Feckless Leader's Warcraft Movie Review

imgs: Legendary

Note: this review contains some plot [SPOILERS]. If you would like to avoid any mention until you see the film yourself, how about this older piece I wrote about how World of Warcraft could abandon the subscription model. Also, I've never reviewed a movie before, for fun or otherwise.

Prior to the two showings I went to on Friday, one in 3D and one in standard, I spent an indecent amount of time panning a wide range of critical opinions and held those criticisms fresh in my mind during both viewings. I'll even say I went into the theater a bit nervous at the first viewing, having great hope the movie wouldn't be a disappointment or worse: an embarrassment as a fan of the universe it was based on.

While definitely not a perfect film, I can state with full confidence that this movie is not this generation's Battlefield Earth, nor will it turn out to be the blockbuster flop of the summer. What plagues this film the most is the fact director Duncan Jones' original cut was shortened by 40 minutes for theatrical release. Perhaps lesser of a plague is that this movie is based on a video game, an inescapable fact that had many of my friends saying the previews "looked cool" while wondering if it was a movie made for them or just fans of the games. This is a movie that players of the game(s) should absolutely love, and also provides a enjoyable experience for folks looking for a fresh, action-packed and visually stunning fantasy film.

Setting/Cinematography

This is an absolutely gorgeous movie. If you dug the flick but have not seen it in 3D, go do it! Unless 3D makes you queasy, then don't. For me, it is hands down the best use of 3D I have seen. Most of the time those movies aim to do something gimmicky like stick a plant frond or a lightsaber in your face, but not with Warcraft. Jones' use of the tech seems to focus on adding more depth to each scene. While some of the action suffers from the standard 3D blur effect, the vast majority of the time I'd forgotten I had the glasses on.

Orc rendering is a thing of beauty, with more attention given to the named orcs in the movie. Even though the CGI orcs who make up the horde are reportedly varied in their makeup and assembly, they still feel like the Uruk-hai from Tolkien's universe, if less mindless. And I'd argue this isn't a bad thing: with a main character sheet so large, introducing more key players like Killogg Deadeye and Grom Hellscream would further muddy the waters (though if you're watching closely both have cameos).

The various settings throughout Azeroth are keenly representative of their in-game counterparts, from the exterior of Dalaran and the library of Karazhan, to the interior of Stormwind's throne room. While World of Warcraft's art style tends to be over the top and boxy, the architecture fit well within this world and didn't distract from the movie.

The movie features a healthy dose of magic, which for the most part is rendered believably. There are a couple of shots featuring Khadgar and Medivh that remind me of bad television CGI. A bit cringe-worthy, but I didn't think the largely-CGI film would make it all the way through unblemished.

Characters

The movie opens with a scene that features a short skirmish between a man and a green-skinned orc, though the shot ends before we can see the aftermath (we're led to assume the man has been smashed into paste). We then cut to Durotan, orc Warchief of the Frostwolf Clan, and his wife Draka in their tent. I thought the juxtaposition between the fearsome orc in the previous scene and the humanity we're shown in Durotan and Draka served well to illustrate to the audience that this was not going to be the average good guys vs. bad guys movie (if it hadn't already been apparent through the trailers).

Throughout the next quarter of the film as the plot develops, we're introduced to the rest of the movie's major players, a fairly large ensemble: Orgrim Doomhammer, Blackhand, King Llane, Lady Taria, Gul'dan, Garona, Anduin Lothar, Callan Lothar, Khadgar and Medivh, as well as a few ancillary characters who have relatively small yet recurring presences throughout the movie. While this a fraction of the number of characters Lord of the Rings wanted audiences to care about, those movies had the luxury of longer runtimes with the story unfolding over three installments, something the source material for Warcraft could have supported. Character development is a bit hampered due to the constraining length of the film, and as a result there could have been more depth across the board, even if there were no major disappointments.

Based on trailer footage, I went in skeptical of Dominic Cooper's King Llane and Paula Patton's Garona. I thought the former would be a bad casting choice, and the latter wouldn't provide a convincing performance. I was wrong on both counts. Cooper fits well as the benevolent and wise king of the Alliance, and Patton portrays Garona as a hardened outcast loved by neither the orcs or the humans. There is a particular scene where a dejected Garona asks Durotan if the Frostwolf Clan will accept her among their ranks, and Durotan replies that she is safer with the humans. Even though the movie could have explored its characters further to foster greater audience investment, this was a poignant moment where I really felt for Garona and her status as an outsider to both worlds.

Durotan, brought to life by Toby Kebbel, gives one of the movie's best performances. To me that feels like saying Andy Serkis' Gollum gave a better performance than Elijah Wood in Lord of the Rings, but it's true in this case. The level of detail Duncan Jones and ILM were able to capture and portray on-screen is absolutely stunning. While there were a few CGI elements that jolted me out of the film, orc rendering was not one of them. In fact, the orcs translate so well that they at times come across as more realistic than the humans. It feels like Jones placed extra emphasis on making the orcs relatable, which is shown particularly in the interactions between Durotan, Draka and Orgrim. As a consequence sometimes their human counterparts come across a bit flat.

Daniel Wu's Gul'dan serves as a twisted and believable villain, but unlike Rob Kazinsky's Orgrim Doomhammer and Kebbel's Durotan, I cannot find the actor beneath the CGI. Still, Wu provides a solid performance, and fans of the game may be surprised by the scene where Gul'dan engages in some good ol' hand-to-hand combat. I'd always thought he was a decrepit and diseased old orc who could stand only with the aid of a staff. Still, the scene worked.

Rounding out the human performances were Ben Foster's Medivh and Ben Shnetzer's Khadgar. Foster's approach to Medivh has you wondering (by design) just what the frick he's really up to the whole time (until, of course, you find out exactly what's been going on). Schnetzer brings an earnest portrayal of the bumbling young mage Khadgar, and in one scene provides the most over-the-top and comical game reference for fans familiar with the Warcraft universe.

The one character portrayal that didn't resonate with me was Clancy Brown's Blackhand. Though it was neat to see how he gets his "black hand" this time around, he feels rather like the hollow, standard lieutenant villain seen in Hollywood movies: a brute, unthinking enforcer blindly following the orders of his deranged boss. I can understand, based on the original lore, why they chose to feature Blackhand instead of someone like Deadeye or Hellscream, but to the casual viewer his inclusion may not seem to serve many purposes other than to have another recognizable evil face on screen. Out of all the named orcs, his CGI rendering was the poorest, which is too bad since just by looking at Brown's looming presence as an actor one might think he'd make a great orc.

Plot

Things develop quickly and there aren't many lulls between action scenes. Dialogue tends to be short and to the point, and often serves to move the plot forward at the expense of greater character development. Again, that's part of the consequence of having to shear the movie down to approximately 120 minutes, but also because the source material is so dense and full of nuance.

Since Jones' approach to the movie sees the conflict through the lens of both the orcs and the humans, there is little time for wasted exposition. Stakes need to be heightened for all characters on both sides of the war in time for the climactic battle. Normally a director would have a good 90 minutes to do this, but with two sides to the conflict this is halved for each, and we're sometimes shown rather hastily what a certain character has to lose in the stakes game. Anduin Lothar's non-game-lore son Callan's presence is an example of this and tells the audience that Lothar has more to lose than a mere battle. It feels simultaneously forced, but necessary: we know our humans fight for Azeroth's salvation, but it can be difficult at times to understand why.

With the orcs, we're explicitly told that their home world is dying, but aren't shown too much. As a fan of the game, I know exactly what this means and what it looks like, but I can see how a casual viewer might have a hard time conceptualizing how bad things were in order for the orc clans to look for an escape---an escape that involved invading and enslaving a new world. And it isn't until the orcs have arrived on Azeroth that Durotan's Frostwolves begin to realize that wherever Gul'dan's magic goes, death follows. Perhaps this is why the orcs, specifically the Frostwolves, felt like richer characters, since their obstacles for survival became two-fold in that moment: overcome/cooperate with the human resistance and escape the enslavement of Gul'dan's fel magic.

Fans of the game universe know the essentials of this story, but the lore has been tailored for blockbuster digestion. As I mentioned above, the film features new characters in Callan Lothar and Ladia Taria, the wife to King Llane whose existence we knew of but nothing else. There are also some character deaths that play out quite differently from how they happen in the game lore. The changes do add a greater immediate impact in the film and the fates of several characters are resolved to satisfying ends, even if they differ from the original tale.

The movie's final few minutes are hopeful in that they hint that this is just the beginning (in fact, the movie is officially titled Warcraft: The Beginning in international markets). This is a bold move. In a greater context where Warcraft: The Middle and Warcraft: The End are sure things, it makes perfect sense. But knowing the fate of those two films rests solely on the success of this one makes the scenes just a tad bittersweet. For a non-seasoned viewer, it isn't the Frodo-tries-to-run-off-without-Sam ending we got with Fellowship of the Rings, but I can imagine it leaves them feeling like a lot is unresolved.

I attended with two friends whose only connection to the Warcraft universe was that they have friends who are connected. They didn't express any issue with plot discernment or clarity, and rather enjoyed the visual spectacle. However, they'd be hard-pressed to name every character by their head shot. So while the story is fast-paced, the environment rich, and the characters varied and numerous, the characters themselves may not have been provided enough screen time to fully resonate with a general audience.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, I feel that anyone with a deep love of the Warcraft universe will enjoy this film despite its narrative swiftness and adjustments to lore. It is a visual victory that faithfully brings the world of Azeroth to life, complete with unobtrusive nods to those who've played the game. For general fans of the fantasy genre, it should be an enjoyable ride, deserving a spot on the shelf next to other solid fantasy movies; not just the shelf for movies based on video games. It's good enough to warrant a sequel (or more). Still, I cannot help but think about what might have been, since when it's all over, the movie is constrained by its own run time: 120 minutes is simply not large enough a canvas for this moment in Warcraft history, and as a result fails to captivate on a grander scale.

Gaming Affairs: The Darkest Dungeon

Gaming Affairs happen when Blizzard titles just aren't holding my interest for whatever reason, yet I need to satisfy that gaming itch. In this series, I'll talk about games I play outside of the Blizzard universe.

In Time, You Will Know the Tragic Extent of My Failings...

The Darkest Dungeon by Red Hook Studios is a side-scrolling, dungeon-crawling RPG that has me absolutely encapsulated at the moment. Though I've only spent about eleven hours adventuring, the impression it's left on me has been significant enough that I am abandoning protocol and writing about a non-Blizzard game in this space for the first time since this blog's inception five years ago.

This isn't your typical dungeon crawler, though it has many of the standard elements: terrifying foes to battle against, a variety of items and trinkets to use on your characters, currency used to upgrade/augment characters, and a progression system. However, this isn't a hack-and-slash game; combat is turn-based, and feels surprisingly fluid---well, as fluid as turn-based combat can be. I think this is due to the variety of classes in the game in addition to the gritty-cartoony art style.

The core element of the game involves building a party of four characters and sending them into various dungeons in search of gold and family heirlooms---the former used to purchase mission supplies and rest your characters, the latter used to upgrade various buildings/areas around the Hamlet, your base of operations when not in a dungeon. The game informs you right off that your outlook is bleak, which sets a curiously dark and humorous tone. Many of your characters will most definitely perish, you're told, and death is permanent. But, like in Warcraft, it's only a setback.

Experiencing the Characters

What really made the experience feel unique was the Darkest Dungeon's approach to characters. Characters are recruited without cost at the Stagecoach, which is one of several areas/buildings in the Hamlet. There are fifteen different classes who can show up at the Stagecoach, with new characters arriving each week (note: weeks in game are measured by mission; i.e. once you embark on a mission, on your return the game will denote a week has passed). I haven't been able to get a full reading on class types, but it seems standard RPG fare: there are tanks, damage-dealers, support/buff classes and healers, though there's quite a bit of nuance given there's 15 classes spanning the four categories I've listed.

Each character, in addition to their base stats and abilities, has the chance to carry unique "Quirks," which are essentially attributes that can have either positive or negative effects. For instance, a character could feature a 15% damage increase to human enemies as a positive quirk; a negative quirk might see a character's attack speed diminished for the first round of combat. There looks to be over 100 different Quirks, so the possibility for combinations is numerous. Over time, the characters will acquire additional positive and negative Quirks (or replace ones they previously had) based on how well or poorly they perform in dungeons.

Another character element I found interesting has to do with one of the game's mechanics: Stress Level. In addition to managing your characters' health, you must also manage your character's stress levels. A character's stress is affected by all sorts of things: the simple fact of being in a dungeon, the amount of light in a dungeon, stepping on a trap, interacting improperly with "Curios" (special items) in the dungeon, taking a critical hit, and so on.

The stress bar starts at 0 and goes up to 200. If a character's stress bar reaches 100, their resolve is tested and they will either gain an affliction (debuff) or become virtuous (buff). Afflictions are interesting as they can cause your character to harm themselves, eschew heals from other party members, or outright refuse your orders. This, as you can imagine, can be detrimental to the party's success. I found myself cursing certain characters when they let stress get the best of them---even if partly my fault---and cheering those who persevered and became virtuous in the face of strong adversity.

What happens when a character's stress level maxes out? We'll find out.

Each character class also has a distinct personality which reveals itself through fully voiced chat when traversing the dungeon. It is pretty hilarious listening to your characters having a complete meltdown in the middle of a dungeon run.

All that said, the characters really bring this game to life: not only are you fighting against the monsters in the dungeons, you're also fighting against the sanity of your own characters. They end up feeling more real. This opens up an avenue for complex decision-making, and as a result there is a feeling of loss when a character dies---even if it's promised to be a relatively regular occurrence. We're so used to playing RPG's where the character's own thoughts, feelings, and motivations are assumed to be unflawed. The Darkest Dungeon turns that idea on its head, and as a result brings a peculiar amount of humanity to its characters.

Once Again, You Will Die

Part of me scoffed a bit when the gamed warned me at the outset that I should expect to lose characters. I thought to myself, yeah, the game is probably tuned to be challenging but if I play ultra-conservatively I should be able to make it through unscathed.

Nope. It's probably a challenge every player issues themselves at the onset, and I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's highly improbable you will finish this game without experiencing loss.

Screw it, it's impossible.

The first character I lost was a ranged damage-dealer. She took a couple of nasty crits which not only left her health at dangerously low levels, but it sent her stress over 100. Her resolve failed and she gained the Masochistic affliction, causing her to chip away at her own health points in addition to a handful of other actions that put the party in jeopardy. She soon found herself on Death's Door, which is the game state where the character is essentially one more hit away from death. Due to the turn-based nature of combat I was unable to toss her a heal before she was targeted by the enemy, and she fell.

Thankfully, the other three party members survived and were able to abandon the quest and flee the dungeon without further loss.

The next time I lost a character, the impact was much greater. With a group of my four most seasoned adventurers, I stumbled upon a certain monster that will wreak havoc on your party if you're unprepared---though I didn't know this at the time. I watched in absolute horror as my party became overwhelmed. Hit points dwindled and stress levels shot through the roof.

Suddenly, one of my characters died...from a heart attack. The sheer terror of the encounter maxed their stress level and their body couldn't take it anymore. They keeled right over. A bit amused at what just went down, I nonetheless thought it a good time to make a retreat, which is a command available to players engaged in battle.

Except, sometimes in the Darkest Dungeon as in life, retreating doesn't work. Instead of watching my characters flee to safety, I watched helplessly as the retreat failed and two more party members succumbed to heart attacks, while the third was finished off by the monster's attacks.

The entire party of my most seasoned adventurers was dead. And with them all of the gold and items they looted, all of the trinkets I'd equipped them with before sending them into battle, were lost.

That hurt.

Two Sides to the Coin - The Hamlet

Dungeoneering is really half the game---well, more than half, as you'll spend a majority of time in dungeons, but a key component to being successful in said dungeons is the prep phase. The entirety of the prep phase takes place in the Hamlet before a mission.

The Hamlet features a variety of buildings/areas that serve to help you on your quest to finish the game. The Stagecoach, which I mentioned above, serves as the place where you recruit new characters, increase your overall roster size, and increase the base level of recruited characters (as they initially start at level 0). Both the Abbey and the Tavern are buildings where you can send your characters to relieve stress and be cured of Afflictions they may have acquired during a mission.

But true to the game's nature, even these simple activities don't always go as planned. For instance, several times after sending a character to the Tavern for a night of drinking they decided to tie one on and refused to leave the bar. Meaning they were unavailable for the next mission.

In another hilarious turn of events, I sent a character to the Tavern for a visit to the brothel where he contracted syphilis, which ended up giving him a negative Quirk that adversely affected combat prowess.

The Sanitarium is where you can remove negative Quirks or lock in positive Quirks; however, this costs a significant amount of gold, and seems like an element that's best left alone until the later stages of the game where you're being more strategic about party composition and engaging in more difficult dungeon runs.

There are also a couple of buildings where you can upgrade your various characters' skills, as well as upgrade their armor and weapons.

Progression

This game is designed to be a slog. It is supposed to take you a while to master. After the 11 hours I've spent, I have yet to embark on a 2nd-tier mission, opting instead to play it safe by leveling up characters on 1st-tier missions.

As mentioned above, characters start at level zero and can reach up to Level 6. I'm assuming you'll need a full party of Level 6 characters in order to tackle the game's most difficult challenges. I decided to level up a core set of characters to 3, then send them in to obliterate the 1st-tier missions in an effort to stock up on heirlooms and gold. Problem was, when it was time to embark, all of my Level 3 characters refused the order. 

I scoffed once again. Apparently, the low-level quests were beneath their experience. My own characters weren't listening to me. In truth, it's a neat mechanic that prevents a player from essentially gaming the system. Without it, one could simply re-run early missions until they had max-level characters, and then smash through the rest of the game with relative ease.

Based on my experience thus far, I can only imagine the completion of this game will take several dozens of hours. And I'm cool with that.

Conclusion

The Darkest Dungeon on its surface may look like your typical turn-based dungeon crawler, but I'd argue it's the development of the characters and the randomness within that set this game apart. Fortune and Despair can strike at a moment's notice and without warning, just like in life. It laughs at the notion that "heroes always win." Heroes don't always win, and there often needs to be sacrifice before triumph. The Darkest Dungeon brings that home, and then some.

My Recommendation

If you hate turn-based combat, you're probably not going to like the Darkest Dungeon. I'm lukewarm on turn-based games, and while things definitely do get repetitive and can seem slow at times, the unpredictability in how the characters might react to any given situation breathes life into this game. I won't say this is a must-have, though you'll probably enjoy it if turn-based is your thing. At minimum, I'd toss it onto your Steam wishlist and wait for that $25 price tag to drop. Definitely worth the $10 I paid for it.

Feckless Leader's Blizzcon 2014 Takeaway

Definitely room for another banner next Blizzcon.

Five days and approximately 25 total hours of sleep later, I'm back at my desk in Wisconsin after having a wonderful time in sunny, warm California. A friend of mine asked me to dish him the highlights of the convention and I was at a partial loss---I'm still processing everything. Overall, it seemed bigger, even though according to attendance numbers it was in line with Blizzcons '13 and '11. When pressed, there are a handful of things that stood out to me. Find those below.

Blizzcon Focus

Something felt different this year, and it didn't hit me until I woke up this morning: this was a very Warcraft-less Blizzcon. Blizzcons '08 and '10 also had no new WoW news, but I wasn't there---so it's hard to say if the impression I've been left with is accurate. And that impression is that Blizzard is moving away from Blizzcon essentially being a World of Warcraft Con to a true celebration of the Blizzard Universe. To me, aside from announcing a new IP, the tournaments (Hearthstone, Starcraft and WoW Arenas) were the big events at the convention. I can only imagine future Blizzcons will feature Heroes of the Storm tournaments, if not Overwatch as well when it's ready.

If this is the way Blizzard is evolving, I think it's a really smart move. While they will indeed support World of Warcraft for years to come, they'll need to diversify to maintain their presence as a titan in the gaming industry---and to keep players coming. And I think we've been witness to this in the past year or so especially with Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm. And of course now, Overwatch. Speaking of...

I did snap some shots of gameplay when I was spectating, but word on the street is I wasn't supposed to do that so...instead here's some art from the official site!

Overwatch

I plan to expand on my impressions of the half dozen matches of Overwatch I played in a separate post, but this was obviously a huge takeaway from this year's convention. Full disclosure: I avoid shooters (FPS) like the plague. My first experience was GoldenEye, and that game left me with such severe motion sickness that I literally couldn't play it for more than a few matches. In 2002, but a few years shy of discovering World of Warcraft, a friend introduced me to Timesplitters 2, which is a FPS with PvP and a campaign where the player travels through time in order stop a menacing alien race from effing things up. I played the shit out of that game: the complete campaign on each of the difficulty levels plus the vast majority of side missions and achievements.

Overwatch is going to be a very different game from what I've described above, but the point is that I felt a deeper connection to this game akin to what I felt with Timesplitters. Granted, part of the reason is that it's a Blizzard game---I trust them implicitly---but at the same time, I had a blast in the short time I spent with Overwatch. The characters are unique and engaging, the approach classic Blizzard: easy to play, but difficulty to master.

Anduin Lothar's armor from the movie.

The Warcraft Movie

I feel somewhat guilty talking about the movie given the fact if you weren't at the con, you won't be able to see what was revealed. They screened a short teaser trailer and also included a second clip to demonstrate the level of detail they'll be going into when it comes to characters/actors in the movie, this specific shot featuring orcs. It was screened in a special Dolby Atmos theater and security was tight. People may wonder how nothing was leaked, but given the threat of a $250,000 fine for piracy, and the men in black who strolled the theater as the clip played, it's not a surprise to me that the public won't see this til Legendary/Blizzard deem it ready. Though I'll say one thing: it looks good. Real good. If you want to know specifics, email me.

The fact that we're over a year away before we see this film hit theaters when held next to how amazing it looks right now gives me great, great hope. This film will be striking in its visual beauty, ala the same way Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings held us in awe. The lynch pin in whether or not this will be the beginning of a powerful movie franchise or the end of Duncan Jones' career will be how the story plays out. And based on comments during the movie panel, this is likely just the beginning of it all.

I have high hopes.

Pano of the Hearthstone Stage.

Hearthstone as a Growing Esport

I gained a sense of this when watching qualifying matches on Twitch during the lead up to Blizzcon, but it was something else altogether watching it go down in person. We spent more time than we probably should have watching the matches, if seeing as much of the con as possible was our goal. I really enjoy watching matches play out, seeing the professionals make decisions that leave me, as a novice, scratching my head. But then! Then you see how those choices play out and you realize you're watching players who are on a completely different level. I felt like I should've brought a notepad.

The set was beautiful, the fans were into it, and the casters were entertaining and spot on. Hearthstone as an esport is only set to get bigger in the years to come and I'll be interested to see how the upcoming expansion, Goblins vs. Gnomes, will affect the metagame.