Duncan Jones' Warcraft - Part 1

[Octoberist]

To be fair, I thin it's two days of exterior shoots, no? And everything else is either a set or green screen.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

To be fair, I thin it's two days of exterior shoots, no? And everything else is either a set or green screen.

Yes. Which too me kind of misses the point of crafting a believable world, at least imo. TFA is crafting alien worlds using all the tricks, but still did plenty of location shooting.

 

[Lord]

Not sure if Avatar did any location shoots, but it crafted a believable world, with CGI that still stands out as superior to what most high budgeted films are still doing.

 

[StarLord]

I thought Jones would have been more of an old school practical kinda guy, but whether that was his decision or not, I don't know.

 

[Octoberist]

I thought Jones would have been more of an old school practical kinda guy, but whether that was his decision or not, I don't know.

One of the producers's mandate was that the Orcs be CGI, and Jones OKed it. But to be fair to Jones, he was able to re-write the script and given other creative freedoms.

 

[Octoberist]

I think people are worried too, because we've seen a few of our favorite directors fail hard by taking risks: Brad Bird (Tomorrowland), Andrew Stanton (John Carter), and to a certain degree, G. Del Toro. It's never gonna be a sure shot anymore, even when you want to support them.

 

[Black Narcissus]

Jones still has this talk about the film being really good etc. And I hope that might be the case. I can't help but think back to Trank.. Heh.

I will trust DJ on this.

 

[Victarion]

C'mon honorable savage people has been done to the death, they simply had blue skin and looked kitty like.

The noble savage seems to be the route they are taking with these orcs. Whereas Avatar can be said to be influenced by films like Dances with Wolves, you have Tolkien with Warcraft. It will come down to your preferences - and from what I have seen, I like the wierdness of Pandora more than what I have seen of Azeroth.

 

[Tim_Riggins]

Jones still has this talk about the film being really good etc. And I hope that might be the case. I can't help but think back to Trank.. Heh.

I will trust DJ on this.

Trank is a prick, he's also only made one movie (before FF). DJ has made one masterpiece (Moon) and Source Code was very solid. That + it's been said that this is his dream project, I read somewhere that during post prod on Source Code, Sam Raimi was slated to direct Warcraft, and DJ made this comment to the writer like "I'm sure he's going to do a great job, but man, that's my dream project."

He's a huge fan, it's taken this long because he wanted to get it right, it's filled to the brim with easter eggs for the fans (ie set visit reports), Blizzard is heavily involved with guidelines and stuff on what should be in the movie.

This will be good, no doubt about it


@Octoberist: Wrong, Duncan is the one who was adamant that the orcs had to be full CG to compete with the likes of Dawn, etc, says so in the Collider set visit report

 

[Octoberist]

Jones still has this talk about the film being really good etc. And I hope that might be the case. I can't help but think back to Trank.. Heh.

I will trust DJ on this.

Jones has proven that's legit while Trank lucked out with Chronicle..

 

[Black Narcissus]

I was talking more about confidence in their remarks. Source Code was ok.

 

[Octoberist]

I liked Source Code more than Edge of Tomorrow but that's just me.

Well, in terms of confidence, yeah. He seemed pretty FIRM on how this going to break the video game curse.

 

[TheVileOne]

I liked Source Code more than Edge of Tomorrow but that's just me.

Well, in terms of confidence, yeah. He seemed pretty FIRM on how this going to break the video game curse.

So were the guys who made Prince of Persia.

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

I liked Source Code more than Moon.

The director's confidence means nothing to me one way or the other. I'm sure Brad Bird was confident that Tomorrowland would be good and Andrew Stanton definitely seemed confident in John Carter. I know those films have their fans and I respect them but those films did not get an across the board good reaction.

 

[TheVileOne]

Goro in the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie still looks better than these Orcs.

 

[Tim_Riggins]

So were the guys who made Prince of Persia.

There's much more talent involved here than there were in any previous video game adaptations.

 

[TheVileOne]

There's much more talent involved here than there were in any previous video game adaptations.

Our Brand is Crisis starred Sandra Bullock, Anthony Mackie, and Billy Bob Thornton. Directed by the man behind Pineapple Express. From the writer of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

 

[Marvin]

As for if the cgi is finished or not, I would imagine if the story is as gripping as say rise of apes, it most likely won't matter. For all the talk people have of story/characters coming first and filmmakers focusing too much on aesthetics, we sure do tend to focus on the latter alot.

I'm personally indifferent on this project but these reactions, particularly about the look many months out from release take me back to avatar day. Just saying.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

There's much more talent involved here than there were in any previous video game adaptations.

Outside of Jones, who? I mean, I like a lot of the actors, but we aren't talking about the LotR cast here. The composer and editor are solid, but the DP has made some bad looking movies. Live Free or Die Hard, 300: Rise of the Empire, Underworld: Evolution, The Great Gatsby, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor and I, Robot.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

As for if the cgi is finished or not, I would imagine if the story is as gripping as say rise of apes, it most likely won't matter. For all the talk people have of story/characters coming first and filmmakers focusing too much on aesthetics, we sure do tend to focus on the latter alot.

I'm personally indifferent on this project but these reactions, particularly about the look many months out from release take me back to avatar day. Just saying.

The story presented in the trailer was incredibly dull. If you are going to go super generic, what is there to talk about?

 

[Octoberist]

As for if the cgi is finished or not, I would imagine if the story is as gripping as say rise of apes, it most likely won't matter. For all the talk people have of story/characters coming first and filmmakers focusing too much on aesthetics, we sure do tend to focus on the latter alot.

I'm personally indifferent on this project but these reactions, particularly about the look many months out from release take me back to avatar day. Just saying.

I do think it's a little disheartening because I like Jones, and I want more high fantasy. Even though I was a little too hard on the CGI, I want this movie to succeed.

I think though, if the trailer was edited better, I've would be more engaged.

Though, to counter your argument, film IS a visual medium, so a film like this, wherre it's highly visual with CGI background and CGI Orcs, cannot escape criticism.

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

James Cameron is one of the best visual directors around, comparing Duncan Jones to Cameron at this point is ridiculous. The Avatar comparisons are absurd.

I am not saying that this film can't be good because it can but I need to see a way better trailer, a decent trailer and more from footage in general before I can hope again.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

I don't even like Avatar, but the film was far more visually interesting and stunning then anything I saw in the Warcraft trailer.

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

Also Avatar made it's CGI characters look doe eyed and attractive in every way. Nobody is going to want to **** these ugly cartoon orcs.

That's the genius of modern James Cameron. He's simple and pandering now as a filmmaker as well as being an expert visualist. He would have never made the Navi ugly.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Also Avatar made it's CGI characters look doe eyed and attractive in every way. Nobody is going to want to **** these ugly cartoon orcs.

That's the genius of modern James Cameron. He's simple and pandering now as a filmmaker as well as being an expert visualist. He would have never made the Navi ugly.

They made Paula Patton less attractive to me. That is already a cinema sin imo.