Looking back at the Warcraft Movie...

[Techno-Druid]

So I'm watching Warcraft on HBO and I can't help but think...would it have been better if the movies started with the Third War?

The issue with the movie is that condenses the First War into one movie. Video Game movies in general seem to fail a lot because they condense a lot and diverge significantly from the in-game storyline. I think Warcraft suffered a lot in the same way The Hobbit did in that a lot of more interesting parts were cut in place of less interesting movie-only subplots (Lothar's son, the weird romance, Orgrim's betrayal, Alodi).

I know very little about the process in making films, but the the opening cinematic of Warcraft does a lot to introduce the setting of Warcraft and the hatred between the orcs and humans. Thrall and Medivh would be there to drop hints of exposition about the First and Second War and the internment of the orcs.

Here's I think the Warcraft Movie should have been and how a Warcraft Film Franchise would play out:

-----
1. Exodus of the Horde
- Introduces the Horde: Thrall, Grom, Drek'thar, Saurfang, etc.
- Introduces the faction war, but from the Horde perspective
- Flashback (maybe a dream or vision) by Thrall of his enslavement by Blackmoore
- Mention of the demons (which would be hyped up for future films) and the orc's corruption by Grom and/or Drek'thar
- Mention and/or flashback of the draenei genocide by Drek'thar or Saurfang
- Introduction into orcish culture
- The exodus of the orcs and arrival on Darkspear Isle, introduction to the Sen'jin, Vol'jin, the Darkspear tribe (and jungle trolls to the audience, maybe an orc or two making a comment on how they differ from forest trolls) and the (albeit brief) appearance of naga, murlocs and the Kul Tirans.
1. Arthas, the Scourge and the Destruction of Lordaeron
- This would be a more Alliance and Scourge-centric movie detailing the beginnings of Arthas' ascension into the Lich King, the destruction of Lordaeron, Quel'thalas and Dalaran and Jaina's exodus with the refugees of Lordaeron
- Introduction of the dwarves (through Muradin) and possibly even gnomes, goblins and high elves
- Mention and/or flashback of the destruction of Stormwind during the First War
- Mention and/or flashback of Arthas and Varian
- Introduction of the nathrezim and the Scourge
- Introduction of Northrend and Ner'zhul
- Jaina taking the refugees of Lordaeron to Kalimdor
3. Conquest of Kalimdor, the Night Elves, Tauren and the Arrival of the Horde and Alliance forces
- The film that really kicks off the Burning Legion's arrival
- The meeting between the orcs (and trolls) and the tauren and the introduction of Cairne
- The introduction of Tyrande and Malfurion and the night elves
- The fall of Grom and the battle between the night elves
- The arrival of Jaina and the Lordaeronian refugees and conflict with the orcs
- Brief introduction of the quilboar, centaur, furbolgs, moonkin, etc
4. The alliance of the Horde, Alliance and the Night Elves, the arrival under Archimonde and introduction of Illidan
- The introduction of Illidan
- The reveal of Medivh and a flashback to the opening of the Dark Portal
- The alliance of the races
- The battle between the mortal races and the Burning Legion
- The defeat of the Legion and the establishment of Durotar and Theramore
5. Illidan, the blood elves, the draenei and Outland
- Maiev's official introduction and basically all the nelf campaigns in TFT
- The mistreatment of the blood elves under Garithos and Lady Vashj's introduction
- Travel to Outland and introduction of Akama and the Broken
- Illidan becoming the Lord of Outland
- The introduction of Velen and the draenei's exodus of Outland
6. Arthas, Sylvanas and the Forsaken and the ascension of Arthas as Lich King
- The continuation and (Pre-WoTLK) end of Arthas
- The introduction of (undead) Sylvanas and the rise of the Forsaken
- The introduction of Anub'arak and King Ymiron
- Maybe a flash forward to the events of Wrath with the Argent Crusade, the Horde and Alliance storming Icecrown, showing all of the races: orcs, tauren, trolls, draenei, humans, gnomes, dwarves, blood elves and night elves.

-----

I'm pretty tired so I wasn't paying close attention to continuity of events, so I'll probably edit this post later on and include other details and fan casting.

But yeah, do you think the Warcraft Movie would have worked better if it started at Warcraft 3?

[khazmodan]

there was 3 major problems with the Warcraft movie;

1. the orcs looked too cartoonish and unconvincing and this broke immersion

2. the humans acting was bad and the chemistry seemed weak

3. the story was not set up well and it seemed disjointed and confusing.

You can change the lore all you want but this is not a book, this is a movie and there are many more elements required to make it work.

[dirtyjokes]

I feel like you'd be putting a lot more lore in the movies than Legendary did lol
I think the movie had everything it needed e.g. drama, love, action, to be successful, it was just too convoluted

[Usagi Senshi]

I still haven't watched that shit yet but Kung-Fu Panda was probably a better movie anyway.

Blizzard should make a MoP movie starring Taoshi, Hogger, the ghost of Sunwalker Dezco's dead wife, and Taran Zhu!

[Fusionshadow]

So you want a movie series that ignores the first 2 wars that points out the true Horde nature? You want a movie that pretends that never happened and instead to paint the Horde in a positive light? Ya I'm glad that they did not do that

[Deleted]

The human actors were wonky, and they chickened out on burning Stormwind to the Ground. So noncommittal

[Kynario]

there was 3 major problems with the Warcraft movie;

1. the orcs looked too cartoonish and unconvincing and this broke immersion

2. the humans acting was bad and the chemistry seemed weak

3. the story was not set up well and it seemed disjointed and confusing.

You can change the lore all you want but this is not a book, this is a movie and there are many more elements required to make it work.

I don't think the Orcs looked bad at all, I thought they were incredibly well done and conveyed a lot of emotions via their facial expressions... but to each their own.

Otherwise I agree with all of your points and feel the same way. :/

[tratra]

I think the movie had a lot of weak points and thats metzen to blame on.

First of all he wanted to present the horde as being the good guys same as the alliance.

That completely failed. I don't want to sympathise with the horde. The horde should be what it always was, a freaking zerg. I play horde and thats what I love about them, I don't want to see the drama between them, nor I wanna go into a movie that is trying to show me them tearing up and shit. Make the horde fearsome.

On the other hand, acting was terrible from some of the actors. Also as much as I love the actor that plays ragnar lothbrok, he can't really play in any other role... and can't see him anywhere else, he is one of those actors that has a distinctive way of acting. His way of acting was the exact same as he did in vikings which didn't help. Med etc awful acting.

Subplots, I'd say that half of the movie, was just an awful cutscene to cutscene, with random moments that made no freaking sense. They wanted to lure us players in and people that played in the old days by showing areas that are forgotten in the game etc, but generally speaking for people that have nothing to do with the game it didn't make any sense...

All in all I think it was the directors fault, and the studio. How can you take such a franchise and screw it up that much that you can't produce a 2nd movie... NO FREAKING IDEA!

I mean you didn't even have to do anything really, you already have a lot of millions of fans of warcraft all over the world, and people that past by playing warcraft, warcraft 2, 3, wow etc its not only 10million, it should be more like 50m +. How can you have that many fans and produce something that can't even make it to a 2nd movie. AWFUL Director, AWFUL studio, stupid decisions, involving metzen into the plot writing didn't help at all. Also I know that metzen is one of the creators etc etc but he has got old and his ideas changed a lot and he has become poor at story writing as it happens with everyone that is doing the same job for a big number of years.

[Deleted]

I don't think the live action actors went well with the CGI Orcs. I think Blizzard are amazing at their cinematic movies that kick off the expansions and I think they should of gone with a full movie based off of these instead of live actors in plastic looking armour and cartoon orcs.

[De Lupe]

It was live action. That was the key flaw. Why the fuck do people automatically assume live action is better than cartoon?

I'll take a gloriously animated cartoon movie with the exact same plot over the weak CGI Orcs and piss-ass actors.

[Deleted]

So I'm watching Warcraft on HBO and I can't help but think...would it have been better if the movies started with the Third War?

The issue with the movie is that condenses the First War into one movie. Video Game movies in general seem to fail a lot because they condense a lot and diverge significantly from the in-game storyline. I think Warcraft suffered a lot in the same way The Hobbit did in that a lot of more interesting parts were cut in place of less interesting movie-only subplots (Lothar's son, the weird romance, Orgrim's betrayal, Alodi).

I know very little about the process in making films, but the the opening cinematic of Warcraft does a lot to introduce the setting of Warcraft and the hatred between the orcs and humans. Thrall and Medivh would be there to drop hints of exposition about the First and Second War and the internment of the orcs.

Here's I think the Warcraft Movie should have been and how a Warcraft Film Franchise would play out:

-----
1. Exodus of the Horde
- Introduces the Horde: Thrall, Grom, Drek'thar, Saurfang, etc.
- Introduces the faction war, but from the Horde perspective
- Flashback (maybe a dream or vision) by Thrall of his enslavement by Blackmoore
- Mention of the demons (which would be hyped up for future films) and the orc's corruption by Grom and/or Drek'thar
- Mention and/or flashback of the draenei genocide by Drek'thar or Saurfang
- Introduction into orcish culture
- The exodus of the orcs and arrival on Darkspear Isle, introduction to the Sen'jin, Vol'jin, the Darkspear tribe (and jungle trolls to the audience, maybe an orc or two making a comment on how they differ from forest trolls) and the (albeit brief) appearance of naga, murlocs and the Kul Tirans.
1. Arthas, the Scourge and the Destruction of Lordaeron
- This would be a more Alliance and Scourge-centric movie detailing the beginnings of Arthas' ascension into the Lich King, the destruction of Lordaeron, Quel'thalas and Dalaran and Jaina's exodus with the refugees of Lordaeron
- Introduction of the dwarves (through Muradin) and possibly even gnomes, goblins and high elves
- Mention and/or flashback of the destruction of Stormwind during the First War
- Mention and/or flashback of Arthas and Varian
- Introduction of the nathrezim and the Scourge
- Introduction of Northrend and Ner'zhul
- Jaina taking the refugees of Lordaeron to Kalimdor
3. Conquest of Kalimdor, the Night Elves, Tauren and the Arrival of the Horde and Alliance forces
- The film that really kicks off the Burning Legion's arrival
- The meeting between the orcs (and trolls) and the tauren and the introduction of Cairne
- The introduction of Tyrande and Malfurion and the night elves
- The fall of Grom and the battle between the night elves
- The arrival of Jaina and the Lordaeronian refugees and conflict with the orcs
- Brief introduction of the quilboar, centaur, furbolgs, moonkin, etc
4. The alliance of the Horde, Alliance and the Night Elves, the arrival under Archimonde and introduction of Illidan
- The introduction of Illidan
- The reveal of Medivh and a flashback to the opening of the Dark Portal
- The alliance of the races
- The battle between the mortal races and the Burning Legion
- The defeat of the Legion and the establishment of Durotar and Theramore
5. Illidan, the blood elves, the draenei and Outland
- Maiev's official introduction and basically all the nelf campaigns in TFT
- The mistreatment of the blood elves under Garithos and Lady Vashj's introduction
- Travel to Outland and introduction of Akama and the Broken
- Illidan becoming the Lord of Outland
- The introduction of Velen and the draenei's exodus of Outland
6. Arthas, Sylvanas and the Forsaken and the ascension of Arthas as Lich King
- The continuation and (Pre-WoTLK) end of Arthas
- The introduction of (undead) Sylvanas and the rise of the Forsaken
- The introduction of Anub'arak and King Ymiron
- Maybe a flash forward to the events of Wrath with the Argent Crusade, the Horde and Alliance storming Icecrown, showing all of the races: orcs, tauren, trolls, draenei, humans, gnomes, dwarves, blood elves and night elves.

-----

I'm pretty tired so I wasn't paying close attention to continuity of events, so I'll probably edit this post later on and include other details and fan casting.

But yeah, do you think the Warcraft Movie would have worked better if it started at Warcraft 3?

Hmm, I think you are right, it would work better if they started at Warcraft 3. Story would be far more engaging and interesting even to people who are not familiar with Warcraft lore.

[Eazy]

Of course it would, but the Movie didn't even start in the first war - it's totally different timeline. They made a huge mistake by making "alternate timeline" once again.

[BarosanuNr1]

So you want a movie series that ignores the first 2 wars that points out the true Horde nature? You want a movie that pretends that never happened and instead to paint the Horde in a positive light? Ya I'm glad that they did not do that

What one wants and what would work are two different things, and the latter should be given priority. This was a new franchise (cinema-wise, Warcraft is "new"), so it would have made sense for them to start with their strongest material, in order to build an audience. Warcraft III has many fleshed-out iconic characters and a decent story (not to mention it is the most accessible to the WoW fanbase). The First War may be dear to older Warcraft fans, but it's too demanding on one's patience in a world where we've been saturated with this kind of movies (more so if you're not already a Warcraft fan), and presenting it in an interesting way was obviously beyond the skills of the movie's makers.

The Warcraft movie had to sell the universe, not a story. They chose one of the weaker stories available, several bad actors and no overall theme. And it failed. I like the story of the Horde (the orcs' embracing of corruption, followed by self-destruction and redemption can make for a good movie or series of movies - not to mention there are real world parallels to be made), but it's not like they could not have done a prequel of it later on (after establishing the franchise in the cinema world).

[LaserChild9]

I feel like wow would have been better as a series like GoT, with a series they would not have to worry so much about condensing the material.

[klaps_05]

there was 3 major problems with the Warcraft movie;

1. the orcs looked too cartoonish and unconvincing and this broke immersion

2. the humans acting was bad and the chemistry seemed weak

3. the story was not set up well and it seemed disjointed and confusing.

You can change the lore all you want but this is not a book, this is a movie and there are many more elements required to make it work.

Spot on, I would only add that the Humans armor also looked completely plastic.

[Kiri]

The human actors were wonky, and they chickened out on burning Stormwind to the Ground. So noncommittal

Tbh, I don't think burning SW to the ground would have worked too well. If you don't know whether or not you get a sequel, you go for a hero wins scenario, not a bad guy wins one. Yes, yes, faction pride etc. But let's be real here, the Horde of the first war were invading the humans unprovoked, so letting them win would have been seen as 'evil' triumphing. That is something you just can't do with a big movie like this. We can say all we want that heroes winning is lame, but it does tend to get you better box office results, especially for popcorn flicks.

[Planetdune]

I think we all agree the movie props (armor and weapons) looked fake and plastic... my question, why don't they just use REAL armor and weapons made from actual materials? Didn't LOTR do this?

[De Lupe]

I think we all agree the movie props (armor and weapons) looked fake and plastic... my question, why don't they just use REAL armor and weapons made from actual materials? Didn't LOTR do this?

$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[Hawkknight97]

I thought the Warcraft Movie was alright. Through there were some problems in the film mainly being it was bit rushed and you barely had time for other orcish warchiefs like Grom, Kargath, Nez'zhul, and Kilrogg. Second it would have to be Dalaran city in sky since in the original dalaran was on the ground. Third it was bit different for the ending from what to the original warcraft's ending mainly being Stormwind being burnt to the ground while the Movie ended with battle at the dark portal and Stormwind remained not destroyed.

Overall I say the Warcraft movie did well. Through if they were to do a sequel I think the film makers should take the time to put in the story of second war into 3 parts. One is the beginning, Two would be the middle of near defeat with the horde at the dark portal, and third would be Outlands/Draenor adventure.

[Deleted]

there was 3 major problems with the Warcraft movie;

The only major problem for the Warcraft movie was the US audience. Apparently they'd rather be deceived by shady movie 'critics' than to simply have an open mind and enjoy something. The movie did great outside the US, and I suspect for this exact reason.