Apart from fans of the popular video game World of Warcraft, the movie Warcraft is also of interest to two other sets of viewers: those who have been missing their regular dose of orcs, dwarves, wizards and kingdoms caught between sorcery and normalcy, and fans of Duncan Jones. The British filmmaker has built a solid reputation on the basis of the films Moon (2009) and Source Code (2011). Both were well-directed and performed movies that were packed with smartly explored themes and visual tricks. Jones’s first big-budget movie is, by contrast, anonymously directed. His ability to transform genre material is missing, and one can only assume that Warcraft is a dry run through the portal that is being held wide open for Jones’s eventual migration to Hollywood, just like in the movie.
A passage between the world of beastly looking orc hordes with elaborate costumes and extra-long canines that is headed by the malevolent Gul’dan (Daniel Wu) and Azeroth opens up, threatening the peace. Azeroth retaliates to the invasion under the leadership of King Llane (Dominic Cooper) and the able guidance of the knight Anduin (Travis Fimmel from the Vikings series). The half-orc and half-human Garona (Paula Patton) helps Llane and his troops make a connection with rebel orc chieftain Durotan (Tony Kebbel), even as the kingdom’s sorcerer in charge, Medivh (Ben Foster), goes over to the dark side, prompting young magician Khadgar (Ben Schnetzer) to save the day.
The performances are solid, given the banality of the material, and the special effects are impressive, but there is little in Warcraft that hasn’t been seen before in countless such adventures set in fantasy realms and featuring computer-generated gimmickry that tries to pass itself off as magic. The Duncan Jones touch rarely emerges through the shopworn material, except in the sequences between the key characters. Anduin flashes his gorgeous blue eyes ever so often at the green-skinned Garona, but a kiss might have been deadly (and fun in a less ponderous film), given her dental work.
