WARCRAFT!

Just to give a fair warning, this review WILL have spoilers.  YOU ARE WARNED!

Holy shit, I LOVED IT!!!  I was honestly worried about how well this would turn out, given some of the previews.  I still want to know what the hell they were thinking in the trailer that had the dubstep music.  But my fears were laid to rest in the first five minutes.  I had ordered some onion rings to munch on, and... I almost forget I had food in front of me.  Warcraft caught my attention, and held it from beginning to end.

But I do have to say this.  If you're not a fan of the Warcraft franchise and at least passingly familiar with the lore, there are things that won't make sense.  It will likely feel like a semi-generic Lord of the Rings ripoff, and not a very good one.  But the movie wasn't made for general audiences.  It was made for the fans, and this fan absolutely loved it.

The settings were amazing.  It was fantastic to see Stormwind, Ironforge, Karazhan, the Black Morass, Blackrock Mountain, the Burning Steppes, and even Dalaran brought to life on the big screen.  These are places I've been running around and seeing in-game for over ten years now.  I could tell were pretty much everything was taking place, and it made me giddy to see it done so well in a film.

I really enjoyed the characters, as well as seeing the actors and actresses portraying them.  Durotan and Draka were fantastic, their relationship was portrayed very well, and in a realistic manner.  The friendship between Durotan and Orgrim was also very well done, with some suiting comedic moments at times.  Gul'dan was properly evil and sinister.   I loved watching Khadgar every time that he was on screen, the actor did a very good job of portraying a young mage still learning about the world.  I loved Medivh's performance as well.  I was very curious as to how he would be done, if they would show his corruption.  And they did.  There were many times he was quiet and thoughtful, but there was always something lurking behind his expressions.  Something was just not quite right with him...  I enjoyed all the actors and actresses that portrayed the human roles as well.  Llane Wrynn was a man who was shown to do anything for his kingdom, and Lothar was shown to be loyal to the end.  Queen Taria was a good foil for the men.  Something I VERY much enjoyed was that the humans were not white-washed.  There were quite a few different skintones in all the human parts of the movie.  Something else that was great is that both men and women were shown to be fighters on both sides. 

The CGI was great.  With how the orcs were done, it looked amazing.  The armor that the humans were looked fantastic as well, and like something straight from WoW.  If I do have any criticism, the wolves looked a bit wonky at times.  But I'd imagine it's a bit difficult to fully integrate a wolf the size of a draft horse into a film where the rest is pretty much life action.  Another note on the orcs, if you're familiar with the clans, you will see them within the Horde.  And Gul'dan... damn.  His CGI was great.  It was clear how much more corruption he had taken on in how different he was from the other orcs.

To go along with that, any time there was a fight scene, I was entranced.  It was absolutely brutal.  You felt every bone crunching moment of it.  Every time someone went flying into a tree or a rock, I had to cringe.  Each fight was a grimy, bloody mess, like a proper war between orcs and humans.

The magic was wonderful to watch.  It was clear that spellcasting took something out of each mage, and that it was no simple thing.  There were many instances of runes being drawn on the floor, spells being held with concentration, and it's what I want to see in a movie.  I don't expect a mage in a movie to just be spitting out spells every five seconds like in the games.

The music.  Oh man, the music.  I am buying the soundtrack with my next paycheck.  I love it.  The character themes suit each one so very well.  The music for battles set a good background, and it would fit well in any of the Warcraft games.  There were several points where I could pick out themes from either World of Warcraft, or the bits I've listened to from the older games.  It's quite clear that the conductor did his research.

The movie takes place a ways into the Warcraft story, after Gul'dan has taken over from Ner'zhul.  The orcs are already corrupted, and Draenor is dying.  Medivh is in contact with Gul'dan in order to open the Dark Portal.  The basic storyline that we know from the games and books is intact, though there are some small differences.  But most of them, I really liked.  It fit that Gul'dan would order a purge of the defiant Frostwolf Clan.  It was heartbreaking to watch Durotan battle him to try and save the heart and soul of his people.  He kept getting up, time and again, even though he knew he was going to die.  But Durotan died to show his people just who exactly they were following.  Draka died defending and saving her son.  The meeting between Llane and Durotan was pretty cool, and definitely not something we would see in the game, beyond some manner of cinematic.  I don't think that would have been done justice in that manner.

There were some injokes and fan service that greatly amused me.  There was a murloc in the perfect place.  The comment that Khadgar made about the polymorph spell lasting for a minute made me giggle.  I'm sure there are others I am missing (I'm tired, lol), and I will likely remember them later.

I do have a few little issues with the movie.  There are quite a few things that were glossed over.  Like the demon that possessed Medivh does have a name, and it's a huge one for the franchise.  It felt like Ironforge was thrown into the beginning as an excuse to make it look awesome (which it did), and to show why humans have guns.  We never returned to it, and only saw the dwarves twice more throughout the movie.  High elves are shown, though only twice, and they are nothing more than a diplomatic delegation.  In the scene with the council table, I would have liked to know a bit better which human nation was which, it wasn't very clear.   One story change that I didn't really like... Garona is only really shown as being subservient to Gul'dan.  In the lore that I'm familiar with, she was essentially brain-washed into being his tool.  He forced her to kill Llane, rather than it being Llane telling her to do it.  But... a minor knitpick.  Other than it being a part of Ulduar.

But I digress!

All in all, I had an absolute blast.  There was never a dull moment, and I know I had a huge dumb grin on my face throughout the whole thing.  I really, really, REALLY want another movie.  Duncan Jones, I have to thank you.  You did a great franchise justice with your movie.