[Movie] Warcraft (June 2016)

[Anduin94]

I had a thought.

The fact Warcraft is based on a popular videogame with a big fan-base is hurting what non-fan people think about it because they PRESUME many of the plot-points or apparent "plot-holes" (or, more correctly, things not explicitly told) are things that are in the game and only the gamers know. But that's NOT true.
For example, Medivh being father of Garona is not in the lore, but still we understood it if we do 2+2. I didn't even know who the hell Alodi was before the film, but I understood that scene without many problems. The Fel thing is as simple as the Ring function in LotR, and while in LotR they spend hours explaining its function, here it takes only a few dialogues and a lot of visuals scenes that SHOW us, and not TELL us what the Fel is.
I guess most of the people criticizing Warcraft for being understandable only for fans would say "Warcraft is a great film!" if it was an original movie, like Nolan's ones. C'mon, I never understood one single Nolan film at my 1st vision, but still enjoyed the hell out of them. And that's because they are thought-provoking. They invite you to reflect. Damn, I didn't even understand his Batman films at first, but I didn't scream "It's just for comics fans!", but instead I re-watched them again and again to understand everything and enjoy them even more than usual (because they were still fun to me, just like Warcraft is incredibly fun anyway. Well, Warcraft is IMO much funnier than Batman, but whatever...)
If Warcraft were an original story, than people will be like "Great story and really thought-provoking", while now they say "understandable only for fans" instead of "thought-provoking".

Re-watching the film, I noticed that Duncan Jones explains ALL things in the movie, but he didn't explain all of them. He invites you to think, to link the dots, to understand, to imagine. And I'm not counting that this movie clearly sets up for a sequel, so even if there is a few things unexplained, that means it will be explained later in the story.

I guess people expected maybe a brainless action movie (with a trailer #2 like that, I can't even blame them), and found somethign uenxpected. But since this is a movie based on a famous videogame, the thought-provoking things went to the "it's only for fans" territory.

[Wikiy]

Are you aware that there are dragons and gryphons and the likes which shouldn't even be able to fly or maneuver so well in flight like they do? They are WAY too heavy and don't have tails like rudders (like birds). So I don't really think '1 g' goes very far in explaining this FANTASY world, do you?

I don't know the biology of a dragon or gryphon. Nature finds a way. Birds wouldn't be able to fly if they didn't have hollow bones, nor if their wings weren't lubricated with natural oils. We can see neither and we'd conclude they wouldn't be able to fly if we'd never seen the creatures beforehand, or studied them.

So, I donno, unless the humans of Azeroth aren't humans and have a different musculature and/or bone structure, I tend to assume 1 g whenever seeing a human acting the same in a fictional environment.

[I Push Buttons]

For example, Medivh being father of Garona is not in the lore, but still we understood it if we do 2+2.

Wtf? In the lore they bang... They have a kid.

[InfiniteRetro]

I had a thought.

The fact Warcraft is based on a popular videogame with a big fan-base is hurting what non-fan people think about it because they PRESUME many of the plot-points or apparent "plot-holes" (or, more correctly, things not explicitly told) are things that are in the game and only the gamers know. But that's NOT true.
For example, Medivh being father of Garona is not in the lore, but still we understood it if we do 2+2. I didn't even know who the hell Alodi was before the film, but I understood that scene without many problems. The Fel thing is as simple as the Ring function in LotR, and while in LotR they spend hours explaining its function, here it takes only a few dialogues and a lot of visuals scenes that SHOW us, and not TELL us what the Fel is.
I guess most of the people criticizing Warcraft for being understandable only for fans would say "Warcraft is a great film!" if it was an original movie, like Nolan's ones. C'mon, I never understood one single Nolan film at my 1st vision, but still enjoyed the hell out of them. And that's because they are thought-provoking. They invite you to reflect. Damn, I didn't even understand his Batman films at first, but I didn't scream "It's just for comics fans!", but instead I re-watched them again and again to understand everything and enjoy them even more than usual (because they were still fun to me, just like Warcraft is incredibly fun anyway. Well, Warcraft is IMO much funnier than Batman, but whatever...)
If Warcraft were an original story, than people will be like "Great story and really thought-provoking", while now they say "understandable only for fans" instead of "thought-provoking".

Re-watching the film, I noticed that Duncan Jones explains ALL things in the movie, but he didn't explain all of them. He invites you to think, to link the dots, to understand, to imagine. And I'm not counting that this movie clearly sets up for a sequel, so even if there is a few things unexplained, that means it will be explained later in the story.

I guess people expected maybe a brainless action movie (with a trailer #2 like that, I can't even blame them), and found somethign uenxpected. But since this is a movie based on a famous videogame, the thought-provoking things went to the "it's only for fans" territory.

I agree man ive tried real hard to find this movie hard to follow and it simply is not...jesus Christ theres more plot holes in a LOTR film before they finally finished the trilogy and or brought out the extended versions. Warcraft on each viewing is growing more and more into just brilliant fantasy. for the first time in a long time we have a true EVIL villain...100% and ruthless. even slight changes like Gul'dan being able to simply pass on Fel to corrupt the orcs is awesome instead of everyone chugging away on the Fel Ale.

And you know whats funny...usually in films theres a scene or two which I hate...cant wait for it to skip over...but in Warcraft I think its done perfectly. nothing felt out of place or boring...and the 'fast pacing' I feel people don't realise is that this reminds me more akin to how TV shows work...where they can do quick jumps around. Love it...fuck the haters.

[Astronom]

I don't know the biology of a dragon or gryphon. Nature finds a way.

There is no way that dragons or griffons could fly without magic.

And you know whats funny...usually in films theres a scene or two which I hate...cant wait for it to skip over...but in Warcraft I think its done perfectly. nothing felt out of place or boring...and the 'fast pacing'

I've criticized LoTR and the Hobbit movies for their slow pacing before, but now I see the benefit of it. Heck, I don't think the Warcraft movie should have been made in the first place. But it could have benefited from a slower pacing, a more somber and restrained tone, and a bit less CGI.

[Fenixdown]

Critics played a large role in it, after critic reviews started going live theatres starting cutting showtimes if not all together. Conjuring 2 got rave reviews and its showtimes were more than NYSM2+Warcraft(being less than half of NYSM2 showings) combined in my regional theatres.

That's what killed this movie's western numbers. What a horrible amount of competition to try and go up against. They probably should have tried to either a. push back to early July (after the release weekend of ID2) or b. pushed for an earlier release (probably mid May, after the release weekend of Civil War).

Planning on the part of Legendary films to try and help this movie was inadequate at best.

[HeyJoe]

I enjoyed it. A lot.

[The Hero of Legend]

Apparently this is Troll concept art for the film:


https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comment...warcraft_film/

[Snorri]

I wish the box office numbers could be fully updated. Seems it's behind by a few days.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=warcraft.htm

[Chosenone1]

China is 186.4m $ and on officeboxmojo is still 156.8m $

[Jotun]

Just in general really. Dalaran just being the first to hit my head. The whole garona thing at the end. Alodi change Plus I've always had a problem with jones direction of not keeping in the orcs and their demon affiliation before they came through the portal. A change to fel that I just never could grasp, yet it was fine to throw demons'ish on medivh. I think it would have spoke volumes as a connection for both and why orcs did what they did. that eventually leads to there redemption. A flashback just doesn't cut it in a sequel when you are not guaranteed a sequel. Best to get the story more dead on personally.

But you see it other places as well really but you get the point. At some point, you need to stop changing the story people got hooked it.



I don't think thats trolling.

It is all driven by numbers. And ATM the home video release (Which I don't doubt is DVD as well) is just some extra scenes and unless something changes, that isn't a DC or extended edition. The guy asks, I want an extended edition and thats not up to jones and It depends on if the numbers pan out to do it. From what jones says, it's nothing more than extra scenes. Nothing more than what we know as deleted scenes I'd wager..

Not sure thats panning out just yet to be anything more that that.

I get your point, but I feel like MOST changes you mention are made out of practical reasons. I suggest you read this http://io9.gizmodo.com/director-dunc...ion-1781663557 . Especially the first answer and the second paragraph of that.

- - - Updated - - -

I don't know the biology of a dragon or gryphon. Nature finds a way. Birds wouldn't be able to fly if they didn't have hollow bones, nor if their wings weren't lubricated with natural oils. We can see neither and we'd conclude they wouldn't be able to fly if we'd never seen the creatures beforehand, or studied them.

So, I donno, unless the humans of Azeroth aren't humans and have a different musculature and/or bone structure, I tend to assume 1 g whenever seeing a human acting the same in a fictional environment.

Just by looking at a grypon/dragon you can also assume a few things, just like you do with the natural laws/humans of this fantasy world. For instance, gryphons have a body of that of big feline (presumably a lion juding by its color etc). Do lions have hollow bones? No. Would it be able to have its kind of bone structure/mass with hollow bones? Not likely. UNLESS it's a fantasy world and these things don't really apply! Similar things could be argued for a dragon.

However my main point is, you shouldn't assume so much in a fantasy world. I get that the instinct of seeing familiar beings, like humans, doing 'unbelievable' things but it is a fantasy world and logic/physics don't always apply. And in the end it's just silly to complain about such minute things (not aimed towards you necessarily).

[Deleted]

Any new numbers from any country that's not US or china yet? haven't seen those in a while. Also did the movie open in anymore countries this week and do we know yet how good the debut was if so?

[Gladwyn]

Saw it a few weeks back with my GF. I really enjoyed, but again, I'm a player, so I was really eager to see her reaction as someone that never played the game before. In the end, she also enjoyed the movie, thought it was a entertaining blockbuster. I have seen a general positive reaction from players AND non-players of the game that I talked to, too.

[Lesane]

Somebody didn't pay attention to the success story of Pacific Rim: horrible domestic revenue here in the States, yet did so well in Asia it warranted a sequel (which is in development).

ATM, Warcraft has already earned thrice it's budget worldwide, and with China being by far the biggest market for the movie and having only been available there for a week, the rule of halves says it'll cross the 500 million mark by Monday no questions asked.

Horrible domestic revenue? 25% of its revenue came from the US, that's way more than the sub 10% with Warcraft. It made $100 million from the US, Warcraft will be lucky to even reach $50 million there.

Also, the $160 million budget is just the production budget. Apparently they spent $110 million on marketing as well (and still managed to fuck it up) which puts the total on $270 million. Then add that that they don't get full earnings outside of the US which is the country where the movie is failing hard, and it's not that easy to make the Pacific Rim comparison and think that current results warrant a sequel. Especially considering Pacific Rim didn't have an easy time getting a sequel greenlit.

So basically, it'll perform the same financially as Pacific Rim (around $400 million worldwide) except with a slightly lower production budget. I have no idea what the marketing budget for Pacific Rim was so perhaps the overall budget for PR was lower than Warcraft's. The big difference here is that Warcraft got most of its earnings from overseas where they earn less for every $ in the box office. With Pacific Rim that was also the case but at least it didn't do AS bad in the US as Warcraft.

I mean, the performance of the movie pretty much shows that it's mostly the Warcraft fans who went and took a few friends with them maybe. After the initial storm on the movie in every country, it has been dropping fast while only having to compete with the Conjuring 2 and NYSM2.

[InfiniteRetro]

if those Resident Evil movies can keep getting bloody sequels im pretty sure Warcraft is going to be alright.

[Tornwar]

Well it was told that 100.000+ has seen the movie in Denmark (and it keeps increasing daily). Now, the normal ticket price in Denmark is usually 90 DKK, but for 3D/IMAX it may end up with 135 DKK

But if we take that the 100k people paid 90 DKK, then it would be;

100.000x90 = 9.000.000 DKK

9m DKK is about ~ $1.360.000

And that is only if we say the 100k has paid 90 DKK. Which means it could be a bit more than this, at least for Denmark. But isn't it something with the cinemas taking half of it?

[Tackhisis]

if those Resident Evil movies can keep getting bloody sequels

They can afford sequels because they are getting 350% of their production budget. I don't see Warcraft doing that good and accumulating $600M.

[Anduin94]

$1.93M on Friday in the US.
Isn't it really low?

[Wikiy]

if those Resident Evil movies can keep getting bloody sequels im pretty sure Warcraft is going to be alright.

The first three Resident Evil movies made thrice their budget. The two most recent ones earned five and four times their budget, respectively.

Warcraft is still at twice its budget in box office.

[Tornwar]

But since the team already has the random orc models (and the Orgrim and Gul'dan's models) + they got the haircraft program and also other CGI models.

They wouldn't need to have a bigger budget for a sequel, would they? But heck what do I know. If anything, use more money on the marketing in the US!