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: Dad's Army (PG)

Welcome to 2016... the year of revamps and remakes and the recycling of old ideas.  Actually, the truth is, I guess the world is running out of inspiration for the time being. However, in a world where superhero movies and political correctness are running rife, you may be one of those people who are pining for the past. If that is the case (and it may well be judging by the recent resurgence and popularity of retro gaming) then Dad’s Army might be for you. Based on the classic British TV show (not to be confused with M.A.S.H) Dad’s Army is a remake for the next generation using the previous generation and the generation before that. I have to say, as a neutral supporter, I have never seen the original show (I know, what a travesty!) but I watched this without prejudice. But, brace yourself. There is more to come in the old-tv-shows-being-revived situation as I hear they are remaking Porridge, Open All Hours and more for the small screen and remaking Ghostbusters (due out this year) and Dirty Dancing among others on the silver screen.

So the movie then? It’s definitely pointing in the direction of comedy, but sadly it wasn’t my cup of tea. I could see where the funny parts were supposed to be and, admittedly, there were a couple of sniggers. However, the whole movie felt like a 30 minute show stretched out to last its elongated run time. Maybe as a show it would have felt more complete, but as it is it felt like it was running out of steam. The best way I could describe it would be as a baker who was rolling out some dough but stretched it far too much than was needed and causing it to become thin and holey and therefore doesn’t quite bake to perfection. A bit more dough, then, and it would probably have been a decent enough pie.

The cast is astounding though, covering the great and the good of British acting. It’s been a long while since I’ve seen such a strong British ensemble cast (maybe Love Actually was the last one – Harry Potter doesn’t count as the main actors didn’t have established careers before then) and as people entered the scenes you were like – “oh, that’s so and so out of whatsit”. You have a nice mix of actors too – Michael “Dumbledore” Gambon, Toby “Dr. Arnim Zola” Jones and Bill “Davey Jones” Nighy are just some of the great talent on show here.

Toby Jones plays Captain Mainwaring with Bill Nighy as his second-in-command Sergeant Wilson, backed up with a slew of other British acting talent. Blake Harrison (Neil from The Inbetweeners) plays Private Pike, the youngest of the group and nephew to Sergeant Wilson. Catherine Zeta-Jones provides the glam as the love interest for, well, most of the main characters. However most of the main characters have wives and these are also featured. This female cast also includes the actress who plays Lynne in Alan Partridge as a particularly matriarchal leader of the ladies force and wife to Captain Mainwaring.

As the Home Guard are assigned to patrol an army base near the White Cliffs of Dover, the soldiers discover that a spy has infiltrated their small town and must find out who it is. They go through the motions and, as suspicions go on, they realise that it could be anyone from the general public to someone in their own ranks. Meanwhile, the men are falling head over heels for the new girl in town, the sophisticated vamp Rose Winters (who works as a journalist chronicling the Home Guard). Will they find out the true identity of the spy or will it be too late?

I’ve built up the movie like it would be an exciting build up, but most of it is spent watching married men bumble over the attractive Catherine Zeta-Jones. Although she is a very pretty lady, this way forward gets old really quickly and seems to be stretched out into infinity. This makes the characters seem a bit dastardly and I also feel sorry for the wives in the tale, who seem to be strong female characters but seemingly (and deliberately) far from sexy or attractive in comparison to CZ-J. The film itself is amusing but I didn’t find it funny enough to laugh out loud. I’m told there is some cameos from the original surviving cast in this movie too. When the movie concludes the iconic theme tune is played, but not until then. Also there’s a small sequence of CGI at the start to represent London in WWII, but it’s really rather poor. Most of the other effects are more physical and real, so it looked really out of place.

Overall, it was a decent stab at a remake but it could have been so much better. Two types of people will go to see this film, I think. Those are fans of the original series (who I think I think might be disappointed) and those who are impressed by the famous names to see how they get on (I’m in this second set). It’s not exactly Bad Army but more distinctly average.

POPSCORE: 6/10

What am I talking about? Dad's Army (2016) movie
Where can I find out more? http://www.dadsarmymovie.co.uk/
If you liked this try: The original TV series, Dad's Army, the movie Dad's Army (the original one), M.A.S.H, Hot Fuzz.