Orcs are people too
Warcraft ★★★★★
AN opening scene in Warcraft belies its title. It is a tender moment. Inside the glowing warmth of a hut, Durotan, the orc chieftain of the Frostwolf clan with hefty face full of pronounced underbite, casts an empathetic eye towards his heavily pregnant mate Daka. The couple share a laugh and, for a second, it seems as if the film has wandered with bared tooth, horn and many a hairy limb into family romcom territory.
But perhaps, under the immense weight of expectation from more than 20 years of game-enthusiast and fanboy yearnings, this scene could be better understood as director (and son of David Bowie) Duncan Jones’s stamp of intent. First, that this film was not going to be a whizzing action adaptation devoid of nuance, and second, that he and the animators at Blizzard Entertainment had the necessary CGI chops to carve deep emotions from pixels and polygons.
If that was intended, then Warcraft sticks close to the playbook, with glinting animation that seamlessly stitches to the real live environment, and deep investment in the principal characters.
The orc home world is dying and Durotan (Toby Kebbell) and his tribe are at the vanguard of an invasion of the bountiful human realm of Azeroth, via a portal opened by the warlock Gul’dan (Daniel Wu).
Gul’dan draws his power from living beings. And when Durotan witnesses Azeroth, reminiscent of his previously fertile home world, being laid waste by the warlock, conflict grows within the chieftain.
But to defeat Gul’dan, Durotan will need an alliance with the humans of Azeroth — who he is meant to enslave.
Simultaneously, the frantic human defenders, led by dishevelled but debonair commander Anduin Lothar (Travis Kimmel), are wary of Durotan’s approaches — is this a ploy to quickly destroy the forces of Azeroth, or an unexpected lifeline?
The plot meanders and weaves to cover as much ground as possible of this juggernaut fantasy franchise. But Jones is also at pains to never abandon the uninitiated amid heavy gaming lore, ultimately crafting a successful adaptation. — Keith Tamkei