As a non-gamer, I was surprised how much I liked it

Rating: 7/10 (17 July 2016)

I don't usually like games turned into movies, however, Warcraft was a pleasant surprise. The movie was moderately violent, but I would be happy for my young teens to see it. What surprised me was the absence of "girl power" lines in the movie, which is a rare treat in itself when you aren't bombarded with sexism. It also showed fairly realistic female portrayals, which is almost unheard of in Hollywood in the last few decades. If you like over-the-top female ninja warriors who are smarter and stronger than any man in the movie, this is not your movie. The story is simple enough to follow. Different races and classes are well defined. Magic was fairly straight forward. There are two armies fighting for land for survival. Fight scenes were surprisingly easy to follow, despite large armies at play. The camera work made a huge difference as did clean special effects and solid story boarding. What I found hard to take was the slow pace of the movie and wooden acting of some of the main human characters. The 2 human sorcerers and human warrior were mediocre actors. However, the Orcs (excluding their wizard) were mostly excellent. I especially liked that orcs had genuine and rounded personalities (eg. Friendly laughs and comradery). It stayed true to their warrior nature, but gave them depth beyond the usual villain. With tighter pacing and better directing for the humans, I could see great things for this series. I would definitely see a sequel if it was released.