Warcraft (2016)
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| Pic by Comingsoon.net |
Director: Duncan Jones
Writers: Charles Leavitt, and Duncan Jones (screenplay).
Cast: Travis Fimmel (Anduin Lothar), Paula Patton (Garona), Ben Foster (Medivh), Dominic Cooper (Llane Wrynn), Toby Kebbell (Durotan / Antonidas), Ben Schnetzer (Khadgar), Robert Kazinsky (Orgrim), Clancy Brown (Blackhand), Daniel Wu (Gul'dan), Ruth Negga (Lady Taria), Anna Galvin (Draka), Callum Rennie (Moroes as Callum Keith), Burkely Duffield (Callan), Ryan Robbins (Karos), Dean Redman (Varis / Caged Frostwolf).
The Chieftain ork Durotan (Toby Kebbell) from the clan Frostwolf has thoughts of leaving the life of battle, and war. His wife Draka (Anna Galvin) is expecting a new little warrior; The thoughts are almost daunting, it gives Durotan a sense of displeasure, and relief, conflict within. The Warlock Gul'dan (Daniel Wu) is in his mind; The control, power, that he conveys, and most of all worrisome, not following traditions,a displeasure he someday will have to face, but not now; He must enjoy his wife, and his new little warrior to come.
The land of Draenor is in peril; The Warlock Gul'dan must find a new home for his orks, he has found the land called Azeroth. Taking the souls, essences of the prisoners, they are weak, feeble, but enough to open the portal. The Warlock has opened a gate to another land, a land they can claim for their own; But only a portion of the Horde can pass, enough to kill, conquer everything in their path. The war-party enters the gate, upon arrival, Draka (Anna Galvin) seems to be experiencing complications with her pregnancy. Draka screams in pain, she falls to the ground, the new land, her baby is without heartbeat, stillborn. Gul'dan (Daniel Wan) takes the still born baby, looks at the deer nearby, reaches toward it, like if he were taking something, a glow from his hands, reaching to the deer, the essence, life energy transfers from the deer to the baby. The baby cries, while Gul'dan raises it towards the sky above, to the war-party, "Behold a new warrior born to the clan," The ork war-party screams of joy! It echoes throughout the new land.
Review: The budget, what it makes in the box office doesn't really matter to me, because the real issue here is the viewers vs the critics; The important thing to remember is that if your entertained, then your good to go, i mean that's really it, not to complicated. Critics can be a bit on edge sometimes, especially if the film is big budget, it almost makes them cranky, they get mad at the studios for making something they thought would be a huge hit. The reality here is that, who really cares, because in the end, the viewer, audience has the final say, period. That's how cult classic's are born. The hit only matters to the folks watching the program or film. The main issue here is the time the film is made, Summer, Winter, Fall, it matters to critics because they take a film apart without giving it a real chance. The seasons are important because they determine the size of your audience, that is a hint on how your film will either make it or break it, an example of this is the Star Wars films, around Christmas time. The studio has to market the film as well as pick a smart date to show the movie at the box office. Toys, comic books, TV shows, all that stuff is part of marketing. So yes, the seasons, and timing is everything. Also the competition is important as well, because you don't want your audience going to, "That," movie that will make or break you.
Good: The story has a flow to it, bad, evil Warlock tries to control his people, which in turn causes some issues with some clan members. I liked the conflict between magic, traditions, the character Durotan (Toby Kebbell). The fact that a Chieftain of a major clan has doubts about the progression of the clans, and war-parties. He wanted peace, a very different outlook in his life, and the life of his new son, ork baby that was born early in the film. The way everything meant something, a good example of this is the Guardian, and some human traditions, when in need summon the mage, Guardian. First let me say that as far as the WOW (World of Warcraft) universe, is concerned i really don't play, or ever played. I understand it's a role-playing, MMO (Massively, Multiplayer, Online), character advancement system, which i have played other games like WOW, RPG, Star Wars: The Old Republic for example is a MMO based on the Star Wars universe. Are the games good, yes, are they addicting, hell yes! My wife said she would divorce me if I'd ever play the games as much as some folks do, which is a lot. So i love my wife, and value my marriage enough to understand the pull these games have on people. Look games are great if you play them slowly, not having it suck your life up until it drains your life-force. Games are great, but with a bit of restraint, all will be good.
So the good qualities of the film are the setting, traditions, basically the inner workings of the factions, people, magic that has corrupted the light, Fel magic. The way mages went about themselves, Gul'dan for example went to face Durotan, even using his magic, knowing full well that the clans will have issues with that. The Warlock, Gul'dan (Daniel Wan) is very cool looking, he really is menacing, the way he acts, controls the situation even though the horde lingers behind him. The conflicting tribes, their causes clashing with the protagonist's views. This was a great quality that i really loved about the movie. The story was not the problem, here, so let me get that out of the way, the actors as well did a great job for what they had to work with; Even with some of the traditions a described earlier, those aspects weren't strong enough to hold the film, at least to me it didn't.
Bad: One of the things i loved about Lord of the Rings is the choreographed battles, the orks at Helms Deep had a plan of attack, an orchestrated event that leads up to the characters clashing. The scenes in Warcraft, unfortunately were not the same, in fact they were horrible. The orks were crafted just like the game, i get that, but what made Lord of the Rings so memorable was the way the orks, villains had their own stance. If there was a clumsy ork, or beast, you would notice; The director made sure that the small things were not taken for granted. Maybe i might be wrong, but to me it seemed very unorganized. You could even argue that orks fight that way, no i disagree highly, it's fake, and it's bad film-making. Throughout history, tribes, clans, warriors, always had some stance, position. The British fought in a straight line, they had rules of attack, guide-lines; Even if the enemy had gone in hiding, no formation, at least you could understand why? The straight line, it was their way on the battlefield. Look at the German soldier compared to the American soldier, they are both soldiers but their cultures, and training on the battlefield are very different. This should apply to fantasy films as well, you need structure, not chaos. The Knights had structure, even the enemy, orks had their own battle stances, plan of attack. So why? not have it in the film; Because the film-makers got lazy, and banked on the video game players to come out in mass.I know the film did well, around the globe, but i bet if they run a sequel, those numbers would fall, not rise.
Ugly: The effects were OK, but not breath-taking, it was awesome to see the land, surroundings, but it felt to green-screened. Star Wars prequels suffered from this, I'm not judging the films script, but the effects were horrible, it felt to cartoon like to me. The interesting thing here was the story, even with a script, it all fell a part. I had said before, the effects must be in line with the story, so why? Did this film sink; Because even with a good story you must have some eye candy, not much, but enough to tell the tale. It's a fantasy flick, so telling it might be a bit difficult to some, but Peter Jackson did it so why couldn't, Duncan Jones. I guess if the story ran with the effects, the film would've been better. Here is an example: Lord of the Rings, the character Gandolf called his winged friend, it made sense, the story and the effects compensated each other, the bird came to him at a time of strife. The scene was emotional, which had reasoning behind it. In Warcraft, the winged Griffin, the one Anduin Lothar (Travis Fimmel) was riding was a great scene, but it didn't hold. Instead of traveling by horse, changing his mind later, or maybe have the Griffin show up later in the film, a gift from the Guardian.
The green screen was so bad in the flight scenes it reminded me of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987). The effects in that film was bad as well, not knocking the great Christopher Reeve, he did so much when he was alive, kudos! to him and his family.
Anyway i really pounced on the effects, because they were bad, surprising enough it still did well in the global market. The studio rushed the film, and it shows not only in the special effects, but the running time as well; Studios love to make sure their movies are 120 minutes; Why? not go an extra twenty minutes if it will tell the story better. Money is the problem then don't spend a budget of 160,000,000. The film was sub-pare at best, not the fault of the actors, but i blame the studio and the director of the film. The humans battle the orks, still conflict, and the best you could do is have your hero take out your beast of an ork with a sword, slid underneath him, ripped him to shreds, not only was this fight scene stupid, it tore me up inside. Anduin really didn't get hurt as much, should've called him, Anduin the Terminator. OK the Guardian saved the day, afterwards a young mage and Anduin take out a really huge Demon. Guardian gets taken over by dark magic, fel magic, and a Demon comes forth, the young mage Khadgar (Ben Schnetzer) comes in, the Demon is dead, Blah! Blah! Blah! No emotion, i really didn't care about major characters dying or not, it felt like i was playing a bad video game. At least for the Resident Evil movies, you get what you'd pay for, action, action, mixed in with cool effects, that were over the top, but enough to get a grip over; In Warcraft it tries to hard, a forced fantasy flick based on a video game.
In end don't judge me because i gave this film a bad review, but it deserves it. Why not try and give the audiences magic, it's colorless, makes you giggle, that tingly feeling you get when the performer ends his act, Frodo in Lord of the Rings had emotion, the actors had structures behind them, not everything was green screened. Warcraft has no magic, it's a story that could've been more, instead they crash into the proverbial wall. The film did have some great moments, but as a whole let me tell you it is not a fantasy film you'd enjoy. Imagine watching a WOW player going through the game, and sitting back for hours on end, boring right? That's the way i felt about this movie, a bad fantasy film made for younger viewers. I would rather watch old He-Man episodes then to watch this Warcraft again, it has no real base, it falls short to what a real fantasy film should be.
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