Warcraft (2016), PG-13, ★1/2

What is in his hand?

I am not a hardcore video-gamer. Actually, let me correct myself, I am retired from the world of video games now for quite a while because I have so much stuff on my plate. But, I have heard of the video game, World of Warcraft, the multiplayer video game that is set in the world of Azeroth. How do I know this? It is because I know a few people who are obsessed with the game and I've played it a few times and never got into my radar again. But, video game adaptations are sort of in the pit right now because there's not one movie, as far as I know, that commences the genre with a bang. We had Angry Birds which looks like a vibrant and colorful palate with a forgettable story or level. This movie, even though I will admit I had gleeful fun in a few scents, is a juggernaut of sluggish direction and ugly CGI that leaves me with a sour experience.

The land, Draenor, is on the brink of collapse as their land is rotting. Gul'dan (Daniel Wu) plans to assemble a group of orcs to guide the Horde into the land of Azeroth, using a dark form of magic called fel, created from death. The half-human/half-orc, Garona (Paula Patton) is chained up as prisoners are begging her to free them, although it is beyond her control. Durotan (Toby Kebbell) and his wife, Draka (Anna Galvin), are waiting for a child and they do have one when they go into Azeroth.

After the attack, Commander Lothar (Travis Fimmel) looks over some of the men that were killed and learns that the bodies contained traces of fel. Later, Lothar, Khadgar (Ben Schnetzer) and the Guardian of Tirisfal, Medivh (Ben Foster) joins a scouting team to follow the trace but they get ambushed. When Garona is taken prisoner, she leads the humans to an orc camp in which they learn of Gul'dan's plan to bring the entire Horde to Azeroth. If Gul'dan is not stopped, then the land, Draenor, will be gone for good as the fel source comes from the land.

Wow! A rare great shot of the land.

This is not a movie for me because I was confused throughout the whole movie as to what the plot is developing into especially in a very clunky opening and derivative first act. I had a hard time with where it is going in terms of its narrative and what the character's plan is going to be and look, I have to admit, I was getting real bored and I was about to walk out. But, it does gain momentum in its cheesy fantasy storyline in both its visuals and a little bit of the action sequences. It did get a bit more involving in its second act setting up the problem and the climax of the film. And, that's the portion in which I had cheerful fun and I chuckled a bit. However, the climax really brought me down as the big action climax ultimately got me drained and got me to care less.

The actors are really committed and are trying to have fun but they disappear into cheesy, awful caricatures of stereotypes that made me feel uncomfortable or they are just plain awful. Travis Fimmel does what he can in his role but he was not satisfying as the lead. Paula Patton's character is insulting as she is chained for half of the movie as some sort of slavish individual. Ben Foster is ok in his role even though it is one of his weakest performances and that's saying something because he has given a lot of solid performances. He is an underrated actor. And, Ben Schnetzer has a bit of campy fun in his role.

Some of the visuals and a few action set-ups and scenes are fine in its own right, but Duncan Jones, a highly underrated director who made the great movie, Moon, and an underrated sci-fi action film, Source Code, does not have his signature style of filmmaking wrapped in this source material. It feels like he was invited to make this movie but let all of the gamers and inexperienced crewmen take over to film it. The second act is what won me over a little bit in trying to raise my rating a little bit but the bookends of this movie was clunky, poorly edited and short-sighted that the narrative just disappears and becomes another idea for an additional game. The material takes off a bit but it sort of crash-lands into an ocean of mucky substance that is unappealing. Whoever is a fan of this material will enjoy this movie, I, for one, tried to but I could not.

*1/2