1. #13281
    Quote Originally Posted by Theoris View Post
    Just came from the movie so I thought I would give my input on it.

    To start things off, I didn't like how it was paced; it moves way too fast in some places. Pretty common criticism I see for this movie, really.
    But then there's the romance between Lothar and Garona. I hope the director's cut will flesh it out more (among other things) because it honestly seemed to come out of nowhere with very little build up. Come to think of it, I had the same problem with the romance in The Hobbit (Kili and Tauriel) and Age of Ultron (Black Widow and Banner). They all felt so out of place for me to take seriously in the grand scheme of things. Or maybe I just scoff at romances in movies because I'm a hideous goblin incapable of comprehending love. :P(It wasn't a problem for me, of course. I just think it felt was rushed and could have been dropped without any significance to the overall plot)

    Lothar's son, Callan I think his name was, is a non-entity. He really didn't serve any significant purpose.

    The fight between Lothar and Blackhand could have lasted longer, in my opinion. You'd think a large Fel-infused orc - larger than the average orc and the Warchief of the Horde, at that - would last longer in a fight and not go down so easily. Granted Lothar got in a pretty good hit, but it was just over so quickly for being the climactic showdown between two characters.

    All in all, I liked it. Will definitely watch it again and fingers crossed for a sequel! 7/10 as a Warcraft fan, but I'd probably give it a 5/10 if I wasn't familiar with the lore.

    Edit: one last thing. After watching Warcraft I can for certain say that you should form your own opinion about it and take what critics say with a grain of salt. That being said, I'm not saying the guy who gave Dragonball: Evolution 4/5 is an idiot - we all have different tastes after all - but his taste in movies is absolute muck.
    As I said in my review, this movie seriously suffers from being cut too much and it shows in the pacing.

  2. #13282
    Immortal Frozen Death Knight's Avatar
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    Okay, so I will try to summarize my thoughts the best way I can. First off, I will start with the good.

    Pros:
    - Amazing CGI. The Orcs and magic are in a league of its own. A fantastic visual spectacle. Even the 3D was pretty good and I am not a fan of 3D. The magic especially pops out really well.
    - The movie embraces its fantasy elements with open arms. Magic, fantastical creatures, and fantastical worlds. This fact alone makes the movie work in that it is not ashamed of its fantasy roots, which makes you as the audience actually feel like you are on Azeroth.
    - Great soundtrack. Takes elements from the games, but also creates its own feel that translates well into a motion picture soundtrack.
    - Garona Halforcen. Her character development is pretty good and the changes they made to her story from the original is actually a big improvement. Her reasons for killing the king of Stormwind makes for an effective emotional scene as well as makes her have some power within the Horde to stop Gul'dan from killing Lothar. While on that note....
    - Gul'dan. Holy crap, what a badass villain he is. Some of the stuff he does in this movie is just incredibly dark. The scene where he drains the deer to give life to Thrall was one of them. Also, the most disturbing scene was when Gul'dan drained Durotan's life during their Mak'gora. The entire theatre was completely silent during that part.
    - Durotan is great in this movie. His death scene is by far the most depressing part in the entire movie. It was pretty shocking in an effective way.
    - The way they portrayed the Orcs and their culture was pretty well executed. It was both explained pretty well as well as shown by how the Orcs reacted to certains of actions of various characters.
    - There are some really great scenes spread throughout the entire movie. A lot of great character moments where people are having just normal conversations or doing an act that drives the plot forward. The movie never stops in its tracks and is constantly moving forward.
    - The action scenes are energetic and shot really well. You are never confused about what is going on in a shot and there is a ton of variation in various types of battles. My favourite being the Alliance army vs. the Horde army during the battle of who controls the Dark Portal. The movie did a good job on showing how the Humans could battle the gigantic Orcs thanks to better equipment and battle tactics. Oh and the violence is pretty great too. People getting smashed, stabbed, decapitated, crushed, broken necks, and impaled all over the place. The Orcs and Humans are not just swinging swords and axes at each other and actually show some grittiness that is actually pretty fun to watch without it feeling too gory or disgusting.
    - The Easter Eggs. Just to make things clear, I do not watch movies for Easter Eggs, and they would be not a good reason to watch this movie. Still, I feel like they added flavour to the world, and were not completely in your face distracting you from the main narrative. They are a great treat to WarCraft fans and sometimes they added a bit of humour to general audiences.
    - The movie keeps the spirit of the games as to not be completely serious all the time. Even though the characters are not trying to crack a joke every second, there are some funny bits of physical humour scattered throughout the thing.
    - The story is simple and easy to follow for the most part. Even if I did not know about WarCraft, I would have been able to follow the story. The rest of the audience I watched it with did not seem to have any issues either and enjoyed it for what it was.

    Neutrals:
    - The Human acting. I did not find anyone to be awful by any means, but I feel like more effort was put into the Orcs side of things, even though a couple of Orc character are cuts short like Draka and Orgrim. There are still some good scenes involving the Human characters, so this one is a bit mixed. I feel like more scenes could have helped a bit here since the pacing especially made
    - Not a massive fan of Medivh's costume. The character does not feel extremely mystical or like the most powerful being on Azeroth when he walks around and talks. While his arc is handled okay, he did not scream "Guardian of Tirisfal" to me.
    - The movie name drops a ton of stuff during its running time. While the movie does manage to keep the world cohesive, I could see this confusing some people who do not know these places. The movie does make up for it a bit by having some good establishing shots showing the destruction that the Orcs wreck upon the villages.

    Cons:
    - While watching this movie, I could hear the sound of scissors cutting through the entire thing, especially in the beginning. It is clear as day that many scenes have been cut. The amount of changes in locations in a very, very short time span is pretty jarring at times. While you do get used to the locations after coming back to the same ones throughout the movie, it really does hurt the establishing of this world as well as its characters. For one, Orgrim's storyarc feels like they cut off the middle part while keeping the beginning and the end. The scene with Durotan and Orgrim while talking about defeating Gul'dan is the last scene with Orgrim talking before the chasm scene when Orgrim betrays Durotan. While his reasons do get explained later on, it feels like something is missing in his progression. This issue brings me to my next con...
    - The pacing. There are pacing issues all over the place. While the good scenes are still good scenes, they sometimes do not feel connected together properly, which ends up with weird situations where you feel like you skipped an important middle chapter that expands upon the characters. For instance, the queen I felt was a decent character with some good scenes, but because of lack of running time, you do not always get the time to know some of the lesser characters, even though they sometimes play an important role in some scenes.
    - There is one particular plot point involving Khadgar that I felt came right out of nowhere and felt pretty confusing, even as a fan. Khadgar's storyline of figuring out Alodi as well as the entire scene where he talks to the old woman in the cube felt disconnected from the rest of the movie and the dialogue was a bit weird. The Kirin Tor Mage pretty much summed it up when he said "I have never seen it do that before.".
    - The ending was bit too abrupt. Because of the running time, the movie does not end where I originally thought it was going to end. The destruction of Stormwind does not happen in this movie. Also, Khadgar not turning old during the battle was a bit disappointing, since I felt it would have added a bit to his character and make the emotional part of the tower battle work much better.


    Conclusion:
    This movie is a crowd pleaser. Works very well as a Summer blockbuster and a popcorn movie. It has a lot of good going for it, but because of its running time as well as having elements that could have been much stronger, it is not a fantastic movie. A good one nonetheless, but not fantastic. I would recommend it to non-WarCraft fans for the visual spectacle, the enjoyable actions scenes, and the fairly straight forward plot with some enjoyable characters and scenes. As long as you do not expect a masterpiece of cinema, you will have a great time. Looking forward to a sequel.
    Last edited by Frozen Death Knight; 2016-05-27 at 10:02 PM.

  3. #13283
    Titan Zulkhan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Stuba View Post
    Ok, this is officially the worst thing I saw in the last 10 months or so.

    Quote Originally Posted by Arrowstormen View Post
    Haha, that's great. I hope Charlie has a long career ahead of him.
    "See full bio".

    Quote Originally Posted by Essem View Post
    Also if uve watched all the Featurettes, trailers and the clips, uve seen alot of it already which is a shame but i guess they wanted to seel the movie. But soo much is shown.
    Well, no shit man. If you contain yourself to trailers is a thing, if you go to watch everything they release is another. The movie lasts 2 hours, not 2 days.

    Quote Originally Posted by Anduin94 View Post
    Critics are ignorant people.
    Kinda the contrary, they review so many movies they kinda get bored and craft lazy pieces of work over stuff they don't have a particular interest about. Unreliable, sometimes dishonest, somewhat cocky, their taste can be outright atrocious, but ignorant? Nah.
    Quote Originally Posted by Keyblader View Post
    It's a general rule though that if you play horde you are a bad person irl. It's just a scientific fact.
    Quote Originally Posted by Heladys View Post
    The game didn't give me any good reason to hate the horde. Forums did that.

  4. #13284
    Duncan Jones now might be banging his head against the wall regretting to have cut the film in that way (or letting whoever forced him to do it).

  5. #13285
    Quote Originally Posted by Jshadowhunter View Post
    As I said in my review, this movie seriously suffers from being cut too much and it shows in the pacing.
    You said it better, by the way.

  6. #13286
    Quote Originally Posted by Arrowstormen View Post
    If there isn't money in it, why would they?
    Rumor has it blizzard did step in for the extra CGI work. So it's not like they're all hands off. The film could do well box office wise and maybe they want to expand their franchise so they're willing to put in the money.

  7. #13287
    Quote Originally Posted by Anduin94 View Post
    Duncan Jones now might be banging his head against the wall regretting to have cut the film in that way (or letting whoever forced him to do it).
    Eh, I don't think so. What would he have cut instead?

  8. #13288
    Titan Zulkhan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Anduin94 View Post
    Duncan Jones now might be banging his head against the wall regretting to have cut the film in that way (or letting whoever forced him to do it).
    He wasn't the one spending money on this. Directors are artists and we know artists depends entirely on who decides to invest money on them. I think he knows well how this shit works and I think he kinda had a taste already when he made Source Code.
    Quote Originally Posted by Keyblader View Post
    It's a general rule though that if you play horde you are a bad person irl. It's just a scientific fact.
    Quote Originally Posted by Heladys View Post
    The game didn't give me any good reason to hate the horde. Forums did that.

  9. #13289
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Anduin94 View Post
    Duncan Jones now might be banging his head against the wall regretting to have cut the film in that way (or letting whoever forced him to do it).
    I don't think he had any choice.

  10. #13290
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Anduin94 View Post
    Duncan Jones now might be banging his head against the wall regretting to have cut the film in that way (or letting whoever forced him to do it).
    Very few directors have the privilege of the final cut, there was nothing Duncan could do.

  11. #13291
    Quote Originally Posted by Vegas82 View Post


    He said a few days back he wants to release a Director's Cut, so either something else or nothing.
    Director's Cut are usually longer versions that didn't become the theatrical cut because they were too long, or because they changed their mind after seeing reactions.

  12. #13292
    Quote Originally Posted by Zulkhan View Post
    He wasn't the one spending money on this. Directors are artists and we know artists depends entirely on who decides to invest money on them. I think he knows well how this shit works and I think he kinda had a taste already when he made Source Code.
    Funny you mention Source Code because producers changed his original ending which was supposed to be a cliffhanger like Inception. Maybe the producers had too much influence on Warcraft from what I've gathered. Too much was cut.

  13. #13293
    Legendary! Wikiy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Vegas82 View Post
    That's what it costs to make the film. To put it in theaters costs more. Then you have marketing(something the distributor pays for). They would most assuredly be risking their company to come up with all that capital(would end up being close to $400M)
    I'm not saying Blizzard would finance it all, of course. I'm saying that if the scenario ends up being that the movie earns not quite enough on its own to warrant a sequel, Blizzard could in theory jump in with some extra money.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Vegas82 View Post
    It was aimed at everyone. Its genre was fantasy.
    And for LotR that worked, perhaps, because it was something completely new. Hobbit was mostly watched by fantasy fans, though.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Vegas82 View Post
    Did they step in and make the film happen in the first place? No? They had other people pay for the thing? There's your answer. Hence it taking a decade to see the film in the first place. If it isn't successful don't expect more.
    They waited a decade for it because they couldn't find a director who'd be on the same page with them.

  14. #13294
    Yeah, that's why I said "or whoever forced him to do that".
    That's really sad. You work 3 1/2 years at a project, but someone else cut it reducing the film fro ma fantastic film to a good one.

    Then, I repeat, I didn't see the movie yet. But since 99% of people complain about the pacing...

  15. #13295
    Quote Originally Posted by tangocash View Post
    Funny you mention Source Code because producers changed his original ending which was supposed to be a cliffhanger like Inception. Maybe the producers had too much influence on Warcraft from what I've gathered. Too much was cut.
    Fans always want more. The pacing was off, but 2 hours is normal length, so throwing more screentime at it is the lazy fix, and there is a reason every movie isn't 2 1/2 hours long.

  16. #13296
    Immortal Frozen Death Knight's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tornwar View Post
    Yeah. We all laughed in the cinema when he said that XD

    Also... this scene... amazing

    I think that they might have done some changes to the original animation. It looked like baby Thrall was moving a little differently from the original trailer when I watched the movie.

  17. #13297
    Quote Originally Posted by Vegas82 View Post
    There are many reasons movies become Director's Cuts. You say because they were too long, but in this case they cut the film to 120 minutes. Many would say for a big world building fantasy film that's too short to cut a movie down to. The studio, who viewed this as a problem movie(because it ran out of money), likely forced him to cut it that short. Whether that was for financial reasons, screening reaction reasons or arbitrary reasons from some studio head we don't really know and likely never will(unless Duncan gets chatty).
    Because their reference is LOTR, which are uniquely long movies.

  18. #13298
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    Quote Originally Posted by Arrowstormen View Post
    Fans always want more. The pacing was off, but 2 hours is normal length, so throwing more screentime at it is the lazy fix, and there is a reason every movie isn't 2 1/2 hours long.
    The movie is juggling more characters and sub-plots than most, though.

  19. #13299
    Quote Originally Posted by Vegas82 View Post

    Big world building films are almost all 2.5 hours long. 2 hours is short for these kinds of films.
    Warcraft is not LOTR or Avatar.

  20. #13300
    Quote Originally Posted by Arrowstormen View Post
    Fans always want more. The pacing was off, but 2 hours is normal length, so throwing more screentime at it is the lazy fix, and there is a reason every movie isn't 2 1/2 hours long.
    It's a fantasy film with tons of characters, it needs to be longer than just 2 hours. Everyone complains it was rushed, and they wanted more. It's a shame they didn't just make the movie longer. Many great scenes were cut too.

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