Disappointing but not awful

Rating: 5/10 (2 June 2016)

Warcraft had me hoping it would be the video game movie that would finally be decent if not great. Sadly this film left me more mixed then anything other film this year. Firstly to list the positives I can say this is a faithful adaptation of World of Warcraft so fans will find something to enjoy. The game has very much been brought to life with some impressive CGI work. Also i found some of the characters enjoyable albeit hardly too memorable Toby Kebbell's orc character in particular I very much enjoyed and for me was the highlight. The same however cannot be said for Travis Fimmel's human lead. I'm a fan of Fimmel's work in the show Vikings but here his character is uninteresting and Fimmel does a poor job making us care for him or sympathize for his plight. As I found out he himself didn't even know what World of Warcraft was before being cast and as his first blockbuster leading role maybe he was simply out of his element. The film's effects are commendable and sometimes breathtaking and the visuals were very appealing. I also want to praise this movie for not relying on senseless action and instead relied on its characters which is something video game movies have almost always failed on before. However I have several issues with the film.
The first act was frankly a mess as I felt like I had somehow missed an hour of the film and was being dropped into it halfway. Places and characters fly past with no explanation and the story, while coherent enough, wasn't gripping in the least. It wasn't until the first human v orc fight I began to have fun with the movie and made myself more comfortable in getting to know these characters as the film began to slow down and let me absorb what was happening. For the majority of the film I was having fun but then I realized that this was simply setting up the first part in what I presume to be a series and so the film had zero closure leaving me more embittered by the end. Of course other fantasy films had done this in the past such as Lord of the Rings but unlike those films Warcraft gives us nothing to think on until the next film and with no characters to really care about there is little reason for me to get excited about the future of this series. Warcraft's sequel has the potential to be far better as Im now familiar with the world and characters but I seriously doubt this is a movie that will be revisited in the years to come. While this is a superior video game film it is sadly an average fantasy adventure.