The post Movie Review: Warcraft: The Beginning appeared first on The Scribbling Geek.

Movie Review – Warcraft: The Beginning

I admit I was rather … angry when I reviewed The Angry Birds Movie. Not that I felt it wasted my time, or that I wanted my money back, but it was clearly another case of why games wouldn’t translate well to movies. The plot was flimsy. Most plot elements did not make sense. The whole movie felt to be no more than an extended advertisement, for an already immensely popular and profitable game.

Frankly, Warcraft: The Beginning suffers from the same flaws. Like The Angry Birds Movie, it is visually superior, its rendering of Azeroth a visual feast for fans and non-fans alike. Everything else, on the other hand, is dragged down by the compulsion, the necessity for box-office takings, to perform fan service at every step. Way too many characters are introduced too quickly, many of whom also subsequently enjoying little or no development. The unaddressed questions of why Orcs chose to embrace Fel magic when it was obviously destructive, who exactly was Garona, how Medivh was tainted by Fel magic, and why were humans the only race battling the Orcs, would also baffle non-players of the game. To be fair to Blizzard Entertainment and their co-producers, perhaps these concerns are irrelevant. After all, their main audience would be all the hordies and allies of their games, such as myself. I do wonder though, how enjoyable would the viewing experience be for someone completely alien to the franchise. Would it earn Blizzard new subscribers to its enduring MMO? Would purchases for its classic RTSs increase? I doubt so.

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The post Movie Review: Warcraft: The Beginning appeared first on The Scribbling Geek.