Starring: Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Ben Foster, Dominic Cooper, Toby Kebbell, Ruth Negga, Ben Schnetzer
Directed By: Duncan Jones
Full Disclosure. I do not play World Of Warcraft.
Plot: I think even if you haven’t played Warcraft, you’ll eventually figure this film out. The humans live in a world where there are seven races/species and everyone lives in peace. Then, there’s the orcs that live in another realm, and their world is dying, so they cross over an raid the new world.
What Works: Surprisingly, I didn’t hate this movie. I really thought I would. Honestly from the first trailer, I knew inherently this looked awful. However, it wasn’t. I mean, yes, this film has some faults, sure, but I actually fairly enjoyed myself. I’m not angry that I saw it, but it is only borderline good, so let’s not get too excited. Another strong point is the visual effects. The studio didn’t think this would bomb, so they went all out. This film looks great. The orcs are realistic, and actually fairly distinguishable. it helps that the human actors are all not very good. Paula Patton wasn’t bad, I just keep wondering why she keeps getting awful film offers. Duncan Jones is a solid director, and I think he proves his talent by saving this film.
What Doesn’t: The acting. Ben Foster is normally one of my favorite, most underrated actors. He’s just chewing scenery here. Travis Fimmel is like a rejected Game Of Thrones actor. Ben Schnetzer feels out of place. Almost every actor in this film feels like they just didn’t make the cut of a better project. It’s like this film couldn’t get the actors they wanted, so they ended up with their 27th choice for the role. Their acting isn’t helped by the awful dialog they’re given. I’m concerned that Duncan Jones was credited as a writer. Maybe he’s only a good director, and just an average writer. Maybe he didn’t have a hand in the dialog. Still, he should have noticed that his actors were wooden, and the dialog wasn’t helping. This film also bet big on having a sequel, and actually leaves a lot of plot unfinished. Hopefully they get the opportunity to continue this story, but right now, I’m counting it as a fault, because it’s not looking good.
Final Word: I would have felt worse having spent 10 dollars in theatres, but on Redbox, I didn’t feel so ashamed. Maybe this film would have looked better on the big screen, but it’s not worth 10 bucks. Sorry. But on redbox, or even cable? Sure. You could spend two hours watching this. My biggest fear is that the razzies will shit all over this movie, even though there were much worse films this year. It’s easy to bash a film that everyone is bashing, but you should probably make sure you watch it first.
FINAL GRADE: B-
