Looking back at the Warcraft Movie...

[Deleted]

The movie tried to replicate WoW's cartoony graphics style, that didn't work.

Take a look at the humans' armor, it looks plastic-y and cheap

That carries on throughout the movie, it looks cheap, like a fan-made movie on Youtube.

[ramayana1423]

They ruined the entire movie by adding in the forced love story. The original lore is very compelling, and they absolutely butchered it.

[melodramocracy]

The movie is better than most reviewers would indicate. People expected the second coming of Fellowship of the Ring, which this was simply never going to be. But it's a solid enough fantasy flick, and does a commendable job of telling its story in the limited time it has.

Having said that, this movie is an example of missed opportunity. Wrath was the timeframe to release a film, when the game was at the height of its public awareness, and the Arthas story is fairly straightforward , and would translate a bit better to screen than what they tried here. Had that been done, we'd probably be discussing sequels now.

[Galaar]

If blizzard could make movies in the same format as their cut scenes it would be better imo. They'd have more flexibility with spells/abilities and all the other stuff.

[melodramocracy]

For me the movie sucked and was amazing at the same time.

Amazing:
Actually this will be a short list as to why it is amazing....
Elwynn Forest!! Stormwind!!! Armor!! Nostalgia things littered all over the place. Sheep!!

That was basically it.

The things that annoyed me:
1. THE FELL!!!! OMG THE FELL!!! Suddenly it wasn't fell magic anylonger. THE FELL!!!! fuck that...
2. Orcs were good ánd bad at the same time!! This was confusing for the people watching. The reason as to why the orcs really went for Azeroth was unclear.
3. The demonic influence was vague
4. Several Classes not seen in the movie. Priests? Shamans?
5. Several Races not seen in the movie. Gnomes? Elves? I mean I get that there was no Alliance yet. But if you show us Draenei at the beginning of the movie without any explanation about them whatsoever... perhaps show us races that we atleast knew were there on Azeroth.
6. Anduin Lothar was just Ragnar Lothbrok really... And it saddens me to say that.
7. Mages from Darnassus were dumb and stubborn as fuck. But oh well... it serves the plot....
8. No one expects Mediv to not be "Mediv" until it is really late in the movie.
9. Anduin Lothar in love with Halforcen? Really? Why?

And many more... cba anymore to write.

You're watching this movie from the perspective of a seasoned player. This movie was intended for a much wider audience. Non-warcraft folks wouldnt care or even notice that priests were absent.

[valax]

I was looking forward to spectacular particle effects to represent the different schools of magic .
All we saw was generic blue energy and lightning bolts . Hell , when credits started rolling i was left thinking " WTF why didn't they use these in the film ...smh"

Credits video :

[Sky High]

as far as I'm concerned the movie's single greatest failure is not giving us one or two characters to care about and follow though the story. it should have focused solely on Lothar and Orgrim, not fucking Durotan, that glorified footnote of a character.

With Lothar we could have seen a knight that started off disillusioned with his position and the kingdom he serves via his son/significant other dying but over the course of the film realizes he has to step up and be a leader.

the inverse of that would be Orgrim who is dedicated to his warchief (blackhand) but again over the course of the film realizes Blackhand isn't really the one in charge and is a puppet for a far less "honorable" Gul'dan. who at some point learns that his best friend and his clan have been slaughtered giving him even more motivation to take Blackand and Gul'dan out of the picture.

that right there, is a compelling movie at it's core.

they did nearly none of that in this movie...

[FelPlague]

-snip-

The Arthas story woulda been so much better, watch him be raised and the story of invincible get the peoples eyes watering with some horse death, go all the way through ending with the purging of stratholme maybe to put more suspense have him have a flashback of his horse through the movie, small parts here and there we start the movie with the horse being birthed. end with him starting the purge then entering a flashback of it dying and him crying.

then possibly a second movie later with the rest of the arthas story, ending with him sitting on the throne and freezing over, i would love to say all in one movie but alot would need to be cut or it would need to be a 4+ hours movie...

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I was looking forward to spectacular particle effects to represent the different schools of magic .
All we saw was generic blue energy and lightning bolts . Hell , when credits started rolling i was left thinking " WTF why didn't they use these in the film ...smh"

Credits video :

the things i give credit is the references, khadgar leveling up, the murloc, the meeting stone, sadly no leeroy jenkins as was inteded, the dude was even going to be in it.

[Mister Cheese]

They refused to commit to making Orcs look like the bad guys. Humans acting was entirely shit. Orc CGI was terrible. They should have gone the Hellboy route and did full makeup and props for everyone. They tried too hard to make this movie appeal to everyone and it failed.

[Tiwack]

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.

Truth. I've seen worse and I've seen better but It's not as bad as it's made out when you realize that even GoT looks fake once in a while when you have to mix cgi and actors to tell the story. It's the props you see with the actors for the majority of the movie that are easier to have as real items though painted cardboard always works in a pinch for people with an open mind. Priorities... Orcs were the best part of the movie imo. Some scenes worked better than others. Can't wait for the next one, I just hope they accept the green screens and cgi animation or try to take more care with the sets and props, if they're not gonna go shoot on location in the environment that fits the story.

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They refused to commit to making Orcs look like the bad guys. Humans acting was entirely shit. Orc CGI was terrible. They should have gone the Hellboy route and did full makeup and props for everyone. They tried too hard to make this movie appeal to everyone and it failed.

Disagree completely. Orcs are victims of the demon-blood and Legion subterfuge. They portrayed them well imo despite everything else. They attempted to tell too many stories in too little time which resulted in a mess that not even the actors could've fixed despite trying their best. Problems were the mixed priorities in CGI, greenscreen and painted sets and props.

[Tiwack]

I mean, LotR basically did that with the first movie. You don’t need to start at the beginning for audiences to understand what’s going on - just do a quick cutscene.

Imo would be cool to try and work in a few cinematics and cutscenes from their games into the movie cutscene
Would be easier and probably work better if it were all animation though.

[Sanguinerd]

All they had to do was stick to the established lore and they couldn't do that.

This movie failed because of stupid decisions to change certain things for no reason what-so-ever.

Sure some things needed to change to better fit the format, but what they changed was no it.

[Self Inflicted Wounds]

I'll give an easy answer.

The movie should've been canon, as In, the real story of the First War and how It began and everything to not only give Inspiration for people to play the game, get Into the lore themselves, but to see the finalized story for what It was - a kinda okay story after the many retcons and changes.

Ofcourse we all know It didn't make sense for Doomhammer to be Frostwolf, or for Durotan to duel Gul'dan. Gul'dans a Shaman/Warlock, he has no real power, not really. The true respectable power among the orcs was Blackhand, Warchief of the Horde. And hence challenging him would make sense, not only that but Durotan wasn't the one to challenge him in the first place, It was Doomhammer, and Doomhammer was a Blackrock and Blackhand's second In command.

That and many other lore blunders makes me hate the movie.

The end.

I noticed these things, but I also didn't go into it expecting the best movie ever. I knew they would be taking liberties with the story and what makes sense, which really doesn't matter. Mainly because you really mean what actually happened. It isn't crazy for Gul'Dan to fight someone, it just wasn't canon.

I enjoyed it overall, but again, I didn't go into it thinking it would really represent Warcraft to a full or quality degree... its hollywood isn't it?

[Doomchicken]

movie based on a video game = automatic failure. That is all.

[Techno-Druid]

I don't think basing a movie around Arthas without providing background for the lore would be much of a good idea. Arthas himself is just a part of the Third War and to have an Arthas movie that makes sense to audiences and shows the gravity of the world you have to cover the whole Third War.

[Soulwind]

movie based on a video game = automatic failure. That is all.

If you can write the formula that dictates that universal law, you'd probably get a Nobel.


In reality, it's just a matter of choosing the right universe and then writing the characters and story specifically for the movie. The people involved must also have some respect and knowledge of the source material.

Pretty much all examples of bad videogame movies have: tried to match the characters and story 1:1 (Mortal Kombat, Silent Hill), made it all up (Super Mario, Resident Evil) or adapted games with poor/uninteresting universes (Doom, Tomb Raider, Hitman).

Warcraft kind of did this right, but then kind of didn't. And having two large companies interrupting and changing stuff as it was made didn't help either.

I think Duncan Jones could have pulled off a decent film, if he had been allowed to. I don't think the actors who played the human side took the movie seriously, either, but then again, they probably also saw how the script was being changed constantly and felt it was probably going to be a forgettable part of their careers anyway.

[Traveler Voltin]

The only issue with it was the missing 40 minutes of footage that universal made legendary cut.

[cuafpr]

the movie suffered from 3 parties having 3 different visions, legendary, Blizzard and directors. Personally they should have just stuck with the story from Orcs and Humans, and left a lot of the horde background unknown and mysterious. Likely more focus on human and alliance.... the horde fans would get their moment in the final battle with the fall of SW and final screen should have been from the survivors fleeing SW harbor as SW burns.

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The only issue with it was the missing 40 minutes of footage that universal made legendary cut.

its a pitty there didn't do a directors cut

[Ashleyxoxo]

When have movies based on video games ever been good?!