Over-ambitious and flawed

Rating: 5/10 (18 April 2020)

Orcs and humans try to find common ground, both on and off the battlefield, in this sweeping, large-scale attempt to bring Blizzard's best-selling video game to the big screen. The thing I appreciate most about this effort is its even-handedness. Unlike Lord of the Rings before it, there's an admirable amount of grey-shading on each side of the struggle and a very small number of either irredeemable or infallible characters. The menacing orcs, towering and tusk-mouthed, worry about their children and maintain honorable traditions within their own ranks. Their human counterparts show trepidation and uncertainty, nearly coming to blows as they debate their defense strategy behind closed doors. This makes the simmering war feel more two-sided and honest; no faceless horde of pitch-black bad guys here. Unfortunately, that meditative tone never allows the plot to gain much steam amidst so much pontification. It's overstuffed with characters, bearing complicated names that might be familiar to fans but only blur together for the uninitiated. There's probably enough room for three or four really good character arcs, but instead the narration hops around to cover more than a dozen. The acting is stiff and wooden, whether provided by flesh-and-blood humans or fully-CG orcs, which probably has a lot to do with the abundance of stilted dialog. In a lot of ways, it feels like the first disc of a Playstation-era RPG. A whole lot of setup and world-building, a few mini-bosses and a surprise death or three; maybe a good teaser to keep us on the hook for the next chapter, but only the earliest hint of a resolution. Over-ambitious and flawed, it's an effective CG showpiece but far too slow, wordy and self-important for its own good.