First Warcraft Movie Review - SFX Magazine

[Obelisk Kai]

Yeah, I don't understand how utter loyalty to the lore was going to outweight an awfully bad movie.

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It's weird though how he acknowledged the amount of world-bulding, the quality of the CGI/performances, the "bold" narrative choices and still gave it an "average" score, just because of "overwrought dialogue" he still acknowledged to be nuanced in other parts. 3/5 is kind of low for such description. It kinda confirms my suspicion that other factors conditioned the rating.

I'll try and get a screenshot posted of the review tonight...no promises though. Working until at least 2300 gmt though.

[Techno-Druid]

IMDb has Warcraft 8.8/10.

I think Warcraft will be one of those movies that people will either love or feel "meh" about.

[Soulwind]

IMDb has Warcraft 8.8/10.

I think Warcraft will be one of those movies that people will either love or feel "meh" about.

It's not a real score. Some trolls started voting 1s and then a ton of fans voted 10s.

From what few reviews have been posted online, it's a fun, if a bit simplistic, fantasy movie for the general audience and a love letter to the fans. Could it have been more than that? Maybe, but probably not by much. At the end of the day, it's Warcraft. These stories have always tried to be more epic than good.

[Deleted]

I actually didn't expect it to be much more than average. 3 stars out of 5 (if I apply the reviews that Empire magazine does) is okay. It is above average...fair enough.

I'd be happy if the movie is generally being recieved as just good. That means it will be good to me

[xcess]

Not expecting much for the first one since they have to establish the basics but hopefully itll do good enough for them to make some of the more interesting storyline

[Deleted]

I didnt expect the CGI to be that good,at the moment i am worried more about the humans rather than the ORCS and CGI.

THis alone is a huge sucess in my eyes. That being said having seen ben Foster and TRavis FImmel i am not really worried about that either, only dominic copper looks like a wimp a little bit.. I think movie has lot of chanses of being a very solid movie of around 3,5 -4,0 /5 rating

[AztechZero]

Just got my copy of SFX magazine, for those unfamiliar with it, SFX is a magazine specialising in fantasy and science fiction films, games and books that is fairly popular in the UK.

In this month's issue they have reviewed Warcraft the movie and it's the first review I have seen.

So how did this one, and I emphasise it is only ONE review, judge it?

Three out of Five stars which they define as average.

I am not going to rewrite the entire review but I'll summarise it's main points.

They've tried to create a film that caters to both fans and people being introduced to the story. There is apparently a lot of worldbuilding and threads left open for hoped for sequels. We've all seen films that have tried to birth an entire cinematic universe all by itself struggling under the weight of doing so...Batman vs Superman is clearly the most obvious comparison here.

The reviewer also criticizes some of the dialogue as being overwrought and 'straight out of a 1980's fantasy movie' but conversely states some of the dialogue is nuanced.

He praises the performances and the quality of the CG. He suggests it takes 'bold narrative chances' which I believe refers to how the story of the first war plays out...which as fans we already know.

Long story short, the first reviewer of Warcraft finds it an average film. Now this guy spends his days watching and reviewing fantasy and sci-fi stuff so on the one hand he could be wearily familiar with all he sees on the screen, on the other he have an incisive understanding of the material.

More reviews will be required to paint a fuller picture, as well as our own opinions for when we go see it ourselves.

However...a verdict of 'average' is something I am personally not surprised by. At least it wasn't bad...

I'll wait to see what Brad Jones and company think of it before I watch it.

[Pull My Finger]

I fucking hate movie critics - greatest jackasses of all time. Critics in general actually.

I do expect Warcraft to be an OK movie though. OK as in, entertaining to watch. It's a fantasy movie after all, don't know what people are expecting.

[Pull My Finger]

Which..I kinda think is what that critic said?

That's why I said that I do expect the movie to be OK-ish, even though I generally detest "critics" and their opinions.

[Zulkhan]

Not expecting much for the first one since they have to establish the basics but hopefully itll do good storylifor them to make some of the more interesting storyline

Pretty much this.

[Kaleredar]

I generally trust sites like rotten tomatoes for a fair assessment on how good movies are going to be. There are only a handful of movies that I disagree with the aggregator on, and for the most part that deals with extremely high-rated movies. (Like the new Jungle Book. 95%? I think not.)

But even then, I don't usually disagree and think that high rated movies are "bad" movies. They just tend to rate them too highly.


I actually find their assessments of movies that score around the 70% mark to be fairly on point, because it means that the movie isn't widely praised enough to blind people but doesn't have some egregious "piss off the critics" point that would blind them, either.

[SkyTides]

I'm not fussed really - I'm still going to watch it and enjoy. These kind of films often have cheesy '80's dialogue, which is a shame. I was hoping for more of a serious lord of the Rings feel, But that's not going to ruin things for me.

Some films I love have low critic scores, and visa versa

[lightofdawn]

movie critics are the worst people to take opinions from... cuz they think their opinion is worth something (which sadly to some people, it is)

form your own opinions, and dont make some random joe's review influence how you feel

[Zeek Daniels]

That's still fresh on RT.

Actually reviewers dictate what is fresh or rotten not the site itself. So he could say its average and give it a rotten or a fresh.

[clevin]

On IMDB with just above 1k voters, it's now at 8.7..

People rate things on IMDB all the time when they've not seen the movie. I mean... it's NOT OUT. Think a bit here - those people are rating it based on things other than having actually seen the film.

[Deleted]

It will score like 68% on Rotten Tomatoes. It will be pretty meh movie, forgetable, probably the only one we will see in Warcraft universe.

[Queen of Hamsters]

People rate things on IMDB all the time when they've not seen the movie. I mean... it's NOT OUT. Think a bit here - those people are rating it based on things other than having actually seen the film.

You don't know which of them have seen early screenings and shit like that.

[Relapses]

You don't know which of them have seen early screenings and shit like that.

The point remains, aggregate imdb ratings prior to the movie's release are usually heavily skewed by people who haven't actually seen the movie. There's no verification process required to vote.

[clevin]

You don't know which of them have seen early screenings and shit like that.

A few, maybe. Over 1000? Please. IMDB lets people rate a movie before it's released; go to IMDB. Login or create an account. Vote. You've not see the movie, but you can vote.

Don't be gullible.

[Crillam]

Professional critics do not represent the public I suspect in most cases, if any cases.
Make your own decisions.

This is 100% true. Just look at BvS. Sure BvS had a MUCH bigger fan base but still. I know Rottentomatos aint the most beloved site but if the audience score is around 70% it is a success I would say. Then it also have to make money but still we can only hope now, only a few days left til we get to see for our own eyes.