Warcraft is a tale of ambition, orcish ambition

In the world of fantasy, nay, especially in the world of fantasy, the only rule is that there are no rules. Duncan Jones’ Warcraft is a classic example.

For one, it pits humans against orcs in a battle that blurs the fine line between good and evil. At the same time, it blurs - sort of - the fine line between art and hardcore commercial cinema. All this while, carrying the overwhelming baggage of being an adaptation of a massively popular video game franchise.

It hasn’t been easy making this film. It’s taken almost a decade, and a stint with two - very different - directors, in the making. All this time, it’s been trying to seep in as much narrative as it possibly could from a story that Blizzard Entertainment has been telling fans and enthusiasts for over 20 years now. In different forms and caricatures, through the cult MMORPG (Massively multiplayer online role-playing game) series of the same name.

Now Hollywood hasn’t exactly been kind to - popular - video games. Every other video game movie tends to beat the one made before it by an even bigger margin.

In such a world, Warcraft must lay the groundwork for future sequels - the ending leaves you on a cliff-hanger - all the while sticking to an original story that must do justice to long-term fans and give newbies fair amount of fodder to cash in on their money.

Warcraft the movie caters well - although not entirely - to the former audience. It’s the latter half that, I am afraid, would leave the cinema halls scratching their heads.

Warcraft is largely based on the original game, Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, that came out in 1994 and essentially deals with the events of the First War between the orcs and humans in the fictional world of Azeroth.

Unlike other franchises, say for instance, The Lord of the Rings, where orcs are depicted as pure evil, Warcraft takes a slightly different route. In the timeline of the Warcraft franchise, orcs are anything but evil, trying to survive through the death of their home world, Draenor. Even if that means taking over someone else’s in a sheer battle of survival of the fittest.

As for humans, they are trying to save their own world from being taken over - by the orcs - so they can’t be villains either. And they are not. No one is. That’s the beauty of Warcraft, and also one of its biggest clichés.

The earliest games in the franchise - before the epic World of Warcraft came along - allowed players to choose between orc and human story campaigns, strategically building and leading their armies to take over their foes’.

Warcraft the movie sticks to the soul of these games and offers two distinct storylines, each drawing their own set of emotions and sympathies.

On the orc side, you have Durotan (Toby Kebbell), chieftain of the Frostwolf clan who sees through the ever-consuming fel magic of the warlock Gul’dan (Daniel Wu) that eventually destroys Draenor, and decides to take matters into his own hands, even if that entails in the ultimate sacrifice.

On the human side, you have Anduin Lothar (Travis Fimmel) who is military commander of the kingdom of Stormwind in the world of Azeroth. The knight commander, along with King Llane (Dominic Cooper), guardian Medivh (Ben Foster), and mage apprentice Khadgar (Ben Schnetzer) must protect Azeroth from the orc menace before matters get out of hand, even if that entails making the ultimate sacrifice.

Clearly, both orcs and humans are guided by similar motives - survival. That’s the beauty of the film.

As luck would have it, Lothar and Co get hold of half-orc, Garona (Paula Patton) who seems willing to betray the orcs in exchange for freedom. Only, she doesn’t seem sure what she’s been looking for till the very end of the film. At least, that’s what her – perplexed - face tells, most of the time. Even in the end, she is told by a certain someone to do what she has to do.

Anyway, Warcraft, and director Jones try to squeeze in as much narrative flavour as possible inside every character. Gul’dan - the said villain in the film - may be dead wicked, but there’s a method to his madness, as is seen when he rescues Durotan’s dying new-born in the midst of teleporting between the two worlds.

The friendly banter between Durotan and his close mate Orgrim Doomhammer (Robert Kazinsky) of how they miss the trees and snow reminds them (you) of a better orc world, once upon a time. There’s one occasion where Garona tells how she became an orc slave and one where Anduin drinks his heart out to mourn his dead son. But frankly speaking, there are so many characters thrown in that there’s only so much that Jones can do. Especially, when squeezing in epic battle scenes seems to be his top agenda.

One battle literally sweeps and pans into another, and then into another. And just when you thought it was over, bam, comes one more battle. Not that it is a bad thing. But seriously, the excessive amount of onscreen time given to recurring battles (and two boss fights) could have been shared with some character building as well. Hello, not everyone here has played the games, you know! Take for instance Khadgar, who uses the word renounced (his vows) far too many times and is in fact a runaway, but we are never told why he renounced (his vows) after all.

The guardian Medivh is missing in action for far too long, only to return infected by the fel. Umm, how? And, newbies will definitely not understand what the hell Glenn Close - in an uncredited appearance - is doing in the film.

For everyone else (but fans), Warcraft is a jigsaw puzzle of over-elaborate names, over-elaborate to the extent of glaring CGI effects, and insipid and uninspired prophecies like "From light comes darkness, from darkness comes light."

It’s excessive to the extent that it’s Orcish. Fans would love the Warcraft movie for what it is, but is this the ultimate Warcraft movie that they had been waiting for? No, not really. Fans would know, it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Warcraft is huge and it would take more than just one film to match what folks back at Blizzard have done.

That being said, it doesn’t go down without a fight. As mentioned earlier, the film blurs the fine line between art and commercial cinema. It’s artsy in the way it sweeps in and out of locales in a very Game of Thrones-esque way (not to mention, it also shares Ramin Djawadi, the show’s composer, who again is at his magnanimous best), in the way it handles the orc and human interactions (without relying on subtitles), and in the smallest of paintbrush touches like the one where the orcs teleport. The attention to detail is just spot-on. Meanwhile, there is plenty of fist and bone-crunching action here to satiate your bang-for-the-buck frenzy.

Warcraft dares to blur the divide between good and evil. Not having a proper hero, or a proper anti-hero gives every character room to breathe. But, having far too many characters means, the room is just not big enough to fit them all.