Duncan Jones' Warcraft - Part 3

[JtheDreamer]

Khadgar was a terrible character and Schnetzer's performance was bland as hell. It was Nicholas Hoult as Beast bland.

You also know a film is in trouble when all your CG characters feel more human than any of the human characters. There's one particular scene that comes to mind that almost ruins the entire movie for me...and that's when [BLACKOUT]Lothar's son dies.[/BLACKOUT] There was plenty of emotion from Lothar leading up to that event, but once it happens and they cut to what's supposed to be his reaction.....there's nothing. They could have created a CG model of Travis Fimmel and gotten more emotion from that! Now some people might say "he's emotionless because he's dead inside" or whatever...and I get that argument, I really do....but I don't buy it. That should've been saved for the scenes that followed. That entire scene should have been so gut wrenching but it was just eye rolling and borderline laughable. It feels like a cutscene from a video game....and not because of the CG, but because there's almost no emotion. It's just bad...really bad...and I pretty much clocked out for the rest of the movie.

The humans also feel miscast. I'm not sure exactly what the characters are like in the games but Travis Fimmell did not feel like a natural warrior. I think they were trying to feel kind of like a dastardly, rebel...which he sort of does, but he doesn't feel like a fighter. He also has a really weird look, something in his eyes, that makes him feel not so honorable. Khadgar was about the least uninspired look and feel for a character...ever. King Llane was just spouting lines and trying to look stoic. Ben Foster would've made a better Khadgar than Medivh. He looks too young and didn't feel majestic or authoritarian enough. And Garona.....*sigh* bless Paula Patton's heart but I don't think she's a good actress. She's very pleasing to look at, but her acting is so transparent in this movie it hurts, particularly when she first gets to speak after she's captured. Her body language throughout the whole movie feels very staged. I remember one particular shot at the end of the film when they're near the portal and King Llane is telling everyone to free the prisoners. They cut to Garona and she's holding her sword straight up in the air by her side like a kid could hold an ice cream cone. It totally took me out of the movie.

Another huge problem with the human characters is that...THERE'S NO CHEMISTRY!! Not once did I ever believe that any of the humans knew each other before the events in this film. The ONLY time I felt any kind of chemistry was when Lothar trolled Khadgar when he acted like he was gonna help him up. The film tries to force a romance between Lothar and Garona but there's no connection. Same with Lothar and his son, which is one of the reasons why [BLACKOUT]I didn't feel anything when his son got killed.[/BLACKOUT] There's nothing worse than having no chemistry between the actors. 2 actors can be the most bland and dull actors in the world, but if there's a good connection and good chemistry you'll be able to feel it through the camera and the same goes for little or no chemistry.

Anyway, summing up my rant. The film's biggest problem is the handling of the human characters: the miscasting, failing to portray them as interesting people, failing to provide them with proper motivation and the lack of any kind of chemistry. The best visual effects in the world can't save a film from a lack of interesting characters...and that's why, despite the more primitive effects, any one of the LOTR movies far surpasses Warcraft.

Most of the acting from the human characters was flat as hell. It started taking me out of the movie early and often.

 

[daddydivine]

Most of the acting from the human characters were flat as hell. It started taking me out of the movie early and often.

For me it was hard to honestly judge the acting. We've been trained so long to expect british accents when we see fantasy characters that seeing hearing anything else is like John Wayne doing Shakespeare. Its weird but I think if we gave these actors the traditional accents they'd be better accepted.

 

[terry78]

For me it was hard to honestly judge the acting. We've been trained so long to expect british accents when we see fantasy characters that seeing hearing anything else is like John Wayne doing Shakespeare. Its weird but I think if we gave these actors the traditional accents they'd be better accepted.

I actually thought it was better they all had varying accents, similar to how the game kinda is.

 

[TheVileOne]

OK but why does Lothar have like a Norse or Dutch accent, and his sister sounds Irish?

 

[TheVileOne]

Durotan's ultimate ineffectiveness is one of the more bizarre plot points. Multiple times they build up the importance of honor fights and then disregard them.

I don't know if I'd really necessarily compare Jones to Trank as he at least had more than one film. Source Code had 6 times the budget of Moon. I think he's more than proved that he can make a movie without having a complete nervous breakdown.

At some point with this project some major miscalibrations were made.

I knew there would be problems as soon as "boomstick" was said with a completely straight face. Even in the games that term is a jokey reference. Here it is a matter of fact.

Yeah nothing Durotan did truly mattered in the long scheme of things. All of his major moves are undercut at every turn.

Spoiler

Like he's sacrificing himself to spark an Orc rebellion. Then he proceeds to die and there's no rebellion. Gul'dan quashes it in about five seconds and everyone else stands down. By the end of the movie, Gul'dan is still fully in power. The portal got closed and he dealt a blow, but he's still able to wage war against the Alliance. "The war's just started."

FYI, the Dwarf guns are boomsticks, which are weapons in the games.

 

[Neno_Kos]

OK but why does Lothar have like a Norse or Dutch accent, and his sister sounds Irish?

Cause he is descend of Ragnar Lodbrok.

 

[Loki882]

Also how did no one realize before now that the villain was, well villainous? He wasn't being particularly subtle about it.

And it's kind of sad, but also hilarious, when Paul W. S. Anderson is still the guy who's made the best videogame to film adaptation to date. Granted, he went on to make a series of the worst, but still.

 

[Victarion]

Would you guys that have seen it say its as bad as Jackson's Hobbit trilogy?

 

[Logan0327]

Cause he is descend of Ragnar Lodbrok.

 

[Loki882]

Oh if we'd gotten THAT Travis Fimmel, this movie would have been considerably more awesome for it.

 

[Kyle]

Would you guys that have seen it say its as bad as Jackson's Hobbit trilogy?

While I haven't seen it, compared to Hobbit Warcrap is a complete and utter turd. But, to be fair Warcrap is a complete and utter turd compared to most films.

Warcraft - 19-27% rt rating (3.7/10)

Hobbit 1 - 46-67% rt rating (6.1/10)
Hobbit 2 - 66-74% rt rating (6.5/10)
Hobbit 3 - 47%-60% r rating (6.3/10)

 

[Victarion]

Is it an entertaining turd? I fell asleep during the hobbits (was absolutely riveted to the screen with Rings though).

 

[Kyle]

Is it an entertaining turd? I fell asleep during the hobbits (was absolutely riveted to the screen with Rings though).

Let's just say I found a way to watch part of it and it felt so torturous I had to look away. It was as eye gouging, if not more so than the Obviously Last Airbender from M. Night (and this is coming from a guy who gives most films above a 6.5 or 7 (go two or more times a week, plus watch about thirty new films a month) - that's saying something).

 

[Victarion]

Hot damn. I have never seen a movie of that caliber. More likely than not I'll wait for this to hit Stars.

 

[Tony Stark]

While the script and editing are a freaking mess, I did love the visual look of the film. If you're a fan of the game series you get some smiles from all the easter eggs, from simple things like flying into the Griffon roost in Stormwind, seeing Ironforge, or a brief glimps of the Dranei.

The biggest problem with the film is I don't think people who don't know the lore of the games will enjoy the film much. They don't explain at all that the Orcs are from Draenor. There's some of the lore that's been changed for expedience of the film. It' s a very important point in the game lore that Varian witnesses his father's death at the hands of Garona and sees her crying. No one witnesses it here and Lothar comes in after the fact.

China probably helped this thing get a sequel. I hope they get a new director and they bring in more help in getting a bigger budget and a better screenplay.

Again, my biggest compliments are how the game kept the visuals that people have known from WoW, and for those who spent any time playing WoW, especially on the Aliance side, you will see a lot of familiar sites. But the film is rife with problems, and the poor ratings are deserved. I hope they don't screw up with a second crack at it.

 

[Tony Stark]

Would you guys that have seen it say its as bad as Jackson's Hobbit trilogy?

No not even close. Look the Hobbit had issues for sure in dragging things out. Having said that it has a tigher script, better overall acting, and feels like a big budget Hollywood film.

This feels more like something made for sci-fi channel. If you're not a fan of the games, then there's little here for the average viewer. There are seeds of things that could have been cool, but someone mentioned the Last Airbender...yeah it's about that caliber, although I enjoyed Warcraft more than that film.

 

[Tony Stark]

For me it was hard to honestly judge the acting. We've been trained so long to expect british accents when we see fantasy characters that seeing hearing anything else is like John Wayne doing Shakespeare. Its weird but I think if we gave these actors the traditional accents they'd be better accepted.

That's not Warcraft though. There are some accents in the game, but one of the things they've done with most of the voice acting in the games is the Human Alliance characters have American accents. They give Scottish accents to the dwarves, and the Highborn/Blood elves have British accents. Pretty much all the other races have American accents.

It's one of the things that I think distinguishes the Warcraft series from most other fantasy settings.

 

[Victarion]

Thank you Tony. I would be coming at this more as a fan of the fantasy genre than as a WoW gamer since I've never played it.

 

[redhawk23]

While I haven't seen it, compared to Hobbit Warcrap is a complete and utter turd. But, to be fair Warcrap is a complete and utter turd compared to most films.

Warcraft - 19-27% rt rating (3.7/10)

Hobbit 1 - 46-67% rt rating (6.1/10)
Hobbit 2 - 66-74% rt rating (6.5/10)
Hobbit 3 - 47%-60% r rating (6.3/10)

Much as I didn't like Warcraft nothing about it is as egregious as I found the third Hobbit film but nothing is as functional as the first Hobbit film.

 

[pr0xyt0xin]

While I haven't seen it, compared to Hobbit Warcrap is a complete and utter turd. But, to be fair Warcrap is a complete and utter turd compared to most films.

Warcraft - 19-27% rt rating (3.7/10)

Hobbit 1 - 46-67% rt rating (6.1/10)
Hobbit 2 - 66-74% rt rating (6.5/10)
Hobbit 3 - 47%-60% r rating (6.3/10)

This is such bull. Not the ratings themselves, the insults when you havent even seen the damn thing.

I hereby dub you: Troll.

[BLACKOUT]And not the cool berserker with a mohawk kind of troll.[/BLACKOUT]


I like this movie more than the majority of the Hobbit trilogy.

 

[The Big G]

Just got out of it seeing it with my buddy.

We both loved it.

Then again we're the target audience. Blizzard's owned our souls for years.

Im excited for the sequel. I think Duncan and Co and can learn a lot from the shortcomings of this film (and there a good bunch of them) to make a good sequel.

 

[Moridin]

I'd fairly happily rewatch Warcraft over any of the Hobbit films. Just let me grab a few beers first.

 

[terry78]

I feel like if they made all the characters speak in ye olde english it would've come off almost taking itself too seriously. When you hear the two wizards speaking like dudes from the suburbs, you know what you're in for.

 

[Kyle]

This is such bull. Not the ratings themselves, the insults when you havent even seen the damn thing.

I hereby dub you: Troll.

[BLACKOUT]And not the cool berserker with a mohawk kind of troll.[/BLACKOUT]


I like this movie more than the majority of the Hobbit trilogy.

Actually I did see it. The beginning of it and could have easily saw the rest if I chose to. Just bored me to death so I chose not to. Same reaction I had to Last Airbender. It just felt placid, like images on the screen but with no life to them. Still born. Same reaction, although I was forced to stick with them as the second half of the new Fantastic Four film and the last Terminator although that was better than Airbender, Four, and Warcraft. So, yes I agree with the 18% or 3/10 that the critic concensus is giving it.

 

[DorkyFresh]

I feel like if they made all the characters speak in ye olde english it would've come off almost taking itself too seriously. When you hear the two wizards speaking like dudes from the suburbs, you know what you're in for.

The irony is that the movie takes itself too seriously. I don't need a knight to have a European accent, but I would like to know he's got a heart under all the armor.