#GUARDIANS OF THE LIGHT WOW MOVIE#

I have no idea why we were ever supposed to trust Medivh as he seemed like a villain from the first fifteen minutes of the film. I have no idea why Medivh (Ben Foster) summoned the Orcs to Azeroth, or if it was a conscious betrayal or of the Fel was possessing him or something. I have no idea why Khadgar seems ridiculously powerful and is in line to become the next Guardian, despite his apostasy. I have no idea who Khadgar (Ben Schnetzer) actually is, nor what forsaking his Kirin Tor vows means. This is where everything fell apart completely for me. While actor Dominic Cooper is the only person who seems to know theyвЂ™re in a fantasy film, and acts accordingly, the character is ridiculously shallow, made of nothing but pure honor and niceties.ДЄnd the mages. Still, I liked Lothar better than King Llane Wrynn, who acts like a parody of the good and noble king, the perfect diplomat, father, husband, fighter, and friend, a character completely and utterly without flaws, who naturally sacrifices his own life in the final seconds of the film. Lothar wanders around the film, killing monstrous Orcs easily, and his final battle is a two-second fight with Orc leader Blackhand that was so short and anti-climactic, I thought it was a joke. LotharвЂ™s only true connection is to his son, who naturally, is killed by Orcs in a frustrating, ultimately unnecessary scene, as it changes fundamentally very little about the story. He has a bizarre love story arc with Paula PattonвЂ™s half-orc Garona, as the two presumably fall for each other because theyвЂ™re both good looking and really no other compelling reason (вЂњHeвЂ™s a good warriorвЂќ Garona says once, which I guess is enough). Lothar (Travis Fimmel) is our main human hero, sort of a Han Solo type, always cracking-wise and only seeming to exert 30% effort into anything at all times, yet still succeeding with ease. My main beef with Warcraft is with its human cast, which are a lackluster other-half to the more compelling Orcs (full story spoilers follow).

#GUARDIANS OF THE LIGHT WOW MOVIE#

IвЂ™m not asking for a screwball comedy, but this is a movie where people regularly say things like вЂњDarkness comes from light, light comes from darknessвЂќ with a straight face. If they didnвЂ™t want to go the вЂњdarkвЂќ route, I can respect that, but it has to be reflected in the tone of the film. I can count the number of jokes the film has on one hand, and half the cast constantly feels like theyвЂ™re dressing up forВ Halloween or acting in a school play rather than a $160M blockbuster (also, itвЂ™s weird to hear so many American accents in a high fantasy film, which I found unexpectedly unsettling). I am actually all for a more вЂњlightвЂќ fantasy world, and I realize not everything has to be grim and grit, but Warcraft always feels like it takes itself way too seriously, despite using this relatively upbeat aesthetic. It does feel like the aesthetic of the video game has been effectively translated to the screen, but that doesnвЂ™t mean the aesthetic of a cartoony, aging MMO is the right choice for a feature film. Warcraft is a bright, colorful fantasy series, which could work onscreen, but itвЂ™s so outside the norm of what weвЂ™re expecting from this genre, itвЂ™s jarring, with neon green magic spells, enormous golden lion pauldrons, and so on. But here, itвЂ™s just.well, a video game cutscene.Д«ut it isnвЂ™t onlyВ the visual effects. But in battle, things often become muddled, and youвЂ™ll miss the flesh and blood of LOTRвЂ™s Orcs, which result in more physically compelling fight sequences.

Some of the CGI is the best youвЂ™ve ever seen, as its Orcs feel like real characters rather than digital constructs when engaged in conversation. In other words, I wasnвЂ™t just going to like it because of its homages and accurate representations of characters and places from the games.ДЇor me, all of this starts with the aesthetics.

But IвЂ™m not so entwined in Warcraft itself that it colors my opinion that way. IвЂ™m a huge video game fan and I desperately want a big budget video game movie like this to be good and succeed. So actually, I do think this all adds up to a pretty unique perspective.

Lately I have been playing a lot of Hearthstone, but you wonвЂ™t exactly learn too much Warcraft lore from doing that. I skipped World of Warcraft entirely, one major game IвЂ™ve simply never gotten into, partially because I tell myself I donвЂ™t like MMOs, partially because I know IвЂ™d probably get hopelessly addicted to it. I played a lot of the RTS games, but that was well over a decade ago, so I donвЂ™t recall much about the plots of those initial games. While I am certainly a вЂњcoreвЂќ gamer (I do this for a living), my experience with Warcraft and its lore is limited. Since everyone wants to know your gamer вЂњcredentialsвЂќ up front, here's my angle.

Guardians of the light wow