‘Warcraft’ stars Ben Foster (‘3:10 to Yuma’), Travis Fimmel (‘Vikings’), and Paula Patton (‘Déjà vu’). ‘Source Code’ director Duncan Jones also helms ‘Warcraft’ and the film tells the story of what happened before the video game ‘World of Warcraft’ begins. Hence why ‘The Beginning’ is on the poster and all of the marketing material. As we all know, video game films have been the weakest genre of films for decades now, and not a one has been received well. 2016 was supposed to be the year that video game films began their rise to stardom in the Hollywood landscape. ‘Warcraft’ was this big, summer, tent pole film with a talented director behind the camera in Duncan Jones. Later this year in December we’ll be getting Ubisoft’s ‘Assassin’s Creed’ film starring Michael Fasbender. ‘Warcraft’ and ‘Assassin’s Creed’ are two of the biggest IP’s in the video game world and with talent in front of and behind the camera for both films ‘Warcraft’ was supposed to get things started for the genre. We should still have some hope for ‘Assassin’s Creed’ as (Oscar nominated) Fassbender doesn’t pick bad projects and director Justin Kurzel was nominated for the Palme d’Or (the highest prize) at the Cannes Film Festival for ‘Macbeth’. ‘Warcraft’, unfortunately is a stale, hollow, lifeless film that gives us as an audience nothing to care about. All of the characters are one-dimensional, horribly acted, and painfully forgettable. The only character that I genuinely cared about seeing was the evil Orc Gul’dan and the main orc Durotan. Travis Fimmel and Ben Foster sleepwalk through their roles and this hurts because Foster is one of the most underrated actors working today. He isn’t in much but if anyone was introduced to him through ‘Warcraft’ I feel bad because he isn’t good at all in this film. Fimmel is likely just another made for TV actor who can’t transition from the small screen to the big screen. Paula Patton’s performance isn’t completely horrible but her character Garona is a half-orc, half-human hybrid that serves no real purpose of being a hybrid. I’m not sure what Jones was going for with that character and it came across as he tried giving us a character that can play both sides but it was just another stale, lifeless character in the film. ‘Warcraft’ was sorely missing a likable, seasoned, actor who can bring some gravitas to the film. Maybe someone along the lines of a Sam Rockwell or Jake Gyllenhall could have brought that charm to the film. Jones has worked with both actors previously and I’m lost as to why Jones and Universal Studios went with virtually unrecognizable leads. Where the film shines is in the visual effects department and some of the action beats. Early on I had trouble buying into the CG but as the film progressed the more excited I got to see the spectacle they were going for. Some of the dwarves and a clay monster looked horrible but the design of the orcs were very well done. Action-wise, this film delivers some average excitement but most of the time it felt very clunky in nature. This should have been expected when big orcs were combating against humans, but could you at least have tried to make it a bit more cohesive and fluid? These are the only positives this film has to offer and it is really unfortunate considering the fantasy genre is practically in a coma since Lord of the Rings ended its run over a decade ago. In conclusion, ‘Warcraft’ is a huge disappointment when you consider what was at stake for the future of Hollywood. Had ‘Warcraft’ been a massive hit critically then the future of Hollywood would be changed for the next decade or two. We’d see an influx of video game films being made from every studio that has the rights to the respective IPs. ‘Assassin’s Creed’ is now the genre’s last hope to be successful. IF ‘Assassin’s Creed’ is a failure critically and financially then there is no hope left for video game films. I don’t understand how it is so hard to make a video game film at least average in quality. Is it because we’re allowing fans of these games to helm the projects? Well no that can’t be the case because we’re allowing fans of Star Wars to helm that universe and ‘The Force Awakens’ was massive hit critically and financially. Is it just a scenario where video game films are doomed to fail forever? What is it? Video game films are Hollywood’s biggest enigma currently and ‘Assassin’s Creed’ is the genre’s last hope of being successful. But even then if the film succeeds they will need to hit the mark one or two more times to guarantee the genre is capable of holding its own. Hardly bearable, stale, and hollow, ‘Warcraft’ is one of 2016’s worst offerings to date and bodes no good news to the future of a dead genre. If you're a fan of the game then check it out because it seems like fans are enjoying the film a lot. ‘Warcraft’ gets a 3.5/10