"Our hope is destroyed; there is nothing to go back to."

Rating: 7/10 (15 June 2016)

I feel conflicted over this film because I want to like it, I want it to be successful and I believe the world created in the film can obviously be expanded upon and offer some truly great cinematic experiences. Duncan Jones, who gave us the brilliant Moon and exciting Source Code is behind the camera and brings a wonderful visual style, but as is the case with a lot of big budget CGI filled epic flicks, the visual style is not enough.
The Orc world is dying and they need to find another to live. Gul'dan unite the Orc clans together to become The Horde. He uses a magical power known as The Fel to create a portal to another world, Azeroth. The portal needs life to be sacrificed in order to work so thousands of people are captured in Azeroth in an attempt to bring even more of The Horde over to conquer the lands. Sir Anduin Lothar, a military commander leads the humans in a fight to protect their land. Along with their King, a magical being known as The Guardian and a mage in training, they need to stop the portal from being built before it's too late.
As basic as the premise sounds (evil invading / good defending) the film throws a lot at you in quick successions. I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel overwhelmed by it all. I've never played the games, so I'm sure I missed a lot of winks and nods and of course my enjoyment of it might be on the lesser side of things, but Warcraft is exciting in many sequences. Those exciting sequences astonish the eyes with dazzlingly effects. I doubt we'll see anything that looks better this year, the Orcs feel alive. In particular Durotan, an Orc that believes his leader Gul'dan is doing more damage than good. He is the one Orc that is given something that resembles a backstory. His wife gives birth early in the film and I can only assume that the child goes on to become someone important in the game franchise.
On the human side, Lothar is the character that Jones decides to focus on. He's a soldier, that's all he knows. He's even brought his son up to be soldier. His two duties in life are to protect his son and protect the King. With the invading armies of the Horde, his skills and loyalty are put to the test. The King, basically does what a King does, order people to do this, order people to do that. We get little interaction with a more humanistic side to him. Magic is also a big portion of the film, with a man known as The Guardian who holds what seems to be unlimited power and a Mage, who is still learning his spells. They fill their basic fantasy roles, but I can't help but feel that Ben Foster, who plays the Guardian, is miscast. Maybe it's his age, but I simply did not believe him in this film at all.
Warcraft is full on fantasy. Giant birds, magical beings, kingdoms and castles. For those not interested in those things, Warcraft will not convert you. In fact it will make you feel more alienated. What it does do, for me at least, is be interested in the possibility of a sequel. The film throws a few surprises at you and does a lot of set-up for those future instalments, which might not even come. As it stands, Warcraft is a film to watch on a big screen, in high definition. I totally understand why the critics hate it, why the fans love it and why I'm somewhere in the middle.