Good concepts but messy execution

Rating: 6/10 (31 July 2016)

There are a lot of pros and cons to Warcraft. The movie unfortunately struggled to communicate a lot of ideas very quickly and as a result it came across as very rushed and lacking in depth. The characters aren't really given enough time to be established and as a result many of their interactions came across as forced. It was difficult to relate to the characters because their motives aren't given an opportunity to be fleshed out. I think it's a shame because a lot of the ideas were actually good. The use of magic within the story worked quite well and rather than characters simply firing off random spells without explanation, only a few spells are used but they are explained, each one has a distinct purpose and is used in multiple ways. The plot itself wasn't bad but the events themselves seemed disjointed and poorly paced, so as a result it was hard to invest in what was happening.
While I have a reasonable understand of the Warcraft story and I have played most of the games I still found it a bit difficult to get familiarized with exactly what was happening. Characters seemed to jump from place to place without a lot explanation as to what they were really doing. There is no sense of scale to the world because everyone seems to get everywhere nearly instantly without any sense of time passing. The human battle strategies are poorly explained and the outcome of many of the battles doesn't seem to make any sense. For a movie that is based off of a series of strategy games it would have been a lot better if battle strategy actually had more relevance to the plot.
Many of the relationships between the characters also come across as unnatural and unearned. There are multiple betrayals in the plot but when they happen it doesn't really have a lot of impact because the time wasn't given to establish the initial bonds between the characters. Twists and turns in the characters relationships seem to happen overnight, without a lot of explanation as to how and why their feelings change.
Overall, I don't think the movie is as bad as a lot of critics have indicated. Warcraft at least aspires to tell a story that is more than just a straight up action movie. There was a plot here that could have been quite good. The problem was that it was very rushed, the events and characters were poorly established and the ideas aren't really explained in any depth. The rapid pace of events offered very little time to establish its characters and sink into its word and lore. If the movie had better pacing and showed those establishing moments in a more immersive way it would have elevated the quality of the movie substantially. The Blizzard cinematics do an excellent job of doing that, so it really is a shame that the movie failed to provide that same excellent sense of tone and atmosphere.
I would give this movie 5.5/10 it is slightly above average. It had a lot going for it in terms of ideas but the execution fell short in many different areas. It's worth watching if you are hungry for a decent fantasy movie, if not I would say the movie probably won't do much for you.