Warcraft... WTF?

[Avilan the Grey]

Here is my extremely professional review of Warcraft:

WTF? Talk about "Everyone can die". Also, bait and switch protagonists what? Three times?
Clearly meant to be the first in a duo, or more likely, a trilogy of films, since zero issues were resolved in this movie.

On the plus side: The CGI is amazing. And the female protagonist is really really attractive. And has very cute tusks. (Not sarcastic).

[Keltest]

I was satisfied with it. It had Orcs and Humans and they killed each other, and that's all it really needed. I agree that there are probably ambitions for a sequel or two. I would love to see a Warcraft 3 movie or TV series.

[Avilan the Grey]

One possibility of course is that the latest expansion IS the sequel; the trailer for it really looks like it could be.

[khadgar567]

there is gonna be seguel about thrall but I am not sure ronin's adventure become movie ( thoug I like to see dragon queen alexstrasza in her elven form with all of her sexyness)

[theNater]

Also, bait and switch protagonists what? Three times?
Not sure what you mean here. There were multiple protagonists, certainly.


Clearly meant to be the first in a duo, or more likely, a trilogy of films, since zero issues were resolved in this movie.
While the director has said he's got an outline in his head for a trilogy, I have to dispute the claim that zero issues were resolved.

The Frostwolf rebellion is crushed, Garona gains a permanent position of respect, Khadgar becomes a guardian, Blackhand gets to face a worthy opponent, Lothar avenges his son.
Were there issues you hoped would be resolved that weren't?

[Avilan the Grey]

Not sure what you mean here. There were multiple protagonists, certainly.

While the director has said he's got an outline in his head for a trilogy, I have to dispute the claim that zero issues were resolved.

The Frostwolf rebellion is crushed, Garona gains a permanent position of respect, Khadgar becomes a guardian, Blackhand gets to face a worthy opponent, Lothar avenges his son.
Were there issues you hoped would be resolved that weren't?

1. Well... the guys painted as heroes in the beginning are killed before the end, for one thing. Garona being painted as a traitor and there is no resolution to that plot thread. Etc.
2. Let' see... the killing of Ol' Green-eye. The peace between races. The defeat of the Fell. The things the movie set up and then deliberately don't deliver on.

[Feytalist]

One of the best - if not the best - video game adaptions I've seen. Stayed fairly close to the source material (although I'm not super happy about where it ended, but hopefully the rest of the story will be expanded upon in sequels), and there were enough nods to fans of the series without feeling like pandering. I particularly liked the random Murloc popping up out of nowhere. Also the zug-zug orc.

Great CGI of course, but I didn't expect anything less from Blizzard. The acting was actually not all that great, I thought. Ironically, the best acting was done by the orcs, with the real-life humans being a bit stilted.

But yeah. Gul'dan was great. Durotan was great. All the magic scenes were killer. I earnestly hope that this sets a new bar for CGI movies, and I hope to see the rest of the series, at least up until Warcraft 3.

I do wonder however what people who don't really know the lore thought of it.

[Avilan the Grey]

I only know the lore I have seen from trailers on Youtube and playing Warcraft I and II.

[Razade]

Here is my extremely professional review of Warcraft:

WTF? Talk about "Everyone can die". Also, bait and switch protagonists what? Three times?

When did they bait and switch who the protagonists were? Khadgar, Garona and Lothar...they don't bait and switch this at all. What are you talking about?


Clearly meant to be the first in a duo, or more likely, a trilogy of films, since zero issues were resolved in this movie.

Yeah..and the fact that you acknowledge this is part of a set of movies makes your complaint that resolve nothing (which isn't true either) sort of weird. It's the set up to a larger story. You don't resolve every plot point in a trilogy in the first movie.


On the plus side: The CGI is amazing. And the female protagonist is really really attractive. And has very cute tusks. (Not sarcastic).

Well, at least you liked something about the movie.


One possibility of course is that the latest expansion IS the sequel; the trailer for it really looks like it could be.

Wha....? Legion? Are you...whaaaaa? Now, you clearly don't know the source material which is fine though I suppose you could have googled it. Legion takes place like a forty years after Warcraft The Movie. Or more, honestly I don't know the internal dates.


1. Well... the guys painted as heroes in the beginning are killed before the end, for one thing. Garona being painted as a traitor and there is no resolution to that plot thread. Etc.

Firstly who? Do you mean protagonists and not heroes? Because heroes dying isn't the same as Protagonists dying. Either is fine though. Is your complaint that characters can die? Who was set up to be a protagonist (I'm going to work under the theory that's what you meant because of a statement above) early on and then dies? The King? The King is never set up to be a main protagonist. Durotan? Well...everyone knows he dies if they know the source material. Not only that but they really don't set him up as a Protagonist. His wife? Not her either, the story focuses fairly much on the human side of things.

As for Garona's betrayal...you already acknowledged that you know this is going to be more than one movie and here you are complaining that some plot points don't have resolution. Are you kidding me?


2. Let' see... the killing of Ol' Green-eye. The peace between races. The defeat of the Fell. The things the movie set up and then deliberately don't deliver on.

1. Killing Medivh was the entire major plot in this movie. He was the reason the Orcs came in the first place.

2. The peace between the races still isn't a thing in the series. You realize the first Warcraft movie covers the story of the first Warcraft game and that there are 3 of them plus World of Warcraft? You realize that the story isn't finished?


I only know the lore I have seen from trailers on Youtube and playing Warcraft I and II.

Oh. You do. Then all your criticisms make even less sense because you played the entirety of the movie's story already.

3. Defeating the Fel (one L) was never set up as a major point of plot because the Fel isn't a thing to be defeated. That's like saying "We're going to go out and defeat Gravity!".


All I can take away from your "Extremely professional" (I assume you're being sarcastic here) is that you didn't pay attention to the movie because you missed so much of it there's no way you could have. Maybe go watch it again. Or better yet, play the first three Warcraft games, that's probably a better use of your time.

[theNater]

1. Well... the guys painted as heroes in the beginning are killed before the end, for one thing. Garona being painted as a traitor and there is no resolution to that plot thread. Etc.
2. Let' see... the killing of Ol' Green-eye. The peace between races. The defeat of the Fell. The things the movie set up and then deliberately don't deliver on.
Well, that clears up why you're confused.

The movie is a tragedy. The heroes mostly lose and often die. Garona is remembered ever after as the assassin who murdered King Llane. Orcs and humans go to war basically forever(we're explicitly told that in the opening voiceover). These are the resolutions to those plot threads.

[Avilan the Grey]

Ah.
That's alright then. Will not watch the other movies (if they ever get made, the return on this one makes that unlikely, methinks).

I don't do tragedies.

I'll just go back and play TES Orcs :smallbiggrin:

[theNater]

Ah.
That's alright then. Will not watch the other movies (if they ever get made, the return on this one makes that unlikely, methinks).

I don't do tragedies.
Tell you what: if another one does roll around, I'll happily watch it and let you know whether it's a tragedy or not. No need to write 'em all off.

[The Glyphstone]

Ah.
That's alright then. Will not watch the other movies (if they ever get made, the return on this one makes that unlikely, methinks).

I don't do tragedies.

I'll just go back and play TES Orcs :smallbiggrin:

Warcraft didn't do so well in the US, but it absolutely devastated internationally, specifically in China - the Chinese profits alone are enough to fund the next movie.

[Avilan the Grey]

Thanks :smallbiggrin:

Movie made me want to repeat my original Skyrim playthrough though: Female Orc Rogue.

[tantric]

my unique input is that i've never played warcraft, though i know the basics:

crap. confusing. boring.

[theNater]

my unique input is that i've never played warcraft, though i know the basics:

crap. confusing. boring.
While I recognize it had some pretty hefty problems, I liked the movie a lot. I would be happy to clear up anything you found confusing.

[Keltest]

Ah.
That's alright then. Will not watch the other movies (if they ever get made, the return on this one makes that unlikely, methinks).

I don't do tragedies.

I'll just go back and play TES Orcs :smallbiggrin:

Hey, Warcraft 2 isn't a tragedy. Things turn out pretty badly for the protagonists in 1 and 3, but 2 ends on a largely positive note overall, even counting the expansion.

[JoshL]

I loved it, but not everyone did. That's fine, and I'm really excited that it did well enough to make sequels, because there's no such thing as too much big budget fantasy movies, as far as I'm concerned! Or small budget! Good, or terrible! Make more fantasy films, get money from me!


2. Let' see... the killing of Ol' Green-eye. The peace between races. The defeat of the Fell. The things the movie set up and then deliberately don't deliver on.

To be fair, it didn't set up any of that. The intro scene takes place after the events of the movie, when the war had been raging for ages (did they say how long? can't recall). So if you bear that in mind, you watch everything knowing it's doomed to fail. As you said, you don't do tragedies, and this is a classic example of the form, for that reason.

[khadgar567]

okay movie have some solid flaws like somehow shipping ganora with king, guardian and apprentice while the book they used has no shipping until khadgar's late life ( aka when old bastard medivh died) and for sequel we gonna deffinetly get sequel since ending basicly the sneak preview of next movie about trall and for gamora's role in setting she is basicly mother of medan (khadgar and hers kid which have incredible magic potential when blizzard uses him) as other flaws in movie from my memory the well scene never happens in book where medivh is in coma for period of time and final fight happens in underground version of tower instead of top of the damn thin and it deffinetly dont have a golem in the damn fight

[Traab]

The funny thing about this is, there is one way in which this is a very tolkienish setting. There are literally dozens of films worth of material to work with. You could probably run a trilogy of trilogies just off the first three computer games. Each expansion of WoW is easily a single movie, if not more. And all the background stuff we have novels for could easily become epics themselves. Books aside, the best part about doing movies from the games is, you are given a framework to write within instead of a fully established story. Take TBC for example, you get the general gist, illidan is fighting a three way war against horde alliance and legion, zangamarsh is being drained for some reason by the lady vashj, netherstorm is a crumbling edge of the world being ruined by kaelthas, and there are tons of other stories in the various other zones. Like dealing with the fel orcs in hellfire penninsula.

But the details of events are left wide open because its an mmorpg. That means its a LOT easier to stay true to the story without having to make certain a thousand scenes are included to avoid fanboy ranting. Like the lotr series. I myself am guilty of some ranting about changes they made to the storyline. They rearranged some events, created some new ones, erased some others, it drove me a bit nuts despite the movies kicking ass. In this case writers dont have to worry so much about that because all the details are unwritten and waiting to be filled. Just hit the main highlights covered in the quest lore and fill in the blanks.

[CWater]

I know next to nothing about Warcraft, and as a game adaptation I didn't expect much of this movie. But I was positively surprised. Sure, it wasn't the greatest thing I've ever seen, but it wasn't bad either. It was good amusement for an evening and I consider it my money's worth. The visuals especially, the CGI was beautifully done.

[An Enemy Spy]

I thought the first half of the movie was disjointed and confusing, with characters just showing up and saying expository things. The heroes are here, now they're there, now they're here again. The human segments were especially hard to watch, because the CGI characters seemed more alive than the actual people.

The second half was much better, since the infodumps were out of the way and we could just focus on the fighting, with actual emotional stakes in the duel between Durotan and Guldan.