Warcraft: The Beginning

I'm no gamer, so I can't say with any authority if the big-budget fantasy epic Warcraft is faithful to the MMORPG (that's 'massively multiplayer online role-playing game', apparently) from which it draws inspiration.

However, I have sat through my share (and then some) of fantasy films — some of which have been magnificent, transporting experiences, others of which have been akin to time spent in a torture chamber — so I feel fairly certain in my ability to talk about where Warcraft is placed in the scheme of such things.

In short: a safe distance from the bottom of the barrel but nowhere near the top of the heap.

Directed by Duncan Jones, making a bid for mainstream clout after the well-regarded Moon and Source Code, Warcraft is admirably sincere in its aim to bring some degree of moral complexity to its tale of an inter-dimensional stoush between medieval-type humans and the monstrous, tusk-toothed orcs who've rocked up looking to lay claim to the human's world.

Not all the orcs are bloodthirsty warmongers, you see. Nor are the humans all noble defenders of what's theirs.

That sounds intriguing, sure, but it's not explored with nearly enough rigour, and what ensues is a lot of people and/or orcs sitting around planning their next move, with the odd CGI-heavy skirmish tossed in to break up the monotony. Which would be fine, but the skirmishes are just as tedious as everything else that occurs during Warcraft.

Don't look to the actors or their characters for any respite. The orcs are either righteous dullards or devious despots, and the humans — some magical, some not — are a singularly cardboard bunch (worst offender: Aussie Vikings star Travis Fimmel, smug and confused by turns in the Viggo Mortensen role).

The credits of the film refer to it simply as Warcraft, but the Australian posters for the movie optimistically give it the suffix 'The Beginning'. Sure, this movie made a total shitload of money when it premiered in China recently, so a sequel is not entirely out of the question as far as the number-crunchers are concerned. But in terms of telling a story people are interested in following, this beginning is also a dead end.