Review of Warcraft (2016) by Nathan R — 19 Sep 2017

I didn't begin my journey into Warcraft with the original games, but rather World of Warcraft in 2009. Since then, I've been trying to unpack and understand all of the IMMENSE lore behind the games. There's just so much of it that it boggles the mind. So many significant names, races, events... it's so hard to keep track of everything, and I've read as many facts as I can about it, for it interests me.

For this reason alone, I enjoyed the Warcraft movie. I'm already a fan of the story of Warcraft, already a fan of the games. To get a better understanding of the lore told in movie form was a pretty nice experience.

But for anyone else, people who haven't really played Warcraft, or cared about it? This movie is both going to make no sense, and probably going to be utter crap. I can admit wholeheartedly that this film was 100% fan-service, and while as loyal as possible to the lore of Warcraft, it didn't really offer a helping hand to those who aren't already familiar. It left some rather gaping holes, actually, that could have been easily filled to let newcomers know what the hell is going on. The movie really should have began at the beginning of the First War, not the end of the First and into the beginning of the Second. It would have been a lot less confusing.

There so many references in the story that only fans of Warcraft would get, like when King Llane addresses his son, Varian. Everyone who plays Alliance side of Warcraft knows that Varian will be the future king of the Alliance. But to anyone else, it's like "Um, okay. What was the point of that scene?".

I could picture someone sitting in the room with me saying "Wait, who the hell are the Kirin Tor? Wait, Frostwolf Clan? Orcs have clans? Wait, there are elves in this? Where were they up until this point? First there are swords, but now they're using... dwarf guns? What the hell is this?" Whereas I could see another fan of Warcraft sitting with me laughing through it and pointing out things they recognize. It very much is a different experience for a fan and non-fan, and if I'm being honest, it wasn't really very fair to anyone new to the story.

Regardless, I had fun with it, if only because I already love Warcraft.