Review of Warcraft (2016) by Zeropwnz0R — 15 Jun 2016

Wow, what a moviegoing experience. The film had a budget of $160m, and it really showed. The CGI was well done just like Blizzard's famous game trailers. The action was also well done, considering human actors were battling CGI orcs (though the humans often became CGI after putting their greathelms on). The environments were stunning. The overhead shots of great capital cities like Stormwind and the floating city of Dalaran were impressively detailed. The magicians' spells looked much better than Gandolf the Grey. The wolves, horses, and gryphons also looked spectacular. Overall, the movie was visually epic.

The plot hewed closely to the original Warcraft video game's plot--which was a good thing, IMO. Due to the 2 hour time constraint, the movie moved at a dizzying speed and tried to cram in as much as possible. In the trade off between remaining authentic to the source material and cutting things to make the movie more watchable, Duncan Jones chose the former. And thank God he did. Fanboys of the world rejoice.

A lot of casual references were made to Azeroth's characters and lore that required intimate knowledge of the game. When characters casually referenced the Redridge Mountains, Goldshire, Blackrock Mountain, Deadwind Pass, etc., I possessed a detailed knowledge of exactly what they were talking about (having ventured there many times myself), whereas casual babbies prob got confused. Same thing with all the names--Gul'dan, Medivh, Lothar--you get the picture. Same thing even with the jokes. Example--murlocs were considered a humorous enemy in World of Warcraft that made a distinctive gargling sound when attacked--the exact same audio recordings were used in the movie, which caused me to Løl Wüt.

Some parts of the movie were predictable and uninteresting. A certain character died midway through. This elicited zero emotional response from me. I gathered early on that the only reason for that particular character's existence was to be slain to add emotional oomph to the movie. Judging from the music, the movie makers intended that scene to be quite dramatic. It failed entirely. But overall I was on the edge of my seat throughout.

I loved the atmosphere at the theater--fanboys shouted "For the Horde!" at various intervals, and I of course responded with cries of "For the Alliance!" I definitely recommend seeing this one in IMAX 3D. It's the only way to do such a fantastic film justice.