Warcraft (film)


Warcraft is a 2016 American action fantasy film directed by Duncan Jones and written by Charles Leavitt and Jones. Based on the video game series of the same name, the film stars Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Ben Foster, Dominic Cooper, Toby Kebbell, Ben Schnetzer, Robert Kazinsky, Clancy Brown, and Daniel Wu. The film portrays the initial encounters between the humans and the orcs and takes place in a variety of locations established in the video game series.
The film was first announced in 2006 as a project partnership between Legendary Pictures and the game's developer, Blizzard Entertainment. Warcraft premiered in Paris on May 24, 2016, and was released by Universal Pictures in the United States on June 10, 2016. Though it was a financial disappointment at the domestic box office and globally, and the film and script received negative reviews from critics, the film has grossed $439 million worldwide, surpassing as the highest-grossing video game adaptation of all time.

Plot

Draenor, homeworld to the orcs, is being torn apart by a mysterious force known as fel magic. Gul'dan, an orc warlock, unites the orc clans into the Horde, and creates a portal to the world of Azeroth by using fel magic to drain the life out of captive draenei. Gul'dan leads a small warband through the portal to capture and sacrifice prisoners on Azeroth to bring the Horde. Durotan, the chieftain of the Frostwolf Clan, his pregnant mate Draka, and his friend Orgrim Doomhammer join this initial warband. When the orcs arrive on Azeroth, Draka goes into labor, and Gul'dan rescues the dying baby, named Go'el, by draining the life out of a nearby deer to revive and infuse them with fel magic. The orcs raid several settlements throughout Azeroth. Anduin Lothar, commander of the human forces of Stormwind Kingdom, finds a trespassing mage named Khadgar investigating the bodies of the slain men, who explains that the bodies contained traces of fel magic. Stormwind's king, Llane Wrynn, sends them to the stronghold Karazhan to inform Medivh, the Guardian of Tirisfal, of the fel magic's presence on Azeroth.
Lothar, Khadgar, and Medivh join a scouting team following traces of fel magic, but are ambushed by orcs. Medivh uses a spell to kill the fel-corrupted orcs, leaving the Horde's warchief, Blackhand, to flee along with Durotan and Orgrim. The team takes a half-orc slave, Garona, as prisoner, but Llane releases her in exchange for loyalty to Stormwind. Garona leads the humans to spy on the orc camp, where they learn of Gul'dan's plan to bring the Horde to Azeroth. While studying a book found in Medivh's library, Khadgar realizes that Gul'dan had help from someone on Azeroth opening the portal. Despite Orgrim's objections, Durotan meets with Llane secretly to unite the Frostwolf Clan and the humans against Gul'dan, but the group is ambushed by Blackhand. Medivh forms a magical barrier to protect the humans' retreat, but Lothar's son is separated from the group and killed by Blackhand. Medivh is weakened, and Garona and Khadgar take him back to Karazhan to recover. After noticing Medivh's eyes shine green, Khadgar realizes that he has been corrupted by fel magic and that he is the one who helped Gul'dan. At the orc camp, Blackhand purges the Frostwolf Clan. Orgrim helps Draka to escape, and she sends Go'el down a river in a basket, but is then found and killed.
Durotan challenges Gul'dan to Mak'gora, a duel to the death for leadership of the orcs. During the fight, Gul'dan violates the honorable combat rules by draining the life out of Durotan with his magic, killing him and earning the disapproval of the orcs watching, and he empowers Blackhand with the same magic. Medivh, now in a half-demonic state, starts to open the portal to Draenor, and Gul'dan begins sacrificing the captured human villagers to allow the rest of the Horde to enter Azeroth. Llane leads the human army in an assault on the orc camp, while Lothar and Khadgar fight Medivh and destroy the demon that had begun to manifest on the outside. Medivh is mortally wounded, and uses the last of his strength to close the portal to Draenor and instead open a portal to Stormwind, allowing Llane to evacuate most of the freed prisoners. Medivh dies and the portal closes, leaving Llane, Garona and a small number of human soldiers to fight the orcs. Llane secretly orders Garona to kill him, bringing her honor among the orcs and putting her in a position of power to bring peace between the two races. Garona reluctantly does so and is welcomed into the Horde by Gul'dan. Lothar arrives to retrieve King Llane's body, but is confronted by Blackhand, who challenges Lothar to Mak'gora, with Lothar defeating him. Against Gul'dan's demands, the orcs, bound by tradition, allow Lothar to depart with Llane's body.
During Llane's funeral, the leaders of the other human nations, along with the high elves and dwarves, proclaim an alliance against the orcs and support Lothar as the leader of the Alliance. Elsewhere, Orgrim takes one of Durotan's tusks to one day give Go'el, and the basket containing Go'el is found by a human.

Cast

Anna Galvin provides the voice and motion capture for Draka, Durotan’s mate and the mother of Thrall. Callum Keith Rennie portrays Moroes, the caretaker of Karazhan and Medivh’s assistant. Terry Notary provides the voice and motion-capture for Grommash Hellscream, the orc chieftain of the Warsong Clan, though the part is listed in the credits as Peon. Notary also served as stunt coordinator and movement coach for the film, working with cast members Kebbell, Kazinsky, Brown, Wu and Galvin on their portrayals of the orcs, and with Foster on his portrayals of magic. Michael Adamthwaite appears as King Magni Bronzebeard, the dwarf ruler of Ironforge. Glenn Close makes an uncredited appearance as Alodi, an ancient mage locked in an artifact within Dalaran, described as "the Guardian before there was a Guardian". In the comics, Alodi was the first Guardian of Tirisfal and a male half-elf, while the character in the film is closer to that of Aegwynn, Medivh's mother. Chris Metzen, who served as a co-producer and uncredited story writer for the film, and is the Senior Vice-President of Story and Franchise Development at Blizzard Entertainment and the voice of Thrall in the Warcraft franchise, makes an uncredited cameo appearance as a turbaned perfume vendor on the streets of Stormwind Kingdom.

Production

Development and pre-production

The project was officially announced in May 2006 with Blizzard initially wanting it to be set in the universe of the real-time strategy video game from 1994. This setting was later dropped because Blizzard decided that it would be too similar to The Lord of the Rings. Initially scheduled for a 2009 release, the film would not see a release in that year. By Comic-Con 2011, the film was announced to still only be in the development stage.
to promote the film.
Uwe Boll made a bid to direct, but was turned away by Blizzard, who he claims to have said, "We will not sell the movie rights, not to you… especially not to you. Because it's such a big online game success, maybe a bad movie would destroy that ongoing income, what the company has with it." Sam Raimi was initially attached to direct, but was replaced by Duncan Jones in January 2013. Upon coming aboard, Jones immediately voiced his displeasure at the script, which he stated "was the stale fantasy trope of, humans are the good guys, monsters are the bad guys". With Blizzard's approval, Jones altered the story so that "It's 50-50." Jones also faced personal struggles during filming, as his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer soon after Jones took over, and his father, David Bowie, died from cancer late in production. Jones thus summed up the challenge by telling The New York Times, "My film started and ended with cancer." At San Diego Comic-Con International in July 2013, a concept trailer was presented, featuring a battle between a human and an orc.
Paul Dano, Travis Fimmel, Anson Mount, and Anton Yelchin emerged as the frontrunners for the lead role, with Fimmel winning the role in October 2013. On December 4, 2013, the main cast of the film, consisting of Fimmel, Ben Foster, Paula Patton, Dominic Cooper, Toby Kebbell and Robert Kazinsky, was announced. Idina Menzel, Debbie Gibson, Julie Delpy, Alison Eastwood and Leighton Meester were also considered for the role of Garona Halforcen. On December 14, 2013, Universal added Daniel Wu and Clancy Brown to the cast. In early March 2014, newcomer Burkely Duffield joined the cast.

Filming

Principal photography began on January 13, 2014, and lasted for four months, finishing on May 23, 2014. Filming took place primarily in Vancouver, among other locations. Post-production lasted twenty months. Regarding the use of computer-generated imagery, Jones said, "It's a tool like any other. It can be done well and it can be done shit. The best CGI has you forgetting it's CGI, and accepting the visual as whatever it is supposed to be—like props. No one has an issue with props in film, do they?" Cinematographer Simon Duggan stated the film had a long prep of about 12 weeks, in addition to the 18 weeks of shooting.

Music

Warcraft: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack. This music was composed by Ramin Djawadi and released on June 10, 2016. Djawadi was hired by Jones and Legendary Pictures in October 2014. The vinyl version of the soundtrack was released on September 5, 2016.

Release

Warcraft was set to be released on December 18, 2015, but following the announcement of the coinciding release of , the release was pushed back to the following year. The film premiered at the Le Grand Rex in Paris on May 24, 2016. It was released in the United Kingdom on May 30, 2016, in the United States on June 10, 2016 and in Australia on June 16, 2016,

Home media

Warcraft was released on digital download on September 13, 2016, and was released on Blu-ray, Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D and DVD on September 27 in the United States and Canada. Select editions of the physical release include a digital copy of World of Warcraft along with digital bonus codes for other Blizzard games to tie-in with the film.

Reception

Box office

Warcraft grossed $47.4 million in the United States, and $391.7 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $439 million. Given its $160 million net production budget, The Hollywood Reporter reported the film needed to earn at least $450 million to break-even. In July 2016, the magazine reported the film lost the studio around $15 million, although noted several executives put the losses in the $30–40 million range.
Worldwide, it is the highest-grossing film of all time based on a video game. It is the first video game film to cross $400 million in ticket sales globally. The film joined Terminator Genisys as the only American films to earn $400 million worldwide without also crossing $100 million in North America, and also one of the few Hollywood releases to earn $100 million in China without making $100 million in the United States.

United States

In the United States and Canada, Warcraft opened on June 10, 2016, alongside The Conjuring 2 and Now You See Me 2, and was projected to gross around $25 million in its opening weekend. Variety reported that the film was generating only moderate interest among U.S. moviegoers, which could possibly hurt its box office performance stateside, with poor reviews and competition from the aforementioned films and also affecting its performance. The film grossed $3.1 million from 2,632 theaters in its Thursday night previews and $10.7 million on its first day. It went on to gross $24.2 million, finishing second at the box office behind The Conjuring 2. It fell by 70% on its second weekend, earning $7.2 million.

Outside US

Warcraft was released in a total of 65 countries from June to August 2016, and international territories were expected to produce better results than in North America. It opened across 20 countries in the week ending May 29, 2016, including France, Germany and Russia, two weeks ahead of its North American debut, and was estimated to gross around $20 million in its opening weekend. Internationally, it faced competition from Alice Through the Looking Glass, ', ', The Conjuring 2, Finding Dory, as well as the UEFA Euro 2016 in most European countries throughout its run. It opened on Thursday, May 26, earning $9.3 million from 11 markets. On Friday, May 27, the total rose to $16.3 million. In its opening weekend, it grossed $31.7 million from 20 markets, of which $2.1 million alone came from 73 IMAX screens. In its second weekend, it added $29.5 million from 28 markets, with $1.8 million delivered from 130 IMAX screens. It finally topped the international box office in its third weekend with $185.8 million, propelled by a huge opening in China.
It scored the biggest opening day of all time in Ukraine, the biggest of 2016 in Germany, the second-biggest in Russia, behind Deadpool, and Universal's third-biggest opening day ever in Sweden, behind only Fifty Shades of Grey and Furious 7. In terms of opening weekend, it opened with $10.4 million in Russia, giving it the second-biggest debut of 2016 behind Deadpool, and occupied 63% of the market share. It earned $5.8 million in Germany, $4.4 million in France, $3.4 million in Mexico, $2.8 million in Brazil, $2.7 million in Taiwan, $2.5 million in Spain and Australia, and $2 million in Italy. Turkey recorded the biggest opening weekend ever for Universal with a $1.1 million debut and the fourth-biggest in Sweden, with $1.3 million. In the United Kingdom, it came in first place with a £3.62 million seven-day opening after a close race with Out of the Shadows from 500 theaters. In South Korea, it finished in second place with $5.1 million, behind The Jungle Book, which also opened the same weekend.
In China, based on pre-sales, Warcraft was one of the country's most anticipated films of all time, and was projected to gross around $100–150 million to as high as $200 million during its five-day opening weekend. It received the widest Chinese release ever, occupying an unprecedented 67.5% of the screens available in China, besting the previous record of Furious 7s 62.8% of screens. It pre-sold $2 million worth of tickets twelve days before its premiere on June 8, which rose to a staggering $20.7 million by June 6, the third biggest of all time, behind Furious 7 and '. It broke the IMAX pre-sales record with $8.2 million for the opening weekend, breaking 's $3.7 million, set a month prior. However, the film faced competition from X-Men: Apocalypse, which opened on June 3, five days before its debut. It began its theatrical run on Tuesday midnight, June 7 with across 285 IMAX screens, taking advantage of the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, where it grossed $7.6 million. It opened on June 8, earning $46 million on its opening day to record the second-biggest opening day for a Hollywood film, behind Furious 7. It broke the biggest non-weekend opening-day record, besting the previous record-holder Avengers: Age of Ultron, the biggest IMAX midnight run, and the biggest IMAX opening-day gross. On its second day, it added $44.5–46.5 million, breaking the record for the biggest Thursday gross, previously held by The Mermaid, and the biggest two-day gross for a Hollywood film. Through its opening weekend, it earned $156 million in five days – $64.5 million in three days – setting records for the biggest opening weekend of all time in the country, eclipsing the previous record held by , and the fastest film to gross 1 billion renminbi in 117 hours, eclipsing Furious 7s previous record of 120 hours. Moreover, it broke IMAX record for the biggest Friday, the fastest three-day gross and the biggest opening weekend. Warcraft gamers made up 85% of the total attendees during its opening weekend. It has so far grossed a total of $27.5 million in IMAX ticket sales, the third-highest for a Hollywood film in the country, and $221 million there.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 28% based on 228 reviews with an average rating of 4.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Warcraft has visual thrills to spare, but they – and director Duncan Jones' distinctive gifts – are wasted on a sluggish and derivative adaptation of a bestselling game with little evident cinematic value." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 32 out of 100 based on 40 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.
Geoff Berkshire of Variety criticized the film's attempts at adapting a source material with "inherent ridiculousness" with regard to how the original game series was not meant to have a very deep narrative: "t's an unwaveringly earnest film that never owns up to exactly how campy every character, every conflict and every new realm truly is." A.A. Dowd of The A.V. Club wrote that, "To watch Warcraft is never to be transported, but to wade through a thick morass of mythology, exposition, gaudy light-show effects, half-assed character development, and formulaic franchise groundwork," while describing director/cowriter Duncan Jones as "a talented sci-fi fabulist who’s fallen screaming into the same CGI abyss that consumed Peter Jackson during his unfortunate Hobbit cycle." Helen O'Hara, reviewing for the UK-based GQ Magazine, stated that although the film itself is a "strong adaptation" of Warcraft, the script diminishes the film's impact: "The problem is that it just can't escape those cod-fantasy roots. There are too many mysterious proper nouns being thrown into conversation and at least 12 major characters competing for space … e're zipping from one to another here so quickly that they only have time for the most portentous, and sometimes clichéd, dialogue."
Conversely, Sheri Linden of The Hollywood Reporter gave a more favourable review, citing the performances and story as highlights. Brian Truitt of USA Today also gave praise towards the acting, particularly Kebbell's performance as Durotan. "Kebbell’s performance showcases the nuances of a father gripped by the no-win situation of having no home and his family in constant danger." Truitt also stated that he found it wasn't necessary for viewers of the film to have prior knowledge of the Warcraft series to enjoy the film.

Accolades

Possible sequel

With the film's storyline leaving Warcraft open to possible sequels, Jones has expressed interest in a sequel to the film, likely to be adapted from , the second video game in the Warcraft franchise. On June 18, 2018, Jones tweeted that the chance of Warcraft getting a sequel "doesn't look good".