Take any of this with a huge pinch of salt. Iâm a fan of the computer game on which this movie is based (itâs dire already, isnât it?) but I watched the Warcraft movie. Itâs pretty patchy in places, and I couldnât tell you whether someone not into the lore would enjoy it, but it entertained me for a couple of hours.
Time wise, it really does start at the beginning, before the events of World of Warcraft, or even Warcraft III. As of yet, there is no scourge or undead kicking around. The focus is on the conflict between orcs and humans. The orcs are led by a warlock, whoâs pretty much fucked up the world they live on. Heâs able to create portals to other worlds by draining the life force from peeps. A contingent of orcs plops through to Azeroth, a world populated by humans, orcs and elves, on a supply run. Their nefarious plan is to collect enough souls to open the gate again, and bring the rest of the Horde through.
A lot of the orcs arenât particularly happy about the plan, or the use of death magic, so there is internal conflict with them. The film centres on efforts to prevent the rest of the Horde from coming through, with a focus on the newly forged relationships between the invaded humans and the discontented orc contingent.
The good. It looks fucking amazing, easily eclipsing the excellent work that Blizzard has done on its WoW cinematics. I love the way everything looks. Theyâve nailed the balance between the rather cartoonish art style of the video game and authenticity. As a game nerd, itâs something of a thrill to see familiar locations.
The bad. Some of the performances are sketchy. Dominic Cooper couldnât be more wooden if he had branches growing out of his head. Ben Fosterâs turn as the mysterious guardian Medivh isnât helped by some of the things they have him say either. âYou do not know the forces I contend withâ. That sort of bollocks. I reckon some filmgoers would have wanted a more definitive ending. Some game fans might defend it with âwell, you canât kill such and suchâ, and Iâd sort of agree, except they do knock off some people that are big players in future lore.
imdb gives it a 7.3.
My rating would be a 7.
I think Phil might like it a bit more due to the âwhat have they been smoking?â factor. He might give it an 8, and ask what the makers were smoking.
That would certainly help. one feels. The missus enjoyed it too, but again, she has played WoW. Both of use wondered how accessible it would be to people that have not.
And you are correct it was TOTALLY unaccessible bordering on shit.
Donât get me wrong I enjoy a good action flick or fantasy or Sci Fi (have you seen Beyond yet?) But I must have some form of empathy towards it.
For eg my Empathy towards Preacher is that it is visually stunning, well acted and the location is great, and the script is interesting entertaining and intelligent. The empathy comes from WANTING to find out more (Apart from the kid with no face - I know that already and it is just not noce TV when he is on)
In Beyond Justin Lin does his FAMILY thing from the F&F franchise so that for once we CARE about the crew and get into the characters and jokes.
Itâs like Tomb Raider, the only empathy there was wanting to see Angieâs (now sadly no more) Bewbs so it was wallpaper. Warcraft wasnât even that absorbing.
Watched Sicario last night and enjoyed it. Thought story was too linear but it didnât detract too much.
Film also notable for use of âfinger in earâ technique of extracting confession. It made me want to see how far I could get my own finger into an ear but havenât tried yet. Will update if this should happen.
It also made me remember how great A Prophet is - I will now watch this again.
Yeesh, what a mess. I was really looking forward to this, but it was badly written, horribly directed and edited and was incredibly disappointing.
Studio pressures didnât help at all but this could have been so much better. There are good bits, but theyâre massively overshadowed by the gaping holes in the filmâs pacing and structure.
Itâs a sad, sad story. The problem for DC is that theyâre years behind Marvel in getting a coherent universe together. I guess their execs felt that they simply didnât have the time to put a connected universe together. A huge shame, and unnecessary too.
DC has arguably got the most iconic characters, but has far fewer household names. They simply didnât need the run up that Marvel did. Their films are disjointed, with little heart, soul or characterisation. The shame of this particular movie is that they might have actually had something decent a year ago, showed it to a test audience, and started reshooting.
Itâs more a case of risk aversion and profit driven motives. Disney Corp have an agenda to buy up movie franchises (Star Wars Lucas Films, Marvel Films, Pixar) and release movies that propagate others. Itâs a business management model. Thereâs limited space in distribution (ie cinema seats), so fill them and reduce other companies access. Warner Bros are now desperately trying to create a franchise.
Itâs risk averse for these idiots because a comic book movie has a built in audience of the demographic they like. Hence the great opening weekend numbers and then the major drop off after 3 days when word of mouth (social media, reviews etc) kick in.
Movies are now more tailored towards China for obvious reasons. Warcraft, made only $50m but huge in China because of the MMO gaming history. Thereâs a huge trend in blockbuster films now of less plot/dialogue and more big CGI action.
Theyâre going about it completely the wrong way, and with the wrong movies. Suicide Squad is a decent case in point. Does anyone really give a shite about many of these characters? Harley Quinn is the most famous, and she was retconned into the DC Universe after making her first appearance in Batman: The Animated Series.
I realise that having a director like Nolan handling a property like Batman has fucked them up, particularly as he had no interest in his universe being a part of anything else. A real shame. Baleâs Batman was perfect for what theyâre setting up. They could have done a decent Man of Steel II, covered Wonder Woman, done a Flash movie, and theyâd have been good to go.
By incorporating other players in these movies as significant, but not overpowering presences, like Marvel have done with Falcon, Hawkeye and Black Widow, DC could have been ready. Most people whoâve seen Marvel films know who those characters are, and they havenât had their own films yet. Same deal with Nick Fury.
Downey Jr posted a teaser for Marvelâs Infinity Wars. Itâs got an insane roster of pre-established stars from both the film and TV universes. Itâs joined up. DC fucked up, and there really is no good reason for them to have done so.
Yeah iâve seen it Eric. One of the best British musical biopics in recent years If not any Brit film recently. Anton Corbijns first movie. Iâm not really old enough for Ian Curtis to have some relevance, but it looks amazing and recreates the world and draws you in.
If not any Brit film recently. Anton Corbijns first movie. Iâm not really old enough for Ian Curtis to have some relevance, but it looks amazing and recreates the world and draws you in.