Not quite as good as fans want it to be, but better than critics say it is.

Rating: Null/10 (17 August 2016)

So this is my take on Warcraft, as a long-time WoW player.
This is yet another example of how critics and fans can have such radically different viewpoints on movies. And honestly, there's nothing wrong or particularly surprising with it. Average movie-goers just want to have fun. Critics have the job to actually look further into a movie, to detect its faults and praise whatever small details are deserving of such praise. What's happening with Warcraft is that fans are giving it way too much credit, and critics are apparently unable to look past its shortcomings.
As a fan of the video game, I enjoyed watching the movie. However, I can't help but feel that some things have been handed miserably. The story is based on the first video game, Warcraft I, but it doesn't follow the script at 100%. Such changes could bring a breath of fresh air to the Warcraft lore, improving what might otherwise not have been good story-telling choices. However, pretty much every of those chances have been a turn for the worst. Take Garona, for example. In the video game, she kills King Llane because she is being mind-controlled by Gul'dan, not because the king tells her to "kill him so that the world has a hope to have peace", which is a pretty stupid justification. How would Garona personally killing him do that? Furthermore, there's that cringe-worthy love-story with Lothar, which serves absolutely no purpose. Warcraft the film is filled which such side-stories that don't seem to develop anywhere that made them worthy to be in the film in the first place. As a result, they are often unbelievable. Lothar's son dies in battle, just in front of him as he is left to watch without being able to intervene. What could have been a great scene, even by the standards of film in general and not only the niche that video game film is, loses all the impact when 1) Lothar shows pretty much no emotion, in one of the worst acting examples of the entire film; 2) the audience never develops an emotional connection with his son because he is seen so few times in the movie and never meaningfully. Then there is the dissidence from Orgrim Doomhammer, which never goes anywhere, because in the movie he doesn't get to face Blackhand. Instead, Lothar does, which never happened in the game and has no good reason to be in the movie either, instead for a cool looking action scene that reinforces the cool-guy type of character that he is.
Going back to the chances from the original lore, we can blame Hollywood on this one, because most movies nowadays don't seem to be audacious enough to do any kind of ending but happy endings. In Warcraft the game, Stormwind city is razed by the orcs, and Humans, lead by Lothar, are left to seek refuge north, and form the Kingdom of Lordaeron. In the movie, no such thing happens. The movie repeatedly seems to take the parts that make Warcraft lore so compelling and audacious and turn them into bland, generic Hollywood clichÃ©s, in an attempt to appeal to a general public that, honestly, will probably never care that much about the film and would probably enjoy the original story a lot more. And here is where most critics go wrong: they'd rather bash on Warcraft for doing the best they can than on Hollywood producers who don't want to take risks and would rather have every movie follow the same formulae.
On to the acting, yet another part where the film falls short is that the orcs are somehow so much more believable than the humans. Humans' acting is a bit poor and unbelievable, passable at best, Medivh being one of the worst examples, in my opinion. It doesn't help that their armor, their swords, their crowns, etc., seem to be made in cheap plastic. Compare it to the orcs, which are maybe one of the best examples of CGI done right up to this date. Orcs are believable, show a great range of emotions, they at the very least seem to have some weight. However, dwarfs and elves also show up in this movie, and they don't seem so believable. Elves' ears look made of plastic, their glowing eyes made of very poor CGI. In general, though, the CGI is done right, with beautiful environments and special effects. But it is also done very poorly at such times.
The movie isn't all bad, though. Action scenes are decent, orc scenes are amazingly well-done, the environments are beautiful and there's enough humor and drama to keep you entertained, if you like the fantasy genre and/or are a fan of the Warcraft universe. But it falls short because it could have been much more. Those who know the Warcraft lore know how rich and compelling it truly is. Warcraft the movie is afraid to take risks, and follows a formulaic path instead that is so common to Hollywood blockbusters. There is enough Warcraft here to keep you entertained, but it's no Lord of the Rings. If they fix some of its shortcomings in an eventual sequel, however, it may manage to become more than a mere video game movie. Until then, that's what it is. Entertaining, but ultimately shallow.