As someone who has been playing World of Warcraft, the online game that inspired the movie, for over four years now, I went to see Warcraft: The Beginning with some trepidation. I haven’t been playing for nearly as long as some of WoW’s 5.5 million subscribers (as of November 2015), but even as a relatively new player I approached this film preparing to be angry. Surprisingly, I found Warcraft to be a fairly enjoyable watch.

The film begins with a focus on Durotan, chieftain of the Frostwolf clan of orcs, which is an early indication for those who were worried, that Warcraft does not follow the troubling ‘them vs us’ storyline one might expect from a film of this sort. The orcs are dealt with carefully. True to the game, they are not merely a homogenous group of brute beasts. From the beginning we are exposed not only to their violence and rage, but also to their compassion and strong sense of honour. Director Duncan Jones made the decision to use actors dressed in motion-capture suits in the place of prosthetics, which goes some way to enabling an engagement with the orcs’ plight, in particular.

Moving on to a largely pointless but mercifully short section in the Dwarf city, we find Anduin Lothar, the Queen’s brother, testing out a Dwarven gun. The location is curiously picked out for viewers with on-screen text introducing it as Ironforge, which suggests its importance despite the fact that the remainder of the film barrels on without it. As a way of introducing one of the main human characters, the scene falls flat. It is only with the abrupt transition to Stormwind, the human city, that the importance of Lothar as a character is made clear. 

Little jokes for the fans, apart from their sometimes forced nature and the inclusion of Ironforge, work well. The brief shot of a murloc, crying out in its iconic gurgle, is part of another pointless (and geographically inaccurate) transition but does elicit a quiet laugh from the gamers. The famously irritating mage ability, polymorph, which transforms the victim into a sheep, also makes an appearance to universal enjoyment.

But the opportunities for those who play the game to nit-pick and criticise are limited; as the title suggests, the action is set before the events of the online game. Whatever the motivation of this decision (and it’s not hard to take a guess), the effect of it is to narrow the film down to just what the movie poster suggests: a battle between orcs and humans. Where the game’s many races and continents are part of what add to the charm and diversity, the film contains only brief glimpses of the elves and dwarves, among others.

Of course, the wide scope that the game has achieved in over 11 years cannot be replicated on the big screen in two hours – nor would I want this to be attempted. In fact, one of the main criticisms I have of the film is its succession of character introductions: there are simply too many characters to acquaint the viewer with. Names are often lost in conversation and the positions of characters are similarly unclear at times.

Engagement with characters is rare – glimpsed in a few intimate moments in Durotan’s storyline but rarely elsewhere. Dominic Cooper is poorly suited to the role of the human king, Llane Wryn – too often he is lost in his armour, lacking the command of a king. Anduin Lothar and Garona are well-played by Travis Fimmel and Paula Patton respectively but they, like many of the more interesting characters in the film, struggle to find a connection with viewers who are consistently carried away by the demands of the plot.

Warcraft isn’t a bad film and this in itself is a triumph. There has clearly been a lot of care in the making of this film and it was honestly exciting to see the world I’ve known through the game on the big screen. It’s certainly beautiful to look at, with plenty of action, but the question is whether it’s much more than that for the casual cinemagoer. Contrary to what I expected, I find myself in a position where, as a gamer who has already been immersed in the world the film presents, I am prepared to make excuses for the Warcraft where the casual viewer would not.