New Movie "Warcraft"

[CosmicBob]

Much better than I thought it would be, but my expectations were not very high to start with. I've never played the game so I don't know what relation this story is to the game. But the story was somewhat typical for a Sword & Sorcery movie. It was better than that horrible Dungeons and Dragons movie. Plus there was a blatant Biblical reference! I didn't expect that!

The one thing that I kept thinking though is that the protagonist race are called "orcs". Some of them are supposed to be sympathetic and they do manage this. But how do they get to call them "orcs"? Didn't Tolkien basically make that word up? With some older references, but I thought he owned it and that there was a big lawsuit back in the 1970s when the D&D rules first came out and had "Orcs" (and "Balrogs") as monsters? I may mis-remember this though.

Anyway, the half-orc female character is attractive, and actually quite a funny (for the most part) character.

It's a fairly predictable story, but the execution is good. There's a gate/portal between worlds and the civilization is called "Azeroth" (I am guess the spelling) which is also the name of book by C.J. Cherryh - "The Fires of Azeroth" and the book also has a gate between worlds. The stories are very different but the coincidences did give me a little pause.

I would say this would be a good Blu-Ray movie to watch at home.

[Alatar]

The Orc name already predated Tolkien, although the modern interpretation of Orcs is heavily based on Tolkien. Warhammer called their Orcs variously Orcs and Orks, but recently, in their "Age of Sigmar" reboot have rename them as Orruks (And Goblins as Gruts). Trademark-able anyone?

[Eldy]

I enjoyed both of Jones' previous films but had a hard time getting into this one. To be fair, I've never played Warcraft or WoW. My understanding is that it's a fairly straightforward adaptation of the first game. I definitely respect his ambition though and enjoyed it more than I have many a cookie-cutter blockbuster.