Warcraft: The Movie

The Randy Riverbeast

I have just come back from the cinema. Not a bad film, disappointed with it though. Would say its 5 or 6 out of 10. A lot of changes were pointless. I was looking forward to seeing how they would do the ending but it was changed too much and doesn't feel like he ending of the first war. An extra half hour would have been useful to properly come to some sort of conclusion.

nerd69

Enjoyed that to be honest

The_Mac

Back from it there too, I thoroughly enjoyed it. CGI was amazing. For the first hour however, the editing and pacing are all over the place before it finds its footing. We're only on Draenor for all of 5 minutes. I have a feeling the cut content Jones spoke of takes place in the first hour, as you can tell there's things missing. As a fan I'd give it a 7/10, an enjoyable fantasy flick.

However also as a fan, I was pretty pissed off with some of the lore changes they made. I don't mind Frostwolf Orgrim as it would take too long to explain why a Blackrock being friends with a Frostwolf is a major thing. However,

Garona not being possessed to kill Llane, and Blackhand being killed by Lothar really irked me. I think they want to keep Orgrim as some kind of paragon of an honourable orc, even though he betrayed his chieftain. It just makes sense for him to stab Blackhand in the back in the movieverse, and take over since Blackhand was fel-corrupted.

Pickpocket

Deleted User wrote: »

TBH he seemed to really enjoy Source Code and Moon, if I remember right.

Well that's my point. A little good will goes a long way with Kermode.

I have no problem with a critic seeing something in a director and sticking with it, even when it goes against the general consensus. He's done it for years, most notably with William Friedkin. However, Kermode himself said that people often criticise him for "liking what he likes". If you're a regular listener of the show you'll know what that means and I think it pretty much sums him up.

It doesn't make him a bad critic, and he certainly has no obligation to be anything other than subjective in his analysis of a film, but I find I have to take his reviews with a very large pinch of salt, especially if those films include certain individuals, subject matter, or 'friends of the show'.

His review of Wally Pfister's Transcendence and Del Toro's Pacifim Rim are worth checking out for an example of what I'm talking about. Two films he was never going to review harshly, no matter what.

Mickeroo

It's certainly a flawed film but I enjoyed it a lot. I thought the Orcs were very well done, even with the ropey CG I had no issue accepting them as living breathing characters and I really enjoyed seeing such an unabashedly unapologetic traditional fantasy setting on screen. It suffers a bit from having to go through the motions of setting up a franchise (and if it tanks, we'll never see where the dangling threads lead unfortunately) plus it seemed apparent to me that a lot of it ended up on the cutting room floor as a few of the transitions and cuts seem fairly abrupt and certain scenes/big moments appear to happen with not enough build up. Despite all that I found it an entertaining and engaging two hours.

I'll also add apart from playing a little bit of Hearthstone and an episode of South Park I'm not familiar with Warcraft at all.

Zubeneschamali

Pickpocket wrote: »

His review of Wally Pfister's Transcendence and Del Toro's Pacifim Rim are worth checking out for an example of what I'm talking about. Two films he was never going to review harshly, no matter what.

But Pacific Rim has giant atomic robots battling alien dinosaurs, and is therefore objectively good.

Riddle101

Just saw it today, I thought it was decent. I didn't expect it to stay true to the lore of Warcraft completely but they did alright for themselves.

Varik

Liked it, hope there's more.

Manach

Was a player if the game in the day. I rather enjoyed the film. I'd admit I've forgotten a bit of the back story of the original invasion, so I found the plot a bit patchy, but overall I was not expecting much beyond a CGI plotted fantasy flick to reminise over, and it delivered on that.

Hb6g6

Seen this last week I haven't played the games and no very little about the mythology of WoW. The movie was good but I felt that too much was cut from the movie and if there was a directer's cut it would probably improve the movie.

Spoiler

The main thing that surprised me was how Durotan death was handled. his death had almost no impact on the story or any of the characters. I really liked Durotan and was disappointed with that part of the movie especially because once he dies he is not seen or referenced again until the very end of the movie

nix

I actually quite enjoyed the movie and i bashed it all the way up until release with negativity.

I know a decent chunk of the wow lore (not in great detail) but this storyline I'm not too familiar with, more so the years that follow. The Thrall years which

is Durotans child sent down the river

so i hope they make more movies, as they have some good storylines. Heck, they should make them longer, id have no problem sitting through a 2 and a half - 3 hour movie for a more fleshed out story.

Hb6g6

nix wrote: »

I actually quite enjoyed the movie and i bashed it all the way up until release with negativity.

I know a decent chunk of the wow lore (not in great detail) but this storyline I'm not too familiar with, more so the years that follow. The Thrall years which

is Durotans child sent down the river

so i hope they make more movies, as they have some good storylines. Heck, they should make them longer, id have no problem sitting through a 2 and a half - 3 hour movie for a more fleshed out story.

Yeah I really feel the movie was too short.

I didn't have a problem with them killing Durotan but it was just how they handled it which I take issue with.

nerd69

nix wrote: »

I actually quite enjoyed the movie and i bashed it all the way up until release with negativity.

I know a decent chunk of the wow lore (not in great detail) but this storyline I'm not too familiar with, more so the years that follow. The Thrall years which

is Durotans child sent down the river

so i hope they make more movies, as they have some good storylines. Heck, they should make them longer, id have no problem sitting through a 2 and a half - 3 hour movie for a more fleshed out story.

xmen origins: green jesus would be excellent

SoftMicro

Really enjoyed this. Some great battles. Hope it does well and get to see more!

Riddle101

nix wrote: »

I actually quite enjoyed the movie and i bashed it all the way up until release with negativity.

I know a decent chunk of the wow lore (not in great detail) but this storyline I'm not too familiar with, more so the years that follow. The Thrall years which

is Durotans child sent down the river

so i hope they make more movies, as they have some good storylines. Heck, they should make them longer, id have no problem sitting through a 2 and a half - 3 hour movie for a more fleshed out story.

nerd69 wrote: »

xmen origins: green jesus would be excellent

The Thrall years also entail one of my favorite characters from the WOW universe, Arthas. I really hope we get to see Lich King Arthas somerday.

SScope

This grossed over $90 million in the Chinese market. Think it's the biggest opening there over 2 days.

Still to see it myself, will get to it this weekend

nerd69

Riddle101 wrote: »

The Thrall years also entail one of my favorite characters from the WOW universe, Arthas. I really hope we get to see Lich King Arthas somerday.

the arthas storyline is the best in wow tbh if done right it would be amazing but it would have to be done over multiple movies id say.

Mickeroo

Only grossed 24m in the US but has done very well internationally it seems.

Its dead Jim

I'd say giving it over a week elsewhere before the US didn't help. It was available online by the time it got there so people may have decided to pirate it due to the reviews.

I thought it was ok. Not going to get an oscar but it's no worse than the average marvel film. Preferred it to BvS anyway. Nobody I personally know didn't like it. Looking forward to a directors cut as I felt 2 hours was a bit short.

sReq | uTeK

Its dead Jim wrote: »

I'd say giving it over a week elsewhere before the US didn't help. It was available online by the time it got there so people may have decided to pirate it due to the reviews.

I thought it was ok. Not going to get an oscar but it's no worse than the average marvel film. Preferred it to BvS anyway. Nobody I personally know didn't like it. Looking forward to a directors cut as I felt 2 hours was a bit short.

Big wow fan having played the game since it started and the original Warcraft games. Potential here for a lot of movies. I really enjoyed it for what it was and thought it was better than half the marvel movie that have come out in recent times.

Varik

Thankfully it did well outside the US, enjoyed it and will see any sequels.

Duggy747

Gauging by the reaction off people, this would one of the better video game movies then?

allibastor

I saw it, actually thought it was good.

I think they could have used slightly stronger actors in some role, Ben Foster is good but not believable.
Paula Patton was OK, but could have done with a bit more Orc look.

Overall though, good, The CGI was good I thought and the film moved nicely, thought it was a bit short mind.

Your Man Gul'Dan sounded like Megatron!!!!

Plus, such a pity they didnt have some mad soldier who ran into battle called Leeroy!

Riddle101

allibastor wrote: »

I saw it, actually thought it was good.

I think they could have used slightly stronger actors in some role, Ben Foster is good but not believable.
Paula Patton was OK, but could have done with a bit more Orc look.

Overall though, good, The CGI was good I thought and the film moved nicely, thought it was a bit short mind.

Your Man Gul'Dan sounded like Megatron!!!!

Plus, such a pity they didnt have some mad soldier who ran into battle called Leeroy!

Garona is half Orc half Dreanei which might explain why she didn't look totally like an Orc.

Also, LEEROYYYYYYY JEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENKINNNNNNNNNSSSSSSS

TerrorFirmer

To be fair she did just look like a human painted green with two token snaggle teeth.

I really enjoyed this movie a lot more than I expected. Travis Fimmel did an excellent job, some of the other casting was hit and miss though. Moved along at a good pace with decent characters and good action scenes. Very good soundtrack as well.

I've never played Warcraft in my life so I find it hard in my own head to consider it a 'video game movie' but as they go, it absolutely has to be one of the best.

I thought it was pretty woeful, to be frank. Jumped far too much around the place. Pretty wooden acting throughout. The CG was pretty good, at least with the male orcs. The female orcs.. kept thinking, "yup, those are women in makeup". They tried to fit far too much into one movie, which could have been fit into many more. It was more Last Airbender than Lord of the Rings.

TheDoc

Went to this last night with the GF and we both really enjoyed it.

I'm playing WoW since alpha, and Warcraft games before so as a big fan I was pretty happy with what they did. They have clearly taken some liberties with the lore and story, but thinking about it they have somewhat brought it a bit into the current, with the current Warlords of Draenor expansion. I guess the idea being if people get into the game from seeing the film they arn't totally lost. Some of the liberties were a bit annoying, but all in all thoroughly enjoyed it and feel its set the universe up nicely for what I assume are planned sequels.

The GF as someone totally oblivious to Warcraft also really enjoyed it, liked the setup and the characters.

Loved all the little nods and winks to the games.

Actor wise I'm happy enough. I think too many franchises go for some big actors, and are then forced into basically having them front and centre and then the character gets twisted and it effects the entire thing (looking at you x-men). Goronna's inclusion and focul point was annoying for me, but again, they have taken liberties with the story from what I can only assume is to cater for new players that might enter the game.

All in all pretty happy and looking forward to hopefully many sequels, and for me what I hope they make as epic as the games themselves, the story of Arthas.

Concerned though at the killing of off Medihv. Actually, how they dealt and treated Medihv grated me a fair bit.

elfy4eva

Certainly wasn't as bad as it was hyped, the orc scenes were all solid (loved Gul'dan), the human scenes were mostly meh. Some of the actor choices were debatable aswell. But I'm a fan, I can imagine going if I was new to the series and being like WTF is this.

I find there's no good flow of time in the movie, it feels like the events happen over 3 days or something when it should be much longer.

The floating dalaran, The Kirin Tor, the Alodi in a cube stuff and the asian elves was weak as **** IMO tho.

jcd5971

Read all the crap reviews so I had to be dragged to this by my mate who is a super fan.

He was happy-ish with it saying they changed some stuff mainly the ending, but fairly happy.

I loved it no idea of wow at all,but followed it fine, I see Ppl point out nods to fans and hints of things, obviously I would not get those as a fresh viewer but I followed the story just fine and am interested to see a sequel.

I personally think it's better than the new xmen by a mile same with batman vs superman.

TheDoc

jcd5971 wrote: »

Read all the crap reviews so I had to be dragged to this by my mate who is a super fan.

He was happy-ish with it saying they changed some stuff mainly the ending, but fairly happy.

I loved it no idea of wow at all,but followed it fine, I see Ppl point out nods to fans and hints of things, obviously I would not get those as a fresh viewer but I followed the story just fine and am interested to see a sequel.

I personally think it's better than the new xmen by a mile same with batman vs superman.

The cinema wasn't busy last night when I went, 8-10 people at most.

But you could tell the WoW fans, as someone of us proper laughing at some references, while others being quiet.

When Khadgar Polymorphed the guard into a sheep some of laughed, and when he said "hurry, it only lasts around a minute" we laughed again

The Murloc got a massive laugh.

And talk there was a leroy jenkins? Don't recall that