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Warcraft Movie Interviews with Director and Cast, $31.6 Million Opening Weekend, Happy Birthday Duncan Jones

posted 2016/05/30 at 9:59 AM by perculia

NairnKristian Nairn / Henry WallRiddoh

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Comment by borgusz NICE ONE Comment by Palewind From the reviews on rottentomatoes and metacritic, it seems like they're split straight down the middle of "do you like the franchise?" and "do you have an axe to grind with video-games-turned-movies?" Comment by Matrixwolf Duncan, you should have went with Rob Kazinsky's idea of putting a naked night elf dancing in lion's pride! Or at least gold "oro" beggers outside..... Comment by Medapaw just got back from watching it, it was amazing! made even better by the other people watching, one shouted "for the horde!" at the start, and as the credits roll one guy stands up and says "off i go then" in a peasant voice, classic. Comment by remotettl I really was waiting for something more, but assume, based on lore, this is great. thing that surprised me, really, was fact that orcs has 3x bigger hand than head.... it was really wtf moment for me. Comment by ahunter8056 Loved the film, can't wait for official release and sequels. It did feel as though too much packed into a short space of time, so I really can't wait for the inevitable Extended Edition. Comment by latteine It\u2019s a shame the that by the time NA gets the movie it will be fubar by the media. One bit of advice here: don\u2019t listen to them, the movie is totally worth watching! Comment by jafs1981 Hodor and Bran was aslso there... don't forget that :) Comment by Interest Director Duncan Jones has been tweeting a lot of positive fan reactions to balance out the media's tendency to stereotype video game fans.
Well this wouldn't be the first time media has driven a narrative against one of its perceived rival mediums. That's been apparent in reporting incidents such as school shootings and then there's a certain event about a couple years ago if one were to talk about being highly critical of gaming culture in particular.

Considering how polarized feedback seems to be, I'll choose to be skeptical and reserve judgement until I watch the movie myself. It'll probably be the rare time I write up a review (for a movie especially). Unfortunately, based on previews and media releases intended to build hype, I might not be as positive in mine.

Edit: Also grats, Mr. Jones. Comment by GarbageJuice Maybe, just maybe, the movie tried to fit A LOT of stuff into two hours, and it ended up as a $160 million rushed mess of CGI battles and generic fantasy tropes... and the critics have given it very consistent reviews reflecting that? I don't understand why it's so difficult to imagine that the movie's just mediocre. Comment by Drahken Not that I wasn't already familiar with the story as it is in the games, but that third banion video has a spoiler in it. Comment by darkelemental1 Unfortunately I saw the movie, toughed it out to the end purely out of a waning love for the franchise. I came out disappointed and dont see how it will attract many new players. Its a movie for the fans and no one else. Its extremely generic story wise, having a Dances With Wolves plus orcs sort of vibe to it, offering nothing new or entertaining to people that dont already know the lore and implications of the the actions in the first movie. \r
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I see lots of people saying the media is just biased. it has to be understood that the people reviewing it are likely not Warcraft players, they dont read into the nuances like we would and it spends far too much time pandering to the players watching and not enough time to the newbies learning about Warcraft for the first time, the reviews are nearly consistent across the board and around the world saying basically the same thing. Its time to take off the tinfoil hats and just accept that its not a good mass appeal movie. Comment by Interest Unfortunately I saw the movie, toughed it out to the end purely out of a waning love for the franchise. I came out disappointed and dont see how it will attract many new players. Its a movie for the fans and no one else.

If that's the case that's a weird direction to go since it's unlikely the movie will succeed based off the Warcraft fans alone. Thus, it would indeed be a flop.

Its extremely generic story wise, having a Dances With Wolves plus orcs sort of vibe to it, offering nothing new or entertaining to people that dont already know the lore and implications of the the actions in the first movie.

That unfortunately doesn't do a lot to describe whether it's appealing or not. if anything, a generic plot that has relatable elements (which Warcraft already does to the nth degree anyways, to be fair) would at least serve to hook in a more general audience. As for the lore and implications, that would be problematic more in a situation of the plot being too cryptic to decipher without knowing the context. If that is the case, then the movie basically failed at story writing 101. If not, then it serves more as an inside reference that has a neutral appeal on general audiences and a positive one on people who happen to understand it, making it a (weak) net positive. The big issue I see here is it may be difficult, especially for people who know the lore in particular, to determine the difference of whether lore deficiency is problematic or not during the presentation.

I see lots of people saying the media is just biased. it has to be understood that the people reviewing it are likely not Warcraft players,

Which in itself is understandable. The point of Warcraft would be to appeal to a general audience, but...

they dont read into the nuances like we would

On this I partially disagree. I'm pretty certain not every review was like the Guardian's, but it's so heavily cited as the hallmark of laughable reviewing because it's a well-known (if perhaps controversial) journalistic outlet. It especially doesn't help that an entire paragraph is devoted to this:

The prospect of a predominantly white, European realm being invaded by foreign, primitive, darker skinned hordes (they are actually called the Horde) might set alarm bells ringing in our current climate of immigration anxiety. Is this a veiled Ukip broadcast? Or a pro-Trump one? Nobody suggests the orcs are there to steal Azeroth\u2019s jobs or exploit its benefits system, thankfully, though they are intent on overrunning their adoptive country and sucking the souls out of all its living creatures. (Source)

I dunno about you, but even at the international level, Trump is known and the ones speak out against him do so very loudly indeed to the point of creating a massive narrative of negativity to the point that even mentioning him or his policies implies a strong degree of negativity. Also, comparing the movie's storyline to the refugee crisis, another well-known international issue, in a way that borders on racial stereotyping doesn't help the credibility of the otherwise potentially credible review either. This in itself is the reviewer deciphering the lore a rather politically charged way (that is frankly rather disingenuous) and while following paragraphs somewhat assuage the agenda-driven remarks, it doesn't help that the reviewer has now planted that idea into the head of readers before they're even allowed to determine the context of that aspect of the plot themselves.

I won't be so fallacious as to paint every outlet with the same broad stroke of the brush though, since...

and it spends far too much time pandering to the players watching and not enough time to the newbies learning about Warcraft for the first time, the reviews are nearly consistent across the board and around the world saying basically the same thing. Its time to take off the tinfoil hats and just accept that its not a good mass appeal movie.

I am aware of this issue yet even by the end of your remarks (and reading a few reviews) I'm wondering how specifically Warcraft failed at this so spectacularly. I can think of plenty of ways that it can that make logical sense (and I have seen quite a few movies commit such failures), but on the other hand the issue of mass appeal can be a contrivance in itself due to willful ignorance or the like (or to put it another way, expecting the movie to strongly appeal to the lowest common denominator)... and this is coming from someone who thinks that WoW could stand to be more new player-friendly in quite a few ways - mechanics in particular.

...This is why I want to reserve judgement until after I watch the movie myself. I don't really care for the highly positive (and likely strongly biased) fan reviews either.

Edit: As a bit of an afterthought though, my biased mind tells me that there's other points in Warcraft lore that may have served as a better hook for general audiences, such as parts of the Warcraft 3 campaign. Comment by KayArIEs Only 32 million compared to the 80 million Apocalypse made... That should tell you guys something. Comment by Thermaul Only 32 million compared to the 80 million Apocalypse made... That should tell you guys something.\r
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Good job keep comparing apples to oranges.\r
Rise of comic book superhero movies over the last decade.\r
Warcraft just started in a stale genre that hasn't had traction for half a decade. \r
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War facts doing a staggered 2 month release. It made 31.6 million in 20 territories in 5 days. There are still over 40 more markets to open up in, also the biggest markets are still within those 40 markets. Comment by jafs1981 Only 32 million compared to the 80 million Apocalypse made... That should tell you guys something.\r
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Apocalypse made 65Million just in the US on opening weekend... so doing some math 80 - 65 = 15 \r
So, Apocalypse made just 15 Million outside the US in it's opening weekend? And Warcraft is still to open in many markets... THAT SHOULD TELL YOU SOMETHING... Comment by bassfu Maybe, just maybe, the movie tried to fit A LOT of stuff into two hours, and it ended up as a $160 million rushed mess of CGI battles and generic fantasy tropes... and the critics have given it very consistent reviews reflecting that? I don't understand why it's so difficult to imagine that the movie's just mediocre.\r
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Don't you know that Disney is paying off all these critics to say $%^& about Warcraft? You must be a Disney shill too if you're doubting the greatness of the greatest fantasy franchise ever, no exceptions. Comment by darkelemental1 \r
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and it spends far too much time pandering to the players watching and not enough time to the newbies learning about Warcraft for the first time, the reviews are nearly consistent across the board and around the world saying basically the same thing. Its time to take off the tinfoil hats and just accept that its not a good mass appeal movie.\r
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I am aware of this issue yet even by the end of your remarks (and reading a few reviews) I'm wondering how specifically Warcraft failed at this so spectacularly. I can think of plenty of ways that it can that make logical sense (and I have seen quite a few movies commit such failures), but on the other hand the issue of mass appeal can be a contrivance in itself due to willful ignorance or the like (or to put it another way, expecting the movie to strongly appeal to the lowest common denominator)... and this is coming from someone who thinks that WoW could stand to be more new player-friendly in quite a few ways - mechanics in particular.\r
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...This is why I want to reserve judgement until after I watch the movie myself. I don't really care for the highly positive (and likely strongly biased) fan reviews either.\r
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Basically it provided nothing that would make Warcraft feel unique among similar movies. The action wasnt bland but it wasnt amazing either, the story wasnt terrible but didnt really grab at the attention, the characters werent annoying but they werent memorable. basically it fails to be a strong foundation for a new world and a new story to anyone besides people who are already familiar with it. It felt like it relied heavily on the winks and nudges to fans to fill in the gaps of character and story it didnt have time to cram in. On a side note, the overall movie was very high contrast when I saw it, the colors didnt feel rich and everything looked washed out which also didnt help as it made many of the effects stand out as CGI rather than blend in as they were hopefully meant to. Just seemed like a bad editing decision. Comment by chaserzdream \r
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and it spends far too much time pandering to the players watching and not enough time to the newbies learning about Warcraft for the first time, the reviews are nearly consistent across the board and around the world saying basically the same thing. Its time to take off the tinfoil hats and just accept that its not a good mass appeal movie.\r
\r
I am aware of this issue yet even by the end of your remarks (and reading a few reviews) I'm wondering how specifically Warcraft failed at this so spectacularly. I can think of plenty of ways that it can that make logical sense (and I have seen quite a few movies commit such failures), but on the other hand the issue of mass appeal can be a contrivance in itself due to willful ignorance or the like (or to put it another way, expecting the movie to strongly appeal to the lowest common denominator)... and this is coming from someone who thinks that WoW could stand to be more new player-friendly in quite a few ways - mechanics in particular.\r
\r
...This is why I want to reserve judgement until after I watch the movie myself. I don't really care for the highly positive (and likely strongly biased) fan reviews either.\r
\r
\r
\r
Basically it provided nothing that would make Warcraft feel unique among similar movies. The action wasnt bland but it wasnt amazing either, the story wasnt terrible but didnt really grab at the attention, the characters werent annoying but they werent memorable. basically it fails to be a strong foundation for a new world and a new story to anyone besides people who are already familiar with it. It felt like it relied heavily on the winks and nudges to fans to fill in the gaps of character and story it didnt have time to cram in. On a side note, the overall movie was very high contrast when I saw it, the colors didnt feel rich and everything looked washed out which also didnt help as it made many of the effects stand out as CGI rather than blend in as they were hopefully meant to. Just seemed like a bad editing decision.\r
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I'm REALLY confused where this is coming from. I havent seen it but literally everyone from the movie has said this was made for non fan audiences with there simply being easter eggs for the fans.\r
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Perhaps the movie was just different from what you like and so for you the easter eggs were the only good things about it.\r
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maybe be more specific with your critique. I mean i know for a fact action movies with armies and fire and big monsters utilizing a humanitarian story evoking stories like Pocohantus is something people really like.\r
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I'm serious your entire paragraph makes it sound like a bunch of platitudes of someone who didnt hate the movie but didnt like it cus its no their type of movie. To put it to review, your review.... you might as well just typed "*shrug*" Comment by chaserzdream sadly not everyone knows that critics are pointless in our society.\r
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It made since long ago when people only had newspapers, pamphlets and magazines to get their info, which the companies would pull from known people who knew what they were talking about.\r
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There is no point now when you can just find people on the internet that have similar tastes and ask if they liked it.\r
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honestly they might deserve to still exist if people could pull their opinions out of their own perspective.\r
There are plenty of movies and shows in which I personally hated it but i could see why OTHER people like it.\r
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The plot was about menial things, or the characters were unrealistic or things were repetative but people liked the jokes and the characters and the unrealistiic versions of real life situations so it not a bad show\/movie. its just not for me.\r
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Like you dont go into a Micheal Bay movie expecting a slow realistic drama focused on powerful dialogue and character interactions.

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Warcraft Movie Interviews with Director and Cast, $31.6 Million Opening Weekend, Happy Birthday Duncan Jones

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