Not good, but still fun?

Rating: 6/10 (12 June 2016)

I feel as though I should be conflicted with my thoughts on Warcraft. The spectacle of seeing the whole perspective of hype turning into savaging anti-hype of this movie should make people like me sit out and ruminate for how I feel about the movie as a whole. But I don't; glaring flaws aside, I still appreciate it. Make no mistake – it's an overwritten, occasionally phony, shell of a movie, but chock full of ambition and the classic ludicrous charm. When it comes to fantasy action/adventure romps, I would openly compare this to Brett Ratner's Hercules, a movie that is also not traditionally "good" but bask itself with ironic fun.
The story pretty much boils down to a conflict between Orcs and humans, as the human realm of Azeroth endures an invasion from the Orcs for no other motive other than to find a new home to replace their dying realm. Among the Orcs are Durotan - a would-be father conflicted by his orders to attack the humans by force and his desires to endure a peaceful route – and Gul'dan, an evil warlock Orc so obviously evil it's near baffling. Among the humans could be humbly classified as "stock king" "stock future king" "stock half-breed" and "stock rogue character" who all come to terms with "stock secret bad guy" to fend off the intruders. Will the humans end this peacefully or with force? Who is the real bad guys? Will the humans trust the Orcs or will this movie end badly?
Are you sure you need answers to all these questions?
All kidding aside, the movie does wisely takes the ambiguous approach to this storytelling. Not only does it make both sides virtually more complex, but it also pays homage to the old games where players chose which faction they would play. Even though the movie constantly insists you on caring for these otherwise one-note characters, the way it emphasizes their struggles is bolder than any summer movie would dare to be. The Orcs don't intend any harm; they just need a new home. The humans don't really want to kill them as much as they want to protect their world. They just need to do what they need to do and that's it.
These attempt at dynamics, sadly, cripples itself once we actually get to the meat of the story, which is way too bloated and way too unfocused. It feels as though the movie either wants you to understand every last speck of world mechanics or to have us ease into the broader surface of the story, so it opts for both clumsily. The Orc scenes (which are easily the best part, don't get me wrong) are clearly have us invested in their overall struggles with little to no explaining the whats, hows, and whys, while the human scenes sadly convers that for them and little else with one expositional dialogue after another. Its makes matters worse when the real actors aren't all that interesting, with Travis Fimmel playing the weak sauce Aragorn clone, and Dominic Cooper slogging himself as the King. The less said about how unfortunate Paula Patton looks and acts in her ridiculous half-breed get-up the better.
It's tedious and bloated, but not really offensive on my part. Honestly, once we get the whole "this is important, pay attention" detail out of the way, it just looks like gangbusters. There will no doubt be a bazillion articles ruminating on Duncan Jones shift from his other works and how much he's out of his league with this movie, but I cannot deny how committed to this bizarre aesthetic of the Warcraft games. He is, no doubt, out of his league and this movie is by far the weakest of his relatively short catalogue, but his basic elements play out well enough here; the world of Azeroth looks beautiful yet lived in, the CGI is used in the best of their capabilities (specifically in the impressive motion-capture with the Orcs and the lavishing action scenes), and there is a very potent theme of family dynamics and emotional conflicts. Granted this movie lacks any sort of consistency, gravity, or enough compelling characters to make it great, but the way it compensates that for such loyalty to this goofy Warcraft aesthetic doesn't mean it's anywhere near lazy.
It seems as though I should really hate this movie, much as the movie itself tempts me to, but I really don't. No, this isn't the Battlefield Earth of video game movies, nor is it the beginning of the end of bad video game movies finding some level of good quality. But it's a fun, weightless yet hugely ambitious, movie that cannot be denied for what it tries. Destined to be a cult classic.
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Rating: 6/10