One way the 'Warcraft' movie could have been much better
The early buzz about "Warcraft," the film adaptation of Blizzard Entertainment's astronomically popular video game series of the same name, has been more than a little negative so far. With a pretty low Rotten Tomatoes score right now, it doesn't seem like this is going to be a good movie based on a video game.
I haven't seen the movie yet, so it's possible I'll disagree with other critics and think it's a rousing success. Still, as someone who gave three years of my life to "World of Warcraft," it's tough not to look at trailers for the movie and think about what could have been.
Regardless of the quality of its acting, writing and direction, "Warcraft" got off on the wrong foot by centering its story on the tense-at-best, bloody-at-worst relations between humans and orcs in the fantasy world of Azeroth. Humans versus orcs is well-worn territory in fantasy fiction, something we've seen plenty of in J.R.R. Tolkien's work and all its adaptations and derivatives.
To its credit, "Warcraft" is a bit different in that its orcs are intelligent beings who came to Azeroth through a huge portal, which is somewhat unique. Still, at the end of the day, it's all about how humans and orcs don't get along real well.
The movie could have set itself apart by focusing on some of the other stories video game players have found in that world over the past two decades. For example, one of the playable races in "World of Warcraft" is the Worgen, members of the independent human nation of Gilneas that cut itself off from the outside world after everyone became werewolves. Their whole area has kind of a cool dark fairytale vibe, which I'll admit is also common in recent movies.
If you want to get weirder, the residents of the human city of Lordaeron all became intelligent zombies and they eke out a meager existence in the sewers underneath the old city. Yes, "Undead" is a playable race in "World of Warcraft," and has been since the start.
Finally, the alien Draenei race crash landed on Azeroth after some real bad stuff went down on their home planet. The squid-faced extraterrestrials have turned their crashed mothership into a capital city that contrasts with the high fantasy aesthetic of the rest of the game.
On second thought, that may be a little too weird.
Those might not have made great movies either, but they would have at least been a little different. If you think it just looks like more typical fantasy action, you're not wrong. I want you to know that it could be so much more. The filmmakers behind "Warcraft" unfortunately backed themselves into a corner when they chose to follow the most generic story its world had to offer.
It makes sense, as the conflict between humans and orcs basically sets the stage for all of that other weirdness (and it was the major conflict in the original "Warcraft" strategy game), but that hints at an even larger problem: maybe "Warcraft" just doesn't have what it takes to be a great movie. Like most video games, the story of "Warcraft" exists to create a world where players have fun things to do, but when that part is taken away, you're left with something that might not work on its own.
Video games aren't movies, and based on what critics have said after early screenings, it doesn't seem like "Warcraft" proves that they need to be.