The grass ain't always greener...

Rating: 4/10 (10 June 2016)

This is a film that I had highly anticipated since its first trailer was released; not because I'm a big Warcraft fan (never played the game) but because Duncan Jones has a nasty habit of making great films. Moon was an intriguing watch with plenty of nods to Kubrick and Source Code was an extremely entertaining Sci-Fi/Action tale, so what's the worst that could happen?... Warcraft is the answer you were looking for. Warcraft is an abysmal attempt at storytelling and it seems that the only thing the film sets out to achieve (and does so successfully) is setting up a sequel. The film can be forgiven for the CGI-fest that it is, it's based on a game and the scale that the film is operating on likely lends itself more to the green screen. However what it can't be forgiven for is a script that seems like its right out of some poor sod's fan fiction. There are lines in this film that are hard to believe got past the first draft let alone made it to the big screen, the 'no he's not/yes he is' argument between Lothar and Garona was head-in-hands embarrassing. It's difficult to blame the actors for simply going through the motions when the material they had to work with was p*ss-poor... but not that difficult. The acting was reminiscent of a back-alley stage production and made me want to disassociate with any humans on screen in favour for their Orc counterparts. It's hard to believe that there was more life to be found in the motion-captured Orcs than in any human equivalent but beggars can't be choosers. The one major positive that comes from this film is that Duncan Jones proves that it is possible to translate games to the big screen. There is a tangible sense that you are watching a game, from the camera angles that are evocative of cut-scenes during game play to the shallow dialogue and convenient plot points, it's unsurprising that many hardcore Warcraft fans enjoy this film. The problem is that where this should have been a film about a game and it became a film of a game. It's all too similar to sitting down at a friend's house and watching him play a game for two hours, the fun's going to dry up after about 30 minutes and this is exactly what happened here. I would only recommend this to those that are fans of the source material... and perhaps not a fan of film