A bit of a mess. But a fun mess.

Rating: 6/10 (22 August 2016)

I've never played the older Warcraft games on PC, nor WOW. So that's where I'm coming from. But even if I was a die-hard WOW player I doubt I would have gotten much more out of this CG heavy fantasy action spectacle. Fact is, it's a bit of a mess. Warcraft is what you get when you try to cram an epic LOTR story inside a 2 hour movie.
Because of this the movie feels rushed, and a little disorienting. It feels like they were trying to cram decades worth of Warcraft lore into one film, whilst at the same time trying to make it as accessible as possible to the masses. Whilst the story can be followed (it is a fairly generic formulaic tale) we get little bits of information that don't really make sense and aren't explained enough, or at all. Example: the magic. To put it basically, Blue = Good, Green = Bad. But I was waiting for information about the magic itself, how the orcs came to possess it, why there was only one orc to become corrupted by it, how the Guardian became possessed by it etc etc. So much of Warcraft's story needed to be fleshed out more thoroughly. It feels like there is a 4 hour cut of this film that has been butchered down to 2, and as a result is far less enjoyable than it could have been.
Performances are pretty average across the board. Nobody looks that invested in the material. The CG is decent, albeit occasionally pretty cheap looking. Its a bit troubling when CG in 2016 is not on par with LOTR circa 2000. But honestly it is pretty good. The orcs all look pretty impressive, and the lighting effects are good.
Warcraft is a fun, no brainer kinda film. But the problem with Warcraft is that while watching I couldn't help thinking i would rather be watching LOTR instead. Epic tale, great CG, great acting, fleshed out story and characters. All the things that Warcraft fails at for the most part.