Hollywood's habit of turning hit videogames into unwatchable movies continues unabated.
The epic battle at the center of “Warcraft” isn’t the clash between humans and orcs. That’s just what takes up roughly two hours of screen time. The true conflict comes from filmmakers trying to tell a story with soul and struggling against the inherent ridiculousness of the commodity they’re working with. It shouldn’t take a mage to foresee that this pricey and preposterous adaptation of an online gaming phenomenon was preordained for artistic mediocrity.
Ten years after game maker Blizzard Entertainment announced its intention to take the megahit multimedia property Warcraft to the big screen, it arrives in a striking blend of pricey practical and digital effects. As with many “high fantasy” epics, once you get past the costumes and lingo, the abracadabra and inevitable elves, the movie’s story is as simple as its visuals are elaborate. Beneath the richly textured layers of motion capture, animation and 3D modeling lie the basics: conflict, survival, family, loyalty.
While the enormity of the undertaking is evident in every frame of the sci-fi medieval-ish action saga, director Duncan Jones manages, for the most part, to keep it from lumbering. With an emphasis on craft over war, the characters are front and center, and those that are partly digital creations are among its most memorable. They have heart.
The embargo ends on 30th but apparently the big trades were allowed to publish early
Beyond excited to see this! My sister got is tickets for opening night. Blizzard is my favorite game company and I have been a huge WoW player for over 10 years (and the games before that lol)
I'm really excited for the film - I haven't played WoW for a while (couple of years at least) but I played for a good five years at one point and was super in love with it. Therefore it feels like fans have been waiting forever for this film.
But yeah I have a feeling it will likely flop, which makes me really sad. I'm holding out hope though that other reviewers will be more positive.
