played that was some sort of fun action and not educational or some sort of puzzle game (Memphis Math, Wallaby Jack, Jump Start, Read With Me, etc.). I would take the scrap computer parts my dad had lying around (they were more actually organized into bins by categories) in attempts to put together as many machines as I could to get my friends to play with me. My dad taught IT at a junior college during this time, and he would let me bring my friends on nights he was grading paper work to play networked. Sometimes his students would come in and play with us as well. We played other games too; like Starcraft, Doom, Quake, but Warcraft II was the one game we all loved to play the most. Building these machines and learning how to troubleshoot and configure networking settings like adding IPX as a protocol was where my love of technology started, and got me into my career working in IT.
A couple of years later, I was so excited about Windows 98 and a windows desktop option called something like "live wallpaper." I downloaded the GIF's from the website during development of Warcraft III because I was so excited for the next game in the Warcraft series. Then World of Warcraft was announced. The idea of having a hero inside this world was mind blowing. Long story short, it helped me through a time when I chose to remove the negative influences in my life for the better. Then I got married, was made fun of by my new wife, made her try it until she actually started to love it and became better than me at some classes. I now have 4 kids and still working my tail off, so I do not have the luxury to enjoy it anymore. Regardless, This game has a lot of meaning to me in how many wonderful memories I have from my past.
Every since I was five years old, I have dreamed of this world coming to life on film. I can now say that one of my childhood dreams have come true. Now, you understand how much this movie finally coming to fruition means to me and what my expectations would be for such a tremendous influence through my life...
REVIEW
We all know how well games coming to film has worked out over the years. Not so good in general. So, I went into this, hoping and praying that it would be good, but expecting some half-#$% CGI work and terribly fake magic. The trailers showed a bit, but not enough to really tell how well they did the Orcs or how well magic looked overall.
I can say that I was blown away, compared to what I was expecting! The Orcs looked phenomenal! The fight scenes were awesome. Sometimes they felt like they were moving a bit slow and they were flashing through scenes too quickly to fully enjoy the combat, but I loved it still. They have some especially awesome action stunts here and there!
Magic was terrific! There was one part that it was a little "eh," but I was able to let it go. The rest of it looked fantastic!
Considering what they could have done to change the lore and story, they did a wonderful job keeping mostly to it. There are a few details that those who have read through the books will be able to point out, but those details I was also able to get over (they were not huge changes to the overall story). There was one change I actually liked better. There was also one change that I still am not so sure about, concerning a certain Orc, but the main points were hit. I loved how they put in little details here and there to emphasize a certain title, name, location, etc. (trying not to give spoilers) without having to go into too much detail to explain. It is no where near as bad as the "real critics" seem to think it is in the storytelling.
The acting was great. I was especially impressed with how they were able to effectively portray the personalities of Khadgar, Medivh, and Durotan. Garona and Lothar were two that I was not entirely impressed with, but they didn't do a BAD acting job by any means. I just did not really connect with the two as I felt I should have (Lothar at least). They really showed the true side of traditional orcs in here as well, which was a big one for me.
If you are not a fan of Warcraft, but enjoy fantasy and action movies, you should not be disappointed! (some people still have different opinions, no matter how much I think any stated above would love it)
Fans - I suggest you keep your eyes out for particular personages and details throughout ;). Also, remember that this is before World of Warcraft. This is the actual time line, not WoD.