The characters of the popular PC video game get the big-screen treatment, in the latest game-to-film adaptation with a lot of hopes on it. “Warcraft” revolves around the peaceful realm of Azeroth. As the beautiful land stands on the brink of war, its civilization faces a fearsome race of invaders: orc warriors fleeing their dying home to colonize another. Led by Gul’Dan (Daniel Wu), a sinister orc warlock with the Shadowmoon Clan, and leader of the vengeful Shadow Council, the warlock wields powerful magic on a thirst for power. As a portal opens to connect the two worlds, one army faces destruction while the other faces extinction. From opposing sides, two heroes (Travis Fimmel, Dominic Cooper) are set on a collision course that will decide the fate of their family, their people, and their home. “Warcraft” is written and directed by Duncan Jones, and is rated PG-13 for sequences of intense fantasy violence.

When I was a little kid, I remember my friends trying to teach me the rules for Dungeons and Dragons, and being extremely bored with it. That very same feeling came back to me during my viewing for “Warcraft”. This film is a colossal waste of epic proportions, and a lot of it stems from the controversy that is currently resignating with fans of the game. The movie takes a game that has very little character backstory to begin with, and then tries to make it into a two hour feature film to give it that big screen kind of feel. While I certainly get why these fans would be upset, there isn’t much to scoff at, as this movie has very little character backstory, and what little it has doesn’t happen until about midway into the film. That is how I knew that I was getting myself into some real nasty territory with the film. Most introductions to the film kick us off in a way that explains things to audiences who aren’t familiar with the games and its colorful characters, but this movie put us right in the middle of things. This is very daring territory for the film to take, and it doesn’t pay off well with me struggling to even stay remotely interested throughout this movie. It’s all just very grim, and very little feels authentic or inspiringly fun about the project.

First of all, there are no fewer than twelve protagonists that the film has us follow. Wasting time on their character narrations alone would take up most of the first hour, so instead the film decides that we will get to know them as time goes on. What doesn’t work about this is that with each character splitting equal run time, and not one of them feeling like a lead character, the film sacrifices scene-to-scene transitional flow in such a choppy method of storytelling. I never thought I would say this, but for a film that has as many characters as this one does, perhaps a director’s cut might be the only way to watch this film. At least then you would be able to comprehend some of the creative gaps that the movie feels like you should already know. This cut of the movie will leave an already struggling audience lost in the woods searching for a compass of clarity. On top of this, the film just kind of feels like it’s making up the rules as it goes along, like a video game itself. Video games in general have gotten nothing but a negative reaction in movie history, and to watch “Warcraft” is to see exactly why. It takes what little story from an already solid game franchise, spices it up with the mood of whatever is popular today (Game of Thrones), and then mashes together a bunch of ideas and thought processes that leaves its audience in such a jumbled state of mind that they couldn’t possibly be able to follow the rocky path laid out. In terms of storytelling, this is one of the most alienating screenplays that I have ever come across, and truly makes me as a moviegoer feel like I’m not cool enough to be a part of the “Warcraft” club. Good riddance.

Not everything is completely lost however, as the CGI animation certainly offers the audience a refreshing and colorful palate full of definition that is leaps and bounds ahead of its story. What I greatly adored from Duncan Jones presentation is that he clearly is a fan of the looks and feels of the games. The backdrops are gorgeous here, and certainly articulate the kind landscapes that the series is notably famous for. The human interaction isn’t even quite bad when standing next to such computer generated effects. In most films that are dominated by computer backdrops, the human actors will sometimes look out of place either by off-shade lighting or green screen lines around the outline of said actor. “Warcraft” thankfully doesn’t have this problem, and it gives the audience at least something pretty to look at.

As for the performances, not a lot stands out here. Dominic Cooper is his usual monotone delivery. Cooper just kind of slugs through this payday, and not much ever feels believable about his performance. Ben Foster is far too good for this muck, but he does invest the most into Medivh. Sadly, the character is only interesting when he is possessed. What does that say about his novellization? Toby Kebbell returns from the depth of last year’s awful “Fantastic Four” offering to give us a performance in this film as Durotan that is every bit as dull as his offending Dr Doom was in that film. The good news is that “Warcraft” won’t be the worst thing he’s ever done. The only performance with even a remote bit of heart comes from Travis Fimmel, who as Lothar really communicates the human side of this array of characters. His fight to save his kingdom feels like the only piece of honest storytelling that we receive, and that’s mainly because Fimmel doesn’t flounder an opportunity by playing it safe. His character was the only one who incorporated some comedy into his lines, and I frankly wouldn’t have minded the camera being left on him more.

Overall, “Warcraft” is another failed opportunity for the video game to big screen history, setting the stage beautifully for this summer’s “Assassin’s Creed” to be the saving grace. This one looks terrific, but is simply too overcrowded and incomprehensible. Jones offering feels like a punishment instead of a thank you to the legions of fans who have spent countless dollars on this franchise.

3/10