Warcraft

I have always been a video game fan, as long as i can remember. I still remember when my father bought the first Nintendo, with Super Mario Bros and Ice Climber, in the early 80´s. I did manage to make a collection of games, with different genres. My childhood friends got Sega Megadrive and Super Nintendo, so we would play for hours, especially the brutal games. My friend Anders used to buy so many games to Super Nintendo, that i did not have to buy any myself, i could just play in his room, until i barely could hold my eyes open. As time went bye we saw the first Playstation coming out, and video games got a completely different meaning. The graphics were cool, the games were even more brutal. Of course you would tell the difference, playing video games on PC, compared to Playstation. I never bought myself a Playstation 2, but decided to get PS3 instead, and perhaps that was not a bad choice after all. I still play some really cool video games on there. One of my personal favourite games on PS3 is Heavy Rain, a very unique game, that should be bought to your home. Do some of you remember some of the video games, made into film adaptations ? Let´s forget about Super Mario Bros with Bob Hoskins, from 1993. That film was a total disaster. I would like to say that Mortal Kombat, the film adaptation released in 1995 was at least a good try to capture the feeling of the video game. The sequels.....well. let´s just say they were bad as Left Behind with Nicolas Cage. I do think some of the Resident Evil films are fun, for being made from the video games. Perhaps because Milla Jovovich was a great choice to play Alice. Let´s take a look back at one release, perhaps some of you remember a game called World Of Warcraft ? The game, first released in 2004, became one of the most successfull video games worldwide. People all across the world would turn out to be playing, through different characters, and the fanbase grew faster than the career of Chrstian Slater´s latest films. In recent years, i have not played every single release of the game, not the expansion packs either. As i first got a chance to see the trailer, on the new upcoming Warcraft film, i got a bit curious. Not that i know much at all about these games, i would probably be the wrong guy to write a review on the movie adaptation. But honestly, it might be good to go into a film, with an open mind. Before the film got a release on theatres worldwide, i could hear people being skeptical. I still wanted to see if i might be suprised, and bought myself a ticket. Is this film adaptation much better than expected, or is it just as boring as many other films based on video games ?

In the homeworld of the orcs, known as Draenor, is being torn apart by a mysterious force known as fel magic. Gul´dan ( Daniel Wu ), an orc warlock, unites the orc clans and forms the Horde. A portal to the world of Azeroth is created. To make the portal function, Gul´dan sacrifice prisoners from Azeroth, in order to make sure that the portal remains open. Gul´dan gather a warband, to prepare them to go through the portal, and attack humans. Durotan ( Toby Kebbell ) , the chieftain of the Frostwold Clan, agree to go with the warband into the portal to Azeroth, with his pregnant mate Draka ( Anna Galvin ). As they cross the portal, Draka goes into labor. Gul´dan assists Draka with giving birth, but the baby is stillborn. Gul´dran drains the life out of a deer, to make the baby come back to life. Duraton names his baby Goél. In the world of Azeroth, orcs raids several settlements, as they intent to crush their enemies. Anduin Lothar ( Travis Fimmel ), military commander of the human forces of Stormwind Kingdom, looks over some of the dead bodies and find tresspassing mage Khadgar ( Ben Schnetzer ). Khadgar eplains that he was investigating the dead bodies, where he have found traces of fel magic. To explore these traces of fel magic, Anduin, Khadgar and Medivh joins a scouting team. Durotan begins to understand that Gul´dan might have other plans than he expected, and begin to view the situation differently. Are the humans really the biggest threat ?

As most of us know, making a film based on a video game is not an easy task. You have to try and find a balance, where you capture some of the feeling, and looks of the video game. Most films have not managed to capture that feeling, except for a few films. One of the films i feel did manage to capture some of the feeling of the video game, is the film Silent Hill. Even if the film did not have enough of material, to make feel like the Silent Hill games, i felt that director Christopher Gans managed to find a way to make the film work. When i first heard that there was going to be a film, based on the video game Warcraft, i was not sure what to think. Since i have not played this game a lot, i only knew some details about the world of Warcraft. I would guess that most fans of the games, who know much more than me about the characters, and the different locations, might be more excited to see if this would be a well made film adaptation. There are some good news, and some bad news. Let´s start with the good first. This is actually not an awful film, based on the video game. In fact, i see some nice suprises here. The CGI made warriors look pretty cool, especially when they fight on the battlefield. We also see some battle scenes that feels pretty cool to watch. The acting may not be very good, at certain points, but i have seen a lot worse in other movie adaptations of video games. I also enjoy the conflicts between humans and orcs. So let´s get to the problems. The dramatic scenes feels less interesting, and i can´t feel emotional for any reason. I am not going to go into certain details, but you will probably understand my point if you see this film. Another problem is the acting from some of the human actors. I don´t feel that some of them tried hard enough, to make their characters interesting. It is almost like some of them just wanted to look good , as they protect their loved ones. So does this film manage to deliver enough entertainmnent after all ? I would say yes, but mostly because i enjoy big battle scenes. In a film like this, you need to make sure you have action scenes, that looks good enough for both video games fans, and fans of sci fi fantasy action films. Director Duncan Jones may be mostly known for his films Moon, and Source Code with Jake Gyllenhaal. That he choosed to make a film like this, really suprised me. But i feel that he actually managed to capture some of the feeling of the Warcraft games. Since i am no expert on the games, i realise that some fans may not agree on this, and that´s ok. I think you should see this film for what it is, an action fantasy film made for video game nerds. Does this film have problems ? Yes, but honestly, how many films based on video games are perfect ? If they decide to make a sequel, they could make details much better, but for a first film, i still feel that this is a pretty good start. I got to go now, orcs are messing up my garden again with their mighty swords, i better call Gordon Klingenschmitt and make him scare them away.

Rating: DDD