Netflix Fantasy Epic Flop Deserves A Second Chance

There are plenty of strange and wondrous creatures on Azeroth—Dwarves, Elves, Trolls, Tauren—but there aren’t any Orcs until the fierce warriors force their way there.

The Orcs’ homeworld of Draenor is dying and the only salvation they can find comes in the form of the warlock Gul’dan (Daniel Wu), who commands the same demonic magic that is destroying the Orcs’ home.

With no other option left to them, the Orcs of Warcraft accept the fel “gifts” Gul’dan bestows upon them and travel through the Dark Portal to Azeroth.

As the Orcs raid human settlements in Azeroth, looking for more souls to fuel Gul’dan’s magic, they draw the attention of the human champion Anduin Lothar (Travis Fimmel) and the outcast mage Khadgar (Ben Schnetzer). Together they try to rally the world’s protectors, but unfortunately there’s a traitor in their midst.

One big difference between Warcraft and The Lord of the Rings is that the Orcs of the former franchise are not inherently evil. They’re more like the Klingons of Star Trek—they have a strong warrior culture, but they have a strong sense of honor and are far from the cannibalistic sadists of Tolkien’s stories.

So as it becomes clearer that Gul’dan is in league with demonic forces, the Frostwolf clan leader Durotan (Toby Kebbell) decides to negotiate with the humans in secret. When things don’t go as planned, Durotan and his clan find themselves as much in danger as the people of Azeroth.

Warcraft is far from a perfect film. Visually, for example, there are a lot of problems.

The choice to use CGI for all of the Orcs is a risky one and unfortunately to a lot of critics it made all of them look too similar to distinguish one from another.

The contrast between the Warcraft CGI characters and the rest becomes that much stranger with Garona (Paula Patton), a half-orc who—because of her mixed lineage—is the only Orc character played by an actor in makeup rather than using motion-capture.

And while much of the CGI is absolutely stunning, in comparison some of the more practical effects come off like they were scraped from the bargain bin. For example the makeup of the corrupted Medivh (Ben Foster) makes him look like a villain from a cheap ’80s horror flick.

Warcraft doesn’t boast any A-list superstars, but regardless it’s well cast, particularly on the more human side of things. Fimmel is a perfect choice for the fearless Lothar, as is Foster for the tragic wizard Medivh.

While many critics bemoaned the CGI of the Orcs, I was impressed with the humanity the animators managed to inject into them. In spite of all the big battle scenes in Warcraft, perhaps the most memorable moment to me is a calm respite between Durotan and his friend Orgrim (Robert Kazinsky) when the pair flick stones at one another and chuckle.

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Warcraft may not be as good as Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films, but it’s a fun, engaging fantasy epic that did not deserve to be as thoroughly overlooked as it has been. You can judge for yourself while it streams on Netflix.