It is definitely not the easiest, but there are some resources to get the basics if you need. Like this rundown that gives you the basics so you know the characters and locations. The only part that is off from this is that in the movie Khadgar has never met Medivh, and is just a Guardian-initiate of the Kirin Tor.
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Warcraft |OT| You Are Not Prepared
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It is definitely not the easiest, but there are some resources to get the basics if you need. Like this rundown that gives you the basics so you know the characters and locations. The only part that is off from this is that in the movie Khadgar has never met Medivh, and is just a Guardian-initiate of the Kirin Tor.
Zelenogorsk
Banned
I didn't have any Warcraft knowledge going in and I understood most of the story.
I think the plot itself is pretty basic and easy to follow. Kill these people because they are bad, here is why they are bad-- they will repeat the reasoning for you several times.
Mostly what gets confusing is motivations and such.
Error404SwagNotFound
Member
I'm pretty disappointed, and I went in expecting it to be awful.
The one good thing I can say is that the art direction was perfect. The worlds, the special effects, everything looked straight out of the games and really felt genuine. I loved that aspect.
However, this movie had a lot of problems.
The biggest was pacing. This movie felt all over the place except for the final act. A lot of scenes that served really no purpose at all could have been left on the cutting room floor. Like why introduce the hero of Stormwind, Lothar, in Iron Forge just looking at a gun? That's your establishing shot for the hero of the movie? Come on.
Some of the actors really tried, and I commend them for it. However, the guy who played King Llane really killed it for me. Medivh was also shaky, but he had some good moments.
That shoe horned romance between
felt so rushed and disconnected. I was laughing during that scene between them at the Goldshire Inn.
Also, did anyone else notice
I really hope they don't make another one. Or if they do, they need to take a serious step back and rethink their process.
The one good thing I can say is that the art direction was perfect. The worlds, the special effects, everything looked straight out of the games and really felt genuine. I loved that aspect.
However, this movie had a lot of problems.
The biggest was pacing. This movie felt all over the place except for the final act. A lot of scenes that served really no purpose at all could have been left on the cutting room floor. Like why introduce the hero of Stormwind, Lothar, in Iron Forge just looking at a gun? That's your establishing shot for the hero of the movie? Come on.
Some of the actors really tried, and I commend them for it. However, the guy who played King Llane really killed it for me. Medivh was also shaky, but he had some good moments.
That shoe horned romance between
Garona and Lothar
Also, did anyone else notice
Lothar magically lost his armor when fighting Medivh? Like, he had it one scene, then the next, it's just gone?
I really hope they don't make another one. Or if they do, they need to take a serious step back and rethink their process.
Conkersbadfurday
Member
Saw it this morning. It's not a great movie, but it's certainly enjoyable if you know the lore a bit. The human element was the worst part--bad casting, IMO. Half the characters just didn't look believable--but the orcs were cool and I liked the pretty spellcasting.
The green chick sucked full stop. Every line she said was cringe, and her delivery was bad. worst part of the flick which was a shame since she should have been the most compelling of the characters.
Worth a watch if you like the world though.
The green chick sucked full stop. Every line she said was cringe, and her delivery was bad. worst part of the flick which was a shame since she should have been the most compelling of the characters.
Worth a watch if you like the world though.
melonrabbit
Member
Thanks for the link! I've never played any if the games so everything is brand new to me. I've also heard the novelization provides more background detail and fleshes out the story.
OK. Looking forward to seeing it next week. Thanks for the replies everyone
Was impressed by the movie, went in expecting to be disappointed and was not. Might have been the giddy warcraft fan in me but my girlfriend who plays hearthstone enjoyed it a lot. I was nitpicky and such the whole time and really hope the DVD has all the cut scenes as well as they get the greenlight for more!
usp84
Member
Saw the movie and wow i really liked it. Most fun i had with the recent blockbuster type movies.
I had no idea about the lore except some names from Hearthstone and some wikipedia articles i read.
The cgi was perfect.
Only thing i didn't like is that some things felt rushed without much explanation.
I had no idea about the lore except some names from Hearthstone and some wikipedia articles i read.
The cgi was perfect.
Only thing i didn't like is that some things felt rushed without much explanation.
davepoobond
you can't put a price on sparks
i think almost everything to do with the orcs was brilliant. its unfortunate that the human side didn't have as much flavor to it.
Durotan was such a fucking bad ass.
i really liked this movie, i want to see it again. it felt really short to me, and i definitely could tell where they chopped out a lot of stuff, too. they packed in a lot of fan service so i think it may have taken away from screen time of actual story elements that might have made the movie generally more coherent
there's a lot of things in the background that I didn't notice the first time that my friends were pointing out to me.
Durotan was such a fucking bad ass.
i really liked this movie, i want to see it again. it felt really short to me, and i definitely could tell where they chopped out a lot of stuff, too. they packed in a lot of fan service so i think it may have taken away from screen time of actual story elements that might have made the movie generally more coherent
there's a lot of things in the background that I didn't notice the first time that my friends were pointing out to me.
Saw this today (thank you, T-Mobile) was a lot better than I expected. I know almost nothing about WoW, but went with a friend who is HUGE into it. Talked about everything over a burger after.
The biggest failing of the movie is that, with such a wealth of established lore, there was almost no world building. It was constantly "here's this, and we're going to use it in this scene and move on".
The honor of the Orcs should have been firmly established in the first 10 minutes of the movie. The sanctity of the one-on-one fights should have been established then as well, so that when Guldan cheats, the audience understands (instead of having to have the crowd yell 'he cheated!').
The scene of Callan returning to the sky wizards had zero emotion, because we had nothing to connect it to. Sure, he tells us that they were upset when he walked away, but that's it. His departure from them should have been shown early in the film as well. Also, the humans seemed to hate the sky wizards for some reason (they saw the tattoo on Callan and he instantly had to tell him that he wasn't one of them anymore) but then nothing came of that.
I think, for those into WoW, scenes carried a lot more weight, but for those of us who know zip, they didn't lay the groundwork.
Finally, I had a hard time getting over the modern/clean look of some of the cast, specifically Callan and Medivh. It was just a step or two away from cosplayers, rather than characters that belonged in the world.
The orcs were great, Durotan and Ogrim were great, as was Blackhand and Guldan.
Oh, Anduin's son (another who looked like he wandered in from another movie) should have been cut entirely. Remove that relationship, give the film time to a bit more worldbuilding and strengthen the relationship between Anduin and the king, and you'd have a tighter, better film, IMO.
edit: actually, speaking of worldbuilding, there really needed to be a lot more. They were in a tavern, but the tavern was completely dead, no barkeep, no customers, etc. We saw the villages being plundered, but we should have seen them (even for a moment) in peace. Again, the orc code of honor should have had a scene or two defining it. It's clearly a world with a lot of history, a lot of established backstory, but none of it was up on the screen.
The biggest failing of the movie is that, with such a wealth of established lore, there was almost no world building. It was constantly "here's this, and we're going to use it in this scene and move on".
The honor of the Orcs should have been firmly established in the first 10 minutes of the movie. The sanctity of the one-on-one fights should have been established then as well, so that when Guldan cheats, the audience understands (instead of having to have the crowd yell 'he cheated!').
The scene of Callan returning to the sky wizards had zero emotion, because we had nothing to connect it to. Sure, he tells us that they were upset when he walked away, but that's it. His departure from them should have been shown early in the film as well. Also, the humans seemed to hate the sky wizards for some reason (they saw the tattoo on Callan and he instantly had to tell him that he wasn't one of them anymore) but then nothing came of that.
I think, for those into WoW, scenes carried a lot more weight, but for those of us who know zip, they didn't lay the groundwork.
Finally, I had a hard time getting over the modern/clean look of some of the cast, specifically Callan and Medivh. It was just a step or two away from cosplayers, rather than characters that belonged in the world.
The orcs were great, Durotan and Ogrim were great, as was Blackhand and Guldan.
Oh, Anduin's son (another who looked like he wandered in from another movie) should have been cut entirely. Remove that relationship, give the film time to a bit more worldbuilding and strengthen the relationship between Anduin and the king, and you'd have a tighter, better film, IMO.
edit: actually, speaking of worldbuilding, there really needed to be a lot more. They were in a tavern, but the tavern was completely dead, no barkeep, no customers, etc. We saw the villages being plundered, but we should have seen them (even for a moment) in peace. Again, the orc code of honor should have had a scene or two defining it. It's clearly a world with a lot of history, a lot of established backstory, but none of it was up on the screen.
BeatnikGunsoo
Member
I highly enjoyed the movie and so did my mom who has never played the games
Generic Power Ranger
Member
You got some names mixed up
Callan is Lothars son.MetroidPrimeRib
Banned
Pandaren weren't involved in this war, and only one (canonically, I think) actually lives outside of Pandaria or the Wandering Isle at this moment, Chen Stormstout. Right now Pandaria is covered in a mist that hides it.
KonradLaw
Member
WanderingWind
Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
I don't particularly care for the Warcraft lore, never much got into any of the games besides Warcraft II back in the day. But I'm a huge fantasy nerd. Is this movie still enjoyable for non-Warcraft fans?
You got some names mixed up
Ahhh..every time I said Callan, I meant the young mage...just looked on IMDB, thought I had the right one...they both suffered from the same thing, though. Both looked like they were from 2016 America.
This is for you. I took my mother the first time I saw it and she's 69 and knows nothing about Warcraft. She found it enjoyable. Then in the evening i went with my girlfriend and her father and they both enjoyed it as well without knowing anything about the Warcraft universe.
WanderingWind
Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
Taking into account
- the fact that I know nothing or very little about the lore
- the fact that the director bothered to deliver a good story with complex characters while staying faithful to the game (apparently?)
- the fact that it was his first movie with such a massive budget
- the fact that I ended up caring about what happened, enjoyed really good scenes and now hope to see the sequel
... yeah, it's quite positive. For the squad !
- the fact that I know nothing or very little about the lore
- the fact that the director bothered to deliver a good story with complex characters while staying faithful to the game (apparently?)
- the fact that it was his first movie with such a massive budget
- the fact that I ended up caring about what happened, enjoyed really good scenes and now hope to see the sequel
... yeah, it's quite positive. For the squad !
Pilgrimzero
Member
I loved it despite its issues. I look forward to the sequel.
The Lamonster
Member
I saw this today and loved it far more than I ever expected to.
Johnlenham
Member
Just so you know they cut about 40 mins from the film.
Watched it today and the orc stuff was great, the film nearly got me to resubscribe haha or at the least hope for some full on HD warcraft game reboot
Only went thanks to T-Mobile. The trailers made it out to be super generic fantasy garbage, and the critics completely trashed it. I've now seen it twice. It's one of the best films of the year. I swear film critics have devolved into nothing more than clickbait trolls. How you can invoke the name Battlefield Earth in the same breath as this film is completely fucking baffling, and nothing more than absurd hyperbole. I'll never give a RT score a moment of my time again, it's nothing but an aggregate of trash.
Jones really poured his soul into this movie and I hope he gets the chance to make another one. Make it happen, China.
Jones really poured his soul into this movie and I hope he gets the chance to make another one. Make it happen, China.
Warrior_Keoni
Member
The CGI in this movie is incredible. Aside from the other comments about pacing, I found it a fun movie.
DurielBlack
Member
Movie was a lot better than I thought it would be. Haters can STFU.
That said, yeah, you can tell they chopped up the story too much. Hard to get attached to characters when you have little to no back story for most of them. Some of the scene changed happen so fast you really do have to do a double-take to understand wtf is going on.
CG was good. Acting was no where near as bad as I thought it would be. Of course I can't say it was super good either.
7.5/10
That said, yeah, you can tell they chopped up the story too much. Hard to get attached to characters when you have little to no back story for most of them. Some of the scene changed happen so fast you really do have to do a double-take to understand wtf is going on.
CG was good. Acting was no where near as bad as I thought it would be. Of course I can't say it was super good either.
7.5/10
Duncan Jones is sure staying active on his Twitter account despite the dismal reviews and bomba BO in the US. Good on him, I'm sure he feels a pretty big sense of relief from the China success.
He also said he expect to know in a few weeks on the status of an extended cut release.
He also said he expect to know in a few weeks on the status of an extended cut release.
And probably its fan reception (86% on Metacritic and 83% on Rottentomatoes). I've seen it twice now and I liked it, I'm looking forward to an extended version.
In a year where his dad died and a movie he put 3+ years of his life into is getting piled on by critics, at least he appears to be finding comfort in the fact that fans seem to be really digging Warcraft and it will at least make some money.
Sounds like the movie really needed it.
Discotheque
Banned
Ran into a few people at a party talking about how they enjoyed this movie (they played a few of the warcraft games) seems like Duncan Jones really came into this as a superfan and prioritized the players over the general audience. And it reflects in it's box office it seems like, for better or worse. Im gonna check it out soon since I liked WarCraft 3 quite a bit, have no wow experience at all though.
Anyways y'all see this video where some of the crew answer google questions?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zByWMvVIfiw
Rob Kazinsky and Toby Kebbell seem like really likable personalities, kazinsky especially came into this production as an uber WOW-nerd lol. You can't help but root for some of these guys hoping it all works out for them. Apparently dude's been playing for like 12 years....
Anyways y'all see this video where some of the crew answer google questions?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zByWMvVIfiw
Rob Kazinsky and Toby Kebbell seem like really likable personalities, kazinsky especially came into this production as an uber WOW-nerd lol. You can't help but root for some of these guys hoping it all works out for them. Apparently dude's been playing for like 12 years....
As weird of a choice that he was, he played a -great- Gul'dan.
Conkersbadfurday
Member
They are and they aren't. There are MAJOR writing problems with them, and pretty much every main character is OP to the point of being silly, but they're still pretty fun and if you read em as a kid, will be nostalgic as hell.
I reread em a few years ago and had a blast despite the glaring flaws in writing and character.
He was fantastic as Gul'dan, I didn't realize it was him until I looked at IMDB after seeing it.
Kazinsky is the best hype-man this movie could have asked for. At a Q&A with Jones he was asked what prep he had to do in order to play Orgrim, he said something along the lines of, "I've done more preparation to play an Orc than any actor ever has for any role in history. I've been playing an Orc Death Knight since 3.1".
It was pretty great.
phoenix296
Member
Saw this with some friends who aren't warcraft fans. I think they liked it but were super confused. I thought it was okay save for the awful pacing. Hopefully the sequel is improved.
Johnlenham
Member
Im hoping they will, I would be up for watching it again with the added time and I never ever really want to rewatch movies. I feel like that 40mins would really be worth seeing.
Interfectum
Member
Saw the movie this weekend and enjoyed it. Durotan, by far, was the best part about the movie. It was flawed though... The disjointed cuts, the lack of exposition and the humans seemed like they were from the Medieval Times dinner theater (sans jousting and terrible chicken).
Skellig Gra
Member
Didn't Medivh crunch him with a spell or something. Probably why he tossed the armor.
Yep, they just
didn't show him undressing
Razgriz-Specter
Member
I liked it and had maybe 2 hours total on WoW and played zero of the previous games
Gorechylde
Member
Gotta recommend a viewing here. I saw it with my wife and 4yr old daughter yesterday. I played WoW for about 4 years at launch and my wife played Warcraft 1 and 2 back in her formative years. We both had a great time with the film. My daughter checked out about 45 mins in.
We didn't have a problem with any performances with the exception of King Llane. Total missed casting. Durotan and the orcs were fantastic. Some very emotional scenes in there. Gul'Dan makes for a great villain.
You can tell the studio hacked this movie to pieces. Some of the scene cuts are abrupt and don't seem to go anywhere or accomplish anything. Understanding that 1/3rd of the runtime was taken out makes me want a director's cut badly. I'm thinking a lot of the relationship building/world building was left on the cutting room floor as what was presented was framed and filmed well.
Warcraft was way better than I expected and left my wife and I wanting more.
Edit: This movie has a decent sense of humor as well. We laughed out loud at quite a few scenes and character interactions. I wouldn't call it campy per say. Maybe aimed at a younger audience? We dug it though.
We didn't have a problem with any performances with the exception of King Llane. Total missed casting. Durotan and the orcs were fantastic. Some very emotional scenes in there. Gul'Dan makes for a great villain.
You can tell the studio hacked this movie to pieces. Some of the scene cuts are abrupt and don't seem to go anywhere or accomplish anything. Understanding that 1/3rd of the runtime was taken out makes me want a director's cut badly. I'm thinking a lot of the relationship building/world building was left on the cutting room floor as what was presented was framed and filmed well.
Warcraft was way better than I expected and left my wife and I wanting more.
Edit: This movie has a decent sense of humor as well. We laughed out loud at quite a few scenes and character interactions. I wouldn't call it campy per say. Maybe aimed at a younger audience? We dug it though.
This is from someone who read the novelization:
"Having read the novelization (which is clearly based of that 40 minutes longer version, as there are several scenes we saw in the SDCC 2015 footage), I can say this; yes, it will improve the film and yes, it will fix the largest of the flaws it has at the moment. The pacing in the first part feels better, and there is so much more character exposition, especially on the side of Stormwind. Llane has several scenes with his family that actually make you understand his character and care for the Wrynn family, there is a scene explaining what the hell Kirin Tor, the Guardian etc are and so on. I literally do not understand what idiot thought it would be a good idea to cut that out, it seriously hurts the film."
"Having read the novelization (which is clearly based of that 40 minutes longer version, as there are several scenes we saw in the SDCC 2015 footage), I can say this; yes, it will improve the film and yes, it will fix the largest of the flaws it has at the moment. The pacing in the first part feels better, and there is so much more character exposition, especially on the side of Stormwind. Llane has several scenes with his family that actually make you understand his character and care for the Wrynn family, there is a scene explaining what the hell Kirin Tor, the Guardian etc are and so on. I literally do not understand what idiot thought it would be a good idea to cut that out, it seriously hurts the film."
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