A Surprisingly Entertaining Romp

Rating: 8/10 (16 June 2016)

Although disconnected from the current lore of Warcraft, I did spend a lot of hours with Warcraft and Warcraft II, the real-time-strategy games from over a decade ago. This, I think, helped with forming a healthy expectation of the style of film that this would be, even if there is a plethora of information alluded to in the film that the average viewer, like myself, will probably never understand.
If CGI is not your cup of tea, then just steer away from this film altogether. Almost all of it is CGI, and the real sets are noticeably small. This is a common feel of the film, the conflicts, the armies, everything has a skirmish feel to it, much like the games.
Warcraft has never been an epic-scale game, and the world of the film shares this impression. Although there are meetings of councils and clearly an allied, peaceful world in Azeroth, the dominant faction shown is the humans, who are outnumbered by the war-bands of Orcs who have travelled to Azeroth through a dark sorcerer's portal. This is just the vanguard of a larger force, called the horde, who are attempting to flee their dying planet.
As far as direction goes, the film moves along at a quick pace, not wasting any time on transitions beyond some basic setting to tie key conversations together. Later in the film, action picks up and culminates in a logical progression, even if it gets a little muddled at times over where loyalties lie. This is, I might add, one of the areas that the film heartily breaks the mould of most films today - shades of grey morality. There is clearly an evil side, but there are many shades of morality that are populated by characters regardless of faction. This complicates things, but has the benefit of creating a larger story than just Orcs VS Humans.
Visually exciting to watch, and with a handful of strong characters makes Warcraft an entertaining film for the right audience. It is true to its art style, clearly deals with good VS evil while allowing cultural differences that reinforce its characters, all while filling the screen with visceral combat to the extent that you will wish you saw more of some characters. Feeling most accurately like this movie just scratches the surface of its world, Warcraft will only improve with another instalment in the film franchise.