A Warcraft Movie was Bound to Happen

Rating: 8/10 (18 June 2016)

Well, it was going to happen eventually that a movie based on the hugely successful MMORPG was going to hit the screens, what surprised me that it took a lot longer than I would have initially expected. Mind you, since it was ages before a Dungeons and Dragons movie hit the screens (and a fairly bad one at that) I suspect the reason they took their time with the Warcraft movie was that they wanted to do a decent job (and also probably because Blizzard, who owns the rights to Warcraft, may have been dragging their feet a little, but that is speculation). Anyway, as is evident from the title, this is the first in a number of movies (though I'm not really sure at this stage how many they plan on making, though there will most likely be three, more depending on how well the trilogy goes).
My thoughts were that it was good – not really a movie that I would probably watch multiple times, but then again I have never been really drawn into watching films that are clearly a form of merchandising (and this is definitely one of those films, especially since when I was down at Epping Plaza today I found myself at the local EB checking out how much a copy of World of Warcraft would set me back – the fact that it doesn't seem to work on Linux, at least from what the box told me, stopped me from actually buying it). Still, while I have never played the MMORPG, I did play the old strategy games back in the 90s (Warcraft and Warcraft II specifically), so I do have a bit of a connection to the franchise.
Well, the film begins with the horde, lead by Durotan, opening a gate on a destroyed world and leading the horde into Azarth to basically loot, kill, and plunder, and to also collect prisoners so that he might have power to open the gate again and let more of the horde into the world. We then jump over to the humans (the original game was called Orcs and Humans) when they hear about this army ravaging the land, and seek to go and find out what is actually going on. As is expected, the film then culminates with an epic battle at the gate, but then ends leaving it open for a sequel.
Despite not being hugely familiar with the MMORPG I still quite enjoyed the film. From what I have gathered it does follow the storyline of the world (another thing that I am not hugely familiar with, namely because I basically played two of the original strategy games and little else, and that was actually quite a while ago so if there was any plot beyond building an army and then going to war with the otherside, I can't remember much of it), though how close I couldn't tell you. I guess that having little knowledge of the actual world helped me enjoy the film a lot more, though there were a number of aspects, such as the magic, that did bring back memories of the original game.
I guess, in the end, it is a good thing that I use Linux, otherwise I probably would have found myself purchasing a copy of World of Warcraft, and then spending way too much time (and money) playing it.