Warcraft Review – 4 Ups And 6 Downs
4. The Editing Undoes The Orcs
I usually dont like to bring in contextual stuff into a review, but this ones too big to not. Duncan Jones has stated he cut out about forty minutes of fottage to get the movie prepped for release, something that's really hard to miss in the finished film.
It's had a big impact on the overall pacing for sure, although where its most immediately noticeable is with the orcs, managing to undermine a lot of that solid mo-cap grounding I talked about in Ups. Their personalities come across as flawed and indistinguishable, and character allegiances just jump back-and-forth from scene-to-scene; one good orc finds the time to betray both sides and suddenly our heros captured with no explanation.
Its so messy I was amazed the human characters could remember who they held grudges against (especially when you factor in the "Fel", which changes an orc's skin colour green at random intervals).