Dragonfyre

Yeah, ORC WARS isn't too bad for what it is: a really cheesy and unbelievable action-packed B-movie that happily rips off the look of the orcs from THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy. I mean, the orcs in this film are EXACTLY the same as in those Peter Jackson movies: so much so that if I worked for Weta Workshop I'd be tempted to sue. The orcs are the most entertaining part of this movie, but I'm not too sure about their presence in the real, contemporary world.

I mean, seeing orcs interacting with modern-day human characters, farmhouses, and vehicles is just plain odd and realism is never going to be a priority in that situation. Still, given that this is a B-movie with the usual problems (absolutely fake looking CGI fire, fake looking black blood clouds for the orcs, rubbish acting and a non-existent script) it's actually quite entertaining by the standards of the sub-genre.

ORC WARS incorporates an absolute ton of action into its running time, particularly in the second half which involves a running battle between humans and orcs. Sure, a lot of it is repetitive, but they even manage a dragon in the budget, which is quite impressive. By the standards of normal film this is a complete waste of time, but as a B-movie you can do much, much worse.

Former soldier John Norton buys a ranch in the middle of nowhere (shot in Utah) and is surprised to find that his new neighbors are an elf princess and an army of Orcs chasing her. He happens to live next to a gate to another world and is destined to become guardian of the gate. Not an easy task, as evil creatures are coming through every day. Since the Orcs do not know guns, though, they think Norton is a sorcerer with magic weapons, but when he defends the princess, the Orcs summon a powerful ally to strike back: a fire-breathing dragon...

Despite the low budget, simple countryside setting and unknown actors, this was surprisingly good fun. The script has a great sense of humor (for example when Katie gets a gun to fight the Orcs because they wrecked her car), nobody takes it too seriously, and the overall feeling is like watching an 1980s trash classic rather than a new digital production. Nothing wrong with that!

As a lower level film maker myself I see many small issues that are distracting from an otherwise entertaining low budget movie. (the "after effects" gunshots/muzzle flashes/ejecting cartridges) coming from air soft style or resin prop guns. this can be distracting as its done way too much, and if they would have rented an armorer, a few real weapons and given more training to the actors on the use of them (for example you don't fire a barrett .50 from the hip while kneeling on a rooftop and actually expect to hit something) it would have helped keep the distractions down. and people watching the movie rather than questioning what they just saw.

the acting is not too...bad, a bit more emotion, a little less dumb-a$$/redneck stereo typing and some back-story would be helpful. the camera work is adequate but depending on the shooting conditions it seemed they the must have had a very limited amount of space to film the battle scenes in. with a little more thought and camera work i feel that the limited space used could be made to look like a lot more... it reminded me of shooting in someones backyard. one way or the other that's falls back on the producer for choosing the spot and the DP for not using what he had to its fullest.

as for the battle scenes, if the intent was to show overwhelming orc forces than they should have hired more extras, recycling eight people in rubber masks at a time throughout the movie just didn't work for me.

I am unsure what they spent the 1.5 mil on for the production, I have seen better production value for about a quarter mil. I could always nickel and dime it further but I really don't see a reason. Overall I liked what I saw and with so much poorly filmed/acted trash out there this was a nice change.

Oh my, the hate against this film... yes, the low budget DID reuse props from other films (especially LotR) so does every film company, big or small. You'd be amazed just how many films and TV shows ended up using that "cheezey" armor from the first Starship Troopers. Granted, the heroine using a "sting" replica was a little too obvious, but ya use what ya can get.

As for the people complaining of "never missing", either they're blind, or we watched different movies. I was laughing my backside off at how much dirt was flying. Apparently "Special Forces" training has magically gotten a whole lot worse lately, as the guy could only land about 1 in 10, and Scooter couldn't figure out how to walk a machine gun into a target at all; something anyone who's played video games in the last 3 decades knows how to do.

The actual tactics were surprisingly accurate. Don't know if that was accidental or intentional, but the orcs used actual movements, tactics, and formations that were used historically when we had that equipment. The soldier used fairly realistic military strategy. The redneck acted like a redneck. I gave points for that, even though Im not sure it was deliberate. Its so incredibly rare to see people in films that have even the least clue of what they're supposed to be doing.

Overall, yes, it was low budget. Yes, the story was rather predictable. Guess what, that plot is rather standard fare for a good quarter of the fantasy/SF genre anyway. Your not gonna find a new angle after 7 decades of works. It burnt up a few hours, wasn't as bad as Sci-fi or BBC effects, wasn't as insultingly stupid as most USA and TBS TV movie plots, had a few cute faces, some chuckles, and one or two moments of decent bad-assery, if you actually knew what you were seeing.

I've seen a hella lot worse here with better ratings.

This movie is a deep and moving tale about a us veteran fighting orcs that represent his demons you have to be really intelligent to understand this Masterpiece!!!