Warcraft the Movie

[Urbin]

Well, I mentioned it some weeks ago, the Warcraft movie launched over here
last week, but I only go around to seeing it today. It pretty much met my
expectations (i.e. it was about as bad as I expected).

The only good thing about the movie that I can say is that they really
managed to make almost all of the places instantly recognizable to anyone
who has played vanilla WoW or BC. I also like the little side jokes they
added to the movie (a lonely murloc spearing a fish guuurrrrgling while the
party crosses a bridge; a blue/red fishing bobber floating in a river).

Other than that, most everything is pretty cheesy. The Orcs are so overblown
in their muscularity (basically the Horde consists of the Hulk multiplied)
that they're a caricature of themselves, the dwarves and elves have brief
appeareances only and look totally out of place. The story is roughly based
on the lore but butchered so a love interest could be added and I think they
picked every lousy actor they managed to find.

In short, whereas Peter Jackson managed to bring Lord of the Rings to the
screen in a way that - at least for me - portraied what the books and
previous artwork had instilled in my perfectly, Warcraft: The Beginning left
me totally untouched, any of the the cut scenes in game (and much of the
quest dialogs that were part of the game play) had more depthy and
credibility.

I expected things to end up like that and I still had to go see. I doubt
that there is going to be a sequel, it's the movies second week and there
were four (!) people in the theatre. I don't think we'll miss much.

Cheers
Urbin

[Catriona R]

Post by Urbin
Well, I mentioned it some weeks ago, the Warcraft movie launched over here
last week, but I only go around to seeing it today. It pretty much met my
expectations (i.e. it was about as bad as I expected).

Thanks for letting us know your thoughts; I've been wondering what
people think of it but most forum threads on MMO-C and the like are a
bit too polarised to get much actual idea!

Post by Urbin
The only good thing about the movie that I can say is that they really
managed to make almost all of the places instantly recognizable to anyone
who has played vanilla WoW or BC. I also like the little side jokes they
added to the movie (a lonely murloc spearing a fish guuurrrrgling while the
party crosses a bridge; a blue/red fishing bobber floating in a river).

Ah great, I was hoping for little touches like that :-) It wouldn't be
warcraft without a murloc somewhere, glad there's one!

Post by Urbin
Other than that, most everything is pretty cheesy. The Orcs are so overblown
in their muscularity (basically the Horde consists of the Hulk multiplied)
that they're a caricature of themselves, the dwarves and elves have brief
appeareances only and look totally out of place. The story is roughly based
on the lore but butchered so a love interest could be added and I think they
picked every lousy actor they managed to find.

Hehe I'd heard the story was altered a bit, necessary I guess but
still disappointing; I'd seen enough photos of the orcs to have an
idea what to expect... oh well.

Post by Urbin
In short, whereas Peter Jackson managed to bring Lord of the Rings to the
screen in a way that - at least for me - portraied what the books and
previous artwork had instilled in my perfectly, Warcraft: The Beginning left
me totally untouched, any of the the cut scenes in game (and much of the
quest dialogs that were part of the game play) had more depthy and
credibility.

That's a shame, the ingame cutscenes are often so well-done that I'd
love to see a whole movie done that way, by Blizzard themselves!

Post by Urbin
I expected things to end up like that and I still had to go see. I doubt
that there is going to be a sequel, it's the movies second week and there
were four (!) people in the theatre. I don't think we'll miss much.

Lol, if there's THAT few going then I actually might give it a try...
I hate crowds and as a result have never even been to a cinema, can't
imagine any fun in trying to watch something while surrounded by other
people, but if there's only a few then it'll be less bad.

I was expecting to have to wait till the DVD release to see it - maybe
that'll come sooner too if it's not that good... although I'd like it
to be successful enough to have a sequel, as I think the whole
Arthas/Scourge story would make a great film. Probably a better one
than trying to create a plot out of the original Warcraft, which was
really just "evil orcs invade good humans".

[Catriona R]

Post by Urbin
The only good thing about the movie that I can say is that they really
managed to make almost all of the places instantly recognizable to anyone
who has played vanilla WoW or BC. I also like the little side jokes they
added to the movie (a lonely murloc spearing a fish guuurrrrgling while the
party crosses a bridge; a blue/red fishing bobber floating in a river).

My other half downloaded a dodgy copy of it over the weekend, we
decided the quality wasn't good enough to want to watch it that way
(rather see the details properly!) but we saw enough of the scenery to
totally agree there, it looked amazing, and much of it was totally
recognisable :-) Karazhan was a bit bigger and more impressive than I
imagined, but otherwise pretty much everything we saw while skipping
through and not really watching (trying to get an idea of the scenery
without spoiling everything) was accurate, and loved the murloc ;-)

Hope the DVD comes out realtively early, I want to watch it now but
hate crowds so cinema isn't ideal, plus from the clips we saw half the
actors seem to mumble most their lines, so I'll likely need subtitles
to actually follow it properly (part of why I don't watch films is I
can't follow half of what's being said and I can't figure out who's
who... it's hard to enjoy a story when you've no idea what's going on
:-P ); I'll very much buy the DVD though, seeing the game come to life
is pretty awesome, whether it's a great film or not. I saw a video
clip of Chris Metzen wandering around in Stormwind a few weeks back,
that must've been amazing for him seeing the world he created like
that!

[Ashen Shugar]

I think it was Catriona R <***@totalise.co.uk> that wrote
something like...

Post by Catriona R

Post by Urbin
The only good thing about the movie that I can say is that they really
managed to make almost all of the places instantly recognizable to anyone
who has played vanilla WoW or BC. I also like the little side jokes they
added to the movie (a lonely murloc spearing a fish guuurrrrgling while the
party crosses a bridge; a blue/red fishing bobber floating in a river).

My other half downloaded a dodgy copy of it over the weekend, we
decided the quality wasn't good enough to want to watch it that way
(rather see the details properly!) but we saw enough of the scenery to
totally agree there, it looked amazing, and much of it was totally
recognisable :-) Karazhan was a bit bigger and more impressive than I
imagined, but otherwise pretty much everything we saw while skipping
through and not really watching (trying to get an idea of the scenery
without spoiling everything) was accurate, and loved the murloc ;-)
Hope the DVD comes out realtively early, I want to watch it now but
hate crowds so cinema isn't ideal, plus from the clips we saw half the
actors seem to mumble most their lines, so I'll likely need subtitles
to actually follow it properly (part of why I don't watch films is I
can't follow half of what's being said and I can't figure out who's
who... it's hard to enjoy a story when you've no idea what's going on
:-P ); I'll very much buy the DVD though, seeing the game come to life
is pretty awesome, whether it's a great film or not. I saw a video
clip of Chris Metzen wandering around in Stormwind a few weeks back,
that must've been amazing for him seeing the world he created like
that!

Howard Taylor gave it a pretty good review. His point of view was
from someone whose last Warcraft Game was the 2nd RTS.
So it sounds like it'd be a fun enough film so long as you're not
carrying too much baggage from the game storylines.

I read somewhere that in China it was absolutely massive opening week.

I'd guess it might let you down if you'd gotten your hopes up for
something super awesome, but otherwise it sounds like a reasonable
solid film. I'm guessing I should be able to go watch it in the
cinema's this Sunday, so I may have a more accurate opinion next week.
:)



Ashen Shugar

[Urbin]

Post by Ashen Shugar
I'm guessing I should be able to go watch it in the
cinema's this Sunday, so I may have a more accurate opinion next week.

I'm looking forward to hearing what you thought of it.

Cheers
Urbin

[Lewis]

Post by Ashen Shugar
something like...

Post by Catriona R

Post by Urbin
The only good thing about the movie that I can say is that they really
managed to make almost all of the places instantly recognizable to anyone
who has played vanilla WoW or BC. I also like the little side jokes they
added to the movie (a lonely murloc spearing a fish guuurrrrgling while the
party crosses a bridge; a blue/red fishing bobber floating in a river).

My other half downloaded a dodgy copy of it over the weekend, we
decided the quality wasn't good enough to want to watch it that way
(rather see the details properly!) but we saw enough of the scenery to
totally agree there, it looked amazing, and much of it was totally
recognisable :-) Karazhan was a bit bigger and more impressive than I
imagined, but otherwise pretty much everything we saw while skipping
through and not really watching (trying to get an idea of the scenery
without spoiling everything) was accurate, and loved the murloc ;-)
Hope the DVD comes out realtively early, I want to watch it now but
hate crowds so cinema isn't ideal, plus from the clips we saw half the
actors seem to mumble most their lines, so I'll likely need subtitles
to actually follow it properly (part of why I don't watch films is I
can't follow half of what's being said and I can't figure out who's
who... it's hard to enjoy a story when you've no idea what's going on
:-P ); I'll very much buy the DVD though, seeing the game come to life
is pretty awesome, whether it's a great film or not. I saw a video
clip of Chris Metzen wandering around in Stormwind a few weeks back,
that must've been amazing for him seeing the world he created like
that!

Howard Taylor gave it a pretty good review. His point of view was
from someone whose last Warcraft Game was the 2nd RTS.
So it sounds like it'd be a fun enough film so long as you're not
carrying too much baggage from the game storylines.
I read somewhere that in China it was absolutely massive opening week.

Yes. It killed in China. $144 million of its $305 million has come from
China. The next highest country total is Russia at $19 million.
(Boxofficemojo lists Russia as Russia - CIS, I don't know what CIS is,
unless they are still combining former Soviet states into one box office
number?)

Post by Ashen Shugar
I'd guess it might let you down if you'd gotten your hopes up for
something super awesome, but otherwise it sounds like a reasonable
solid film. I'm guessing I should be able to go watch it in the
cinema's this Sunday, so I may have a more accurate opinion next week.

Like I said elsewhere, I saw it with 12 people only 4 of whom had ever
played WoW and everyone enjoyed it. No one said it was great, but no one
hated it.

[IYM]

Post by Lewis

Post by Ashen Shugar
something like...

Post by Catriona R

Post by Urbin
The only good thing about the movie that I can say is that they really
managed to make almost all of the places instantly recognizable to anyone
who has played vanilla WoW or BC. I also like the little side jokes they
added to the movie (a lonely murloc spearing a fish guuurrrrgling while the
party crosses a bridge; a blue/red fishing bobber floating in a river).

My other half downloaded a dodgy copy of it over the weekend, we
decided the quality wasn't good enough to want to watch it that way
(rather see the details properly!) but we saw enough of the scenery to
totally agree there, it looked amazing, and much of it was totally
recognisable :-) Karazhan was a bit bigger and more impressive than I
imagined, but otherwise pretty much everything we saw while skipping
through and not really watching (trying to get an idea of the scenery
without spoiling everything) was accurate, and loved the murloc ;-)
Hope the DVD comes out realtively early, I want to watch it now but
hate crowds so cinema isn't ideal, plus from the clips we saw half the
actors seem to mumble most their lines, so I'll likely need subtitles
to actually follow it properly (part of why I don't watch films is I
can't follow half of what's being said and I can't figure out who's
who... it's hard to enjoy a story when you've no idea what's going on
:-P ); I'll very much buy the DVD though, seeing the game come to life
is pretty awesome, whether it's a great film or not. I saw a video
clip of Chris Metzen wandering around in Stormwind a few weeks back,
that must've been amazing for him seeing the world he created like
that!

Howard Taylor gave it a pretty good review. His point of view was
from someone whose last Warcraft Game was the 2nd RTS.
So it sounds like it'd be a fun enough film so long as you're not
carrying too much baggage from the game storylines.
I read somewhere that in China it was absolutely massive opening week.

Yes. It killed in China. $144 million of its $305 million has come from
China. The next highest country total is Russia at $19 million.
(Boxofficemojo lists Russia as Russia - CIS, I don't know what CIS is,
unless they are still combining former Soviet states into one box office
number?)

Post by Ashen Shugar
I'd guess it might let you down if you'd gotten your hopes up for
something super awesome, but otherwise it sounds like a reasonable
solid film. I'm guessing I should be able to go watch it in the
cinema's this Sunday, so I may have a more accurate opinion next week.

Like I said elsewhere, I saw it with 12 people only 4 of whom had ever
played WoW and everyone enjoyed it. No one said it was great, but no one
hated it.

I haven't played now in years, but I got talked into going with my old
raiding tank who still lives nearby. I had no expectations going in as
not to be disappointed. It was ok more or less. I more enjoyed
picking out things that I know would have no meaning to those who have
never seen the film. My main that I raided with was my mage, so I did
enjoy some of that aspect like the ice block and such. He managed to
cast a portal in the middle of a fight without getting interrupted which
I chuckled at. I did appreciate the sheeping of the guard and cried
bulls#!t when he created a portal that exited right where he wanted to
go in Stormwind...He should have come out in the mage tower and had to
run his ass off like the rest of us had to do...heh. As a former player
I would have like to seen an elaborated Dal, which at the setting of the
movie should have been at it's old location, and not in Northrend as
well as an expanded Ironforge....A quick visit to the auction house
would have been amusing. Maybe the expanded Blueray set will have some
extended / cut scenes....Overall, it was an enjoyable trip down memory
lane for me, but can see how some people might have been "meh" about
it...Good to see there are a still the few stalwarts posting every now
and then! I know your still alive! :)

[IYM]

I more enjoyed picking out things that I know would have no meaning to
those who have never seen the film.

I meant "to those who never played the game"...brain fart...

[Shinnokxz]

Post by IYM

I more enjoyed picking out things that I know would have no meaning to
those who have never seen the film.

I meant "to those who never played the game"...brain fart...

I went in there kind of the same way. I thought the trailers looked bad and the initial reviews were expected.

It was entertaining enough to spot artifacts from the games amidst a largely isolated WoW-esque plot, which was surprisingly engaging.

You won't see me seeing this much, but I think the film has its advantages in 3D because I think some of the spotty actor-compositing amongst CG that made your eyes itch in the trailer is minimized when you see it through the glasses.

The cinematography was suspect in some parts, jumping around scenes and locations for only moments as if they say "okay, enough here, we really need to plop the watcher out to this event" as if you were literally in the middle of a quest chain in the game. It was like they made a concerted effort to punctuate different scenes as minimally as possible in fear of losing the viewer.

And maybe that was a good thing. The material is anything but mainstream, and they also have to deal with a boulder in terms of appearing to improv a LotR/Harry Potter/Mystical fiction world-type movie experience.

I had seen rumblings that it was on par with Battlefield: Earth, which almost gouged me out of a viewing (my girlfriend actually talked me into it), but I can safely say that it was in no way near that magnitude of failure. The movie did just fine.

[Urbin]

Post by Lewis
(Boxofficemojo lists Russia as Russia - CIS, I don't know what CIS is,
unless they are still combining former Soviet states into one box office
number?)

The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) formed when the former Soviet
Union (now called Russia) totally dissolved in 1991. At its conception it
consisted of ten former Soviet Republics: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and
Uzbekistan. (www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/infopage/cis.htm)

Cheers
Urbin

[Lewis]

Post by Catriona R

Post by Urbin
The only good thing about the movie that I can say is that they really
managed to make almost all of the places instantly recognizable to anyone
who has played vanilla WoW or BC. I also like the little side jokes they
added to the movie (a lonely murloc spearing a fish guuurrrrgling while the
party crosses a bridge; a blue/red fishing bobber floating in a river).

My other half downloaded a dodgy copy of it over the weekend, we
decided the quality wasn't good enough to want to watch it that way
(rather see the details properly!) but we saw enough of the scenery to
totally agree there, it looked amazing, and much of it was totally
recognisable :-) Karazhan was a bit bigger and more impressive than I
imagined, but otherwise pretty much everything we saw while skipping
through and not really watching (trying to get an idea of the scenery
without spoiling everything) was accurate, and loved the murloc ;-)

The scenery was very well done. There is no question where the action is
taking place, and even someone as lore-adverse as I am knew some of the
names. A couple of the names.

Post by Catriona R
Hope the DVD comes out realtively early,

Probably this fall. Rumor has it it will be one of the first UltraHD
BluRays.