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" Masterpieces are damn difficult to pull off, but\u00A0in their own way, absolute howlers are just as rare an achievement. You have to stand back and marvel when so many talented people come together to make a disaster like Warcraft, one of those perfect storms of terrible creative decisions and misjudged execution.  This adaptation of Blizzard Entertainment&amp;#039;s massively popular videogame series is part war film, part old-school fantasy extravaganza, and part cinematic catastrophe. No doubt the people who worked on this doomed ship will make good movies again in the future. But Warcraft&amp;#039;s ineptitude leaves a bruise, and the film should serve as a warning about what can happen when modern blockbusters&amp;#039; worst tendencies collide.        The film tells of the initial encounter between humans and orcs\u2014the central struggle in the Warcraft games\u2014and stars Travis Fimmel as Anduin Lothar, a noble warrior who fights for the equally noble King Llane (Dominic Cooper). We know these characters are noble because they always hold their chin slightly aloft and never, ever reveal a sense of humor. At first, the actors&amp;#039; knowingly square portrayals feel like a fun throwback to the cheesy, enjoyably wooden fantasy movies of yesteryear like Clash of the Titans. But soon, it becomes clear that Warcraft is absolutely not kidding. Director and cowriter Duncan Jones is draping the proceedings in heavy significance, which was a bad choice. Early on, the orcs invade the humans&amp;#039; tranquil land, traveling through a portal from their dying planet to colonize another. The orcs are unsmiling beasts of brute-force destruction, especially Durotan (Toby Kebbell), who just so happens to be pretty noble warrior himself. But the orcs&amp;#039; ruler, a potent shaman named Gul&amp;#039;dan (Daniel Wu), makes Durotan uneasy: Are his impressive powers, which include draining the life force of others to make himself stronger, actually the reason the orcs&amp;#039; planet is now uninhabitable? Using motion-capture technology to render the hulking orcs with expressive faces, Warcraft does have some nifty effects work. Indeed, in 3D IMAX the film immerses us in this ancient fairy-tale environment of chivalrous knights, dastardly monsters, and amped-up magic. But then there&amp;#039;s the story, which is easily predictable and utterly charmless. There are always shiny things to look at on the screen, but you still want to look away because the film is so utterly dull.  Director Duncan Jones made his name with 2009&amp;#039;s Moon, a smart, low-budget sci-fi indie that suggested he knew how to wring an emotional, engaging narrative out of a deceptively simple premise (Spoiler Alert!): a man (Sam Rockwell) learns that he&amp;#039;s actually a clone. That film&amp;#039;s handmade charm got him noticed and, as happens so often in Hollywood these days, it immediately landed him bigger projects that lacked the very qualities that made his first outing so special. His followup, 2011&amp;#039;s Source Code, was clever but also a little hollow\u2014Moon without the soulfulness. With Warcraft, we watch a filmmaker swallowed up by his movie&amp;#039;s lumbering design. There&amp;#039;s no question Jones brings a distinctive eye to Warcraft: He&amp;#039;s envisioned this imaginary realm to be a darker, more anguished version of Peter Jackson&amp;#039;s Tolkien sagas. On occasion, you get a glimpse of the swaggering, brutal epic he&amp;#039;s trying to fashion. But more often, Warcraft is a pale echo of Lord of the Rings paired with recycled bits of Avatar, brought to life by characters who are either drab or outright cringe-worthy. In the latter category, unfortunately, is the usually delightful Paula Patton. So great in Mission: Impossible\u2014Ghost Protocol, she is stuck here playing Garona, a half-orc/half-human who&amp;#039;s captured by Lothar and, in essence, domesticated by the humans. This puts Patton in the unenviable position of having to portray her character as a sort-of savage initially, which triggers all kinds of uncomfortable racist associations, one that a piece of mass entertainment this witless isn&amp;#039;t smart enough to use as commentary. Warcraft ensures that plenty of its other actors look pretty embarrassed, too. Kebbell has done terrific work in another series that goes heavy on motion capture tech, appearing as the ferocious ape Koba in Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. (There&amp;#039;s actually a faint thematic similarity between those movies and Warcraft, as both are about rival species whose most thoughtful members wonder if war is really the answer.) Playing Durotan, Kebbell gives this vicious warrior a quiet dignity that quickly signals to the audience that he&amp;#039;s not such a bad orc after all. But the filmmakers cloaked the character in such a wet blanket of dreary decency that there&amp;#039;s no audience investment in his inner conflict with the malicious Gul&amp;#039;dan. Likewise, Fimmel, Cooper, Ben Foster (as a magical Guardian protecting Llane&amp;#039;s kingdom) and Ben Schnetzer (as a restless young man with his own magical powers) are snoozers as the brave defenders of the human race. Foster in particular is waster here. From 3:10 to Yuma to Ain&amp;#039;t Them Bodies Saints, he is the sort of actor who always gives intriguingly askew, intense performances, but in Warcraft he&amp;#039;s just silly, telegraphing his character&amp;#039;s dark destiny almost from the start. (He does get the campiest makeover in the film, though, transforming into a hideous ghoul who, even then, is no fun at all.)  Gamers wonder why Hollywood rarely does right by any of their beloved properties. In the case of Warcraft, it appears that every decision was geared toward maximizing the film&amp;#039;s blockbuster-ness. You know the signs by now: Throw in a smidgeon of social relevance; Warcraft has vague pleas to respect the environment and other peoples. Slather everything with special effects that stop feeling special because there&amp;#039;s no real magic or wonder underneath. Copy the look and feel of popular movies. Be sure to leave room for sequels by creating an unresolved ending that makes the two-hour film the audience just endured feel like a mere setup for what&amp;#039;s to come. Plenty of big summer movies have ridden this done-to-death formula to box-office riches, so you can understand why filmmakers keep milking it. But if Warcraft&amp;#039;s commercial failure in some small way stirs studios to rethink their derivative tendencies, then by that measure\u2014and by that measure only\u2014this abysmal stinker will have been a success. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/movies/reviews/a21241/warcraft-review/>