Warcraft

The world of video game adaptations to the silver screen is a well ventured tale of grand ambitions and bitter defeat. No matter how many studios give the go-ahead with various talented minds involved, the end result has usually left fans feeling betrayed. Last year saw a variety of attempts including the poorly received Assassin's Creed and also Duncan Jones' Warcraft.

I should admit that I've never played the games or have been a fan of MMORPG games in general so I was going in cold but hoped that this would capture my interest in the mythology that has built such a massive fan base. As with The Lord Of The Rings, its universe had already been established so now it just had to tell the right story that would satisfy fans while also introducing newcomers like myself. Bringing onboard the talented Duncan Jones who directed Moon and Source Code, I felt confident by this news that we would get something different from the rest. This was also the case with Assassin's Creed where a talented director was brought on board but sadly it seemed both took a wrong turn and never recovered.

Within the first ten minutes there's a slap-dash introduction to the characters and we had already been thrown clumsily through several scenes with little time to truly understand the world of Warcraft. This problem with pacing ruined any chances of remembering the characters' names when we had been led to expect a carefully thought out film which also destroyed the unique atmosphere it was trying to create. World building is never easy as it requires feeding the audience lots of information over a period of time but in the right hands it can be great and can heighten a sense of immersion.

It doesn't help that the human cast are tonally bland for the majority. Vikings' Travis Fimmel is the brave warrior who takes the quest to find out why their land is becoming invaded by orcs but not even his charisma can save this due to a rather monotonous screenplay. The same can be said of a bored Dominic Cooper as the king character but at least Ben Foster tries to elicit something as the magical Guardian. With that said, the orc characters fair a whole lot better with their scenes and I wish more time was spent with Toby Kebbell's Durotan. These scenes were actually interesting to watch as we learnt about a growing rift in the tribes due to their corrupt leader. Looking back, the orcs should have been the central focus of the story with humans in the background which would have made for a stronger film.

So despite its impressive visuals and a bold ambition to do the gaming series justice in just under two hours, Warcraft sadly isn't the film it so desperately wanted to be. Choppy pacing, average set-pieces and a weak script throw this into the growing case of why some games are best left as games.