The Warcraft Movie

I recently went and saw the new Warcraft movie and I have to say, I was surprised that I liked it.

A little background on my Warcraft knowledge… I don’t really have any.  I will admit to having played the game a total of maybe 5 minutes. At a party no less. After one of my best guy friends packed in his computer, tower and all, and set up shop in the living room. So my knowledge is really about the obsessive players who love it.  Suffice it to say, I am not a fan of the Warcraft game franchise. I knew nothing about the story line going into the theater. I did know that my boyfriend loves the games and has told me many times that he appreciates them primarily for the story arch.  Most importantly I trusted his judgement. I’m glad I did. From what I’ve seen of the reviews for this movie, I am in a small minority of American viewers who apparently enjoyed this movie. Let me tell you why.

I love fantasy stories. I always have.  There are few fantasy stories that create a vast unique world that is so immersive you believe every moment and hang on to the adventure unwilling for it to end.  Aside from Lord of the Ring, the only other world I’ve been so immersed in was the Wheel of Time.  Which, although I’ve been waiting 15 or more years, Hollywood won’t make a movie about the Wheel of Time.  Immediately the Warcraft movie brings you into an unfamiliar world and makes it familiar. You have your usual landscapes that we’ve all seen but they are new.  I love this kind of thing and I crave it in a movie going experience.

These are not your usual orcs. I’m sure you’ve heard, or know, that this is a movie with epic humans vs. orcs kind of warfare.  Which we’ve all seen in Lord of the Rings.  This time it’s different.  This time the orcs are people too. They have a legitimate reason to be fighting, they have legitimate feelings and more importantly they have really really good characters. You can be torn between the two sides and that’s ok. I found myself a little unsure on who I was wanting to cheer for at some points.  In many respects I found the orcs more intriguing.  Rather than being the face of sheer evil, clearly giving you an enemy that has to be defeated, this story creates a true struggle.

There are strong female characters. Mostly on the orc side… which was a constant throughout. One major female orc character, Draka, is shown quite capable of battle and protecting herself and her family on a few occasions.  Towards the end of the film she becomes her best mother bear at all cost.  There is also Garona, a fierce orc hybrid (not sure what with) who is shown in almost every battle as perfectly capable of defending herself. In fact I found her character most interestingly portrayed.  She’s calculating, capable, honorable and courageous without having to abandon feminine traits such as emotion and vulnerability.  That’s really, really, really rare in Hollywood and particularly fantasy characters.

Romance was not the usual cliche.  Every story has romance and that in and of itself is cliche. Overall, if you’ve read some of the critics you might glean that the relationship acting throughout is sub-par. And it is… pretty much entirely on the human side of things.  Where humans were concerned, primarily the King and Queen, the relationship was awkward and rather unbelievable.  With the orc Durotan and his wife Draka there was clearly a bond and I would argue it was the most realistic relationship the whole time.  Then there was the inter-species relationship that I spent a good 30 minutes feeling really uncomfortable with.  Towards the end that one even won me over.  And then it smashed my expectations apart.  In the end, none of the relations had a happy ending. I give points for this. Being brave enough to break every union up after spending all that time making us invest is rather unique these days.  The hero doesn’t always get his or her partner.

It kept me guessing. I had to go home and wikipedia things to fill in the blanks of my knowledge because the director left out all of the informational backup in the story. Some see this as a weakness, I’m glad I wasn’t there with an extra hour of film thrown in throughout to tutor me along. I figured enough out to enjoy it without getting distracted. That could be because I love fantasy so much I’m not at all unfamiliar with all the character troupes reiterated there.  You can tell who has magic, what magic is bad, what is good and the creatures are all very repetitious.  Critics arguing about how little background there is are missing the point.  Too much background would kill this movie. Let the viewership puzzle it together as it goes along. I quite enjoy being made to think during the movie rather than having everything served to me.  It made me that much more involved with the story line.  Good story telling leaves pieces of the narrative so the viewer can puzzle it together themselves.  It’s something our brains enjoy doing and if done right we don’t even notice we are doing it.

The action, CGI and atmosphere is beautifully done. Maybe not everyone agrees there… I don’t really care.  If you take into account how comparatively small this budget was, the delivery was very well done.

So in the end, I did not regret going. That’s more than I can say for the Jungle Book which received rave reviews. Half the time I wonder if critics are even watching the same movies because that movie was like pulling teeth the entire time.  So go see the movie, keep an open mind and don’t let bad reviews keeping you from a potentially good time.