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Movie Review: Warcraft Loses the Fight to Be Entertaining

Actress Paula Patton in Warcraft Photo Credit: Universal Pictures Actress Paula Patton in Warcraft

Warcraft the movie is based on the video game series and novels set in the world of Azeroth. The film portrays the initial encounters between the humans and the orcs (talking monsters) and takes place in a variety of locations established in the video games.

Warcraft is a rambling, incoherent mess. First, you have to know this story. There is very little effort to introduce the concept and characters to those unfamiliar with this video based plot. In October of last year, Warcraft had 5.5 million subscribers, which is obviously the target market. The film's director Duncan Jones, who is also a co-writer of this script along with Charles Leavitt and Chris Metzen, seems to believe talking monsters battling humans and other talking monsters is enough to entertain viewers. And that might be enough for fans but for those unfamiliar with Warcraft, there is nothing in this movie which will make them want to learn more.

Some aspects of the movie seem to "borrow" from the megahit Avatar. In Warcraft, Paula Patton's, Garona seems very similar to Zoe Saldana's, Neytiri in Avatar.

As to the cast diversity rating, Warcraft is difficult to rates since so many of the characters are monsters. But it'll get a "C" since the press kit shows that of the 35 main performers, only four are people of color. However, Paula Patton and Ruth Negga (Lady Taria) have major roles.

Warcraft is rated PG-13 and is 123 minutes in length; it gets our lowest rating: Dead on Arrival.