As much as I enjoyed the acting and directing of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, I couldn’t help but walk out of that movie feeling let down. For all its pep and nostalgia, it had little vision and all the creativity one would expect from a board room at Disney. Rogue One could not be more thematically different: it’s dark, stark, and feels refreshingly new.
J.K. Rowling‘s newest work, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, is in cinemas now. This marks the first time that the famed author has written a screenplay and… it kinda shows.
I begin with a quick review. I consider myself a Warcraft fan – not a World of Warcraft fan, mind you (nothing against the people who love it – MMOs just are not for me). I grew up with the first three games and loved each of them. Warcraft II might be one of my favorite video games of all time, if only for its vivid art style:
So yeah, I love the Warcraft games, I love fantasy, I’m also a fan of Duncan Jones (especially Moon) … with all that, I still did not like Warcraft. For the record, this is not one of the worst movies of the year – the film actually features quite a bit that works. In terms of video game movies, this would probably be in my top three… although I think that speaks far more to the sub-par nature of video game adaptations.
There are things to like in Warcraft, unfortunately there is just a lot more to dislike. One of the main weaknesses I took away from the film was the orc protagonist, Durotan. Warning: spoilers to follow.
Continue reading “Save our People!”: How Durotan Doomed the Warcraft Movie
Colin McMahon 