The 2016 Warcraft movie was hit by a critical backlash, and box office that didn’t ignite the planned sequel – but 10 years later, it’s aged remarkably well. The phrase ‘videogame movie’ rarely fill fans of either medium with much glee. Any film being launched in this subset of entertainment almost immediately attracts a lack ... Warcraft at 10 | Why Duncan Jones’ action fantasy deserves a second look
The 2016 Warcraft movie was hit by a critical backlash, and box office that didn’t ignite the planned sequel – but 10 years later, it’s aged remarkably well.
The phrase ‘videogame movie’ rarely fill fans of either medium with much glee. Any film being launched in this subset of entertainment almost immediately attracts a lack of faith in fans of either games or movies. When a game makes its way to the silver screen, the typical expectation is that your viewing experience will be inferior to either viewing any other movie in the same genre, or inferior to just playing the game yourself.
This kind of apathy was the exact emotion I felt towards the Warcraft movie that released back in 2016.
I’m a player of World Of Warcraft and fairly familiar with the series and its lengthy history. Initially excited at the prospect of seeing Azeroth at the movies, I fell into the trap of ignoring Warcraft: The Beginning (as the film was initially titled) for fear of being disappointed by yet another videogame movie, so I wrote off Duncan Jones’ adaptation with little thought. Recently, though, I found a DVD copy, sat down, and watched it. I’ve since watched it three more times and would like to set the record straight: Warcraft is a far better film that it was given credit for.
I should note from the start I do see it has problems. The human side of the story is very busy, with too many key players on this side. As such, the movie struggles to juggle which human is the true protagonist, so all feel a little underserved. This renders their side of the film too fast to process, jumping between settings without letting revelations fully breathe. I’d argue this is perhaps why so many critics disliked the film. But seeing it from the orcs’ perspective is an entirely different experience.
Trekking to Azeroth through a portal to seek out a new world to continue their race’s survival, the orc refugees-turned-invaders of Azeroth have a clear honour code amongst them. As such, the tension between nefarious, Fel-wielding evil leader Gul’dan and Durotan, the film’s Orc protagonist thrums with energy throughout.
Gul’dan has little care for anything other than domination, rendering him a powerful antagonist. Durotan, meanwhile, fears the magic wielded by the aged orc, exhibiting a wariness other orcs scoff at. This drives him to break free of that honour code to contact the humans, trying to resolve their differences so that they can all coexist on Azeroth. All this tension comes from his own, personal ambition to provide for his newborn son. The orcs are by far the most compelling set of characters to follow throughout the film.
Performances too are engaging. The orcs definitely win out in this particular war, given how great the chemistry between Durotan and his wife, Draka (Toby Kebbell and Anna Galvin, respectively), comes across. Orcs are distinct, each with their own personality. The human side is weaker, but still has Ben Foster as Medivh. It also has lead character Anduin Lothar (Travis Fimmel), essentially played as a sort of Aragorn.
Reading those initial reviews, there were complaints about the orcs appearing cartoonish against the fierce realism of the human world, but I would also argue that this is an unfair criticism. The orcs are meant to be cartoonish, as this is a clear (and successful) attempt to translate the art style of the Warcraft universe to the silver screen. There’s some truly stunning work from the effects geniuses at Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), too. The CGI terrifically gets across the world of Warcraft, and the orcs themselves.
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Indeed, the seamless use of CGI liberally throughout Warcraft is one of the film’s greatest strengths. Despite being entirely digital, the orcs bring all the brute force they are famed for to each encounter with the humans of Stormwind. Combat between the humans and orcs feels weighty, with fight scenes making excellent use of Ramin Djawadi’s pounding score and the loud clash of axes on armour to accent every weapon swing. They even manage to make a fight between two fully-CGI orcs into one of the best one-on-one combat scenes I’ve watched in a long time, both in terms of excellent fight choreography and emotional investment.
Warcraft’s visual achievements don’t just stop at scene-setting, though. Suits of armour are perfect matches for the outrageous armaments found in the games, and magic as it appears here is truly wondrous, melting enemies in place, peeling their souls from their bodies or conjuring great thunderstorms to kill them with the swish of a hand. Coupled with the wonderful set design and perfectly outlandish costume work, the cartoon aesthetic really marks Azeroth out as a unique fantasy world.
In terms of plot, you’d be forgiven for losing track of what’s happening from time to time. Warcraft tries to establish a lot of background lore and also to lay the groundwork for what would have been at least one sequel, so it’s understandable that things move very and some locales are left without much exploration. Even if you can’t invest in the intimate, family stories that lie at the film’s heart, you can certainly enjoy climactic battle scenes and revel in the action. This is utter popcorn cinema, and Warcraft revels in its visual appeal, as it should.
Generally, the film sat much more favourably with the games’ veteran players, but the movie doesn’t require prior experience of the franchise to comprehend or engage with what’s happening.
I’m not championing Warcraft as a perfect film, but it never needed or wanted to be. What it was trying to be was an entertaining way of bringing one of gaming’s richest universes to the silver screen, and Jones’ take on Warcraft captures the scale of Azeroth and establishes the conflicts between its peoples well.
Ending on a cliffhanger, the stage is set for a potential sequel. Despite this, and Jones’ vocal support and desire to direct future Warcraft movies, the film’s negative reception has probably ended any chance of the next film (reportedly in development with Legendary Pictures) being connected to this one. Whatever happens, Legendary’s continued belief in Warcraft’s cinematic potential, depending on what parts of the world they focus on, will likely pay off in the future.
Ten years on, I reckon the movie we’ve got is worth another look.
An earlier version of this article previously appeared in 2020.
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