I caught the movie twice in theatres, which meant I really liked and enjoyed it.
I'm one of those 'casual fans' as I like to call it, having played both the Warcraft 2 and 3 RTS games. Never touched the MMORPG, World of Warcraft, however. So I could say I could connect with certain aspects of the lore but at the same time, not get enraged when they deviated from it.
There were some nice easter eggs in the movie for the fans. My favourite was Khadgar casting a Polymorph spell on a guard. Brought back fun memories!
Something that I realised only during the 2nd viewing.. Kilrogg Deadeye and Grommash Hellscream were among the Orcs! Anyone else noticed it? There was no reference to them and neither did they have any lines but their looks cannot be put down to coincidence!
The CGI was just incredible. Made for some believeable characters. Always been a Orc fan so the scenes involving the orcs were amazing. Check out the team, Industrial Light & Magic, behind the CGI for the movie
The Humans were rather generic but those weapons and armour looked stunning. Liked the CGI work on their spells as well.
I felt there was a good balance between action and plot-building (talking scenes). Could have done away with the Lothar-Garona romance though. Felt too cliché.
However, like a lot of movies I felt that it was too short for a movie of this scale. Not that I felt that there should be less characters.. With Warcraft, you have to include a lot of these characters and I'm glad they did. Just wish that it was longer.
For example, Marvel's Civil War was nearly 2 1/2 hours long. Warcraft was just past the 2 hour mark. (same problem with TMNT 2). Would have loved to have seen more scenes of Durotan's Frost Wolf clan and a bit more character development for certain characters like Orgrim Doomhammer. Was one of my favourite characters from the movie even though he didn't have enough screen time.
Side note: theres a prequel novel for Durotan, might explain his clan & his history in more detail.
Side question: That conversation between Medivh and Garona, was it implying that Medivh was her dad?
As a casual fan, I enjoyed this. The character designs and looks were very similar to in-game designs. It was a simple plot however, two sides fighting for survival, though one were corrupted by dark magic. Probably a good decision for first-timers..
I would like to know what hardcore fans thought about this movie. Did they stray too much away from the original lore that passed you off?
What about newcomers who have never played the games? Was the plot well-explained or did all the mumbo-jumbo leave you lost?
I felt it was an enjoyable movie.. Hardly watch movies twice in theatres but this was good! There were some shortcomings but I don't think it was anywhere near as bad as what the initial critics were claiming. I was surprised to find out some of my friends, who were hardcore WOW players, skipped the movie, so I guess those negative reviews did play a part.
Still glad to know that this is the top grossing Video Game Movie to date. Might be a little too late, but if your country still has viewings, I urge you to give this a watch.
I'm already excited for a 2nd movie and hopefully it will stretch out to several movies at least.
The first major VG movie of 2016 has done well. Huge thanks to China for that. Now hoping that the Assassin's Creed Movie also has similar success to destroy the notion that Video Game Movies are bad.. pushing more companies to produce VG movies, hopefully with more epics than failures.
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