I'm not really sure how many other gamers view games being brought into movies. I think there may reasonably be some anxiety with that, however I think we already have some examples of this being done right and wrong. Personally, I think Warcraft is perhaps one of the few games where the movie does it right. I enjoyed it and from little I've heard and read about it, it seems to be pretty popular.
One of the things I liked about it was additions of things I remember more from playing a bit of Hearthstone. That's probably because while I've played the first two Warcraft games many, many years ago, I have yet to play the third. I have also never played World of Warcraft, so it seems obvious I would notice things that remind me more of Hearthstone. This would be like Gul'dan, Medivh, Lothar, and the sound of a Murloc you hear briefly as some humans go through a swampy area. There are also griffins!
I've been waiting a little while for the movie to be available for rent on Amazon Prime Video and I was very happy about that. The few dollars I paid for the rental were worth it. I thought it was a good movie, so I thought I'd come here to recommend it. I think it could possibly be a good movie to you even if you've never played a Warcraft game, but if you have then I think you'll like it even more and also notice elements from the games.
I've now noticed that Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV is available to rent on Amazon Prime Video, so I'm going to go watch that and hope that it turns out pretty cool, too. I did enjoy Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. So, perhaps later I will return with another post about a movie based on a video game.
One of the things I liked about it was additions of things I remember more from playing a bit of Hearthstone. That's probably because while I've played the first two Warcraft games many, many years ago, I have yet to play the third. I have also never played World of Warcraft, so it seems obvious I would notice things that remind me more of Hearthstone. This would be like Gul'dan, Medivh, Lothar, and the sound of a Murloc you hear briefly as some humans go through a swampy area. There are also griffins!
I've been waiting a little while for the movie to be available for rent on Amazon Prime Video and I was very happy about that. The few dollars I paid for the rental were worth it. I thought it was a good movie, so I thought I'd come here to recommend it. I think it could possibly be a good movie to you even if you've never played a Warcraft game, but if you have then I think you'll like it even more and also notice elements from the games.
I've now noticed that Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV is available to rent on Amazon Prime Video, so I'm going to go watch that and hope that it turns out pretty cool, too. I did enjoy Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. So, perhaps later I will return with another post about a movie based on a video game.
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Sounds good. Looking forward to watching this when I get the chance.
Odd thing you mention it's popular online as I heard from some movie podcasts and review sites I read that it wasn't very good. I kind of want to see it now to see how it really is because you dug it and I may too.
Well considering that I do like the Star Wars prequels, you could possibly say I'm easily impressed. So you may have to take my recommendation "with a grain of salt."
Hahahaha. I don't think liking the prequels means you have a bad opinion of movies. Jar jar isn't that bad.
I understand he's kind of annoying, but I liked him. I also liked how those movies showed how Anakin became Vader, which was the point of them that I thought was done well.
I said, "it seems to be pretty popular," and that opinion was loosely based pretty much solely on my brief glimpses of headlines at GameSpot including articles like below. I even misread or misunderstood one of them. Note that the first one, the article mentions just what you said that you, "read that it wasn't very good." By looking deeper into it, it seems that your view from what you read is much more accurate.
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/star-wars-director-praises-warcraft-movie-calls-it/1100-6444070/
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/warcraft-movie-is-the-worlds-most-unskippable-cuts/1100-6443982/
I've watched a few movies recently that were critically panned as the worst and I thought they were OK. Not trying to belittle Warcraft or the films I watched or anything but I thought the recent Fantastic Four was alright, not great, but OK and something else that was supposed to be the worst thing ever.
Anyways, looking forward to watching it and i'll let you know what I think of it.
And on the prequels I don't particularly think they did the Anakin thing well but i'm glad you enjoyed it. I honestly wish I did because I think liking Star Wars would be that much better if I magically had 3 more movies I enjoyed watching from that universe.
I heard or read something bad about the new Fantastic Four, but I forgot all about it. Thanks for reminding me, maybe I'll watch it, if I can remember. I liked the other F4 movies, hell I pretty much like every movie Marvel makes, I can't even think of any exceptions to that. Deadpool was funny and I really liked it. I've liked all the X-Men movies and I watched the new one last night.
Come on Jon, we all know you love Episode I.
Joking aside though, I do now, finally, appreciate the prequel trilogy for what it is. It isn't amazing but it's part of a greater whole. The non-movie canon fills it out. Watching Episode 2 and 3 after watching Clone Wars, for instance, makes you look at the films differently. The extra canon fills in the gaps. Same with Rebels, it ties together the prequel and original trilogies well, or seems like it will. The prequels are still disappointing for various reasons but I can watch them and appreciate them. I don't ignore them in rewatches. I'm not an apologist or anything, but I do like them more than you, Jon, even though you're the one who gets the Episode I jokes :D
As for the Marvel movies, I've liked all the ones actually made by Marvel. They get a bit formulaic but they are fun as hell. As for the non-Marvel-Studios Marvel movies, I didn't care for X3, or the original Fantastic Four movies. Or Spider Man 3. But out of the ones I've seen, I liked the others. I haven't gotten caught up with all the other non-Marvel Studios movies. Still need to see Deadpool, the newest X-Men, both of the Andrew Garfield Spider-Man films, and the new Fantastic Four.
I think that paragraph may be some indication to why the newest F4 and X-Men movies weren't well-received. We have sooo many superhero movies right now.
This graphic is a little old but it shows the ownership of movie rights. I'm looking forward to Spider Man joining the big circle in the middle, and I wish they'd all do the same deal so we could have more crossover, like in the comics.
http://static.srcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/Marvel-Characters-Movie-Studio-Ownership.jpg
I want to watch Warcraft, but was waiting for it to leave theaters. I've heard mixed reviews, but mostly on the negative side. The most positive things I've read are that the effects are stunning, which could be enough for me when it comes to a Warcraft movie. Four years of WoW, and a few brief adventures in WC3 are the extent of my exposure to that universe, so if there are variances in story, they will likely be over my head.
The original X-men movie, The Wolverine, Spider-man 2, X: Days of Future Past, and Deadpool, are my favorite non-MCU Marvel films, with Daredevil and FF: Rise of the Silver Surfer in the "I like them, but I realize they are trash" pile. I don't remember the Blade movies well enough (though, you have to admire Ryan Reynolds persistence to be in superhero movies!).
If Fox could ever get away from always coming back to recreating the same teams over and over, and get people that know how to handle the material, then we might finally get some decent movies (I felt like X: Apocalypse could have avoided being a hot mess because of this). The new/final Wolverine movie 'Logan' looks promising, but again likely to be another origin story, passing the torch of Wolverine to X-23 (popular theory). I think Sony might have realized their shortcoming here, and were offered a deal they couldn't refuse from Marvel (We make the films, you reap the benefits).
I wonder if video games seem to get the short end of the production stick when it comes to movies, because of the nature of the source medium? Comics are basically finely polished story-boards, put together by a team of 2-4 people. The focus is tight, and there is little overall vision lost in that creative process. Making a movie from a comic is a natural, forward progression in telling a story (static to motion), whereas video games are already multi-dimensional experiences. Watching a movie that was derived from a game, more times than ought, feels like a regressive experience. We, as gamers, ironically, often long to get away from cinematic presentations in the games we play, viewing them as a cheap distraction from the experience that we paid good money for. The theater versions don't really add new stories to expand on those experiences. Why would we then want to pay more money to basically just see a giant cut-scene, which we would otherwise press A to avoid?
Awesome discussion guys! Thanks for your input!
@Travis, I haven't watched Clone Wars, are you talking about the animated series? You are right in that we have "sooo many superhero movies right now." There's more to come, too!
@scrypt I think the CG was good in Warcraft. As for the story, I think it was a bit basic/generic so I don't think it'll be over your head at all. I liked the F4 movies, though I haven't seen the newest one. I liked the Blade movies, too, though I don't recall Ryan Reynolds in them. I did also like the Green Lantern movie. It's cool that you mentioned the cutscene thing in video games, as one of the articles I shared calls Warcraft a big unskippable cutscene. I like those beautiful cutscenes though, which is something I think Square-Enix (or Squaresoft) did really well in Final Fantasy games (and later in movies).
@scrypt: the point about the progression from comics to film is a great one. There are some scenes like Hawkeye shooting an arrow with AntMan riding it that are taken right out of comic panels. Comics kinda bridge the gap between reading and watching in a sense.
And Sony made a great move, I think. Giving creative control of Spidey to the MCU while still maintaining their rights is a win-win-win situation, if they do it well.
I think you're onto something with movies being a regression from the games. I'm happy with movies that fill in canon that wasn't covered in the games, like Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. But I came to a realization with the Mass Effect games. As I was playing them I thought about how great movies or a TV series of this story would be, but then I realized I wouldn't really want that to happen. This is *my* story, I've already experienced it.
If done well, something like the Assassin's Creed movie could be great as part of the whole mythos of AC, as another movie made by Abstergo Entertainment. It doesn't look like they're taking that route, but it's a whole new assassin, not one of the game protagonists, so it could work.
@greg: yep, the series. It starts with a movie that was in theaters, but that's basically the first episode of the series. It starts slightly rough, but gets way better.
Ryan Reynolds and Jessica Biel joined up in Blade Trinity as vampire hunters. The third was the weakest of the three, but still fun.
Adding to the mythos, that's a great way to put it. Video game movies do little to build on that. Hopefully Assassin's Creed will be a step in the right direction. Funny you mention Mass Effect, Travis, as that's the one game that came to mind that they could pull from, where it would be cool if they made into a Netflix series. I only read one book in the ME series (Revelation, I think it was called), telling the story from Anderson's early career. Microsoft tried to do something similar to this with Forward Unto Dawn mini series (I never finished this series, so I can't really comment on it, other than that I lost interest). A Mass Effect series presented in the same way a Star Trek series would run, could be pretty cool.
Yes, now that would be incredible! A series that follows something non-Normandy, perhaps something to bridge the gap between ME3 and Andromeda. The ME universe feels more real than any other game universe I've ever played in, like there are important, weighty stories happening just around the corner, or on the next system. A TV series or movie(s) could fill that in very well.
It's like a massive page of a coloring book. When we play video games, we're filling in part of that page. Movies, books, TV, all that can fill in the other parts, but when extended canon just rehashes what we've already done in the game, it's like watching someone color over what we've already done.
Last night I watched the Warcraft movie, and I have to say I really liked it. It's pretty clear they made this movie for the fans, possibly (maybe, kinda, but not really) to a fault. However, as a first step (and I hope they make many more) into a cinematic representation of the Warcraft universe, this was a strong effort. While Warcraft doesn't follow story from WoW, the visual renderings of certain of the games counterpart locations are near spot on. They absolutely nailed the environments. This story takes place during Critics didn't seem to care for it. Rotten Tomatoes has it at 'rotten' with only 28% positive reviews. Most of the negative reviewers specifically note the disconnect between people who have little-to-no exposure in the Warcraft universe, and the seemingly chaotic nature of the movie's plot (e.g. https://newrepublic.com/article/134174/warcraft-bored-rings). A valid enough point, but maybe only to the smallest, most insignificant degree. This movie certainly can't be down-voted for spoon-feeding, but I think it serves it's audience well with what they need to know, when they need to know it, which is really refreshing for a video game movie. No movie should take it upon itself to cater to the absolute lowest common denominator. If you don't know the basics of High Fantasy, then go read a book on the subject. The worst thing for an existing fan of any niche genre movie, is to have to sit through a half-hour or more of someone explaining what's going on, to people who, at best, have stagnant imaginations (maybe from the spoon-feeding), or, at worst, really never cared to know in the first place. There are entries into these types of worlds that are more convenient for those people, but not every level should start with a tutorial. Westerns aren't usually prefaced with reasons why everyone is riding horses, or certain nationalities of people are building railroads, why laudanum was used to treat tuberculosis, or why outlaws seem to be able to do whatever they want as long as they don't come into town. Why is everyone fighting in World War II movies? What was Churchill's motivation? What makes Normandy so special? Saving Private Ryan would have been so much easier to grasp if someone would have explained why crooked crosses are so evil! Maybe that's why Indiana Jones movies were such failures. /rant
Sorry, that was a bit long-winded. I thought Warcraft was a great movie, which is surprising, because I expected it to be Ewe Boll levels of horrible. Greg, I agree that the CG was good. I'd go further and say it was beautiful and a perfect style for what one might expect in a Warcraft movie. This is one that I'll watch again, and will more than likely own soon enough. Now, if someone could bring about a Zelda movie with this level of respect to the source material...
:) I'm glad you enjoyed it, scrypt, thank you for affirming my recommendation for it. Perhaps now that two of us Cheerful Ghosts enjoyed it, the others will, too. Honestly, I thought the plot was a bit basic and kind of generic, but I think it was still a good movie. From the beginning, I understood what was happening, (slight spoiler warning) but I didn't expect the twist near the climax. I thought it did a good job of explaining the Warcraft universe. Again, I liked specific things I noticed in the movie that were part of the game ( like the Murloc). The other thing I noticed (slight spoiler warning) was the divisions within the races. Anyway, scrypt, thank you for your analysis, it's ok to be "long winded." :)
Not everything is for everyone, and that's okay. The plot was fairly simple, and that's okay, too. There is a significant cast of characters in this movie. While the plot may have been simple, I wouldn't say that the story, or it's characters were simple. In some instances, but not all. I thought the way they portrayed Medivh and Khadgar were interesting, Khadgar especially. Gul'dan was also strangely unpredictable, for a "cliche" bad guy. Ruth Negga (Lady Taria) is always awesome to watch. She can bring gravity and grace to the simplest of roles. Durotan, Garona, Anduin Lothar... They were all decently developed and interesting characters, even if some of their actions were predictable or naive (especially some of Durotan's early scenes, certainly not his later scenes). This isn't The Usual Suspects or Joss Whedon level character development, but it's solid, and works well for what they were trying to do with Warcraft.
I picked up the Warcraft special edition, now I just have to have time to watch it. Hopefully tonight.
> Ryan Reynolds and Jessica Biel joined up in Blade Trinity as vampire hunters. The third was the weakest of the three, but still fun.
Glad you mentioned Blade because i'd argue it's a solid set of films, trinity included. It was the dark gritty super hero movie before Deadpool and even though the CG doesn't hold up well and parts of it are very campy, it's still a great trilogy of films. I recently bought the set on Bluray and really enjoyed watching them all over again. Apparently I missed the second film, which Guillermo del Toro directed, which some say is the best. Not sure i'd say which is the best, but they are all good and work well as a good set of films.
They were written by David S Goyer that went on to pen the Nolan Batman films and you can really see Nolan and Goyer being influenced much by Blade.
One thing to mention: Purchase of Warcraft seems to come with bonus Blizzard goodies. My copy was marked with a sticker that said there were Blizzard DLC included with purchase: Gul'dan character for Heroes of the Storm, Medivh for Hearthstone, and a 30 day subscription to WoW.
If you're getting, or have already purchased the movie, check to see if there is a card inside with codes to redeem!
Redeeming those codes was part of the reason I bought the film. I mean, I wanted to see it but if you add up the digital goodies and subtract that from the price it's only a couple bucks for the film. Since I didn't already have the Medivh Hearthstone hero it was like a much easier purchase from that angle.
I've started watching the movie and i'm about half way(can't finish a movie from the start due to having a kid these days) and HOLY SHIT is it really good. I mean from just watching the first half, I don't get the criticism for the movie at the level I've seen it. My biggest note is some of the acting isn't great, but it's serviceable. The action, magic and story are all quite good and Duncan Hunter (at least the first half) has made one fun Warcraft movie.
Yes!
I said Duncan Hunter... I meant Duncan Jones.
Ok so I finished watching Warcraft the other night and thought it was a solid movie. Not sure what I'd rate it but i'm glad I watched it and I will watch it again.
The special features are fun and I like how they start with a bit of Warcraft history and interview folks from Blizzard. The special features remind me of what I enjoy from Blizzard collectors editions, which was neat.
I thought it was cool that Duncan Jones was wearing a button with the word "Mute" on it knowing that his next film for Netflix is called "Mute."
They sort of leave the whole story open for more, which is par for any Warcraft game or story. The ending was fine but I did want more resolution with Guldan and didn't love where the Orcs were by the end. I guess I want more films and I heard that Blizzard is starting a new company focusing on films from Blizzard/Vivendi properties and that since Warcraft did so well in China, catering more to that market.
Excited to see what happens next.
Ok, I know I could look it up, but I'll just ask you two since you purchased the movie. What exactly do you get from doing that (other than the movie of course)?
Free month of WoW, Medivh Hearthstone hero & Guldan hero in Heroes of the Storm.
Ah. I was thinking I knew Gul'dan from Hearthstone, but I realize it's just "Warlock." So, I don't know why I thought I recognized the name. In fact, I don't recognize most of the characters because I don't think they were in the first two Warcraft games. Some of the characters names were recognizable, but only a few and I'm not too sure why. In fact, I thought the orc units said "Lothar." It's been a very long time since I've played those two games, so who knows. Thanks for the info!