I walked into the hall to watch Warcraft as a complete novice, about the game it was based on I mean, but I was a pro when it came to the tropes the film uses — good, evil, good magic, bad magic, honour, bravery, sacrifice — and the creatures in it — orcs, mages, elves, dwarves. Yes, I had done my homework.

The minute the name Blizzard Entertainment showed up (they are the makers of the game World of Warcraft) and the hall erupted in ‘woohoos’ and ‘yaaayyys’, I knew that whatever happened on screen, if it was even close to the game, I would have fun this Friday morning. Even if it was just watching the fans enjoying themselves. There is nothing like watching a new release with fans — be it a Salman Khan film, a Marvel one or an adaptation of a game that is so popular that it has a spot in the Guinness World Records.

That opening scene of a human and an orc facing off in an arid, desert-like landscape looks exactly what it would feel like playing the game on a giant screen from the orc’s point of view, before switching POV to the human’s as he is bludgeoned into darkness by the orc.

The story begins somewhere after the beginning of the Warcraft lore and we see Gul’dan, the evil warlock of the orcs, already in possession of the Fel, a dark magic that has already drained the planet of Draenor, home to the orcs. He has united the orcs into a Horde and asks them to invade a new planet, Azeroth, and make it their new home.

Among the orcs who go through the Dark Portal opened by Gul’dan are the reluctant Durotan, the chieftan of the Frostwolf clan, his pregnant mate Draka, and his best friend Orgrim Doomhammer. 

Both Durotan and Doomhammer (the loudest cheers were for him, or was it his even more famous hammer?) are an impressive sight but Draka feels too wooden. 

Now there are brown orcs and there are green orcs and there are names thrown at you at random like Blackhand and Blackrock and Dranei. Now, because I did my homework I knew why some of the orcs were green and it is quite a lengthy explanation that involves demons and drinking of blood, etc. So, I was quite pleasantly surprised at how smartly Duncan Jones, director, explained in one scene that they were the ones who had the evil Fel magic.

Let’s cross over to the human side. We meet a lot of characters — Dominic Cooper cuts a dashing figure in robes and crowns as King Llane Wrynn; Ruth Negga is the wouldn’t-have-made-a-difference-if-she-wasn’t-there Lady Taria Wrynn; the sexy Travis Fimmel for some reason plays the main human protagonist — Anduin Lothar— in a very drunken and slightly odd way; Ben Foster is a hammy Medivh, the Guardian.

The best screen space was reserved for the twinkly-eyed young mage Khadgar who sparkles in the scenes, whether while trying to be taken seriously by Lothar, the commander of the king’s armies, or fighting with Medivh, who is, as you would expect, evil.

The humans are hoping to fight the orcs, rescue the people they have imprisoned and close the gates of the Dark Portal, that Medivh is helping to open, and prevent the rest of the Horde from crossing over.

All is not well among the orcs as Durotan mistrusts Gul’dan and through Garona Halforcen (a half orc-half human girl, who Lothar flirts with leeringly) meets with the humans to join hands against Gul’dan, but Durotan is betrayed by Doomhammer

Okay, I know you are confused by now about who is evil and who is good and who the hell is fighting whom but it is actually nice to see that one race is not necessarily depicted as all-evil and one as all-good. There is good and evil among both. And you will be able to follow it. Mostly. But like every fantasy movie, this one too tells you the good always wins over the evil. 

Frankly, I had expected that this would be drivel, like the other game-to-movie adaptations, but it is surprisingly entertaining, even though it could have done with better dialogues. 

From the ‘This Movie is Insaaane!’ exclamation at the interval I assumed that the fans at Cinepolis were happy. I was right.
“As fans of WoW, I can say that this was great. We knew that this was not based on WoW, but we know the lore and the film kept to it pretty perfectly,” said Ankur Mishra, a doctor. “Yes, the action and the settings were pretty perfect. Whatever they changed they had to because it was a film. Now if it was a series like Game of Thrones...,” added Rik Ghosh, a musician.

These fans are now ready for the main event — the big screen sequel based on the popular WoW.

Chandreyee Chatterjee

As a gaming fan, Warcraft the  movie was a fun watch because....
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