Yojimbo's Movie Review of Warcraft

Rating of
2/4

Warcraft

"Warcraft" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 08/22/18

A raiding party of powerful war-like creatures makes an incursion into a peaceful world and its human defenders turn to a magic-wielding guardian to prevent a full scale invasion.

I was a fan of both Duncan Jones' previous films - particularly his debut Moon - because they had an indie sensibility that concentrated more on characters and concepts than crowd pleasing set pieces and special effects. This attempt at a Lord Of The Rings style fantasy blockbuster turns this formula on its head unfortunately and it very much suffers from Jones failing to play to his strengths. I have never played the game the film is based upon and perhaps it has more resonance to those familiar with the mythology, but to an objective observer the characters and story were profoundly lacking. Jones seems far more interested in recreating the visual trappings of this world and it is so enveloped in green-screened CGI that literally nothing looks convincing. The knights look like they've just walked off of a role playing game board, the orcs are a two dimensional cross between TNG Klingons and The Hulk and the whole thing looks like a glorified cartoon. The characters are little better realised than those of a video game cut scene and the half-breed heroine just plays like a cosplay-obsessed nerd's wet dream.

Weightless and drama-fee in a way common to many CGI infested blockbusters, Warcraft is a big disappointment coming from a writer/director who previously showed such promise.

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