An invasion not totally supported by the invaders

Rating: 9/10 (18 August 2016)

Warcraft is an extremely dense movie considering that fantasy fiction movies are expected to have simplistic stories that are easily followed by a fourth grade child. Though LoTR introduced us to complex fantasy storytelling, Warcraft is among the first of big budget fantasy fiction movies to show us a story that gives its viewers a grey-vs-grey narrative instead of clear-cut heroes vs mustache-twirling villains. Make no doubt, there are villains and heroes in this story--but their alliances are not so razor-sharp. This may have played into why the movie wasn't as big a success as it should have been--especially in the West, we want our heroes and villains to be easy to define and easy to identify, which is not completely the case in this story. For those gamers familiar with the lore of Warcraft, this movie will satisfy; but for those unfamiliar, there may be an existential challenge, simply because there is no clear line of demarcation between good and evil--there are two poles, and a large muddle of in-betweens that more reflect real life than we might like to admit. The fact that there is no ultimate triumph of good over evil (which also pervades the game itself) might disappoint. But nonetheless it holds very true to the strong morals present in the game, and as a player for 10+ years I can't help but love this movie.