Yes, Warcraft Is a Dreary Eyesore but Here Are Three Things in It That Don't Suck

[steve2470]

http://www.laweekly.com/film/yes-warcraft-is-a-dreary-eyesore-but-here-are-three-things-in-it-that-dont-suck-6993391


Ruth Negga in Warcraft

In 2001 a friend, a grown-up, saw The Fellowship of the Ring more than a dozen times in the theater. Sometimes she'd leave with a half hour left. "I just needed to get to Galadriel and Lothlorien," she told me. She didn't need all the climactic fighting.

In 2012 I took my mother to see the baggy first installment of the Hobbit trilogy. Afterwards, she scoffed at the critics, proclaiming "I was happy to spend so much time in that world without all the beat-‘em-ups."

For many of the millions who love it, fantasy can be a refuge — not a quick escape from this world but the opportunity to luxuriate in another. Sadly, they won't find much world to sink into in Warcraft, the 3D adaptation of the computer-game series whose online role-playing edition marked the greatest monetization yet of the addictive game concepts Gary Gygax and David Arneson invented with Dungeons & Dragons: kill monsters, get loot, grow more powerful, kill bigger monsters. The movie makes you yearn for real life, even as its camera swoops you through spectacular dwarf forges, ivory cities, throne rooms and wizards’ towers.

Warcraft dashes through its HD renderings so fast that details merely slough the eye. Other than one shot of a wizard naïf gaping at a circular staircase, the filmmakers expect you to pause Warcraft at home if you want to see what its army of artists actually designed. (And, seriously, the capital is called Stormwind City? Who names their town after an A+ reason not to live there?)

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Sigh. It seems every reviewer says the movie sucks. Hopefully it will appeal to we players.

[jmowreader]

1. The only people who are going to like this movie are level-80 World of Warcraft players

Hopefully the theater owners will book another movie to play after 5 pm, because their target audience won't want to miss their dailies.

[LanternWaste]

4. And the record breaking audience it's already attracted in China.

"The only people who are going to like this movie are level-80 World of Warcraft players..."

And the record breaking audience it's already attracted in China. And me... because I'm not very evolved.

[jmowreader]

6. Interesting article on this movie in China...

https://www.inverse.com/article/16716-warcraft-is-a-huge-hit-in-china-because-the-chinese-government-wanted-it-to-be

[cemaphonic]

2. Has there ever been a movie based on a video game property that wasn't terrible?

I see there's an Assassin's Crreed movie coming out later this year. I can't picture that working at all.

[Xithras]

3. I have some hope for Assassins Creed

A big reason for the rotten reputation of video game based movies is the source material. Video games have a terrible habit of recycling the same overused tropes (ogres, knights and dragons...again?) or are based on childish story lines that may be fun to play, but simply don't translate into an actual cohesive story line (Super Mario Brothers? Mortal Kombat?)

On the flip side, I can think of a handful of games that have relatively compelling and completely original story lines that COULD be made into decent movie franchises. Fallout, Bioshock, Deus Ex, Assassins Creed, Red Dead Redemption and a few others could translate to the big screen in a big way. If you wanted to include TV, there are games like Mass Effect that could be transformed into incredible series'. The stories are compelling and relocatable, the universes are flexible enough to allow a decent writer to craft something creative and original.

[Codeine]

5. My wife will love it.

I'll give it a miss. Big CGI messes aren't my thing.

[Baitball Blogger]

7. That's a shame considering what can be done with green screen

and CGI these days.