‘Warcraft’ Movie Adaptation Flops Early Reviews despite Big Budget; Director Duncan Jones Reveals Personal Struggles on Making Film

‘Warcraft’ movie adaptation flopped in early reviews from critics. It was criticized as being too ambitious after failing to live up to the hype despite being a big-budget production. Meanwhile, director Duncan Jones opened up about his personal struggles while making the film.

According to PC Gamer, Jones’ upcoming movie adaptation of one of the biggest video games in history failed to receive favorable early reviews from critics. Variety called it “tacky” and The Wrap slammed the acting, singling out Ben Schnetzer as the only actor who gave a credible performance. Kotaku deemed the film an “unwatchable” and “soulless” fluff piece with mediocre performances from the cast, silly costumes, a cliché story, and haphazard cinematography.

Despite the negative reviews, The Hollywood Reporter considered Jones and cinematographer Simon Duggan’s storytelling efforts as satisfactory underneath the expensive practical and CGI effects.

According to Forbes, ‘Warcraft’ managed to work on a $160 million budget under production companies Legendary Pictures, Blizzard Entertainment and Atlas Entertainment. The big-budget franchise may cost Legendary and Universal Pictures should the film fail to rake in more numbers in the box office.

The upcoming epic fantasy film is set in the fictional realm of Azeroth and tells the origin story of the war between the humans and orcs. It stars Travis Fimmel as the Alliance’s leader Sir Anduin Lothar, Toby Kebbell as noble orc chieftain Durotan, and Paula Patton as half-human and half-orc Garona Halforcen.

Meanwhile, Jones revealed the personal struggles he had to deal with while making the ‘Warcraft’ film. According to the New York Times, the director admitted, “My film started and ended with cancer.”

The 44-year old, famed for his work on critically acclaimed films such as ‘Moon’ and ‘Source Code’, set to work on the film adaptation back in 2012 after his wife Rodene was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy. Towards the completion of the film, his father – the legendary musician David Bowie - succumbed to cancer at the age of 69.

The filmmaker admitted that he was initially disappointed by the screenplay. He said, “It was the stale fantasy trope of, humans are the good guys, monsters are the bad guys,” Mr. Jones said. “It just didn’t capture in my gut what made Warcraft, the idea of heroes being on both sides.”

Despite the challenges, Kebbell expressed his admiration for Jones saying that a filmmaker ambitious enough to tackle the fantasy genre is “absolutely a lion”.

 ‘Warcraft’ is an upcoming adventure-fantasy film based on Blizzard Entertainment’s bestselling video game of the same name. It is scheduled to be released on June 10, 2016 in the United States.