*spoiler free* Warcraft Movie, Good Start to a Series

[CaptainV]

Im a big Warcraft fan, despite its flaws, ive always loved the series from 1 to Legion even for the bits I can hate and the moments I absoleutely love. But Warcraft the movie was a good film, albiet, not a perfect one.

Its not a bad Movie:

Im going to start with what I didnt like and move into what I did as I tell you the reasons as to why this is a reletivley good movie, albiet, not a great one:

This is a Film For Fans, not necessarily in a good way:

This film is not the best film to bring your best friend who has never seen Warcraft to, you need to prepare them in certain ways for this film. It is not the same as a traditional fantasy film with a cliche fantasy plot, and it tries often to cater alot more to fanservice than it does to people who are unfamiliar to the genre or the franchise itself.

For a fan, this is definatley a wet dream come true. There is almost an abundance of content to enjoy mostly catered at you, from lyrical notes in certain scores of the track to character cameo's you'll be happy to see. This film definatley delivers in what fans would want of it, as it tries damn hard to recreate the first warcraft game in slightly more layers than it initally had at the start.

The First half is a Cluster-Fuck:

The biggest issue id say this film suffers from is the majority of the first hour. This isnt to say that the hour of content itself is bad, but nearly everything is rushed into alot of short stories between 5-10 minuates long, trying to fit in "alot" of content in a very short time.

This plays to one of its strengths however, as each bit of content never feels boring or irelevent, always adding a new layer for the story, albiet, never entirley touching up on previous ones which can be a bit of a bummer.

When people say this film feels rushed, or that it feels like it was trying too hard to tell too much, they werent kidding, it does feel a little too heavy for such a fast paced film not quite seeming to fit the speed or the pacing of its storytelling motif.

Some Plots could have been Removed:

Some sub-stories in the first half of the film are mostly added into the film for the sake of adding depth to characters. The problem is, some of these plots are kind of pointless, especially something regarding one of the major characters which just seemed like removing it wouldnt have hurt the story and might have added more to its layers.

That said, more is always better in the long term as we move into the things that made the film great.

The Score is amazing, and the SFX will blow your mind:

If "anyone" was to tell me that the music wasnt good id skin them, no, really, I would. This films epic musical manages to deliver a "prequal" vibe that really works well with the films setting. It also manages to add certain lyrical familiarities to the music that just about manages to make you be reminded this is a Warcraft movie.

As for the SFX, the Magic in this film was just awesome to watch, truly one of the best use of magic in any setting ive ever seen. And the combat scenes and actual battle events were just so cool to actually enjoy and just gleam for your own amusement.


This Film is more than it appears to be at a Glance:

I was expecting Warcraft, the Movie, to be a steriotypical Orcs Vs Human plot with nothing too layered and mostly be a heroic adventure about heroes defeating evil and trying to tell a generic hero story as a one off film.

What I got was something else entirley.

This film feels alot more like Fellowship of the Ring, it feels like the STARTING ground of something alot bigger, and this film went VERY dark Very fast. I was surprised just how dark this film could get at points, pleasantly though as I was happy to see it never quite managed to fall into the trap of "fantasy cliche" however predictable it managed to be.


I genuinley cannot wait for a Sequel:

The last quater of this two hour giant was an epic finale that really pieced everything together perfectly in setting the stage for a sequel. It downright nailed it in terms of just making you crave another movie and hunger for the potential of future installments of the franchise.

While it had a rocky start, its finish cannot be held back.


Ben Foster NAILS it as Medivh:

This is mildly spoilery territory as it simply reveals that Medivh is in this movie, but I can tell you this much, Ben Foster, NAILED it to a T. If you were hoping for Medivh to be Medivh, you wont be dissapointed for fans of the series, for newcommers, your introduction to this character will be probably one of the best it could be. They delivered his character potential in such a perfect way that he becomes a truely interesting figurehead in the main story.

The Rest of the Cast is a Hit/Miss but over all is great:

Everyone manages to fill the role they are meant to play besides Ben Foster. Travis manages to be a great Lothar, Khadgars Actor is pretty good and the comic relief of the story most of the time. The Orcs felt really predictable, but were acted well and their layers had some depth to them, enough for me to like them as characters.

The Orcs are NOT uncanny Valley Material:

While we can NEVER quite get a CGI/Live Action Movie 100% fluid to transition, this film manages to do it at a good 95% of the time. What little jarring things that exist are almost non-noticable, maybe save the Garona skin tone but otherwise, the CGI orcs are genuinley amazing to look at and designed perfectly.

Theres also CGI other races that you wont be dissapointed to see either.

Over All, this is worth a Watch:

Its not the best film of 2016, but it "is" a successful albiet flawed adaptation of a video game to movie transition. It does a great job of trying to do the best it can with the material it has, it makes some chaotic and questionable decisions along the way but over all it manages to make you satisified enough to say "I want more".

So there..., if you were looking for a balanced coin, there it is, I enjoyed it and im a pretty bloody cynical and brutal guy for those of ya that know me by now.

[FuxieDK]

TBH, I found Medivh to be the worst persona in the movie..
Everyone else, pretty much performed as expected, but Medivh was baaaaaad.. Too far removed from the original Medivh, and poor acting.

Gul'dal is also quite far from the original, but that's because he's been merged with Ner'zhul (who seemlingly doesn't exist in the ovie universe)..

Movie is quite good.. I gave it 7/10 on IMDb..

[Slakkers]

TBH, I found Medivh to be the worst persona in the movie..
Everyone else, pretty much performed as expected, but Medivh was baaaaaad.. Too far removed from the original Medivh, and poor acting.

Gul'dal is also quite far from the original, but that's because he's been merged with Ner'zhul (who seemlingly doesn't exist in the ovie universe)..

Movie is quite good.. I gave it 7/10 on IMDb..

Guldan merged with Ner'zhul, what have you been smoking? Just becasue hes not there, does not mean he does not exist. Critics complained over too many characters as it is (they gotta have the memory capabilities of a goldfish imho), so the movie leaving some out is not that bad.

[ruga]

Something I missed in the movie was an indepth explanation of the demonblood/orc interaction and why the Frost Wolves refuse to consume it. It'd have given Durotan more depth as a leader who simply tries to lead his people to a better place.

[Deleted]

If this film was shit i'd say so, I went in with fingers and toes crossed muttering 'please please please don't suck...' But I was really pleasantly surprised.

This is a good film.

Having seen it on launch myself I really enjoyed it and on the whole agree with the review by CaptainV. The first half is very..busy and it can be a bit much to take in. If I can say anything bad about this movie is that the movie could have done with being a bit longer say 15 - 30 minutes to flesh out some points like Ruga suggested.

I had no issues with the human actors, Mediv was okay, Lothar was fine and I liked Khadgar, Lane seemed a bit young but we've had young kings before. The chemistry between the Lothar/Garona/Khadgar trio was also there and there was some really funny bits of humor.

As was said the orcs are NOT uncanny valley, instead they look real, these guys are mini-hulks, there's one bit where Lothar's looking at an Orc captive and he lifts his hand up by lifting his first finger after the thumb. His whole HAND cups the finger. Orcs in this movie are BIG but they look real, they really are amazing.

Gul'dan is a great villain, but he could have perhaps done with a bit more time explaining why he was such a bastard, but then again that could be done in that 15 - 30 minutes the film did.

One thing that surprised me was that they kept the fan nods fairly low key, they didn't rub them in your face and go "HEY LOOK ITS X! AIN'T THAT GREAT!!!!!" It was fairly subtle and a reminder that this was done NOT as a game movie, but as a fantasy movie that happens to share a name with a game.

7.5 - 8 out of 10.

I really don't know why critics are panning it. To me it seems that most movie critics either expect something to be a Kubric Masterpeice or some weird black and white dubbed into danish movie about the journey of a one legged non-gender binary Flemmish girl on her way across the Urals to get to Guam (don't question it!) to have transitional surgery into a Llama. The kind of movie that gets shown in 3 cinemas for about a day and a half.

IE they don't watch movies that normal people want to watch.

and those who do know about it seem to have been sent to do a hatchet job. The Kotaku guy hated blizzard over the Nostalius shenanigans, the guardian guy was a lunatic SJW (seriously, saying that this movie is racist and is basically about evil whitey trying to stop brown 'migrants' who are analogues of Syrian refugees is insane) and Forbes didn't even actually watch the movie :s

[FuxieDK]

Guldan merged with Ner'zhul, what have you been smoking? Just becasue hes not there, does not mean he does not exist.

In official lore, Gul'dan had NOTHING to do with opening any portals; Azeroth or other planets.. That was Ner'zhul...

- - - Updated - - -

Something I missed in the movie was an indepth explanation of the demonblood/orc interaction and why the Frost Wolves refuse to consume it. It'd have given Durotan more depth as a leader who simply tries to lead his people to a better place.

There is no demon blood in the movie.. In the movie, Gul'dan is "granting the fel", by channelling a spell to a person.

[Devonitar]

In official lore, Gul'dan had NOTHING to do with opening any portals; Azeroth or other planets.. That was Ner'zhul...

Lorewise, it was Medivh on Azeroth's side, and Gul'dan's Shadow Council on Draenor's side. So yeah, Gul'dan is rather responsible for the Dark Portal.

[thilicen]

In no way would I call it bad, but I was not blown away. As a fan I can appreciate the movie for what it is, but I can also see how people who have no interest nor knwoledge about Warcraft would have trouble swallowing it.

[Raiju]

In official lore, Gul'dan had NOTHING to do with opening any portals; Azeroth or other planets.. That was Ner'zhul...

Ner'zhul was sidelined long before the opening of the dark portal. The only notable ones he opened were the ones that ripped draenor apart

[HappyCola]

it feels like the STARTING ground of something alot bigger

I don't understand this approach to movies. I don't want to watch a "starting ground" movie. They should just focus on making one amazing movie so that they actually get to make a sequel. Take the best lore out of WoW (e.g,, Arthas/Forsaken/etc.), and make the most awesome movie you can out of it.

[thilicen]

In official lore, Gul'dan had NOTHING to do with opening any portals; Azeroth or other planets.. That was Ner'zhul...

Wrongo. Gul'dan was on the other side, you can even see Medivh contacting him when opening the portal in the Black Morass in-game.

[Raiju]

I don't understand this approach to movies. I don't want to watch a "starting ground" movie. They should just focus on making one amazing movie so that they actually get to make a sequel. Take the best lore out of WoW (e.g,, Arthas/Forsaken/etc.), and make the most awesome movie you can out of it.

The arthas story line is far better if you have the starting ground to support it - otherwise it's a pretty generic story.

[thilicen]

The arthas story line is far better if you have the starting ground to support it - otherwise it's a pretty generic story.

Wonder how many movies they would need to run the entire WC3 with TFT included without cutting much of it. I would pay top dollar to watch that story brought to life on the big screen.

[Raiju]

Wonder how many movies they would need to run the entire WC3 with TFT included without cutting much of it. I would pay top dollar to watch that story brought to life on the big screen.

They need another movie to lay the groundwork now that the world is established, and then I'd imagine 2 movies, although 1 could be possible if you focus just on arthas from there. Ofcourse things will be cut & simplified for movie audience still.