Warcraft movie MEGA THREAD

[PixelFox]

I admit, the first 20min were a bit too much random information that might be confusing for someone who doesn't know the lore. But later on it's quite ok.

There are several movies like this where there's a lot of backstory or introductory setup that eats up the first half hour of the movie or so, and I find it can actually be more enjoyable if you just skip it.

The Shadow with Alec Baldwin is one such example. I originally saw it on cable and missed the first half hour, and it added an extra air of mystery to the movie as not everything had been laid out and explained in great detail. I enjoyed it a lot more that first time than when I later saw it from the beginning.

You should treat your audiences as being smart, and assume they can survive without knowing everything up front. Let them figure stuff out and explain as you go along, especially after you've got them interested and wondering about what a character's motivation is etc.

At the beginning of the story nobody cares about all these places and characters yet, so it can be overwhelmingly tedious to sit through a bunch of names and introductions. This is probably the most common mistake that fantasy novels make as well, when you risk killing the reader with boredom before anything actually happens.

Verbs not Adjectives.

[Kretan]

In some places too much backstory, in some places not nearly enough. Movie either should have cut even more stuff out entirely, or been like half an hour longer at least (and with the dvd directors cut another half hour on top of that).

Yeah they wanted to make the origin story with all of the elements, but I can see why it's so hard to put in THAT many things. In order to fully appreciate the story, you need to understand what garona is, where she came from, the politics of the frost wolves vs the rest, where mages come from, fel = demons.......it's easy to say that the story could have been done smoother, but I can understand why duncan went the way he did. To simplify it he would have had to cut and change SO much imo.

[Deleted]

Yeah they wanted to make the origin story with all of the elements, but I can see why it's so hard to put in THAT many things. In order to fully appreciate the story, you need to understand what garona is, where she came from, the politics of the frost wolves vs the rest, where mages come from, fel = demons.......it's easy to say that the story could have been done smoother, but I can understand why duncan went the way he did. To simplify it he would have had to cut and change SO much imo.

Oh come on, appreciate the story?

The story of Warcraft was basically:

Orcs invade, DEEEEEEEMONS
Humans lose
Then humans win via deus ex militarium

The only time Warcraft had anything approaching a coherent story was in Warcraft 3 because Warcraft 3 and its sequel was a character focused game, effectively chronicling the fall from grace of a holy knight betraying everything he loved. Further, it also had another plot line that was basically "Brothers fall in love over woman, have different approaches to sticking penis into woman, she chooses one, other goes mad." None of it was original, but it was tightly scripted, had great CGI interludes and showed, not told.

All I needed to know about Arthas was that he was a prince and a prince who wanted to do good. I didn't need to know the exact moment of his conception.

The orc story line in Warcraft 3 was rubbish because it was bog standard noble savage nonsense which retconned any passable plot in the previous games. Yet that is what Blizzard have run with now, for several expansions in WoW. Noble savage rubbish. For some reason Metzen can't get enough of his noble savage orcs. Despite the fact they are by far the least compelling part of the whole story.

If you wanted to make a film about Warcraft, you would do Arthas. Duncan Jones COULD do something with Arthas. Metzen's anal splurge of orcs vs orcs vs orcs however, is irredeemable.

[RoKPaNda]

I just saw it. Someone else's treat, I'm personally hesitant to ever spend money to see a Legendary pictures movie after the last few I've seen have been awful.

I'd get it a 5/10. I mean I've been playing WarCraft since WarCraft 2, and so it was very cool to see an Orc jump on a giant wolf and ride off. It was a little odd that it was wearing the WarCraft 3 raider armor/weapon rather than the WarCraft 1 attire but okay. It was cool to see Orcs charging around and being Orcs. Good times.

A certain frail Orc getting into a fist fight was a little weird. The story was very disjointed and honestly quite a few parts of the movie were not true to the source material.

The CG was awful. In parts it was pretty good, and then in other parts it was the worst CGI I've ever seen. Blackhand in particular was awful. His bone armor was probably the worst CGI in history. It was REALLY bad. Every time he turned away from the camera and walked off and his bone armor was moving with him, it was very poorly done. It was very jerky. Which is sad because Blizzard's CGI is usually really really good. The gryphon feathers were horrible. There is a scene where a gryphon flies over a city and then lands, that entire scene is awful. I don't know if they did that scene last and the budget was gone by that point, but there was almost no detail in the city below the gryphon or where it landed, and then there was a closeup of the painted on feathers. Ugh.

I saw a lot of people worried about the plastic human armor and weapons, but honestly the CG Orcs were far worse. The human armor didn't look too bad. Lothar's sword was pretty horrible looking, but other than that it wasn't too bad.

If I wasn't a WarCraft fan I'd say this movie had a poor story and was one of the worst movies I've seen in recent years. As a WarCraft fan though, despite it not staying true to the story, despite the disjointed story, I'll give it a 5/10.

[Count Zero]

Uni and Legendary co-financed Warcraft, which cost $160M and carries a global P&A in vicinity of $110M.

So it needs to make around 270mil to break even. World-wide including Thursday in US it's at 200mil.

Forbes saying it looks take between 320 and 400 million total worldwide when it's all said and done. I really wonder how much word of mouth will affect these projections. Initial bad reviews didn't slow it down at all in China, and it seems to be around even to slightly ahead of projections in the US - again despite these reviews - and now it seems all the headlines are mentioning how it's such a monster globally. So going into this weekend the buzz has shifted from negative (all the negative reviews are old news now) to positive (breaking records worldwide).

Very shrewd release strategy, I'm sure they had a pretty good idea it would play basically this way.

[xskarma]

This is now the General Discussions MEGA thread about the Warcraft movie, since people refuse to use the one in the Cinema forum and there's way too many threads about it in this sub forum.

[Tharkkun]

The film is utter crap. Especially when you compare it to Duncan Jones other film works and Legendary's fantastic Pacific Rim.

CGI was comically awful. Constant perspective shifts that made no sense. Dialogue was.. well. It was Blizzard standard dialogue.

Go watch it if you fancy watching a crap version of Transformers with fantasy orcs. The CGI in Blizzards own games are better than this shlock because at least its short, scripted and interesting to watch.

I really hope it absolutely dives on the US market so we don't have to suffer through any more shite films like this.

Also, rofl at the people saying it needed to be three hours long. What it needed to be was 30 minutes long, a made for TV movie with a few episodes and done in house on the cheap. Vomiting this game-related excrement over the screen complete with its crappy dialogue and paper thin characters is something best left to Michael Bay, not the man who gave us Moon.

So in other words you didn't see it? Because the CGi with motion capture is ground breaking, meaning it hasn't been done before like this. The ILM group had to design new software specifically for this film. You know, the ones who created star wars?

[Deleted]

So in other words you didn't see it? Because the CGi with motion capture is ground breaking, meaning it hasn't been done before like this. The ILM group had to design new software specifically for this film. You know, the ones who created star wars?

Right. That, and even the nastiest, snobbiest reviewer has praised the CGI. People giving the film 0/100, F, 1/5 stars... all praised the CG. I think anybody that says "CG was crap" is just the kind of person that hates all CG, but how else are they supposed to make Warcraft Orcs and all the fantastical beasts in their universe, let alone the kind of magic that makes Harry Potter look like a lame kids' birthday party conjurer? It's just a dumb statement.

[Kretan]

Oh come on, appreciate the story?

The story of Warcraft was basically:

Orcs invade, DEEEEEEEMONS
Humans lose
Then humans win via deus ex militarium

The only time Warcraft had anything approaching a coherent story was in Warcraft 3 because Warcraft 3 and its sequel was a character focused game, effectively chronicling the fall from grace of a holy knight betraying everything he loved. Further, it also had another plot line that was basically "Brothers fall in love over woman, have different approaches to sticking penis into woman, she chooses one, other goes mad." None of it was original, but it was tightly scripted, had great CGI interludes and showed, not told.

All I needed to know about Arthas was that he was a prince and a prince who wanted to do good. I didn't need to know the exact moment of his conception.

The orc story line in Warcraft 3 was rubbish because it was bog standard noble savage nonsense which retconned any passable plot in the previous games. Yet that is what Blizzard have run with now, for several expansions in WoW. Noble savage rubbish. For some reason Metzen can't get enough of his noble savage orcs. Despite the fact they are by far the least compelling part of the whole story.

If you wanted to make a film about Warcraft, you would do Arthas. Duncan Jones COULD do something with Arthas. Metzen's anal splurge of orcs vs orcs vs orcs however, is irredeemable.

Well the amount of back story needed to set up the plot for a wow player vs a non wow player is very hugely different. That's what i was getting at. I really hope we get an arthas movie because i feel like it would be fantastic. I hope the orc v human thing eventually leads to the arthas thing.

[Deleted]

The film is utter crap. Especially when you compare it to Duncan Jones other film works and Legendary's fantastic Pacific Rim.

CGI was comically awful. Constant perspective shifts that made no sense. Dialogue was.. well. It was Blizzard standard dialogue.

Go watch it if you fancy watching a crap version of Transformers with fantasy orcs. The CGI in Blizzards own games are better than this shlock because at least its short, scripted and interesting to watch.

I really hope it absolutely dives on the US market so we don't have to suffer through any more shite films like this.

Also, rofl at the people saying it needed to be three hours long. What it needed to be was 30 minutes long, a made for TV movie with a few episodes and done in house on the cheap. Vomiting this game-related excrement over the screen complete with its crappy dialogue and paper thin characters is something best left to Michael Bay, not the man who gave us Moon.

So basically, you just watched the trailer and made a biased-review. Loved the parts where you pretty much said Transformers and Pacific Rim were way better than Warcraft. Please, you have no idea what you are talking about especially with your expertise view of the changing perspectives and the "shitty" CGI.

We can agree it wasn’t a 10/10 on every point but it is nowhere near as bad as your description.

[Deleted]

How is it going down in America?

Really loved it, hope we get more parts. Its a success in China, so it might well get a second chance based on that alone.

[Deleted]

Right. That, and even the nastiest, snobbiest reviewer has praised the CGI. People giving the film 0/100, F, 1/5 stars... all praised the CG. I think anybody that says "CG was crap" is just the kind of person that hates all CG, but how else are they supposed to make Warcraft Orcs and all the fantastical beasts in their universe, let alone the kind of magic that makes Harry Potter look like a lame kids' birthday party conjurer? It's just a dumb statement.

Exactly, people just want to join the "It’s a video game movie, it has to suck" wagon and it pisses me off. Many good movies get shit on because of trends like this and they get no follow-ups.

[Deleted]

Oh come on, appreciate the story?

The story of Warcraft was basically:

Orcs invade, DEEEEEEEMONS
Humans lose
Then humans win via deus ex militarium
.

Guy goes to prison
Guy breaks out of prison

Shawshank Redemption sucks, such a simplistic story.

[RoKPaNda]

So in other words you didn't see it? Because the CGi with motion capture is ground breaking, meaning it hasn't been done before like this. The ILM group had to design new software specifically for this film. You know, the ones who created star wars?

Right. That, and even the nastiest, snobbiest reviewer has praised the CGI. People giving the film 0/100, F, 1/5 stars... all praised the CG. I think anybody that says "CG was crap" is just the kind of person that hates all CG, but how else are they supposed to make Warcraft Orcs and all the fantastical beasts in their universe, let alone the kind of magic that makes Harry Potter look like a lame kids' birthday party conjurer? It's just a dumb statement.

Bullshit. Blizzard's CG is usually top notch. The CG in WarCraft was AWFUL. Anyone who praises that CG can't have seen much CG. I don't mind CG in the slightest, it's never bothered me, but in this movie it was horrrrrrrible.

Did they ever see any of Blackhand's parts in the movie? His stupid bone armor? Everytime he moved and it moved with him it was amazingly jerky and blurred to hide how bad it was.
Any scene where a gryphon was flying low to the ground was horribly done. Shit, at one point there is a closeup of a gryphon and it's feathers are completely FLAT. Going into the movie I expected the Orcs to look amazing and the humans to look silly with their plastic armor. The opposite was true however, the humans looked fine for the most part, and the Orcs looked silly. Horribly low quality CG. Horrible. They can say they had to develop new software for this, but that doesn't mean that it's good. Definitely not on par with Star Wars. Okay it probably wasn't as bad as Gods of Egypt or whatever, but it's pretty close.

[AztechZero]

Saw the movie and whoever on this board (you know who you are...) said that it was a solid 9.5/10 and seeing it for yourself would change one's mind of all criticism is/was rather naive. It's a 6/10, not a terrible movie but it's got a lot of problems. The CGI being one of the most obvious problems, along with the pacing early on in the film. Feels like the movie was cut WAY down to meet the 2 hour run time. Kind of falls on it's face any time it attempts to be humorous too.

That being said, it's still better than just about any video game movie I've seen.

[MachoSasquatcho]

Right. That, and even the nastiest, snobbiest reviewer has praised the CGI. People giving the film 0/100, F, 1/5 stars... all praised the CG. I think anybody that says "CG was crap" is just the kind of person that hates all CG, but how else are they supposed to make Warcraft Orcs and all the fantastical beasts in their universe, let alone the kind of magic that makes Harry Potter look like a lame kids' birthday party conjurer? It's just a dumb statement.

Lol, so right. Im tired of reading how "bad" the CGI is from the haters in this thread. Then you get the mouthbreathers telling you its the worst CGI they have ever seen. I'll just leave this here so those people can eat crow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=6nX0100wUB0

[Spiffums]

I posted this in the other thread, I hope I won't get infracted for reposting...

I played Warcraft I before Warcraft II was released; you can call me a Warcraft fan. I watched the movie. My review: everyone who knows and likes the Warcraft universe should go and watch the movie. Despite some small lore alterations/discrepancies, the movie is great for its intended target audience, the Warcraft fans. It will definitely have a cult following, no doubt about that.

Yeah I nit picked it a little this afternoon but my Sister didn't have a clue since she doesn't play. Hell seeing the world and cities was worth the $6.

[RoKPaNda]

Lol, so right. Im tired of reading how "bad" the CGI is from the haters in this thread. Then you get the mouthbreathers telling you its the worst CGI they have ever seen. I'll just leave this here so those people can eat crow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=6nX0100wUB0

Did you see the WarCraft movie? Objectively Blackhand and the Gryphons are about as bad as the Scorpion King in that movie, yes.

[Deleted]

Did you see the WarCraft movie? Objectively Blackhand and the Gryphons are about as bad as the Scorpion King in that movie, yes.

Yeah, you're talking bollocks mate.

[MachoSasquatcho]

Did you see the WarCraft movie? Objectively Blackhand and the Gryphons are about as bad as the Scorpion King in that movie, yes.

Sure did. And no they weren't. The fact that you can't differentiate CGI from 2001 to CGI from 2016 all because you think you are being edgy seriously renders your opinion on this null and void.