You think you do, but you don't.

Rating: 5/10 (27 May 2016)

Alright, so I'm a big fan of the Warcraft universe and it's rich lore. I immensely enjoyed the olden times before the story line was crapped on with silly plots like time travel etc. Even so, I have to admit that this is simply not a good movie. The fault lies mainly in the fact that this is a story written for video games like Starcraft, Warcraft 3 etc. It's structure is based on you experiencing most of the story through the narrative and the eyes of it's many heroes, that you also get to control from time to time. You invest a big amount of time and effort in helping them and assuring their safety, only to watch them being torn away or having to make huge sacrifices for the greater good. This works in games and also in books because you spend such a long time alongside them and part-take in their personal development. In the film they pop up, you see them for a relatively short amount of time and you really don't care too much about them. There are also too many of them. The movie bases almost entirely on the relationships people built to the characters in previous times. The fact that the story is the main protagonist and not really any of the characters on their own, also contributes to the failing of the Warcraft universe on the big screen. I fear this might have halted the performance of the actors, which was quite varying to say the least. I was also really puzzled by how easily some characters put their thrust in others without having any reasons for doing so. This is the fallacy of WoW, where the players gain trust quite easily from characters because it's how it needs to be to have progression contents. It doesn't work in a film. Even so I will admit that I enjoyed myself a lot of the time, getting to see many of the zones I've spend countless hours traveling and exploring. There are so many nods to the vanilla and TBC-times in WoW that people will be constantly giggling in their seats.
The timing of this movie is perfect as WoW is seeing a steep decline in subscribers lately. The fact that it has a built-in audience of +-100 million people will surely help the franchise keep afloat for a while longer. There's also some elements of WoD in it, almost like they made the expansion to cater to the updated script of the film. Sadly this also gives a sour feeling that a lot of the development effort was put into the movie rather than the game, where it was badly needed. There are also more than enough nods towards the new Legion-expansion expected later this year. This will surely help Renew the passion for the Warcraft universe for at least a few months more.
Should I watch this film if I enjoyed the Warcraft games? Most probably, even if it'll feel somewhat shallow at times.
Should I watch this film if I didn't? No, this is pure fan-service.
Will Warcraft make loads of $$$ even if it's not that good a movie? Yes. It'll probably be among the highest grossing movies with such a bad script.