Warcraft

Inspired by the Warcraft franchise, Warcraft is set in the land of Azeroth where orcs are arriving into the world via a portal that transports them from their dying world. The races of Azeroth get wind of this and decide to leave it to the humans (and some dissenting orcs) to deal with.

Duncan Jones steps up from moderately small Sc-Fi films to directing a film about one of the biggest online multiplayer games of all time with a potential franchise in wake. It’s a different environment, and with a fan base in the tens of millions it could easily go horribly wrong. Thankfully for Jones the fan base responded positively to the film whilst those without the foggiest about the world of Warcraft were more critical.

The reason for this is because the film services the fans more than someone who hasn’t killed a troll with Hellscream’s Doomblade. Flicking through the film’s facts and trivia you can tell it references a lot of the mythical lores of franchise, such as the Doomhammer, one of the most iconic and powerful weapons in the game (apparently). For anyone who couldn’t tell the Doomhammer and a normal hammer from any hardware store apart, this won’t mean anything to you. This, in a way, becomes the biggest flaw because without any knowledge of the game, all the magical wonders in the world would completely pass you by.

That said, however, what I saw intrigued me, I was interested in the world building, and whilst I do feel the film could have done a lot more building the relationships all different races shared with one another, I found myself enjoying the film. The visuals were superb, and some of the backdrops were stunning but if you’ve never played the game you’ll probably spend a lot of the time wondering what’s going on…as I did.

3/5