World of Warcraft

[HaemishM]

Silent Hill was fucking terrible. I really don't see what you guys liked in it.  Visually, not bad, but everything else? Unintentional laughter.

I thought the visuals and suspense build up was good. It kind of lost me about 15 minutes before the end, but wasn't something I hated or thought idiotic.

[Paelos]

They should cast Jack Black as the wise cracking Pandaren.


 

[Lantyssa]

Silent Hill was fucking terrible. I really don't see what you guys liked in it.  Visually, not bad, but everything else? Unintentional laughter.

Sean Bean and Cybil.

[Chimpy]

They should cast Jack Black as the wise cracking Pandaren.


 

Joe Pesci as a goblin merchant.

[Tale]

ARISE.

'Warcraft' Movie Lands 'Source Code' Director

I have absolutely no strong feelings either way for this project.

Duncan Jones is David Bowie's son Zowie.

Apart from Source Code, he also made Moon, which I liked.

Edit: He's @manmademoon on Twitter. Unfortunately his wife is going through chemo at the moment. Hope to hear good news from them on that front.

[Simond]

I'd really like to see Duncan Jones' take on Arthas' fall or something similar. Play it totally straight as a tragic drama.

[Sir T]

What, you mean its not going to be about the heroic tale of someone getting 10 bear tongues for a guy? Or killing the same boss over and over for a random piece of kit?

But purists would probably whine that Arthas' fall was in Warcraft 3, not world of warcrarft, so it does not count.

[Rendakor]

The movie is just called Warcraft, not World of Warcraft, so they can easily cover Arthas's story.

[Lakov_Sanite]

If this isn't cg, it's going to be terrible.

[Sir T]

So will it have people poking peons to have them say funny stuff then?

[Chimpy]

If this isn't cg, it's going to be terrible.

Fixed. 

[Ironwood]

Silent Hill was fucking terrible. I really don't see what you guys liked in it.  Visually, not bad, but everything else? Unintentional laughter.

I often wonder, when I hear this view expressed, if not playing the original game somehow helped me like the movie.  I'm not sure.

But I know I liked the movie.  I think, possibly, in a sorta neo-expansionist way, that the short skirt worn by the main character helped my enjoyment enormously.

[Paelos]

If I was to pick a character for the movie to follow around, it would be Medihv. Birth, rise of the horde, building of Karazhan, etc. You can pretty much do all the storytelling you want with him as a focus.

[Khaldun]

There is literally no way to do anything that is not insane gibberish shit if the movie centers on the lol-lore of WoW. The only thing that could really work would be something like following an 'average' protagonist of one side or another, giving him a 'group', etc.--a highly stylized version of the 'hero's journey' of WoW gameplay. And even that wouldn't be much more than a weak mimickry of Star Wars or LOTR or any other fantasy narrative that takes a zero to hero, a newb to leet. The only thing that will make this watchable is the staging of the visuals, the combat, etc.

[LK]

It seems to me that the timing of this movie coming out would make it appear as a stylistic derivative product of epic fantasy / Lord of the Rings (ironic?), similar to how Hansel and Gretel is derivative of the dark fantasy movement started by films like Twilight.

That said, this movie is going to make good money on the strength of the brand alone and what will surely be a marketing and merchandising onslaught afterwards.

Oh -- and Warcraft: The Movie: The Game, anyone?

[Simond]

If this isn't cg, it's going to be terrible.

Counterpoint: Square.

[Der Helm]

... the dark fantasy movement started by films like Twilight.

[01101010]

This was just waiting on the reception of pandas. Now it can commence.

[Lakov_Sanite]

If this isn't cg, it's going to be terrible.

Counterpoint: Square.

Square is terrible at storytelling regardless of the medium.

[Venkman]

The only way this works is as some backstory that involves a character people recognize but which has no pinnacle role in WoW. This movie is being done by an entity completely separate from the games, so the level of lore-integration between both would likely be window-dressing at best.

At the same time, the Warcraft universe isn't really that boring. It's just that most of the current story telling seems to target however few tween boys read novels anymore. The subject matter though isn't without potential. They could go Malazon: Book of the Fallen style (there's some thematic overlaps), lame out and do a heroes' journey centered on Khadgar, or do the Thrall thing where he saves a corrupted peoples but still is seen as the enemy by many.

It really depends on what they want from the IP. If they want to sell more games, they need to tie a WoW 2 or Warcraft 4 to this, or it's a quickly-forgotten one-off no matter how good it is. If instead they want Warcraft to evolve into an actual IP worth building out into more movies and potential TV shows, then the movie needs only to stand up to movie competition on quality scales (either blockbuster seat-filler or, heh, awards movie).

Curious if this ever comes out though. 2015 is a long ways away, and unless Blizzard shocks the world with something, WoW may have already ended its slide into whatever-f2p. Maybe Titan is just Warcraft 4 in disguise so it keeps the brand alive

[Zetor]

Maybe it'll be about a band of rag-tag adventurers trying to gear up for raiding, and encountering many challenges on the way - such as gankers, having to grind daily quests, dps meter epeen, and everybody blaming the healer when the group wipes.

[Paelos]

Maybe it'll be about a band of rag-tag adventurers trying to gear up for raiding, and encountering many challenges on the way - such as gankers, having to grind daily quests, dps meter epeen, and everybody blaming the healer when the group wipes.

If they made it a comedy, it would be brilliant. I would watch it. Since they will probably go full Metzen lolore with it, there's no hope for the project.

[Khaldun]

A comedy with lots of in-references and an absurdist, black tone could be beautiful.

Noble Elf Paladin: "Alisera! NOOOOOO! You cannot be dead!"
Indifferent Human Rogue: "Eh, don't worry, she'll just rez and come back in, just take a few minutes."

[Paelos]

Several jokes could be made about standing in fire.

[UnSub]

Feel free to list nerd in-joke comedies that are actually funny.

[Paelos]

Scott Pilgrim v. the World

[Ironwood]

Try again.

[DraconianOne]

Galaxy Quest.

[Ironwood]

That's more like it.

[Samwise]

Shaun of the Dead, Spaceballs, The Gamers, Mystery Science Theater 3K, Misfits...

[lamaros]

Your definition of 'in joke' is not the same as mine.

[Lakov_Sanite]

I think you are confusing a movie about in jokes with a movie that has in jokes. I'm guessing no one is seriously asking for an entire movie based on wow jokes but a warcraft movie that does include some.

[UnSub]

There are great genre parodies that are enhanced by knowing the sources (e.g. "Galaxy Quest", "Spaceballs") but arguably they are funny films in their own right. You don't need to know a lot about zombie films to watch "Shaun of the Dead", either.

I haven't seen "Your Highness" (but according to their box office, few have) but that strikes me as a film that makes fun of fantasy tropes.

"MST3K" is for the ultra-nerdy.

[DraconianOne]

Your Highness is a stoner comedy set in a fantasy world. It's not really a parody about fantasy films or D&D or anything - it's more about dick jokes than dice jokes.

[Ironwood]

All I'm saying is Scott Pilgrim Sucked Hard and I'm still a little confused how people here who are normally decent human beings could like it.

It did have that pretty wee lassie from The Thing in it, so maybe they could do a crossover.

Scott Pilgrim gets eaten by the fucking Thing for Being a Travesty of a Movie which is Time I want Back.

To the Future.

Or something.