The peaceful realm of Azeroth stands on the brink of war as its
civilization faces a fearsome race of invaders: orc warriors fleeing
their dying home to colonize another. As a portal opens to connect the
two worlds, one army faces destruction and the other faces extinction.
From opposing sides, two heroes are set on a collision course that will
decide the fate of their family, their people, and their home.
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.
With little concern for all those already perplexed at the mention of
orcs and mages, “Warcraft” plunges headfirst into a fantasy realm
teeming with mythical creatures, magical spells and exotically named
characters and locations. It’s a take-it-or-leave-it approach likely to
have most audience members opting for the latter, though devotees of the
immersive role-playing source material may have an entirely different
experience. If so, Universal will have to hope they storm the box office
early and often. Otherwise the studio could be looking at one of the
biggest duds of the summer.
That’s despite the noble effort of director Duncan Jones,
who helmed the lower-budget sci-fi wonders “Moon” and “Source Code” and
labors mightily here to craft a solid emotional foundation in his
script with Charles Leavitt. The “Warcraft” games — which have radically
declined in popularity from a high of 12 million regular users in 2010
to a recent low of close to 5 million (so low the company behind it no
longer releases subscriber counts to the public) — were never meant to
have the narrative depth of “The Lord of the Rings,” or even “Game of
Thrones.” But the film cribs freely from both of those sources anyway,
as well as “Star Wars,” “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” “Avatar” and
numerous other recent blockbusters.
The orcs, a race of giant warrior beasts, flee their dying homeland
of Draenor through a portal to the peaceful realm of Azeroth, where they
wage a full-scale attack on unsuspecting humans for control of the
land. Orc soldier Durotan (Toby Kebbell, like all orc players, working
in performance capture) questions the brutal ways of his clansmen — led
by warchief Blackhand (Clancy Brown) and power-hungry warlock Gul’dan
(Daniel Wu) — and believes a compromise without bloodshed is possible.
His counterpart on the human side is Anduin Lothar (Travis Fimmel of TV’s “Vikings”), a knight devoted to serving his benevolent king and queen (Dominic Cooper and Ruth Negga).
Durotan’s fierce mate Draka (Anna Galvin) delivers an adorable orc
baby early on, and Lothar’s son Callan (Burkely Duffield) is determined
to impress his father on the battlefield. Those family ties are duly
exploited for maximum melodramatic impact, as the dual protagonists rage
and question and mourn and soulfully ponder the complexity that exists
on two sides of any conflict.
Ditto Garona (Paula Patton),
a slave claiming to be half-orc, half-human, who makes her way through
the portal and finds herself torn between the two sides. She quickly
gets cozy with Lothar, but it’s hard to take Patton or the character
seriously with her “Star Trek”-alien-esque green skin and the oversized
fangs jutting out from her jaw, looking like a last minute find in the
Halloween store bargain bin, and making her sound like she has a mouth
full of magic beans.
And that goes to the root of the problems with “Warcraft”: it’s an
unwaveringly earnest film that never owns up to exactly how campy every
character, every conflict and every new realm truly is. Ben Foster
has another central role as reclusive wizard Medivh, a “Guardian” of
Azeroth who has been not so subtly dabbling in dark magic. He’s
introduced sculpting a golem (surely you’ll recall the old chestnut
about Chekhov’s golem), shirtless and wild-eyed, but it takes Lothar
quite some time to piece together the warning signs. Medivh should be
fun, but Foster’s deadpan turn is, like the movie around him, a drag.
With its meticulously detailed realms built out primarily on
soundstages and enhanced via CGI during extensive post-production,
“Warcraft” aims for fresh and eye-popping and yet ends up shopworn and
rather tacky. It fits into a long line of visually audacious Hollywood
gambles: In success you wind up with a sleeper that few see coming, like
“300” (or, if you strike the bull’s-eye, a phenomenon like “Avatar”),
but the ones that miss — “The Spirit,” “Sky Captain and the World of
Tomorrow,” “Sucker Punch” — tend to tank hard.
Boasting more than 2,000 visual effects shots, it’s dispiriting to
think about the time, energy, planning and precision that went into
“Warcraft” when the final product brings to mind those animated
advertisements for iPhone app games. So good at making the most
outlandish elements of his first two films seem completely credible,
Jones can’t find a way to get this cartoony spectacle to soar. His
heartfelt approach to the material only underlines the silliness.
Production designer Gavin Bocquet, costume designer Mayes C. Rubeo
and visual effects supervisors Bill Westenhofer, Jeff White and Jason
Smith lead the heavy lifting on the artisans side, since what the
producers essentially purchased with the source material is a collection
of locations, wardrobe, weapons, and spells.
“Warcraft” ends with a set-up for a sequel, but also the feeling that
if this is what combat looks like, it’s time to give peace a chance.
