Warcraft: The Beginning is a solid intro to the World of Warcraft
Welcome to Azeroth folks. The basic premise of Warcraft: The Beginning is as follows.
The homeworld of the Orc race is dying, so led by sinister Warlock Gul’dan (Daniel Wu) they come through a magical portal to the world of Azeroth where they plan to wage war on the inhabitants (we get to see Humans, Dwarves and Night Elves of the Alliance from the games, other Horde races are missing at this point) and take it for themselves. Gul’dan uses evil magic, called Fel, to strengthen the Orcs in his war party, something that young mage Khadgar (Ben Schnetzer) is investigating when he is captured by the Alliance. The head of the Alliance Army, Anduin Lothar (Travis Fimmel), takes Khadgar to see the Guardian Medivh (Ben Foster) and they all realise that something is off in Azeroth.
Meanwhile some of the orcs, led by Durotan of the Frostwolf Clan (Toby Kebbell) are a little dubious of Gul’dan and his motives so they arrange to meet with Anduin and King Llane Wrynn (Dominic Cooper) to try and negotiate some kind of deal that would see them unite against Gul’dan.
As far as video game adaptations go, Warcraft: The Beginning is a standout, but overall it’s a little lacking.
I’ve given the movie a solid 5 out of 10, I enjoyed it, but I did find myself wanting more out of the experience. And it is an experience, don’t doubt that you will be catapulted straight into a world of Orcs and Humans, magic and warriors. But when the games exist (and I’m talking the strategy games as well as the MMORPG World of Warcraft) as well as books that delve into the lore then it seems a little redundant. It skims the surface of what is there, sort of like the glossiness of the Game of Thrones TV series versus the gritty depth that exists in the books. The other races (Draenei, Dwaves, Night Elves) that are present in the movie aren’t even named, whereas the Kirin Tor (an assembly of magic users) is named like everyone should know exactly who they are.
I did spend a fair amount of my time trying to work out what spells the mages were casting from the different effects, but then at the same time I couldn’t tell more than a handful of the Orcs apart (tried spotting our lovely Daniel Cudmore but alas). The movie may be called Warcraft: The Beginning but I do think it expects a certain level of knowledge from its audience that may not be present in anyone who hasn’t played at least a little bit of the games.
A word of caution too, if you are a newcomer to Azeroth and think, after seeing the movie, “wow, that looks cool, maybe I’ll give this World of Warcraft thing a try” you may find yourself a little disappointed as many players have moved on from the game. With a new expansion on the horizon, some may return to the game but it is nothing like the thriving community it used to be.
