Warcraft (2016) User Reviews

Done really well, considering

[siderite · 8/10 · 8 July 2016]

There were several constraints that the movie had to work with. There was the already established Warcraft mythos and stories, there was the terrible stigma of game adaptations and finally there was the matter of so many main CGI characters that had to look realistic, not like something Pixar or Disney designed. Given that, I was not expecting much.

Yet the movie exceeded all my expectations and gave me hope for the future. The story is something placed at the end of chapter III of the mythos and the beginning of chapter IV. In game, it is the story of Warcraft I, which was another bold move, considering the hordes (heh heh heh) of World of Warcraft players that weren't even born when that game was published. It pits the peaceful kingdom of Azeroth vs the war clans of the unknown Orc, fleeing from their dying world through a portal fueled by the very thing that destroyed it. A half human, half orc girl is instrumental in providing information about who the Orcs are, what they want and how they have reached the kingdom.

Characters were well developed, graphics were good, the script had few holes and the mature story was clearly well smoothed out. The only problem one could have is that it's just the first part in many, with the main conflict point resolved, but none for the character story lines.

Actors came from all kinds of TV series, Vikings, Preacher and Legends of Tomorrow to name a few. The only predominantly big screen actor out there was Ben Foster. It shows both the direction of cinema and TV blending together (and perhaps with games) and the fear of well established cinema actors getting caught in unsuccessful game adaptations. Perhaps with the success of this and - one may only hope - Assassin's Creed, things will begin to change.

Highly Entertaining Fantasy Film

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 24 July 2016]

When the world of the Orcs Draenor is being destroyed by the evil fel magic that uses life-force, the powerful warlock Gul'dan creates a portal to the world of Azeroth and forms the Horde with members of the Orc clans. He also captures many prisoners to keep the portal. The king of Azeroth Llane Wrynn (Dominic Cooper) and his brother-in-law Anduin Lothar (Travis Fimmel) are informed by the apprentice of magician Khadgar (Ben Schnetzer) that he has found fel magic in dead bodies and the king decides to summon the Guardian of Tirisfal Medivh (Ben Foster) to protect his kingdom. Lothar and Khadgar head Kharazhan to meet Medivh and a shadow points a book to Khagdar and he takes it and hides. Anduin, Khadgar and Medivh and a group of soldiers are attacked by Orcs and they capture the slave Garona (Paula Patton), who is released by King Llane, and she shows the location of the portal. Garona is contacted by the Orc chief of a clan Durotan that wants to meet King Llane to stop the fel magic. Meanwhile Khadgar learns that the gate was opened with the help of someone in Azeroth. Shall King Lllane trust on Garona and Durotan? Whi might be the traitor?

"Warcraft" is a highly entertaining fantasy film with an abrupt beginning without development of the situation and characters. Most of the characters are unpleasant and non-charismatic. Maybe the fans of the video game have a big picture of Draenor and Azeroth. But the special effects are top-notch and the story is not bad. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Warcraft: O Primeiro Encontro de Dois Mundos" ("Warcraft: The First Encounter of Two Worlds")

Is The Video Game Curse Broken?

[christopherholich · 8/10 · 21 May 2016]

First off, i would like to point out Duncan Jones has made another fantastic flick. Better than source code, but me personally i loved moon so.... Warcraft isn't good enough to beat it lol. So Everything about this movie felt right. And i would like to point out this movie is about the warcraft storyline (First game) Not World Of Warcraft. The acting was good, the pacing was great. The CGI was amazing! Gul'dan was an awesome villain. Never heard of Daniel Wu But i feel like he will be voice acting more characters soon. I love how they wear that ridiculous armor that a normal person can't stand up in. Lothar was an amazing main character, and I only know Travis Fimmel because he's in the show vikings but i feel like if the rest of the critics like this movie this could be his breakthrough movie. If there is a sequel then i would definitely go and see it. And lads, The Video game curse is broken! Hopefully Assassins Creed will live up to the hype! Fans will love it, people who like lord of the rings or the hobbit will love it, just regular people who has never played WoW will love it! All in all, i think that the hype was well worth it and it is definitely going to be a recommend for me! After you have seen Captain America go see Warcraft, you wont regret it.

Honest review

[morais-aniel · 12 June 2016]

First of all let me say that I never played Warcraft but I played other blizzard Games like Starcraft, Diablo and Overwatch. I enjoyed a lot this movie and want more, much more. I have to say that the movie is actually very good (not great, but very good). The CGI is awesome, they should as example to the next Hulk. The movie could be better? Yes, but honestly, this is probably the best adaptation of a video game. I had no problem to follow the story, the plot is simple (could be better). The names are very complicated to remember (lol). The orcs are the core of the movie, they are much more interesting them the humans in my opinion. I believe the director was so focused in have the CGI right that maybe he forgot the human actors. I don't understand why the "professional" critics were so harsh with this movie.

Good, but not great

[Bored_Dragon · 7/10 · 3 October 2017]

To begin with, I have to say I'm not Warcraft fan. I played the game occasionally, but I never gave too much thought to it nor read anything related to this lore, so I'm not competent to say if movie is faithful to original story or not. But I am fan of epic fantasy and it's my favorite genre. The only thing that somewhat bothered me was that two hours is not nearly enough to tell this story proper. Fact that movie feels incomplete is acceptable, cause it is obvious this is just the base for movies that will follow and this franchise looks very promising. But even just introduction to this world can not fit in only two hours. It needs at least three hours, or even two movies for this part of the story to be told right. Beside that I have no other objections. It is very good movie. But they call it The Lord of the Rings for the new generation. That's where I must draw a line. However good this movie is it is not worthy to be even compared to LOTR. Not only it is blasphemy to say that Warcraft is better or equally good, but they are beyond any comparison. Even after fifteen years nothing came even close to LOTR, let alone overthrow it from the throne of the genre. Maybe this movie standing alone deserves higher rating than what I rated it, and if there was no LOTR maybe I would rate it much higher, but LOTR set standards so high for this genre and in every single aspect it so much better than Warcraft, that on the scale where LOTR is ten, I simply can not give this movie more than seven. Still, I warmly recommend this adventure to all genre lovers and I can not wait for the sequels.

7/10

Entertaining summer blockbuster with some flaws

[CogburnSwale · 6/10 · 27 May 2016]

I'll keep this short, because people don't want to read long posts.

Here goes:

The good:

+ Visuals, stunning.

+ Acting was OK. I liked that it was serious in parts. Everything must not be "funny" and Disney all the time. I think it took itself less seriously than The Hobbit though.

+ The action -especially when Gul'Dan was involved - was really epic and well choreographed.

+ If you like magic, you get plenty of mage action in here.

+ Obviously some fan service here and there. I heard lots of people laughing and clapping hands throughout the movie. + The set- up for the sequel was nice.

The bad:

• Pacing. The beginning is very fast. The first 20 minutes jump back and forth between locales. I'd rather have an slower pacing in the beginning, and then go all-in later.

• Some of the characters have very interesting back stories (especially Khadgar and Garona), but they're skimmed over. - We never really get to see much of the orcish world.

• The movie feels a bit short. You could easily add 20 minutes without the audience feeling bored.

So, all in all: Are the critics right and the audiences wrong? Well, I do think that some critics should question themselves. This movie CAN NEVER GET 1/5. That is blasphemy. A lot of love and care was put into this movie. My girlfriend, who knows nothing about Warcraft, thought it was a good time.

Solid 3,5/5 from me. A movie worth watching in cinemas. You will most likely have a good time. It's no masterpiece, but it's an entertaining summer blockbuster.

A great Fantasy flick

[randywwe412 · 10/10 · 19 May 2016]

I didn't have any expectations for this film,and it completely blew me away!Visuals were stunning,acting really surprised me,action was incredible.I really can't wait for the sequel cause the ending set it up really well.Magic was also pretty damn cool.Orgrim was a ferocious bad ass.It was a damn fine film,best of the 2016 dare i say.Bring on more,and it finally broke the video game movie curse!Go see it,you won't regret it!10 out of 10 for me!I think that it will have a good reception from audiences and critics.Warcraft fans will love it.Direction was amazing,one of the best motion capture for a film i've seen,i really hope it does well in the box office and review department cause it was really amazing!

Sold film. Solid ending. Worth the watch.

[leonmessyb · 7/10 · 21 January 2023]

I am not sure why there are so many bad reviews and low reviews. If you're a fan of mystical worlds and fantasy, wizards, kings and queens, mythical creatures such as deserts, orcs, elves and more, then already this has the foundations for a good film. It's not anywhere near Lord of the rings or The Hobbit, but it isn't cheesy and keeps you entertained. The fight scenes are really entertaining and I felt choreographed well. The CGI is really good with this film to the point where the creatures feel real and you forget they're fantasy creatures. The film is well-paced, and although it is just over 2 hours, the film never seemed to drag for me. I felt the film had the right balance of dialogue, action, fantasy and humour. I personally enjoyed it and recommend it is worth the watch.

My cheeks hurt...

[nju-16323 · 10/10 · 21 May 2016]

...but oh was I thankful for it!!! All through the movie I kept on having this big large smile sculpted into my face. For the record, I'm 25 years old, and I've played warcraft and wow for many years since when I was 13 or 14 years old. Ever since then, I haven't stopped playing. Therefore you can count me as a fan. Now onto the movie... Gosh, I saw it at a pre-screening, and I kept wanting more of it. It just never gets boring! I really enjoyed the little stuff that is found throughout the movie for the fans. I also incredibly enjoyed the intro sequence.

Those who argue the movie cuts too many parts or that it changes the story too much are totally wrong. This movie could not have shown the whole first time in its entirety - keep in mind that the lore lasts well over ten hours, making a movie this long would, well, make it way too long and besides, how would you financially sustain such a project?

OK, so there are changes in the movie - well, this is Duncan's vision of it. All of us have our own visions of the lore and books which may or may not be compatible with that of Duncan's, but I can safely assume that nobody can say they have a hundred percent the same vision of the story as Chris Metzen; that's the thing with story: each player / reader has a different vision of it. As for me, I was blown away. Never before have I felt so much at home in a movie, it is as if I had taken a walk in the town where I grew up, Stormwind, Goldshire, Ironforge, everything felt so much like home, I was moved. I cannot tell of another movie that had me shed tears just by seeing a landscape on screen.

As for the changes, well, I found good reasons behind all of them, and let me tell you right away, yes, maybe coming from a fan it will look like absolute heresy, but I enjoyed the story a lot. The actors were great, they were a lot into their characters, and for the first time, I had never seen orcs in such detail before, hulky, robust, terrifyingly but also relative.

Quite frankly, I can't wait for the next movie... In the meantime, I'll watch this one over and over again when I can. This movie has everything that a good movie needs to have, and more. Plus, it just might bring more people to actually play WoW. Parents, maybe some scenes will frighten your kids, but this movie has almost NO blood (even though it has a good share of battle) and the foes are undeniably evil, plus it has good values in it - friendship, courage, responsibility, sacrifice for a good cause, and the belief that anyone can help to change things. That will go down in history as being one of the best ever, for sure.

Awesome!

[JanskiT · 7/10 · 3 June 2016]

You know, there are films in which the first frame is clear that they will be so-so. Here the situation is reversed. After seeing the first frame, I immediately realized that it will be very cool.

Seriously, I'm all covered with goose bumps when I saw how much it is great. I was just literally shaking when I saw the gorgeous magic. However, better than in this movie magic effects have not been implemented in any fantasy films, it seems to me. I love Warcraft story so much and I think even if you don't know anything about the original story after that film you'll love it.

Would certainly recommend to both fans and non-fans alike.

A movie that could have easily been great.

[ekicii · 4/10 · 12 June 2016]

You will see many reviews by movie critics that are too negative and many reviews by fanboys that are too positive. I'll try to look at this movie from the point of view of a long time Warcraft player as well as someone who might be unfamiliar with the source material.

The movie is edited badly, there is no real sense of time lapse in it. The characters are all over the world within minutes between each scene and it causes an unrealistic presentation of how large the world actually is and how fast these characters can travel from one place to another. While the movie wanted to keep the focus on many different characters at the same time, they could have made a slower and more realistic approach where some events could have simply been mentioned rather than presented.

The CGI is great, however it only looks great next to other CGI. Inexperienced viewers won't notice this much, however the CGI definitely stands out when real objects come into scene such as the actors. For the most part they've done a great job at making it all look as real as possible, but towards the end when there is a orc vs human battle in front of the dark portal, it got a bit sloppy.

The acting appeared to be "okay" for the most part, however the person who plays Khadgar definitely had some issues. He never seems quiet into it and comes across pretty self aware.

The aesthetic of the movie tries to copy the game nearly 100%. It's subjective whether this is a good or a bad thing, but I did not think it was a good decision. In a movie, the ridiculous and silly objects such as house sized anvils and shoulder armor twice as big as the wearers head looks the way they should, very very silly. They might have kept the style yet tried to make it seem a bit more grounded to decrease the silliness of it all. Though this is subjective.

The fight between Medivh and the others are, to put it simply, clumsy. It was sloppy and wasn't the fight the story deserved. With Khadgar and Lothar playing around with the silly clay monster and Medivh just walking around chanting. It might have been best for them to stick to the actual story where Medivh puts an aging curse on Khadgar and gets stabbed through the chest, causing the demon Sargeras to slowly emerge and get it's head chopped off. It is simpler and more direct. The way it is in the movie was simply too silly.

Generally speaking, the best parts of the movie were those of the interactions within the Orc society. The drama was there, the struggle was there and most of the development was there also. The same care was absent from the human side of the story, having a very forced and unemotional death scene for Lothar's son as well as an awkwardly revealed secret of Medivh's possession.

No matter my opinion, it appears the movie is set to have a sequel, and hopefully they will address most of these issues. Personally I would try to reduce the silliness aspect of the aesthetic and try to have there be more focus on the story so the characters don't just jump around so much. Also there should be more explanation for those who are not familiar with the story. A movie can't survive only with fan service.

WarCraft: The Beginning - Review

[israphel-53548 · 10/10 · 22 May 2016]

I actually thought this film would be bad. Like most other video game movies I thought this was going to be a massive flop and just suck. This movie broke the video game movie curse with style. WarCraft surprised me even though I am a WarCraft fan.

If there are sequels WarCraft could easily be this generations equivalent of The Lord of the Rings. The acting was great, the effects were spot on and the action was epic. I was really impressed with the motion capture on the orcs, they looked amazing. Travis Fimmel as Anduin Lothar was a good choice. He did a really good job of portraying the lion of Stormwind. WarCraft has a lot of lore that could easily be made into a film series and I think this film did a good job of establishing the world of WarCraft for future sequels. Do I recommend watching WarCraft? Yes, WarCraft is a movie everyone can enjoy, although it may be too intense and violent for younger children. If you were a fan of the games there are Easter eggs for you. If you have never heard of WarCraft you will be amazed by the world and want more.

Monster galore!!!

[tkatsoufris · 7/10 · 13 July 2021]

A pretty decent fantasy movie with all the necessary creatures, characters, stereotypes, stories, twists of plot, heroisms and falls from grace that make for a good movie of the genre. Top class if slightly unexceptional entertainment!!!

Not as bad as I thought, yet still...

[account-184-125611 · 4/10 · 18 June 2016]

Before I even get started: Yes, I have played the games. I actually did play all WC-games, starting in the mid 90s, and have been playing WOW on and off ever since 2005.

So, with that said, I was a bit worried about the movie when I saw the trailers, as a lot of the stuff looked very artificial and even cheap. Don't get me wrong, the CGI is pretty damn good, and you can see how much motion capture etc. has advanced.

However, it falls apart for me whenever one of the really good-looking orcs (as in: great CGI) are in the same scene as humans. Once that happens, it starts to look very artificial. Actually, the riding-wolves the orcs use look artificial in EVERY scenery, regardless of who else is in the frame. It's not their size, it's that they look really bad.

Also, some of the makeup looked pretty bad too. When I first saw the elves, I was rather amused, even though we only got a quick look at them, as their ears looked totally cheesy and artificial, especially the color. It looked like bad cos-play ears.

Well, of course, it's hard to pull it off, so let's get to the other parts: - The acting. I didn't enjoy the acting. There was almost no vibe at all between the actors. Some overacting happened (Wide-open stare of Lothar, who totally looks on the edge all the time. Yes, he tragically lost his son, but it was tiring).

• The plot/setting. Yes, they have a lot of story to set up, as they apparently really want to make sequels. However, what was the goal here? Was this supposed to get new fans for the franchise, introduce people who have never played the games to the world of Azeroth? Why then have such a convoluted plot and such a huge cast, with so many things (Medivh being possessed etc) being unexplained. I can't even imagine how confusing some of this must have been for people who don't know any WC-story.

Was this supposed to be fan-service? Why then change so many things, have so many inconsistencies? I don't doubt that some of the changes to the lore might have been an attempt to create a better story. However, if you want to satisfy fans... they do NOTICE when you change things too much. Why is Dalaran flying? This didn't happen until much later. Why does Stormwind look like it did after it was rebuilt after the orcs actually razed it?

So much of it seemed forced... the Murloc-sound might make some people smile, but it was like "OK, let's just throw everything in there, all these innuendos and clues! Oh, and let's plaster the Kirin Tor icon EVERYWHERE"

• The dialogue was... ridiculous

• The love-scene/love-story. Gee, yeah, The Hobbit showed me that it apparently is totally and absolutely impossible to make a movie without a love-story thrown in. Regardless of what happens, someone has to fall in love with someone, no matter how forced or silly it looks. So the little love-story here feels much too forced, develops much too quickly (well, at least that part is over quickly) and just is not needed. It's like they went through the checklist and went "OK, love-story, done!"

• The music... what happened? I did actually listen to the score by itself as well, because it does not stand out at all in the movie, I hardly noticed there was music there, it was that bland... and not only does it sound rushed, with way too many repetitions, it also sounds like a sample-library-MIDI-score from about the late 90s. I have heard B-movies with a better-sounding and better-produced score.

• The armor. Yeah, I know, WOW is well_known for ridiculous armor, its like a big inside jokes. Gigantic shoulderpieces etc. However, that's not the point here. The armor here looks ridiculous, like plastic with a tiny bit of gloss on it. It looks cheap. I heard some guys from WETA were involved here and I imagine that going like this: "Hey guys, so you make a fantasy movie? So OK, here is how you make armor, this is how you make it look a bit worn-in, here is to make it look like something smithed by hand and having been used" Reply: "Oh cool. Yeah. We don't have the time/patience/workforce/money for this, so let's make some casts, pour plastic into those, done". I was almost reminded of the props in movies like Flash Gordon seeing some of the plate armor in here.

• The movie takes itself much too seriously. We all know that WC and WOW always had some silliness to it, that's part of it. And the slapstick-like little bits with Lothar and Khadgar were not like that. The only FUN scene was the hyper-aggressive gryphon in the end, when that went to work on the orcs in the background while Lothar again was over-acting in the foreground.

• I didn't care at all about what happened to these people. Everything was so rushed, so crammed, so it was hard to feel anything when someone died.

I know that the "this movie has no warmth/no heart" is criticized as something critics use when they have nothing else bad to say or whatever. However, I have played these games and still love them, I have spent so much time in Azeroth, have read and experienced these stories. And to me, this movie feels dull, bland, cold, overstuffed, badly paced, badly written, badly scored, rushed and undecided whom it wants to be for. It's not quite as bad as I thought when I saw the trailers, but a 4/10 isn't exactly awesome, and it gets those points because you can tell they actually tried to do well...but IMO failed.

Good

[0U · 29 February 2020]

I had no idea what was going on most of the time because I'm not particularly familiar with Warcraft's story. That being said, this is a decent movie, especially considering it's a video game franchise film...90% of the time video game films are very badly adapted to the screen.

Flawed, yet spectacular

[Cephalicum · 7/10 · 29 May 2016]

So, I just saw the movie in IMAX 3D. The theater was almost entirely full, and it seated about 550 people!

First of all, the CGI and visuals were amazing and all the orcs were spectacular. The music and cinematography was great and some scenes were so epic it's hard to describe. Some of the moments in the movie were among the best I've ever seen, and they really drew you in. Blew my mind really, I was hyped.

The acting was decent by most, and I enjoyed most of the characters. Gul'dan and Durotan were probably my two favourites. The movie really did have many awesome characters, but it's too bad that they weren't fleshed out more. Garona was probably the most fleshed out, and that is also why you sympathized with her.

The story was good, but very disjointed. Parts were messy and the editing was seriously not good. I mean, the scenes themselves were mostly well done, but they felt very unorganised, and different from each other. Besides needing more character development, and background story, the movie needed a significantly more cohesive and streamlined expression. It felt like a lot was left on the cutting room floor and you could tell they have been working on it for a long time. In the latter part it really picked up and the movie seemed more deliberate with longer scenes, and very thrilling action. The griffin was badass!

It really did stay true to the Warcraft universe and I loved that. It was very beautiful and yes, heartfelt. The emotions of the characters shined through, even if they did not have a lot of time to build them up.

Personally, as a whole, I rate it a 7.5/10. Could have easily been higher if the movie was more conjoined. Easily.

As a spectacle It was truly amazing. As I said in the beginning, some scenes are unlike anything I've seen before. I will definitely watch it again!

Good but not great It's a movie for the fans

[bintangnegoro · 7/10 · 25 May 2016]

I came to the movie as a Warcraft player (I played Warcraft III and World of Warcraft). I know some of the lore and this made me understand what's going on. But from my objective side as a moviegoers I find this movie will be hard to grasp by mainstream audience because the lack of character building and fast pace of the story with lack of background.

Pros: - The long awaited movie of the much beloved Warcraft finally came out - Battle scenes are pretty epic and hard - Feels like a superhero movie with medieval settings - CGI quality is great

Cons: - Needs more screen time for storytelling - Lack of character building and depth - People without Warcraft lore will find the story is too fast and lack of backstory

A MUST watch for all the Fantasy genre lovers and not only.

[subxaero1989 · 10/10 · 21 May 2016]

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I was lucky enough to get an invite to watch the movie in LA 2 weeks ago, in a screening about press.I was the only one foreign guy there(Cyprus but got invited since i am making my after-master practise here).

I have to note to everyone here that i am aware of World of Warcraft and the Warcraft games as IPs but i've never played any of them.

I am a huge Fantasy genre lover and this movie exceeded my expectations. My biggest concern minutes before movie aired was the quality of the CGI.I Knew this movie uses a lot of CGI.Well the CGI is breathtaking easily equal or better to AVatar and Dawn of the Apes, equally to JUngle book(what a great movie!) BUT with the difference that it is used in massive scale, which makes it even more impressive. Watching Hundreads of Orcs with unique characteristics and facials is mind boggling(with the positive way of meaning).

Orcs are beautifully beautifully made, main character Durotan is just awesome he is my favourite character, HUmans are OK at start i had an issue with how armors looked but people told me it is exactly how in-game is.IN terms of acting Ben Foster is hands down the best performer also Paula Patton and Travis Fimmel are nice, rest of the cast its slightly above average not great, but serviceable. Orcs overall are better portrayed than Humans, BUT thats the important thing if CGI was bad in this movie i would be really turned off, but the CGI is perfect so i can easily bypass the fact that 2-3 human chars weren't the best.

I Loved the plot, it is so rich and u can easily understand why some people said that this movie isn't even the 15% of the whole Warcraft Lore.Duncan Jones has done a great job for non-fans like me to easily udnerstand the movie, even though there are a few times that let u hanging which proposes hinds for a sequel.

Visuals are stunning and we can see probably the best implementation of magic that has been made in a movie.

Summing up this is a MUST watch for every person that loves Fantasy genre, easily the best fantasy movie after the last LoTR release(IT would be at LOtr level with 2-3 more decent actors). ANd easily the best video-game adaptation that has been made. 1-- Breathtaking CGI 2-- It feels more like a movie(rather than a video game movie) 3-- Incredible and rich lore/plot, Warcraft universe is HUge and after this movie i really want to explore it.

Give this movie a chance i know many are sceptical to any video-game adaptation, but this one it wont disappoint u.

Surprising

[erlendulvundskaarberg · 7/10 · 13 July 2021]

My initial expectations were low, but the overall CGI and plot details are over the roof. All in all a good watch.

Warcraft fans, LOTR fans, Fantasy fans and even non fans, GO SEE THIS MOVIE ! You will love every second of it !

[the_green_eye_t · 10/10 · 23 May 2016]

Hello.

First of all i have to tell you, i am a Warcraft fan and i had no expectations from this movie at all. I am NOT a Blizzard fan boy and i know when they do something poor and when they do something good.

If you like the cinematics that they make and if you like LOTR like me and fantasy, you will absolutely love this movie.

I was really scared about this movie being another video game movie chaos. Not by a landslide.

Warcraft is astonishing. The visuals are ground breaking, the acting is very strong and the emotional involvement between the viewer and the movie is breath taking. The familiar zones from Warcraft universe are all and are built exactly how they are suppose to be built, every Warcraft fan will feel like home and on the brink of shedding tears. I will watch this movie again in 10 June and gather all my friends that were not lucky enough to see it yet and go again, maybe twice. I need more, there has to be more Warcraft movies. Dunca Jones working alongside with Blizzard was a genius move and it shows throughout the movie. Almost 2 hours of pure awesomeness. 10/10 from me. GO SEE THIS MOVIE, you will not regret it !

Better than the critics tell you

[juribeldman · 7/10 · 17 July 2016]

I went to see Warcraft movie on a night and i am not disappointed. The movie was good, a great fantasy flick with awesome looking visuals and even more awesome looking orcs. While it is certainly a good movie, it is not an unmissable one. That i a creepy situation, because it sets me apart from both the critics and the fans. While i would go to cinema to watch a sequel then this movie is not as good as most people say. But i nonetheless still enjoyed it and had a pretty good time watching it. I am happy to see a new great fantasy franchise come out. It is also a good movie which is interesting because it is based on a video game. For a verdict i would say that this movie is a good one that will fill your time with a good memory and a good feeling, too. I liked this movie and it is great. I am definitely on board for sequels. Besides the fight between the orcs and the humans is really interesting. The characters are great and everything is sorted out great. I had a good time watching this good movie and i am sure you have too.

Too many characters, bad acting, lacklustre plot, no character depth

[BackwardsNinja · 3/10 · 5 June 2016]

(I labelled this 'Contains Spoilers' but I am not mentioning anything in particular. Someone might disagree so I figured safety first.) I grew up playing Warcraft II and III extensively. When I heard a Warcraft film was in the making I thought this to be a good thing. There was so much material to draw from. So I went to see it at my local Cineworld on the opening day (30 May here in the UK).

Sadly the film does not deliver. With so many characters to keep track of and so little time for them all, I found that I didn't really care about the fates of any of them. It didn't help that two characters looked very similar and it was hard to tell them apart.

Then there was the acting. Ye Gods. I imagine this might pick up a few Razzie nominations. One particular line was so woodenly delivered I thought I was watching the Phantom Menace.

The plot was simple enough but because they were leapfrogging from character to character it didn't really have a chance to truly get interesting. For this film to do its characters justice it would need to have been six hours long.

They should have stripped away maybe eight or nine of the 12 main characters and focused on them. Plot is character. Character is plot. This was drummed into me in university. If you want us to care about the characters then give us time to see them fail, win, live, love. With one a few to focus on you can then develop the plot. Throw some emotion in there. They want to go the serious route? Fine. Make it serious then. But give us things to care about. Show us some character depth. Don't just throw a bunch of characters and names at us, expecting us to be so 'wowed' (no pun intended) that we forget that we're really just watching a mediocre advert for World of Warcraft. Because that's what it felt like.

Why am I being so critical of a film about orcs and humans? Why can't I just give it a 10 because I loved playing the games? Because I loved playing the games. See, when you really like something you want it to be as good as it can be when they do a film based on it later. Also, despite a few mediocre jokes the film wanted to go the 'serious' route. So I have to treat it seriously. And not go into 'fanboy mode' and give it a 10/10. Because this is not a 10/10 film.

Maybe it's all the Marvel films' fault, going in with a huge amount of characters. Somehow they pull it off, though. Warcraft didn't. They say 'go big or go home' but in this case they should've started off with something smaller. There are enough fans for this to make a profit. I don't know if they should make a second one, though. Because if this first one is so bad but makes money, I don't think they'll learn from this mistake. They don't care about making a good Warcraft film. But that's the industry's problem in general and a debate for another day.

Amazing!

[byount-28968 · 10/10 · 20 May 2016]

I don't want to give away anything, but my god was this movie amazing! The motion capture was superb, the acting superb, and the plot itself was great. For the Warcraft fans you will see plenty of easter eggs that will make you grin or laugh. Over all it's what of my favorite movies I have seen this year.

I went to an early screening with my girlfriend and a friend of mine and even though they know nothing of the storyline or world of Azeroth, they absolutely enjoyed it. The characters were awesome (Duncan Jones did amazing) and so were the actors. From what I could gather, the entire crowd who went to see it enjoyed it.

A great fantasy flick, even for non-fans of the games

[unnywht · 6/10 · 27 May 2016]

Out of all the movies I've seen this year, Warcraft sticks out like a sore thumb (and that's coming from someone who doesn't play the games). But like I'm emo and I really want that sore thumb to be there (terrible analogy).Warcraft has an great array of layered, sympathetic characters with deep personalities and motivations however Ben Schnetzer (Khadgar) stole the show for me. I had never heard of this guy before but now I can't wait to see where his career is headed. With that said, there is one actor that didn't sell for me and that's Travis Fimmel (Anduin Lothar). It's particularly frustrating because he is very much the main character and, while his character is very layered, he would have made for an excellent side character. But what really was the big kicker of this movie was the score. Game Of Thrones composer Ramin Djawadi once again delivers a powerful theme that's been stuck in my head ever since. Also, the visuals are great... most of the time. The digitally-created orcs are the most believable cgi creations I've seen since The Jungle Book (2016). However they do look like a digital creation in some scenes, particularly whenever they interact with an object. Overall, Warcraft was a great movie that does not disappoint and I would recommend it to any fantasy movie fan.

Clearly watched a different movie to everybody else...

[clambelho · 1/10 · 14 June 2016]

Yeah so ill receive many glares at this review but i can only be honest with my opinion here. Having watched this movie and upon ending seeing hundreds of people around me applaud it left me in total bemusement! Perhaps i was over expecting for this movie but besides the really well made CGI, i was left in utter disappointment. I mean, how can we as movie lovers and somewhat "part time critics" actually completely ignore that this movie was not well made?? I get that we're lovers of Warcraft and its massive franchise as well as having been so attached to its characters for so many years just as i have been, but to say that the movie was brilliant is absolutely misguided to the fact that the acting was one of the worst i have ever seen in any movie ever made. Not only that but there was little to no thought at all put behind fight scenes. Did we all watch the same movie or am i missing something here? Surely fight choreography could have been taken seriously? Having spent loads of money on CGI why not add a little diversity to a battle? Whoever swung a sword first would defeat his opponent...zero blocking, zero shields used...why did any of them have shields anyway?? Scenes were rushed in and rushed out, the rookie Madge was so badly played by someone who can barely act. Please re-watch the movie and look at his facial expressions or even his acting skills for goodness sake! This disappoints me because it was like "okay we're going into this movie and we're just going to love it because its Warcraft and we've been waiting for this all our lives". Give me a break! The potential this movie had for so much more is crazy and yet we all turn a blind eye to what matters most about a movie spectacle all because we're thinking emotionally. Sorry but i enjoy watching a well made movie and this movie was far from well made. #notsorry