Warcraft: The Beginning

It's almost a cliche to say it, but trying to turn an active experience like a game into a passive experience like watching a film can be seen as trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.

The two are both diametrically different, however gaming has made huge strides in the past ten years to bridge the gap and create richly detailed stories and plots with compelling characters. There's a huge number of games that are, quite honestly, better than films. World of Warcraft, and its precursor, Warcraft, have been a part of a hugely popular gaming franchise for many years. In the past five years, many directors - including Sam Raimi - have attempted to get a handle on its huge lore and many, many stories and turn at least one of them into a film. Ten years since Blizzard made the announcement, Warcraft is finally a reality.

The film opens with the orc world of Draenor slowly dying as an Orc wizard known as Guldan (Daniel Wu) asserts his power of the horde by using evil magic known as Fel. By using his extraordinary powers, he manages to open a portal between the Orc's world and Azeroth, where humans, elves and dwarves live amongst one another peacefully. A war-party, which includes Durotan (Toby Kebbell), his pregnant wife Draka (Anna Galvin) and Durotan's rival Blackhand (Clancy Brown) make their way into Azeroth to begin the attacks and set up a base of operations for the Orc invasion. Meanwhile, a young mage known as Khadgar (Ben Schnetzer) somehow manages to sense the incoming power of the Orcs and tries to warn the King (Dominic Cooper) and Sir Lothar (Travis Himmel) of the impending danger.

From the very get-go, it's clear that Warcraft is hurtling along and won't necessarily stop to guide people through the world. In a way, this isn't anything new in the fantasy genre. Lord of the Rings didn't stop to tell everyone the difference between Earth and Middle-Earth, nor did TV's Game of Thrones or any other high-fantasy epic you care to mention. As well as this, your enjoyment of the film depends on whether or not you can buy into the world that's been created and your general opinion of more campy fantasy elements. Duncan Jones' script and direction is smart enough to realise that it can't compete with Lord of the Rings. Why would it want to, anyway? Instead, the film has more in common with the likes of Ron Howard's Willow, Richard Donner's Ladyhawke, Ridley Scott's Legend and even Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal, really committing to the fantastical and dramatic elements of the genre. That, of course, makes the film slightly more niche than you'd expect from a summer blockbuster.

Travis Fimmel's Lothar is, sadly, horribly miscast. We're supposed to believe him as this charming, charismatic leader of warriors. Instead, he grumbles his way through various scenes and doesn't give us enough to get invested. Dominic Cooper, however, gives a much better performance as King Llane. Smartly underplaying the role, Cooper gives one of his best performances in years whilst his consort-queen, Ruth Negga, has a small supporting role. Ben Foster also turns up as a Jim Morrison-esque warlock and completely takes the role too seriously. The film's main strength is in, believe it or not, the Orc characters. Toby Kebbell's performance as Durotan - despite it being under a layer of CGI - is the most relatable story in the entire film. Daniel Wu, as the evil Orc wizard Guldan, is fantastic as the film's villain. One scene, which sees him casually draining the life-force from a human prisoner, is particularly disturbing and has echoes of the unnerving horror scenes from '80s high-fantasy epics like, say, The Never-Ending Story. Paula Patton's make-up as Garona, the half-human / half-Orc, will undoubtedly garner a few chuckles from audience members. Nevertheless, Patton's giving it her all in the role, despite looking slightly ridiculous.

It's clearly apparent that director Duncan Jones is trying his damnedest to get people involved and interested in Warcraft. As a former player himself, he's the best possible person to take on this story. However, there's a niggling sense that the film was cut relentlessly to clock in under two hours. The pacing of the film is impressive and it doesn't let up all that often, however there's more than a few times where the film could have benefitted from a pause to explain things. Not only that, the film blazes through so many locations that you'll often find yourself trying to remember exactly where the characters are. The CGI does lend itself to the more heightened, fantastical elements of the story, but it does come across a little soulless and less textured in places.

For all these faults and some poor casting choices, there's a lot to like about Warcraft. It's compelling and earnest and, if you can get on board with it, a lot of fun. It's a huge gamble, taking on a gaming franchise that's got a niche audience and turning it into a multi-million franchise. Gaming adaptations have, historically, never worked. A lot of that is down to a director and writer who doesn't understand the material and a lack of resources. Warcraft has neither of these problems and, as such, has the honour of being the best gaming adaptation ever made to date. Clunky in some places, spectacular in others, Warcraft is a very worthy attempt at bridging the gap between the worlds of film and gaming.