Warcraft reviews not looking great

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Assassin's Creed has Fassbender, so it'll have to struggle to be worse than mediocre.

Ever heard of a movie called The Counsellor [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2193215/?ref_=nv_sr_1]? Not only did it have Fassbender, but also Javier Bardem, Brad Pitt, Penelope Cruz and Cameron Diaz, was directed by Ridley Scott, and written, of all people, by the massively acclaimed Cormac McCarthy. And it was met with near-universal derision. Just a note about names being able to save a terrible film.

OT: Boy howdy, I bet the people who said this would be the first good video game film sure feel stupid now. How was anyone expecting anything more than mediocrity at best, cringeworthy shit at worst, and hopefully some enjoyably goofy camp somewhere in between.

A Warcraft movie should be a comedy. Unintentional, or even black, but a comedy none the less. 20 years ago it should have stared Bruce Campbell. Today, it should star...Jack Black as an over-weight bard, Zoe Saldana as a no-nonsense Night Elf archer, Brian Blessed as a disgraced Dwarven Knight, and Idris Elba has a Troll shaman who talks only in rhymes and is constantly high as fuck.

With guest cameos from Sean Bean as an brave but foolhardy undead Knight who keeps getting killed and resurrected by his loving, if cynical and tired, voodoo witch-doctor wife, Daniel Radcliffe as a wizard apprentice who keeps fucking up, and Pierce Brosnan as a suave ladies man with a pet giant spider.

That's the correct level of respect and justice a Warcraft movie deserves. And I'm being serious here. Warcraft is hysterical and deserves a comedy movie.

Now THERE'S a movie I'd want to see! Enough of this "dark forces are trying to destroy the world" bullshit, let us see something else for a change. Going slightly off topic, but this is precisely why I found the Witcher novels so engaging: they were about everything else but the destruction of the world (well, up to a point). If Warcraft has such rich lore as people claim it to have, why do the goddamned orcs and humans shtick again? There are, what, twenty races in the game by now? Shouldn't we see some of those for a change? But nooo, it all needs to be serious and heavy and dark and so mature mom, you totally don't get it.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

I always thought WOW was generic fantasy world #17635. Nothing original enough to make an inspiring film from. So film critics are often looking originality, deep meaning, metaphors, clever shooting etc etc. CGI Generic fantasy world #17635 isn't going to make any waves without a lot of talented people with actual good ideas and passion put into it. No doubt it will be servicable entertainment for ordinary folk, but critics are going to always expect more.

What kind of fantasy world have places like this:


And monsters like this:




And races like this:



Not ever fantasy setting is "generic fantasy number#" and only has just castles and dragons.

Warcraft has more personality and identity then something like say Might and Magic and Wizardry

No, not really, it started out as a licensed game for warhammer. But then that fell through so they just changed a little about the story and over the years they just threw more and more crap into it. The most original thing they did was samurai orcs and that ended up just being one multi hero in warcraft 3, I don't think it was ever really mentioned in lore.

I have seen enough of Warhammer and Wacraft devolped through out the years and so far both franchises split into their own distinct style. Lets compare it to DC and Marvel.

I mean the main human faction in Warhammer is an Empire modeld after the Holy Roman Empire. While the main human faction is just a very styleized Medieval England.

The Orcs in Warhammer are just mostly savage warlike brutes, the Orcs in Warcraft are more developed especially what happened in Warcraft 3. They are people to with families and homes they want to protect. And Shamans here are nothing like the Shamans in Warhammer.

Warhammer's undead faction is lead by Vampires and Warcraft's is lead by someone that looks like Archaon with a strong theme of Ice powers.

And both have their unique factions. Warhammer has Skaven (Rat people) and Warcraft has Draenais.

And lastly Warhammer is more darker and bloodier Warcraft I mean in the Warhammer universe the bad guys win, the End Times did happeend.

Warcraft the closest thing to that happened in Catacylsm and we ended up saving the world anyway.

They are still cribbing pretty heavily from the same place. Yeah warcraft did make the orcs more interesting but not more fun. Instead of the savage warlike race that likes a fightin we get the noble savage race that was turned into warlike savages by demons. Really the biggest difference between the two are the fact that warcraft decided to make females and warhammer just made their orks fungas or something so they wouldn't have to give orks boobs.

I don't know, last I played wow it looked like the undead were ruled by someone who was rather similar to a vampire. Sylvarus I think or something, I dont remember her name, undead elf. Only undead that didn't really look undead, no exposed bone, unless they changed that.

The drenari were weird, not only since they arrived in a space ship but also because they were like an offshoot of another race that showed up, but they didnt look anything like them since they needed to be sexy.

The first warcraft games were pretty bloody, wow really sanitized the series since they wanted a teen rating.

Slyvanas is not a Vampire though. The closet thing to Vampires in this world are the Dreadlords which are Vampirc Demons:

And another thing that makes Warcraft unique is the fact that Outer Space exists. Dreanais and Orcs came from completely different planets. The Demons of the Burning Legion were born from a portion of the Great Dark Beyond called the Twisting Nether.

Actually outer space exists in warhammer too. The lizardman were created by the old ones which came from another world. Also the twisting nether sounds an awful lot like the warp. In fact twisting can also mean warping. They weren't even original in the name for it.

I thought the concept of the Warp was only in 40k, did not know it was also in Fantasy.



Anyway the difference between the 2 is tone.

Warcraft has its levity and lighter tone , especially when it comes to Dwarves, Gnomes, Goblins, and Pandaren but also retains an air of seriousness aswell as an epic athmosphere.

Warhammer Fantasy is dead serious with its world from what I have seen and at times darker, bloodier, and somewhat depressing when you factor the lore of The End Times. The only comedic parts of it is the Orcs to a degree. But even then the Fantasy Greenskins are much more violant and angry compared to the 40k Orks which are more humorous.

 

[Worgen]

I don't know, last I played wow it looked like the undead were ruled by someone who was rather similar to a vampire. Sylvarus I think or something, I dont remember her name, undead elf. Only undead that didn't really look undead, no exposed bone, unless they changed that.

Player-controlled Undead have always been pretty skeletal, as did the race guards for the Undercity. In fact, Sylvanas is one of the few undead characters in the lore who does still look rather like she did in her living form. Unless that's what you meant by the last part there, but I'm not sure why one single character not looking like they've been decaying for a decade would be such an issue. For the record, Sylvanas doesn't look decayed because she wasn't technically killed, she was captured and turned into a Scourge by Arthas when he raided Quel'thalas.

The drenari were weird, not only since they arrived in a space ship but also because they were like an offshoot of another race that showed up, but they didnt look anything like them since they needed to be sexy.

The Draenei look similar to the Broken because the latter are Draenei who were corrupted by the Burning Legion much like the orcs.

The first warcraft games were pretty bloody, wow really sanitized the series since they wanted a teen rating.

Warcraft has always had a T rating? And World of Warcraft has a lot of really dark, really grim, really bloody stuff in it?

Yeah, thats what I was talking about. Im sure they have a lore reason for her not looking like the rest but it doesn't change the fact she takes a similar role as the vampires. To be the more "human" lead.

Yeah the orcs changed color and the drenarei got weird looking. Its still weird.

Yeah, your right, they were teen.

 

[RaikuFA]

Or maybe it's Disney's fault again. I guess that petition to force Disney to stop paying off all of the reviewers to crap on every non Disney movie just didn't work.

Are you serious? That's a thing? That has to be the stupidest thing I ever heard of.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

SNIP

Hey, I'm a 90s kid too. Born March, 1990. I have more 90s in my veins than Vanilla Ice and a Clinton Presidency combined. And I maintain the Batman Animated Series, Freakazoid and Animaniacs as the Trinity of perfect cartoons. Each one was 100% at what it was trying to do.

But Warcraft is less Batman and more Freakazoid, and that's the way it should be. I love 90s culture. I respect it as only a 90s kid can. But I'm fully capable of admitting Nerf Guns and Crazy Bones were stupid!
Fantastic, but stupid.

A Warcraft movie really should be the Fantasy equivalent of like...Borderlands or Mass Effect's Citadel DLC. Self aware and will the balls to just say have Wrex and Grunt get into a "SHEPARD!" shouting match.

 

[Worgen]

I always thought WOW was generic fantasy world #17635. Nothing original enough to make an inspiring film from. So film critics are often looking originality, deep meaning, metaphors, clever shooting etc etc. CGI Generic fantasy world #17635 isn't going to make any waves without a lot of talented people with actual good ideas and passion put into it. No doubt it will be servicable entertainment for ordinary folk, but critics are going to always expect more.

What kind of fantasy world have places like this:


And monsters like this:




And races like this:



Not ever fantasy setting is "generic fantasy number#" and only has just castles and dragons.

Warcraft has more personality and identity then something like say Might and Magic and Wizardry

No, not really, it started out as a licensed game for warhammer. But then that fell through so they just changed a little about the story and over the years they just threw more and more crap into it. The most original thing they did was samurai orcs and that ended up just being one multi hero in warcraft 3, I don't think it was ever really mentioned in lore.

I have seen enough of Warhammer and Wacraft devolped through out the years and so far both franchises split into their own distinct style. Lets compare it to DC and Marvel.

I mean the main human faction in Warhammer is an Empire modeld after the Holy Roman Empire. While the main human faction is just a very styleized Medieval England.

The Orcs in Warhammer are just mostly savage warlike brutes, the Orcs in Warcraft are more developed especially what happened in Warcraft 3. They are people to with families and homes they want to protect. And Shamans here are nothing like the Shamans in Warhammer.

Warhammer's undead faction is lead by Vampires and Warcraft's is lead by someone that looks like Archaon with a strong theme of Ice powers.

And both have their unique factions. Warhammer has Skaven (Rat people) and Warcraft has Draenais.

And lastly Warhammer is more darker and bloodier Warcraft I mean in the Warhammer universe the bad guys win, the End Times did happeend.

Warcraft the closest thing to that happened in Catacylsm and we ended up saving the world anyway.

They are still cribbing pretty heavily from the same place. Yeah warcraft did make the orcs more interesting but not more fun. Instead of the savage warlike race that likes a fightin we get the noble savage race that was turned into warlike savages by demons. Really the biggest difference between the two are the fact that warcraft decided to make females and warhammer just made their orks fungas or something so they wouldn't have to give orks boobs.

I don't know, last I played wow it looked like the undead were ruled by someone who was rather similar to a vampire. Sylvarus I think or something, I dont remember her name, undead elf. Only undead that didn't really look undead, no exposed bone, unless they changed that.

The drenari were weird, not only since they arrived in a space ship but also because they were like an offshoot of another race that showed up, but they didnt look anything like them since they needed to be sexy.

The first warcraft games were pretty bloody, wow really sanitized the series since they wanted a teen rating.

Slyvanas is not a Vampire though. The closet thing to Vampires in this world are the Dreadlords which are Vampirc Demons:

And another thing that makes Warcraft unique is the fact that Outer Space exists. Dreanais and Orcs came from completely different planets. The Demons of the Burning Legion were born from a portion of the Great Dark Beyond called the Twisting Nether.

Actually outer space exists in warhammer too. The lizardman were created by the old ones which came from another world. Also the twisting nether sounds an awful lot like the warp. In fact twisting can also mean warping. They weren't even original in the name for it.

I thought the concept of the Warp was only in 40k, did not know it was also in Fantasy.



Anyway the difference between the 2 is tone.

Warcraft has its levity and lighter tone , especially when it comes to Dwarves, Gnomes, Goblins, and Pandaren but also retains an air of seriousness aswell as an epic athmosphere.

Warhammer Fantasy is dead serious with its world from what I have seen. The only comedic parts of it is the Orcs to a degree. But even then the Fantasy Greenskins are much more violant and angry compared to the 40k Orks which are more humorous.

The tone is certainly different. But I think that has more to do with the medium they were created in. The the serious story of warcraft isnt all that different, not quite a dying world but certainly things are going bad and humanity is losing to the orcs. But since they take place in games then you get a disconnect, especially in warcraft 2 where the orcs were just derpy.

Its easier to get away with being dark in written form. Around the time warcraft came out the hearings about video game violence were happening so that might have impacted some of the content in the game too.

 

[DefunctTheory]

But I'm fully capable of admitting Nerf Guns and Crazy Bones were stupid!

Fantastic, but stupid.

Obviously, you never got one of the electric powered, tube fed machine nerf guns that fired tennis ball sized hunks of solid, hard foam at over 120 rpms.

And I pity you for that.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

SNIP

Hey, I'm a 90s kid too. Born March, 1990. I have more 90s in my veins than Vanilla Ice and a Clinton Presidency combined. And I maintain the Batman Animated Series, Freakazoid and Animaniacs as the Trinity of perfect cartoons. Each one was 100% at what it was trying to do.

But Warcraft is less Batman and more Freakazoid, and that's the way it should be. I love 90s culture. I respect it as only a 90s kid can. But I'm fully capable of admitting Nerf Guns and Crazy Bones were stupid!
Fantastic, but stupid.

A Warcraft movie really should be the Fantasy equivalent of like...Borderlands or Mass Effect's Citadel DLC. Self aware and will the balls to just say have Wrex and Grunt get into a "SHEPARD!" shouting match.

Yes tacky, cringy, corny, "self aware" tone is what a Warcraft movie really needs heck you might aswell replace the gloriously epic orchestral soundtrack of the games with 80s pop music guardians of the galaxy style.

Heck you might aswell have Thrall when he killed Deathwing say "I'm green jesus *****" and then utter the words "LEEEEEEROY JENKINS!!!!"

Ughhhhhhhh my spine could only take so much facepalming cringe.

Besides you want this kind of stuff for Warcraft? Nixxiom is that way:


I just want my Lich King movie, I want to see Death Knight arthas slaughter and destroy the Nations of Lordeoron and Quel'Thalas, and then fight Illidan at the base of Icecrown and then wear the helmet to become the LicH kING.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

But I'm fully capable of admitting Nerf Guns and Crazy Bones were stupid!

Fantastic, but stupid.

Obviously, you never got one of the electric powered, tube fed machine nerf guns that fired tennis ball sized hunks of solid, hard foam at over 120 rpms.

And I pity you for that.

Now help me with this one friend. When I post something this awesome, is the phrase "Eat a bag of dicks" or simply "How do you like them apples?!" ?

'cause either way...Tom Servo. With my electric Nerf Heavy Machine gun with tripod and extended magazine belt.

90S!

 

[Glongpre]

Warcraft isn't 100% serious though. As cool as it would be to see Arthas' journey (in a full cgi movie made by Blizz), there has to be some comedy. The games are packed with references and levity, such as saving Timmy from some gnolls, then seeing him later as a ghoul (context is needed, haha).

If they make a Warcraft movie, it needs to have references and easter eggs. They are the golden nuggets in Warcraft 3. The silly unit responses are so good.

Skip to 50 secs for one of the best ones, imo.

Spoiler: Pitlord

Not really surprised it is getting bad reviews. But maybe it will be good in a Mortal Kombat movie kind of way.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Warcraft isn't 100% serious though. As cool as it would be to see Arthas' journey (in a full cgi movie made by Blizz), there has to be some comedy. The games are packed with references and levity, such as saving Timmy from some gnolls, then seeing him later as a ghoul (context is needed, haha).

If they make a Warcraft movie, it needs to have references and easter eggs. They are the golden nuggets in Warcraft 3. The silly unit responses are so good.

Skip to 50 secs for one of the best ones, imo.

Spoiler: Pitlord

Not really surprised it is getting bad reviews. But maybe it will be good in a Mortal Kombat movie kind of way.

The thing is the Warcraft movie DOES have easter eggs like this:

Yes you do see that poster in the movie from what I have heard.

 

[MrCalavera_v1legacy]

Welp, this sucks. I wasn't hoping for something that would knock my socks off or MOON levels of good(previous Jones' movie). I expected kind of a lighter fantasy adventure with a side of epic, something like Hobbit, but y'know, pleasant to watch. That also probably means we're not gonna see the Lich King on a silver screen.

Warcraft has more personality and identity then something like say Might and Magic and Wizardry

Tsk tsk. Glass houses and all that... You're lauding Warcraft's oh-so-unique setting by comparing it to Might and Magic? I can't say much about Wizardry, but M&M mixed fantasy and sci-fi way before anyone in Blizzard thought about adding space goats to the mix. Here's the ending to M&MIII, a game released in '91.

Spoiler: Then there's the Forge - a town that never made it to HoMM III, but planned to be included in an official expansion, nonetheless.

 

[mduncan50]

Or maybe it's Disney's fault again. I guess that petition to force Disney to stop paying off all of the reviewers to crap on every non Disney movie just didn't work.

Are you serious? That's a thing? That has to be the stupidest thing I ever heard of.

https://www.change.org/p/rotten-tomatoes-stop-disney-from-influencing-critics-on-mcu-bias?source_location=topic_page

With 925 signatures. It's one of those things that make me want either laugh at humanity or cry for it. For those that don't like links:

There is growing evidence Disney has been continually influencing critics to attack Non MCU movies. MCU movies are safe. They're not challenging at all. Just like a comic book movie is "supposed to be". They're not divisive or thought provoking. First they bashed Batman V Superman.They cleared BvS out of the way, gave Civil War (which wasn't a perfect film) to be seen as perfect., now they're going to work on moving Apocalypse out the way...then they get offended when they're accused of accepting marvel bias. Films like Days Of Future Past did receive good reviews due to the fact it came out in 2014 when there was hardly any competition from MCU films. Had the movie been released in 2015 against Ant-Man it would have gotten the Man of Steel treatment. Deadpool would have also suffered the same fate however it was released in February when there was no MCU movies being released at the time and was not an immediate threat. Films like the Force Awakens which essentially just a modern day rehash of the First Star Wars also get universal praise since Disney acquired the rights.We need to raise awareness of this global plan to keep our films creative or risk have everything fall under the Disney label. Each studio brings their own distinctive and creative work and Disney needs to stop being greedy and understand this. Support DC and keep Marvel at Fox.

And the funny thing is that the petition is aimed at Rotten Tomatoes whom, for those that don't know, are partially owned by Warner Brothers.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

SNIP

Counter with absolute silliness!

 

[elvor0]

Yeah because its not like film critics are ever wrong or anything...

Define "wrong" when we're giving subjective opinions of how much you enjoyed something?

That and lets be honest here, when an overwhelming majority of critics pan something, it's not a good sign.

 

[mduncan50]

And just because it feels weird to be in a thread with Samtemdo8 and not having our friendly banter, I'm just going to leave these examples of utmost seriousness here:

 

[DefunctTheory]

This all looks exactly like a Prometheus comment section. Which I liked.

What kind of mutant are you? Have you had an MRI of your brain, to look for structural abnormalities?

 

[RedDeadFred]

Can't say I'm surprise. After seeing the trailers, I fully anticipated it to be complete garbage. Sucks that it is, but it's really just par for the course.

 

[ecoho]

yeah not gonna take reviewers too seriously on this as the only people right now who can see it are the same people who thought spotlight was good, so yeah gonna wait and see for myself. then again I don't have to pay for my ticket

 

[Evonisia]

It's a bit disheartening to hear "it's boring" being a common complaint from those examples. I knew the movie was gonna be dumb (it's Warcraft, after all), but I was thinking it could be goofy fun despite that.

When it comes to DVD or Netflix etc. I'll definitely watch it, though, just to see what happened.