World of Warcraft

[Merusk]

That's what I expected but thought it was just my own bias against WowLOLore. Nice to have it somewhat independently confirmed.

[Sir T]

Saw an internet review where there was one guy who was saying it was fantastic and admitting he was a complete WOW fanatic who had all the books and shit, and another guy who knew nothing and who said he had no idea what was going on in this movie and it was a boring, confusing mass of shit.

It seems if you already know everything about WOW you will like the movie fine, if you dont there is little to know in movie exposition to draw outsiders into the movie.

[angry.bob]

The guy who said it was a "confusing mess of shit" had to have been a retard. Not in the generic insult sense of the word, like they're actually severely developmentally delayed. This was not a complicated movie. If you could follow something like Mars Attacks, you could follow this movie just fine. I pride myself on knowing 0% of Warcraft lore despite having played all the RTS games and WoW since launch. Literally the only things I recognized were names of places and Khadgar. And I only know about Khadgar because he's in like 180% of the content in WoD. You don't nee to know anything about Warcraft to follow this movie. Anymore than you need to know the rich and deep Transformers to watch the Bey movies. Frankly, you're better off not knowing it because then you don't know that the Decepticons are closer to being the "good guys" than the Autobots are.

[Ginaz]

It's not as bad as it's being made out to be but it sure isn't on the level of Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones.  I liked the scenes involving the Orcs the best and I was surprised how much emotion was able to be displayed on their cgi faces.  The actors they got to play the humans were pretty forgettable and none of their scenes were noteworthy in any way.  The tacked on love interest bullshit was completely unnecessary and dragged those scenes down even further.  I enjoyed it but it was very inconsistent and uneven.  Something I didn't know was it was directed by David Bowie's son, Duncan Jones.

Edit: So it looks like it has officially bombed in the US yet is very popular in China.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2016/06/12/box-office-warcraft-bombs-in-america-outgrosses-star-wars-in-china/#10b9599b3f45 

[Merusk]

Fuck Forbes and their "you're using an adblocker" bullshit. Here's a real site:

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/

Budget: 160mil
Domestic US: 24.3 mil
Foreign: 261.7 mil. (144mil in China)

We'll be getting a sequel but it looks like it'll be translated from Chinese to English. 

(nice to see TMNT is a bomb as well. 116mil total in its 2nd week. 135mil budget.)

[Mandella]

Warcraft must be to Duncan Jones what Dune was to David Lynch -- a big project handed to an up and coming writer/director that said director felt he just couldn't refuse for the sake of his future career, even though he knew it wasn't even close to his style of movie.

That said, I haven't read even one interview with Jones on the subject, and for all I know he's a WoW fanatic and jumped at the chance. But still, after Moon and Source Code, I was not expecting Warcraft to be his next movie...

[Khaldun]

It's not hard to follow. My wife doesn't play computer games, doesn't read fantasy, etc., but she understood it all perfectly well. That's really not the problem with the movie.

[Tale]

for all I know he's a WoW fanatic and jumped at the chance. But still, after Moon and Source Code, I was not expecting Warcraft to be his next movie...

I follow him on Twitter and he's a WoW fanatic who jumped at the chance. But I started following him after Moon and Source Code, so I've watched with bemusement as he happily made his Warcraft fanboy movie.

[Khaldun]

I like Moon and Source Code, but I have to think that part of the problem with the movie is that he didn't know how to handle this type of film at the scale that it operates at. It is really badly structured at times.

[Mandella]

for all I know he's a WoW fanatic and jumped at the chance. But still, after Moon and Source Code, I was not expecting Warcraft to be his next movie...

I follow him on Twitter and he's a WoW fanatic who jumped at the chance. But I started following him after Moon and Source Code, so I've watched with bemusement as he happily made his Warcraft fanboy movie.

Well good for him then. And thinking about it, maybe this might be a good way to divert from that super serious dystopian sci-fi road he was starting down.

I've often idly wondered how many celebrities we've played with in MMOs over the years without knowing it. It must be nice for them to be able to drop into another world and be "just another guy/gal" for a while.

[MediumHigh]

So this movie. I see why critics didn't like it. But I think this is this years pacific rim. Which is a geek movie for those who remember a time when being a geek was not cool. The dialogue isn't modern or josh wheadon lite or cracking a joke every five minutes or filled with dark undertones. This is high fantasy played straight up. No allegories to current social problems or attempts to subvert the genre. This will not make your "women in fantasy blogs" and the type who troll movies like this for such "enlightening" social commentary will probably never see this movie. The movie is called confusing because it doesn't stop to explain itself (I don't inherently count that as a plus). Its not an origin story. There's no teenage "boy becomes a man" story to be told, because everyone's fully developed member of the universe presented. This is merely act one of a very unfortunate series of events.

What the movie does have going for it, despite refusing to give details on places and references that I don't get because I never played Warcraft 1-3 or WoW, is in the details. It works because its kinda refreshing. This is high fantasy in its unedited glory and it is glorious to behold. Whether you talking about a mage that takes 10 years to cast a devastating spell while the warriors die in droves or everything to do with the Orcs. The dialogue is truly hit or miss and to be honest the only thing that really hurts this movie is the lack of actors. They could have definitely pulled some talent from TV, like casting of viking star as our main character. Also.... I don't remember anyones names. Which should be the sign of a bad movie but.... I don't know. The plot itself is pretty easy to follow, its the details like (what is the purpose of that order of mages and whats so bad about them that you ran away from hogwarts) that the movie doesn't tell you.

So yeah I liked the movie. I don't know who anyone is, or remember their names, but I'd gladly watch Warcraft 2.

[angry.bob]

No allegories to current social problems

Do tell. Someplace, just someplace, there might be a mass of aggressive, violent migrants who having destroyed their own lands through shitty policy and religion are now swarming into lusher, peaceful lands full of white people and castles. Just saying.

Enter Bob.

[MediumHigh]

No allegories to current social problems

Do tell. Someplace, just someplace, there might be a mass of aggressive, violent migrants who having destroyed their own lands through shitty policy and religion are now swarming into lusher, peaceful lands full of white people and castles. Just saying.

Enter Bob.

Bob go home your drunk.

[Ginaz]

No allegories to current social problems

Do tell. Someplace, just someplace, there might be a mass of aggressive, violent migrants who having destroyed their own lands through shitty policy and religion are now swarming into lusher, peaceful lands full of white people and castles. Just saying.

Enter Bob.

[angry.bob]

Come on, we all know Merkel would have invited Gul'dan in faster than The Guardian did.

[Rendakor]

No allegories to current social problems

Do tell. Someplace, just someplace, there might be a mass of aggressive, violent migrants who having destroyed their own lands through shitty policy and religion are now swarming into lusher, peaceful lands full of white people and castles. Just saying.

Enter Bob.

[Margalis]

A lot of you are saying the movie was at least ok, but you are saying it in a way that makes it sound terrible for anyone who isn't a WoW lore enthusiast.

[Threash]

WoW lore enthusiast.

That cannot possibly be a thing.  And if it was you wouldn't find one here.

[angry.bob]

Jesus you guys, I'm just fucking around. Calm yourselves.

A lot of you are saying the movie was at least ok, but you are saying it in a way that makes it sound terrible for anyone who isn't a WoW lore enthusiast.

Their mileage is going to vary depending on their enjoyment of the genre. You need literally zero warcraft lore knowledge to understand and enjoy the movie. However you absolutely do need to be able to watch something like Krull and enjoy it. The plots are a lot different, but just about everything else is the same, especially how seriously they take themselves and the sort of acting.

[Khaldun]

Prior knowledge of the lore is really not what makes the difference in watching the movie. It's just...not a great movie. But not a shitty one either. It doesn't have as much entertaining cheese as Krull or it would be more fun. But it doesn't have anything that puts it into Battlefield Earth terribad either. It's...almost good? It could have been a contendah. I can see the movie it almost was. Kind of makes me sad.  Not what I expected.

[BobtheSomething]

Jesus you guys, I'm just fucking around. Calm yourselves.

A lot of you are saying the movie was at least ok, but you are saying it in a way that makes it sound terrible for anyone who isn't a WoW lore enthusiast.

Their mileage is going to vary depending on their enjoyment of the genre. You need literally zero warcraft lore knowledge to understand and enjoy the movie. However you absolutely do need to be able to watch something like Krull and enjoy it. The plots are a lot different, but just about everything else is the same, especially how seriously they take themselves and the sort of acting.

Like Krull?

Shit, now I have to see the movie.

[Setanta]

No love for Sword and the Sorcerer or The Beastmaster?

That's where I'd rate it and that in itself is not a bad thing.

[Merusk]

Yeah those are good comparisons, as is MediumHighs statement that this is a High Fantasy movie that doesn't apologize for being one. It shot for Conan but landed on Krull and that's not terrible.

[satael]

I really hope that the movie does well enough for them to release the extended cut as I can see how that might make the movie significantly better or at least more entertaining. 

[Khaldun]

I think it's going to do well enough for a sequel because of the China and Europe box office. Not sure Jones will be back--I would expect the sequel to be a lot more cheaply made.

[BobtheSomething]

No love for Sword and the Sorcerer or The Beastmaster?

That's where I'd rate it and that in itself is not a bad thing.

I don't know that first movie, but Beastmaster would also be acceptable, although it was no Krull.

[Nebu]

A lot of you are saying the movie was at least ok, but you are saying it in a way that makes it sound terrible for anyone who isn't a WoW lore enthusiast.

I like WoW and mildly enjoy WoW lore.  

I'm glad I didn't pay for the movie.  It's pretty meh.  I agree with a reviewer on Rotten Tomatoes that called it "Bored of the Rings".  Wait for the dvd and rent it.

[Kail]

Saw this today, and as a WoW lore nerd, it was a lot better than I was expecting.  Not, like, Lord of the Rings movie level, but not Dungeons and Dragons movie level either.  When viewed in the spectrum of video game movies, this is probably among the best, in that it stays MOSTLY true to the game (I mean like, they changed a lot, but at least the characters and setting are still mostly recognizable, compared to, like, the Super Mario bros. movie or something) and isn't a complete disaster.  It's certainly way more engaging than any of the Warcraft stuff I've seen, including the games themselves recently.  Not that it's the greatest movie ever, but I don't know that it deserves to be bombing as hard as it is.  A 13 year old me would have loved the hell out of this movie.

Probably the first few minutes are probably a confusing mess for anyone who's not invested in the lore, as there's a TON of characters introduced really fast, and the ending is contrived and stupid, but the middle was pretty solid I thought.  Would have been better if the entire thing was CG, in my opinion, because the human characters (except Lothar and maybe Khadgar) had this weird fakey look to them (not helped by Llane's goofy looking lion helmet).  Dwarves and especially elves look absolutely terrible for the few seconds of screentime they get.  Overall, though, it's not bad if you've got a stomach for cheesy fantasy.

[SurfD]

I chalk the Dwarves and Elves looking bad completely up to what was probably an executive deccision based on their screen presence.  I mean, for all that this is "Warcraft", the movie was 99.9% "Orcs VS Humans".  The Dwarves and Elves combined probably had about 2 minutes of actual screen time, so somebody likely made a call somewhere along the lines of: Just make them good enough to not look completely stupid, but dont sweat it, cause 5 seconds after they are off screen, an awesome Orc will make everyone forget about them anyway.   I mean, I think the two appearances of the Elves probably added up to less then 20 seconds totall, not much point in dumping an excessive amount of CGI budget into them.

[Merusk]

Oooowwch.. 73% dropoff in the us market. Plummeting to $6.5 mil take this weekend.

At the same time it passed Prince of Persia and is now the highest-grossing video game movie of all time with a take of $377million.  So 90% of its revenue comes from the overseas market.
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/

The US may not see the sequel in theaters but I've got to wager it will be done.

[MediumHigh]

Death to America I want my sequel.

[kaid]

It's not as bad as it's being made out to be but it sure isn't on the level of Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones.  I liked the scenes involving the Orcs the best and I was surprised how much emotion was able to be displayed on their cgi faces.  The actors they got to play the humans were pretty forgettable and none of their scenes were noteworthy in any way.  The tacked on love interest bullshit was completely unnecessary and dragged those scenes down even further.  I enjoyed it but it was very inconsistent and uneven.  Something I didn't know was it was directed by David Bowie's son, Duncan Jones.

Edit: So it looks like it has officially bombed in the US yet is very popular in China.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2016/06/12/box-office-warcraft-bombs-in-america-outgrosses-star-wars-in-china/#10b9599b3f45 

The orks both looked and worked much better on the big screen than the trailers I was seeing. They actually were well done.

[Bunk]

Just watched a 4:00 matinee with about 10 other people in the theatre. It was definitely a movie. With Orcs. And War.

It wasn't terrible, it was just really uneven. I think they said the names of every character about 20 times each and none of them stuck for me. Gamora was kinda weak. Something-Gar the hero was ok, but looked like he must have been 13 when he had his son. King Fancypants looked like he would have had a hard time lifting that sword. Elves looked like those mannequins they made of the elves for E3 about 10 years ago. And why the hell were the King, Queen, and half the royal guard hanging out in the newbie Inn in Goldshire (other than a bad excuse to put it in the movie?)

I liked the battle scenes.  I thought Evil Green Spiky Warlock Orc was really cool and well done. Kinda funny that the Orc half of the movie was the more logical and consistent half.

It was reasonably entertaining for a $9 matinee.

Oh, and finally a Suicide Squad trailer on the big screen. That looks fun.

[Khaldun]

I know why they were hanging out in the Inn in Goldshire....

[Sir T]

Waiting for a Hobbit Panda with a wedding ring to wander in?