REVIEW: Warcraft : The Beginning (12A)

Legendary MMORPG computer game World of Warcraft hit’s the silver screen albeit a little bit later to cash in on its heyday a few years ago. Firmly planting itself as the go-to guy for fantasy movies (in the gaping hole left by The Hobbit trilogy), Warcraft: The Beginning features more CGI than (probably) the game itself, and has plenty of little nods and nuances to the game if you’re a seasoned player. However, it tries to cram as much as it can into its decent runtime and leaves the casual viewer slightly perplexed and thinking that it’s not as good as Lord of the Rings.

My alarm bells started ringing when I saw the trailer for this movie – ages ago, and since then I’ve probably seen it a hundred times to the point I started to get sick of it. A concern of mine is that many movies release a couple of different content trailers to whet the appetite of potential cinema goers – but the trailer for Warcraft never changed so we never saw anything new. I’m not sure if the person who made the trailer was so proud of it they never wanted to change it – but this wasn’t a good sign – I mean surely there were some more good parts to the movie we could get to at least see more than the orcs and the same dialogue over again. However, even though I had reservations, the movie wasn’t as bad as I expected.

Warcraft: The Beginning promises that there will be a sequel purely from its tag line – and if they make Warcraft: The Middle and Warcraft: The End then I think I will boycott them. However, it’s also seriously sassy to assume that there will be a sequel regardless. I guess Blizzard could probably afford to make another even if this one bombs since they have a best-selling game on their hands.

I am not an avid Warcraft player, though I have dabbled in it, and I’m not very familiar with the lore of Warcraft either. I have played other MMORPG’s but not spent enough time with the characters of Warcraft to be familiar with them. As a result, some of what I’m about to tell you I have been told by others, so if it’s incorrect or slightly out, I apologise in advance.

The movie starts with some weird necromancer Orc person (think a dodgy Emperor Palpatine) who has been sucking the life out of the world in which he lives with other Orcs and as a result the world is dying. He decides to open a portal to another world and decides to take over it using his army so he can continue to get power and continue to live. Meanwhile, top dog Orc, Durotan, takes umbrage at this, and wants to protect “his people” and starts a mini uprising within the ranks as he knows that this Necromancer Orc is bad news.

Durotan is not the only person to not be happy about this impending invasion. The humans on the other side of the portal aren’t happy about this evasion either. King Llane Wrynn (Dominic Cooper) gets wind of this through Khadagar, who was once a really good wizard, but for story purposes isn’t now. Arranging an army to tackle this head on, the Guardian, Medivh (who I would describe as a poor man’s Gandalf) and Anduin Lothar (Wannabe Aragorn) join forces to help their king against this oncoming Horde. However all is not what it seems – some alliances are forged, some friendships are broken, and there’s a green baby somewhere involved in proceedings.

The king, played by Dominic Cooper, seems legit, but doesn’t have the feel of power or clout you would anticipate with a king and looks a bit too pretty in his armour to be taken seriously. The grand Guardian looks like he should be in a rock band, and is too young to be an awesome wizard he is supposed to be. The only characters who hold any defining characterisation are the wannabe Aragorn, the turncoat orc and a half human/orc fighter woman, Garona (Paula Patton). Even so, they seem to be woefully under developed, especially human/orc woman who could have been used so much better than she was, even though she is literally two letters away from actually being Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy – with funky teeth.

Overall this movie is a special effect laden movie that is a decent fantasy movie that holds extra value if you are a Warcraft fan but can be a bit confusing if not. However, it’s called Warcraft: The Beginning for a reason, so expect some more soon. Lord of the Rings for the gamer generation; this movie is a decent stab at the fantasy genre but is far too paint by numbers fantasy to be considered a classic. Fans of the game will enjoy the nods and Easter eggs hidden or referenced in the movie, but for the casual movie goer it's a medi-Orc-re fantasy flick that'll make up for the lack of new Lord of the Rings movies. Not bad.

POPSCORE: 7/10

What am I talking about? Warcraft: The Beginning movie
Where can I find out more? http://www.warcraftmovie.com
If you liked this try: The Hobbit trilogy, Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Mummy trilogy

Anything else?

Warcraft: The Beginning is based on the World of Warcraft MMORPG, and includes characters, places and spells from that games lore

REVIEW: Kingsman : The Secret Service (15)

In 2015, the day of baddies dressed in garish colours plotting to rule the world has but all been forgotten. It's been a long time since the big bad guy captured the hero, plonked him in a certain death trap that was impossible to escape and then proceeded to tell the hero his intricate world domination plans. It's been a long, long time since the hero conveniently escapes from certain death and foils the megalomaniac bad guy at the last minute.  Here you have the old school spy movie.

Nowadays in the name of Bond and Bourne, they are gritty realistic heroes and fight dirty, drink from the bottle and are injured, scarred and mentally affected - but still get the girl and save the world. Here you have the modern day, nu skool version.

It's a dangerous thing to look back at those old movies and attempt to recreate them because I believe they were a product of the time. This has tried to be done with Mortdecai, the recent release starring Johnny Depp and Gwyneth Paltrow, and from what I've heard it didn't work out too well. However, I still have yet to see the movie and refrain from making any judgement of it until I have seen it. The last time it was done well was Mike Myers' Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery - and that was a spoof; a parody if you will.

So where does that leave Kingsman? Well they certainly pay homage to the Bond's of old (as well as a number of other spy shows and movies) but put a spin on it to make it very contemporary. Although there are a couple of nods to these movies and films, as they clearly state in the movie - it's not one of those type of movies. 

The movie starts with a fantastic credit sequence which brings us to some dusty desert where Galahad (Colin Firth) is quizzing a terrorist with his elite spy team. One of the team realises that the terrorist has a bomb strapped to his chest and jumps on top of him - shielding the blast from his teammates. Both the spy and terrorist die, but Galahad survives and escapes with his team. Cut to a small boy and his mother and Galahad visiting them. As the film moves on we realise that the spy killed in action is the father of the main character Gary Unwin (Taron Egerton) who's nickname is Eggsy and is referred to as such through the whole film. Galahad hands Eggsy's mother a trinket which she declines and instead gives it to Eggsy. The trinket is a necklace with a phone number on the back. Galahad says he owes the family a favour since his father saved him and the team, and will return the favour.

We find that Galahad is actually a Kingsman - who are all named after the Knights of the Round Table and his real name is Harry Hart. The boss of the Kingsman spies is codenamed Arthur (Michael Caine) and they are elite secret agents who serve and protect Queen and country.

One day, when he is older, Eggsy finds himself heading to prison as his life wasn't going too good. Mum has moved on from Dad and is in an abusive relationship with an alcoholic step father and even worse step brothers.  Then he takes someone elses car for a joyride and is arrested. He phones the number on the necklace he has been wearing for the last few years and gets off scott free. Meanwhile there is a vacancy in the Kingsmen as spy Lancelot was killed by a mysterious lady with blades for feet when he was trying to save a university professor (Star Wars' Mark Hamill) who had been kidnapped.

Cue Galahad appearing to recruit Eggsy for the Kingsman ranks - resplendent in a bulletproof suit, guns, grenades - and an umbrella. Blade lady is working for Richmond Valentine, an evil computer billionaire bent on taking over the world. Samuel L. Jackson makes a welcome appearance as the garishly dressed colour-coded villain who is more a genius than  a soldier.

The movie is well made with a good turn from all the acting talent that has been employed within the movie. Special effects are spot on and the soundtrack and cinematography is great too. Firth is brilliant in the role of the John Steed-esque Galahad and little known actor Egerton plays the chav Eggsy and the Kingsman Eggsy remarkably well - though when he was wearing glasses for some scenes didn't fit quite right with me.

The movie itself moves along at a great pace and is well written. The dialogue is suitably contemporary and there is a notable shift in dialogue from when Eggsy and his contemporaries are talking in their West End council estate to the RP and suaveness of the Kingsman spies.

I really enjoyed this film, as I love my Bond movies, but I think anyone who likes a good action adventure would love this too. The only real issue is that it has an awful lot of swearing in it - it's reflective of real life and gives it that little bit of kudos, but if younger viewers will be watching then it may not be suitable for them - discretion advised.

I recommend to go and see this - it's an old school spy movie with nu skool values and is very entertaining to boot. Kingsman : The Secret Service is out now and is rated 15.

POPSCORE:  8/10

 

 

What am I talking about? Kingsman: The Secret Service movie

How do I find out more? http://www.kingsmanmovie.com/
If you liked this try... Mortdecai (2015), any James Bond movie pre-Daniel Craig, any of the Austin Powers movies, The Avengers (60's TV series but please avoid the 90's movie!)

Anything else?
The song as the credits roll is TAKE THAT - GET READY FOR IT which is out on single now and features on their latest album III. This is their third soundtrack song in recent memory. They also had tracks for two other recent movies - LOVE LOVE for X-Men: First Class and, of course, RULE THE WORLD for Stardust.