Warcraft: The Beginning

Rating: 3/10 (10 June 2016)

World of Warcraft is one of the most successful video game franchises of all time, I've never played it myself, I've just seen images and heard of the fandom, and seen both spoofed in a hilarious episode of South Park, I went to see this because it had a good trailer, directed by the late great David Bowie's son, Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code). Basically the lush world of Azeroth, occupied by human and dwarf people, had been peaceful for a long time, but then orcs escaped their dying home world of Draenor, travelling through a portal activated by magic into this new land. Since then the Azeroth civilisation and the orcs have been strong opponents, orc Durotan (Toby Kebbell), the Frostwolf clan chieftain, only wants to save his people, including mate Draka (Anna Galvin) who gave birth to their son after they entered the kingdom. Durotan is prepared if necessary to attempt to make peace with the enemy, but green-skinned orc Gul'dan (Daniel Wu), who possesses evil powers, wants to take over the kingdom. Sir Anduin Lothar (Travis Fimmel), the military commander of the kingdom of Stormwind, King Magni Bronzebeard (Michael Adamthwaite), dwarf ruler of Ironforge, and Llane Wrynn, King of Stormwind (Dominic Cooper) are among the characters either to find a way to create peace between the two sides, or indeed a way to defend themselves from the oncoming collision. This includes the introduction of a weapon called the Boomstick (a gun), and consulting Medivh (Ben Foster), the fabled Guardian, of course the friction between the two sides, the Alliance and the Horde, is increased, and with magic brought into the equation the situation intensifies when they go into battle. Also starring Paula Patton as Garona (who appears to be half-human and half-orc), Ben Schnetzer as Khadgar, EastEnders' Robert Kazinsky as Orgrim, Ruth Negga as Lady Taria, Clancy Brown as Blackhand and Callum Keith Rennie as Moroes. Computer geeks across the world must have been excited to hear there was going be a movie adaptation of this phenomenon, unfortunately this follows in the footsteps of Super Mario Bros., Tomb Raider and Doom, it based on a video game that millions have played, but even the connoisseurs will be let down by the result. There is so much going on, underdeveloped characters and a flimsy plot, that I lost my way many times, you cannot deny that the special effects to create the many mythical creatures and bring to life the engaging climactic battles are amazing, but that's about it, unfortunately it is a fairly boring and disappointing fantasy film. Adequate!