Welcome to The Morning After, where I share with you what movies I’ve seen over the past week. Below, you will find short reviews of those movies along with a star rating. Full length reviews may come at a later date.

So, here is what I watched this past week:

Warcraft

It is the goal of all filmmakers to have their movies accessible to everyone, including those not interested in the genre. Duncan Jones’ vision of Warcraft may have hoped for that outcome, but it is ultimately a film that may only be appreciated by those who are interested in the lore of the video game franchise.

Escaping their dying world of Draenor, an army of Orcs invade the peaceful Azeroth, raiding and pillaging as they collect men, women and children to sacrifice to an unknown evil and open a portal to their homeworld so their warlike people can find refuge in a new land. There are nefarious and subversive plans at work and we’re given plenty of hints as the film progresses.

The striking visuals set the film apart from many others. Even though the world has been revealed in great detail through three computer games and a massively multi-player online role-playing game, the photo realistic details that went into creating a living, breathing world are astounding. The story is a bit complex and relies sometimes too much on existing knowledge of people, places and lore. However, going in without a firm knowledge of the setting isn’t impossible. As familiar as I am with people and places, I know less about the history of the land than I want.

It’s other major weakness is a cast that struggles at times not to verge into the realm of self-parody. The actors behind the motion capture orcs give fully-committed and intense performances (with minor exceptions), but the actors behind the humans try a bit too hard to create relevance. Some of these things even out as the film progresses, but after numerous years of production delays and re-writes, a more cohesive effort would have been appreciated.