Visually Stunning, Lacks Characters and Story

Rating: 6/10 (9 June 2016)

Warcraft is a fantasy epic based on Blizzard's video game franchise directed by Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code) and starring Travis Fimmel, Dominic Cooper, Toby Kebbell, Paula Patton and Ben Foster.
Warcraft is set in the fantastical world of Azeroth and follows the race of orcs as they start to seek a new world in which to settle in, considering theirs is dying. The orcs are led by Gul'Dan (Daniel Wu) who uses dark sorcery called The Fel, a sorcery which requires sacrifices, thus keeping the portal to the new world open. One of the orc chieftains, Durotan (Kebbell) does not agree with Gul'Dan's methods and he starts to doubt his intentions. The world the orcs flee to is called Azeroth, the house for races like humans, dwarfs and elves. Thus, a conflict begins the two factions.
First of all, let me start by saying that this movies was savaged by critics. It currently holds a 22% rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes and some reviewers have even said this movie is as bad as Battlefield Earth. This is truly not the case. This movie is far from perfect and indeed it has some flaws, but to go as far as calling it a new Battlefield Earth is simply ludicrous. This movie is very good for what it's supposed to be: a fantasy epic with exciting battles, unique characters and a rich mythology.
Fans of the video game franchise will surely love this movie and will notice all the little easter eggs and references thrown throughout the movie. I myself am not a huge follower of the game series and I still enjoyed this movie. By far the weakest link of this movie are the characters, especially the human ones. Travis Fimmel plays Anduin Lothar, commander of the human army who is supposed to come off as witty and charming but unfortunately is just annoying most of the time. Dominic Cooper plays King Llane, a good king who cares about his people and wants to protect them from the coming invasion. Cooper is a great actor but he's not a good fit for this character. His looks are too boyish and make him seem like he lacks experience, thus not having enough gravitas. In fact, this is a problem for most of the human characters, as Ben Foster and Ben Schnetzer both play mages, but they don't fit at all in their roles.
One of the best characters in this movie comes from the orc horde, and that's Durotan played by Toby Kebbell. Kebbell does a great job in bringing to life a character that cares deeply for his family and people, a just and noble ruler. He is also the wisest from the Horde, as he realizes an alliance with the humans must be made in order to save his world. Kebbell plays Durotan using motion capture, his second role of this nature (he also did a fantastic job in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes). All the orcs in the movie are portrayed by this technology, and, for the most part, they look great. CGI is a must requirement in this kind of movie, and even if it falls flat in some of the scenes, the look of the orcs is very well achieved
Having said all that, Warcraft is a movie that's beautifully directed by Duncan Jones, with some great visuals for the most part, with beautiful looking landscapes and battles. Unfortunately, it falls short in the story and character depth departments, but the way I see it, I knew what I was getting in to. I was not expecting a Citizen Kane, I wanted to see crazy giant battles between orcs, humans and other beasts and I got all that. Warcraft is one of the best video game adaptations out there (not saying much) and I give it a 6.5 out of 10.