With the source material definitely there to give something entertaining, the hype is clearly there. What is also adding to the pressure of making sure it is good, is that Duncan Jones is the director. With his previous work of Moon and Source Code being some of the best films of the last ten years, Jones was certainly a pleasing choice with its loyal fans.
With video game movies not faring well, and that I have never played the game nor seen the trailers, I had no idea what to expect from this film. I ending up having a great time and I am already stoked for where they go next.
One thing that struck me early on was that there was going to be a lot to cover in its 2 hour duration. Whilst getting to grips with this world and trying to understand the history of it, I was dazzled by the general look of it.
As the film went on, I was certainly hooked and got invested into this story. For the rest of the film, I was just enjoying the hell out of it and felt pretty satisfied with the epic finale that leaves us open for a many sequels to come.
For someone who has never played the games, it is hard to know where to start. I must say that it looked stunning. The designs of the various landscapes and the creatures looked amazing. It is hard to impress someone with visual effects these days as we seem to take them for granted. But this film manage to use the CGI to their advantage.
One thing that I was not expecting was the haunting imagery, especially with the part of the film that involved magic and mythology. There were certain characters and moments that really spooked me and that made me see this film in a totally different way.
I also noticed that there was very little exposition, which is always great to see. Props to Duncan Jones and his team for making us figure it out for ourselves. They structured the story out really well and I was remembering various characters names well and understanding the laws of this world. There are a lot of characters to remember and I think they did a great job to introducing them.
As for the performances, some were live-action and some motion-captured. Overall, I enjoyed them and felt emotionally attached to pretty much all of them. Despite being the lead, I felt Travis Fimmel to not be that captivating as Anduin Lothar. He was ok, but certainly did not feel like the poster boy he is being billed as.
Paula Patton was pretty bad-ass as the female lead Garona. I saw her potential in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, and this further confirms how much of a physical performer she is. Ben Foster was pretty good as this mysterious wizard-like character called Medivh. Dominic Cooper felt mis-cast to me as Llane Wrynn. Ben Schnetzer was a mixed bag. At times he worked well. Other times felt as if he was more of a TV actor rather than a movie actor.
However, the stars seemed to be the motion captured performers. Lead by Toby Kebell who has had previous motion-capture work in the Planet Of The Apes franchise as Koba. He continues to shine in that line of work as Durotan. Daniel Wu was so haunting and chilling as the scary looking Gul'dan. Also have to credit to the motion-capture performances of Robert Kazinsky, Clancy Brown and Anna Galvin.
As said before, the creature designs and visual effects are its strongest positive. The heavy detail is great to look at and is up there with films like Avatar, the Planet Of The Apes franchise and The Jungle Book. The film would have been a completely different experience if the CGI was as standard as most blockbusters are. It also has possibly the best use of magic in any film, and I am including Harry Potter in this.
My only major negative was that moments of the final act felt rushed to me. It looked like some scenes were cut and we were missing some development.
Some parts that could have been improved for me were the performances and possibly the character development. But I will let the latter off, as I can tell they a lot to cover in this one to get the general films fans on-board.
I most certainly had a fun time watching a film that has a lot of things riding on this. Duncan Jones and his team have dona a great job in making non-gamers like me understand the movie whilst also pleasing the hardcore fans of this successful gaming franchise.
I am really interested to see the hate from the critics. Well for me they can do one, as they are so wrong about this one. If you love fantasy like me, then you should like it, as it reeks of it. Also, if you are unsure as its based on a video game, I would still give this a chance. It's heart is in the right place and they give it an exciting tone and it goes along at a romping pace. Coming from someone who has never played the game, I understood what was going on and felt immersed into the universe by the end of it. The characters are interesting, the visuals are absolutely fantastic, the action is exciting, there is so many haunting images that truly terrified me and its sets us up beautifully for a sequel. You will definitely see me on opening day for the next installment. I am officially a convert.
Rating: 7/10
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