Warcraft is surprisingly good

Rating: 7/10 (13 June 2016)

Considering the reviews Warcraft: The Beginning has received and the general consensus of thinking that video game based movie aren't very good, I was fully expecting to see some what of a cinematic pan cake. Surprisingly enough, Warcraft works pretty well. It's no LOTR mind you, but it is relatively entertaining, at places a bit cheesy, fantasy flick with pretty good special effects.
Warcraft is at its best when it revolves around the orcs. The humans are really the weak link of the whole thing, as very few of the actors chosen feel that they don't fit in a fantasy setting like this. A Finnish director Markku Pölönen said once, that some people have epoch faces and some do not. By that he meant, that certain people suit better on a movie set in the past (or in a fantasy world), where as some just look too modern. Most of the human actors here feel a bit too modern for the setting. Also the writing on the humans side feels more rushed.
But the orcs. Now they're fantastic. They're gigantic beast, with tusks and huge weapons in their hands, riding on over sized wolves (or wargs, I'm not really sure, as I'm not huge Warcraft guy). The orcs themselves aren't really evil at all, they're just misguided by the fell magic using Gul'Dan. In any case, the movie just seems to work better every time there's orcs on scree, be it Durotan, Garona or Gul'dan.
The pacing of the story is also a one big issue. It's easy to see, that there's a lot of story material been cut out from the movie and that really feels like it's hurting the overall experience. Some additional material might even make the humans feel more compelling as well, but now there's no real connection to them here, as the story keeps jumping quite a bit.
Anyhow, Warcraft really isn't even half as bad some sources have touted it as. It's relatively easy to follow for even a person like me, who played the original RTS game years ago and has only skimmed WOW briefly before getting bored with it. At times it did feel like it expected me to be more familiar with the franchise than I am, but in all it still is fun.