The 2016 Warcraft movie is currently trending on Netflix nearly a full decade after its original theatrical release – but is this big-screen video game adaptation worth watching or not? Directed by Duncan Jones, son of David Bowie, Warcraft revolves around two heroes on opposing sides of a fantastical war: Anduin Lothar of Stormwind and Durotan of the Frostwolf clan. As a warlock named Gul’dan leads the Horde through a magical portal to invade Azeroth, the heroes must band together to fight back and restore peace.

Although it bombed at the domestic box office, Warcraft became a considerable hit on its Chinese release. It was still a commercial disappointment overall, but the box office receipts from China pushed Warcraft to become the highest-grossing video game movie (a record it still holds today). It wasn’t a huge success, but it wasn’t a total failure, either. Now, the Warcraft movie has arrived on Netflix and it’s currently trending on the site. But is it worth checking out or, like most video game movies, is it a good idea to skip this one?

Warcraft Has A 29% Score From Critics On Rotten Tomatoes

The movie’s Rotten Tomatoes audience score is 76%

The Rotten Tomatoes score for Warcraft is an interesting beast, because it has a dismal critics’ score, but a much more flattering audience score. It has a “rotten” critics’ score of 29%, indicating that just under three quarters of all film critics gave it a negative write-up. Alternatively, it has a “fresh” audience score of 76%, indicating that just over three quarters of all audience ratings were positive. The ratio of positive reviews to negative reviews is practically flipped between the critics’ score and the audience score. It’s a much more audience-friendly movie than a critic-friendly movie.

It’s hardly surprising that Warcraft was panned by critics, since that’s usually the way it goes with video game adaptations. Five Nights at Freddy’s has a critics’ score of 32%. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider has a critics’ score of 20%. Doom and Assassin’s Creed each have a critics’ score of 18%. Hitman: Agent 47 has a truly abysmal score of just 8%. There are a handful of recent exceptions – Fallout earned a near-perfect RT score of 93% and The Last of Us earned an even more near-perfect score of 96% – but, generally, critics tend to dislike video game adaptations.

Warcraft’s Reviews Favor The Visuals & Special Effects

It looks great, but the story and characters are lacking

The overwhelming majority of Warcraft’s reviews were negative. Rotten Tomatoes reports that the average rating among critics was 4.4/10, which certainly isn’t great. Most critics complained that the movie doesn’t give its audience any reason to care about what happens to the characters. The cast is full of great actors like Paula Patton and Clancy Brown and Ruth Negga, but they’re not given enough to work with to really shine. Their roles are one-note genre archetypes as opposed to well-developed, three-dimensional characters.

But there were also a handful of positive reviews, mostly praising the film’s visuals and special effects. All the critics seemed to agree that Warcraft’s storytelling and characterization were seriously lacking, but some of them felt that the movie was visually stunning enough to make up for that. It requires plenty of suspension of disbelief, but the positive reviews promise that audiences willing to suspend their disbelief will be rewarded with a really fun, escapist moviegoing experience. It lives up to the fantasy genre’s best promise: to immerse viewers in a whole new world.

Warcraft Is Still Worth Watching For Fans Of Fantasy Movies

It delivers the goods in its genre

Based on its alternative title, Warcraft: The Beginning, it seems as though this movie was intended to start a franchise. However, it didn’t make much of a splash at the domestic box office, quickly died a death, and the possibility of a sequel promptly went away. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the film failed to strike a chord with its target demographic; there are many reasons why a movie might perform below expectations, with poor marketing being the main one.

Despite its commercial underperformance and dismal critical reception, the Warcraft movie is still worth checking out for both fans of the video game franchise and fans of the fantasy genre in general. Fans of the video games will enjoy spotting all the familiar Easter eggs and fans of the fantasy genre will enjoy being immersed in a beautifully realized, otherworldly fantastical setting. Warcraft might not be a great movie, but it does have great fantasy visuals.