Warcraft Is The Critical Bomb Of The Summer

full disclaimer: dont like WoW. WC3 was cool.

im just gonna comment here without even having seen the film, so take that for wat its worth - this is completely independent of whether or not the movie is quality or not. critics are latching on to the negative perceptions of shut-in WoW social misfits & going in to this with bias against the subject matter already. the movie might suck. there very well may be serious problems with the storytelling, or the pacing, or watever. or maybe theyre picking at it so uniformly cos its warcraft. insert homer simpson yelling neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerd out the window of his car here.
 
I saw the movie overseas in 4DX theaters with 3d, mist, wind, lighting, smoke, reactive chairs that tilt rumble and bumps you in the back. It was awesome. I went in thinking it was going to be another shitty CGI movie, but I was proven wrong. The movie has a pretty simple storyline, I don't see how critics say it was convoluted, I don't even play warcraft and I get the story line pretty quickly. I am usually against CGI but in this movie it works because they made the orcs and humans move like it was the game.
 
The trailers, which movies try to make their best impression, looked horrible. I wouldn't go see this if it was free.

It just looks like very generic, low grade fantasy tripe.
 
They dumbed down the story too much for non Warcraft fans. They fucked up thinking their audience is a bunch of idiots. Should've picked a more interesting storyline like Arthas or the Burning Legion.
 
Although the story does not follow the canon of Warcraft, (see Rise of the Horde - Christie Golden) it was entertaining. The Mrs and I saw it Friday. I liked it. I too can't wait for the extended directors cut - I need to see more of Ironforge and Stormwind - I was a bit sad that they based SW on the new (post Cataclysm) model. I was hoping for Vanilla. I really want to see Kalimdor, but since we were in Eastern Kingdoms - Why no gnomes?!?
 
GotNoRice said:
Hate to burst your bubble while you're in the process of patting yourself on the back, but the movie isn't based on World of Warcraft...
Click to expand...


Hate to burst your bubble but I never said it was. Only that was who it appeals to.


The way nerds are defending it on the internet makes that even more obvious.
 
NickJames said:
They dumbed down the story too much for non Warcraft fans. They fucked up thinking their audience is a bunch of idiots. Should've picked a more interesting storyline like Arthas or the Burning Legion.
Click to expand...
This is what bothered me the most. I don't understand why writers don't just stick to the utter plethora of amazing source material. It's like all the work is done for you already, why f^ck it up by being "creative"?
 
Well I won't go to the theater to see it, cause well I don't go to movies since having young kids.....but I will very much watch it once it comes out for home viewing pleasure.
 
GotNoRice said:
Hate to burst your bubble while you're in the process of patting yourself on the back, but the movie isn't based on World of Warcraft...
Click to expand...
The fact that you know that makes his point than it refutes his point.
 
"Yes, it’s a mess. Most of it feels adapted from a Wikipedia page. None of the emotional beats land — even the better ones needed a lot more time to build. (There are hints of a much better three-hour film here; then again, there are also hints of a much better 45-minute film here.) And it ends on a pseudo-cliffhanger that ultimately makes it feel like a really expensive television pilot. But at all times, Warcraft goes big. It goes ambitious. It goes for the crazy when it could simply go for the safe."

Wow (pun not intended)
My first thought when I read that was that it was written to cause a reaction. It may have been a personal opinion (but not stated as such), but it was so orchestrated to have people troll you that I thought you must be craving attention. But I thought I should qualify that with my personal opinion...
But first some background. I have been playing WOW on and off since it came out. I enjoy the game and the social aspect. Have some very good friends in real life and via guild chat. Some of my friends I now see in real life because of the social aspect. So my view may have been skewed on the film.
But I wasn't expecting the film to be good, Most films of video games aren't. Mario Brothers, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter..

"Yes, it’s a mess. Most of it feels adapted from a Wikipedia page." - as an opening statement I think that needs to be qualified. How can you equate the linear nature of a web page to the representation of two warring factions? Would that also be the same as comparing it to the Wikipedia references of WWII? Because that has a Wikipedia Page. i'm sure if you made that statement about the Diary of Anne Frank and the Wikipedia page it has, people would have a more emotional reaction.

"None of the emotional beats land" In your opinion - that needs to be stated. Personally the undercurrent of interracial tension between Lothar and Garona in a race orientated scenario, although formulaic, was not expected as part of the lore of Warcraft.

"There are hints of a much better three-hour film here" Ironically the original cut was much longer...

"And it ends on a pseudo-cliffhanger that ultimately makes it feel like a really expensive television pilot" The Lore for Warcraft (note: not World of Warcraft) is quite extensive. This part of that Lore is only a small part of the whole "world" that Blizzard have created over the past 22 years. When you say "television pilot" then perhaps think of Kiefer Sutherland whose television pilot for "24" was seen in 2001 and has only had 8 series and 2 stand alone films.
Warcraft has had 3 original games with expansions. The first game was released 22 years ago. Then World Of Warcraft was released in 2004 and has had 5 expansions to date.

So as a fan of films and games, I have to ask myself what my thoughts of "Warcraft:The Beginning" where...
It was better than expected. It honestly pushed the boundaries of CGI so the IMAX experience was excellent. The story was generally in line with the lore of Warcraft. And it laid the foundations for furthering the story.

One last point. The statement "the pseudo-cliffhanger" seems like you were expecting a film that was a single story with a definitive ending? Perhaps you missed the title of the film as you walked in... "Warcraft : The Beginning"...

Note: All of the above are my personal opinions. I purposely didn't make blanket statements or random critique.
 
pxc said:
I started clicking on the 1977 reviews of Star Wars on Rotten Tomatoes and most critics liked it. If anything, Star Wars was a movie that both critics and audiences generally liked.

Warcraft looks like it was made for hardcore fans. I don't play Warcraft and the trailer didn't do anything to make me want to see it. If it's reviewed generally unfavorably (I'm sure critiques are given in each of its numerous negative reviews), it probably has major problems.
Click to expand...

I played Warcraft and thought it sucked. It's definitely a Gen X movie.
 
Snowdog said:
The trailers, which movies try to make their best impression, looked horrible. I wouldn't go see this if it was free.

It just looks like very generic, low grade fantasy tripe.
Click to expand...

if the trailers bad i usually watch the movie, if they have to try to hard to make the trailer look good and interesting, it's probably because they used all the good parts of the movie and there's nothing else worth watching.. that's just my take on it though.

The Fragile said:
For when you pirate buy it?
Click to expand...

who the hell buys movies anymore when theres netflix and amazon prime? :p


RagingSamster said:
Although the story does not follow the canon of Warcraft, (see Rise of the Horde - Christie Golden) it was entertaining. The Mrs and I saw it Friday. I liked it. I too can't wait for the extended directors cut - I need to see more of Ironforge and Stormwind - I was a bit sad that they based SW on the new (post Cataclysm) model. I was hoping for Vanilla. I really want to see Kalimdor, but since we were in Eastern Kingdoms - Why no gnomes?!?
Click to expand...

i think the gnomes were shown twice, in the early part of the movie and near the end before the final fight sequence.
 
Last edited:
I have been playing since Warcraft 1, the movie was good IMO. I think they did a good job on the Orcs
 
Saw it this afternoon. Was very entertaining. I hope it makes enough money to continue portraying the lore on the big screen.
 
Blizzard should really just allow the guys who do the CG stuff for their games make a movie. It's pretty fantastic.
 
Critics are notoriously hard on fantasy; some feel the entire genre is low brow compared to "oscar bait" and stroke their ego on this fact. There are a handful of exceptions, particularly when something is unusually new (ie Lord of the Rings, which was considered "unfilmable" prior to Jackson's trilogy and did so many things other fantasy titles had not done before both visually and otherwise, not to mention was based on a literary classic. Even Star Wars, debuted in a different time where few knew the samurai/westerns Lucas adapted it from, and visually it was absolutely stunning). Warcraft may very well be a good fantasy movie, but its certainly not ground breaking and that's okay. After all, its made on a 20 year old script, more or less. As others have said, this isn't a massive epic detailing the entire history of Azeroth and encompassing all the lore of World of Warcraft, but instead is a slightly honed retelling of the very first game Warcraft: Orcs and Humans (with some forays into the second title in the series as well). By contrast, the setup for World of Warcraft (and some familiar characters) only really started during Warcraft 3 and its expansion, the Frozen Throne. The CGI is clearly very, very well done and had we not seen Gollum / Andy Serkis level performance capture, things may be very different. Likewise, if we hadn't seen Helm's Deep in LOTR: The Two Towers (a truly groundbreaking battle scene of immense scale, depth, and complexity), the orcish Horde in vast numbers going to war may have been slack-jaw-inducing impressive. But Warcraft comes at a later time where being a good, or even great retelling of the Orcs vs Humans storyline isn't enough to avoid critical panning.

I'm still planning to see Warcraft for a number of reasons, but much like many fun sci-fi and fantasy films, critical panning on this sort of genre film doesn't necessarily indicate a bad movie nor should it spoil your good time.
 
The Fragile said:
That's honestly what I was hoping for in the first place. 2 hours of Blizzard CG would be bad ass.
Click to expand...
I'm into fantasy but whenever I see the trailer, all I can think of:
char_45904.jpg
 
travbrad said:
I don't know why people would care about how much a movie grosses either unless you work in the industry. The only thing that should really matter is your own opinion of the movie, and maybe some friends with similar tastes. There is no accounting for taste, after all.

Call of Duty games consistently sell tons of copies and even get pretty good ratings but I still think they are basically everything that is bad about modern FPSs combined into one game. Ratings and sales aren't going to make me like or dislike something.
Click to expand...

Because at the core movies (or games) are are business. They are also very expensive to make with the production values people are expecting for these types of films.

If you are looking for a sequel, or more investment in the fantasy genre, video game genre, or to some extent less cartoon based CG films then it's important a film like Warcraft does well. Much more so then what its rating is. Really for the non awards focused prestige films the actual critics or viewers rating is what is irrelevant.
 
Nukester said:
China, really? Surprised the Golf farmers took enough time out to go see it.
Click to expand...
Wow, so racist. It's obviously not the gold farmers. It's the factories trying to curb the suicidal ones with entertainment.
 
I used to play WOW a lot years ago, but I just do not think I'd go to the theater to see this.

Even the fanbois that like it most forums say it's pretty shallow.
 
Oh look..another movie made by hollywood after a video game and it's shit..I wonder who called this months ago?....

All video game movies are shit..No Exceptions.
 
NickJames said:
They dumbed down the story too much for non Warcraft fans. They fucked up thinking their audience is a bunch of idiots. Should've picked a more interesting storyline like Arthas or the Burning Legion.
Click to expand...

Hollywood has been doing this shit for years, particularly with movies that are designed to be successful in foreign markets, they try to make it as simple as possible to translate into many languages and many demographics of people. Look at the transformers movies, as an example. It wouldn't surprise me if this movie was made specifically for the chinese market, particularly because Wanda, the largest theater chain owner in China, owns Legendary.

With that said I intend to see it tomorrow, I have low expectations but feel I will be entertained for the nostolgia factor. I loved warcraft 1 and 2, I played the shit out of wow as well going back to friends and family beta.
 
I thought the movie was pretty good. It was entertaining. I have no idea if it was accurate. I played it for 1 year where I forcefully pulled myself away from being addicted. I knew going in it was going to be at least 80 percent CGI. Most of the movie was a sound stage. The movie theater had a lot of people leaving mid way through. I was surprised at how much I liked the movie though after all the critics said how bad it sucks.
 
The only thing I liked about this movie was winning the "Obligatory Murloc Making Murloc Sound Within 20 minutes of the Movie Starting" bet.
 
Wife and I are warcraft fans, We liked it a lot. Friend who doesnt even know what warcraft is also liked it.
 
Duncan and Chris stated that they intend for the movie to target those familiar with the Warcraft universe. I wonder how many of these critics have played any Warcraft game. I also noticed that audience ratings are in the mid 80's/100
 
I saw it and was impressed, I enjoyed almost every scene, laughed at the jokes and just freaking loved the battle scenes. Might be the type of movie only the fans may enjoy. Also worth noting the first review on kataku was that it sucked, and now another reviewer posted he loved it and doesn't know what the other review was on about :D
 
I went in and wanted to like it so bad, but the writing and acting was just terrible. The visual effects were cool, but that was the only thing that kept me awake.
 
People are just pathetic assholes. They had to take 10 hrs. of material and try to shove it in a 3 hour period. I have read all the books from the beginning to Tides of War and just seeing what they put on the screen left me in awe. They really built the orcs encampment and 1/3 high buildings in Stormwind with the other 2/3 of said buildings in CGI. It really was incredible to see it on the BIG screen, not that shitty chinese screener that was getting bit torrented to death. Yes somethings in the plot were changed (Durotan and Draka's demise for instance) but it flowed with the MOVIE. Only downside to me was Travis Femmel felt like he was still in his VIKINGS mode and he didn't fit the bill as Lothar correctly to me. IMO of course. Another thing they didn't cut down the violence as I thought they would. I can see an R rated version in the Blu-ray/UHD versions as possible. Overall, I loved it. We haven't had a good Fanstasy type movie like this. P.S. at the beginning keep an EAR out for the Murlocs...lol nice touch.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
Oh look..another movie made by hollywood after a video game and it's shit..I wonder who called this months ago?....

All video game movies are shit..No Exceptions.
Click to expand...
I think the Silent Hill movie was better than your average Hollywood movie, certainly better than the average Hollywood horror.

SnowBeast said:
People are just pathetic assholes. They had to take 10 hrs. of material and try to shove it in a 3 hour period. I have read all the books from the beginning to Tides of War and just seeing what they put on the screen left me in awe.
Click to expand...
Do those retcon what was in the original Warcraft: Orcs & Humans? I sort of lost interest in Warcraft as it got more cartoon-like with WoW
 
GotNoRice said:
Funny because it's currently setting records in China, totally blowing away other films like the last Star Wars Movie.
Click to expand...
Yeah, but Star Wars had an unfathomably and unbelievably capable Mary Sue character in the form of Rey that is an expert pilot, expert marksman, expert mechanic (no, not that tool you dumb male), expert linguist in wookie and droid, expert martial artists that can take on multiple larger opponents even though she weighs about 90lbs with the upper body strength of a chipmunk, teaches herself to use the force within minutes against the top ranking Sith lord that has undergone relentless training, is chosen for no obvious reason to visit Skywalker alone, and has no real character flaws to speak of, in spite of growing up in conditions on a desert planet as an orphan where she only had enough time to feed herself rather than get a real education to even learn to speak properly or develop basic social skills. But the important thing is that the rebels represent epic girl power (stop taking my hand, you shitlord!) and diversity as pure good, and the almost entirely homogeneous CIS white male patriarchal neo-Nazis are of course pure evil. So it gets a 10/10 for SJW propaganda effect.

Its possible that Warcrafts failing is that its just a fun action movie without a political agenda, which seems to be unacceptable to critics these days. No cultural reprogramming = no stamp of approval.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top