A sometimes very campy fantasy movie, that manages to deal with questions of identity and different family types in an interesting way.

Rating: 7/10 (10 June 2016)

So, it is easy to dismiss Warcraft - The Beginning as a campy, convoluted fantasy movie. But if you take a closer look, you can clearly see Duncan Jones' handwriting. The way, this movie deals with topics of identity, relationship and finding your place in the world, lifts it above average.
I have very little knowledge about the lore of Warcraft. Actually, all I know about it comes from playing the related Hearthstone card game. Compared to the HUGE behemoth, Warcraft is, I think, it's safe to say, that I know nothing about it. And yes, I often felt completely lost in the packed story line of this movie. You could see the director struggling with at least a dozen major characters, trying to give everyone enough screen time and something meaningful to do. To my surprise, this worked much better, than it could have. But still, I often found myself asking: What on Azeroth is going on here?
What kept me in this movie was the way, Jones' managed to give the story arc a greater meaning. There were interesting things about different family types and how to live with them in it. There was the Wechselbalg, raised by people who would be their enemies. There was the average family with parents who cared about their newborn, just trying to live a normal, peaceful life as everyone does (and how great, that we find this type of family amongst the Orc, who are supposed to be the villains). There was the widowed father, trying to be a good dad, despite blaming his son for the mother's death.
Jones has dealt with identity, the question, what makes a person a person and stuff like that in his previous movies. So it absolutely makes sense, that he picks up on that in this movie as well. He also manages to have strong female characters and even passes the Bechdel test, who would have thought that!? This movie has flaws aplenty. But there is also a lot of interesting stuff in it and it's definitely one of the better computer game adaptations.