Warcraft: 8 Things It Actually Did Right

Before release, many were hyping Warcraft to be the saviour of video game adaptations, which has historically been almost universally terrible. Helmed by director Duncan Jones (whose previous films Moon and Source Code have been lauded by critics), fans hoped Warcraft would usher in a new age of video game movies, while also reinvigorating the fantasy genre.

The response to Warcraft has been mixed at best and awful at worst. This isn't just a case of high-brow critics misunderstanding a popcorn movie, negative opinions have been fairly widespread.

Yet, despite all this, Duncan Jones is a competent, talented director, and the movie is not without merit. In fact, there are a bunch of the things Warcraft does that deserve praise and recognition.

Though the film may not come together in the end to form a masterpiece, here are eight things Warcraft actually did right.

It's clear that director Duncan Jones primarily intended Warcraft to be a solid piece of fantasy cinema that stood on its own two feet. One of the worst things a video game adaptation (or any adaptation from another source, really) can do is chuck in a bunch of overt references to things only fans of the source material will understand.

Done with tact and reverence, these can be incredibly rewarding, but too often they're just confusing to non-fans and the uninitiated. In Warcraft, however, the fan service is practically blink-and-you'll-miss-it stuff. There's an extremely brief shot of a Murloc, one of the most amusing mob enemies in the series, complete with its distinct gargle.

There's also a meeting stone, an item used to gather a party together in World of Warcraft before initiating an instanced dungeon. That's not to mention the clever use of the levelling up animation at one point, and then there's some brief - yet awesome - musical motifs. For a series with such a dense history and lore, the film handled its abundance of fan moments well.