Warcraft movie trailer

[Underseer]

I know, I know. Trailers don't really tell you jack diddly about what the movie will actually be like, but this looks so... so... cookie cutter. Bleah.

Still, tons of juicy Easter eggs for fans and ex-addicts. You can even see the border between Elwynn Forest and Westfall in the Stormwind shot. At 0:25, was that Lakeshire being invaded by orcs?

 

[prideandfall]

but this looks so... so... cookie cutter. Bleah.

well the entire history and nadir of warcraft is "rip off damn near everything from some other product, but polish it so well that it doesn't matter" - so yeah it's going to look cookie cutter because the entire warcraft universe is just a hodge podge of cookies.
the question is only on whether or not they pull off the "polish it so well that it doesn't matter" part.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

It looks like a really fucking stupid movie.

While I wouldn't have much of a problem with watching a film about people battling a rampaging horde of orcs, giving those orcs a fucking motivation beyond "EVIL!!!! SMASH!!!" is lame. I don't want a Warcraft movie to be a character study about how we're all the same deep down and we can find a way to get along. If it were a bunch of armies slaughtering each other for the sake of slaughter, I'd buy my popcorn and enjoy myself for a couple of hours. I am totally unintersted in this kind of tripe, though.

 

[prideandfall]

It looks like a really fucking stupid movie.

While I wouldn't have much of a problem with watching a film about people battling a rampaging horde of orcs, giving those orcs a fucking motivation beyond "EVIL!!!! SMASH!!!" is lame. I don't want a Warcraft movie to be a character study about how we're all the same deep down and we can find a way to get along. If it were a bunch of armies slaughtering each other for the sake of slaughter, I'd buy my popcorn and enjoy myself for a couple of hours. I am totally unintersted in this kind of tripe, though.

well, i guess that's what you get for them making a movie based on an existing property wherein the orcs have a lot of motivation beyond "EVIL!!! SMASH!!!" - because that's not what the orcs are about in warcraft, it actually is a character study about the differences that keep the horde and alliance at each other's throats and their constant attempts (and failures) to get along.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

It looks like a really fucking stupid movie.

While I wouldn't have much of a problem with watching a film about people battling a rampaging horde of orcs, giving those orcs a fucking motivation beyond "EVIL!!!! SMASH!!!" is lame. I don't want a Warcraft movie to be a character study about how we're all the same deep down and we can find a way to get along. If it were a bunch of armies slaughtering each other for the sake of slaughter, I'd buy my popcorn and enjoy myself for a couple of hours. I am totally unintersted in this kind of tripe, though.

well, i guess that's what you get for them making a movie based on an existing property wherein the orcs have a lot of motivation beyond "EVIL!!! SMASH!!!" - because that's not what the orcs are about in warcraft, it actually is a character study about the differences that keep the horde and alliance at each other's throats and their constant attempts (and failures) to get along.

Ah, so the video game is as lame as the movie looks to be. I'm glad I don't play it, then.

Does anyone look for some deep, meaningful rationale as to why Johnny Cage keeps punching people in the nuts? No - he just does it because he's a dick. That's why it's fun to play as Johnny Cage and punch people in the nuts.

 

[prideandfall]

Ah, so the video game is as lame as the movie looks to be. I'm glad I don't play it, then.

not exactly.
the video game has this whole thing about orcs being generally brutish and prone to aggression and conflict (but in a very honor-bound way, like some romantic idea of native american warriors) who were manipulated by sinister forces into thinking that invading the human lands was a good idea - the orcs were still brutes and went along with it, but technically speaking it wasn't their idea in the first place.
this whole "noble savage" angle the movie seems to be going with wasn't really in the games until warcraft 3, and it involved the remnants of orcs left around the humans *after* the Horde invasion had been defeated.
(not that you care, obviously, but being all pedantic about nerd shit is what i do)

Does anyone look for some deep, meaningful rationale as to why Johnny Cage keeps punching people in the nuts? No - he just does it because he's a dick. That's why it's fun to play as Johnny Cage and punch people in the nuts.

to be fair, these are not co-op fighting games - they're strategy base-building/resource-gathering games that have always been extremely heavily story focused, and WoW is also extremely lore heavy and Blizzard is a company that generally likes to go balls deep in the whole "we're telling a story here that is told via gameplay" concept.

so you're right that some properties like mortal kombat are definitely just "fuck it, kick someone's head off and stop questioning why", but the warcraft property has never been like that.
(well okay being a pedantic nerd again it was a bit like that in WC1 and WC2, but after the WC2 "dark portal" expansion and through WC3 and its expansions and all of WoW, it has not been like that)

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Well, you have a point. I shouldn't be dissing a movie simply because it contains elements which don't appeal to me. That's kind of like complaining that Hamlet doesn't have enough car chases (it doesn't, though).

If that's how orcs are portrayed in WoW, then that's how they should be portrayed in the movie. I'll say that it sucks because of the obviously poor writing and production quality, not simply because it contains things which don't appeal to me.

 

[prideandfall]

If that's how orcs are portrayed in WoW, then that's how they should be portrayed in the movie. I'll say that it sucks because of the obviously poor writing and production quality, not simply because it contains things which don't appeal to me.

lol well hey look at us finding common ground and shit!

 

[Bacillus anthracis]

How many good movies based on video games have been worth a damn?

I'll go out on a limb say there's one. That was Silent Hill. But you still had to endure a good 15 opening minutes of utter stupidity before it finally settled down and became watchable. And Silent Hill wasn't great, but it was a solid horror flick.

From the Mario Brothers movie (movies ?) to Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, to the unwatchable, IQ lowering, visual shit-cannons that are the Resident Evil franchise, movies based on video games have a really, really bad track record. Mortal Kombat: Annihilation has not improved with age or become a cult classic. It was just fucking awful.

This movie likely won't be any different.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

Will you be my hero?

 

[braces_for_impact]

I think this is going to suck. Too bad, movies made from video games have such a stellar track record.

 

[Underseer]

It looks like a really fucking stupid movie.

While I wouldn't have much of a problem with watching a film about people battling a rampaging horde of orcs, giving those orcs a fucking motivation beyond "EVIL!!!! SMASH!!!" is lame. I don't want a Warcraft movie to be a character study about how we're all the same deep down and we can find a way to get along. If it were a bunch of armies slaughtering each other for the sake of slaughter, I'd buy my popcorn and enjoy myself for a couple of hours. I am totally unintersted in this kind of tripe, though.

One thing that sets the Warcraft universe apart from other fantasy stories is that the orcs aren't automatic bad guys, and the humans aren't automatic good guys. Both races are deeply flawed, but capable of great nobility. The central tragedy is that they should be banding together to fight demons, but are obsessed with killing each other, and they suck other races into their swirling vortex of revenge.

For instance that scene in which Durotan and his wife react to their infant son having green skin?

Show

That green skin is the result of corruption by demonic magic, which happened because certain orc leaders made back alley deals with demons, and that ends up having horrifying consequences for both humans and orcs, including the demonic enslavement of every orc on Azeroth. Only a few orcs who remained on Draenor managed to avoid demonic enslavement, although the trauma of living on a broken world created its own problems.

If you pay attention to the trailer, you will notice the green-skinned orcs generally doing more violent things.

The little green-skinned baby will grow up to be Thrall, basically orc Jesus who freed his people from demonic control.

Then they show Durotan going to great lengths to try and make peace with the humans...

Show

...which is ironic because his son will be raised in a human-run prison camp and will grow up to hate humans with a burning passion.

If this movie spawns a franchise, the whole point of the first movie is to explain why humans and orcs hate each other so much, and make it clear that the hate didn't have to happen.

Oh, and some of the humans in this world are racist as fuck and will even betray their traditional non-human allies (e.g. dwarves) just because they don't give a fuck if they live or die.

 

[Underseer]

I think this is going to suck. Too bad, movies made from video games have such a stellar track record.

Yeah, the trailer doesn't inspire confidence, which is sad because it should be possible to make a decent movie out of this material.

 

[Underseer]

How many good movies based on video games have been worth a damn?

I'll go out on a limb say there's one. That was Silent Hill. But you still had to endure a good 15 opening minutes of utter stupidity before it finally settled down and became watchable. And Silent Hill wasn't great, but it was a solid horror flick.

From the Mario Brothers movie (movies ?) to Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, to the unwatchable, IQ lowering, visual shit-cannons that are the Resident Evil franchise, movies based on video games have a really, really bad track record. Mortal Kombat: Annihilation has not improved with age or become a cult classic. It was just fucking awful.

This movie likely won't be any different.

For me the least bad movies based on games were Final Fantasy (deeply flawed, but had some real high points) and Prince of Persia (which managed the Herculean feat of rising to the level of mediocrity).

 

[J842P]

How many good movies based on video games have been worth a damn?

I'll go out on a limb say there's one. That was Silent Hill. But you still had to endure a good 15 opening minutes of utter stupidity before it finally settled down and became watchable. And Silent Hill wasn't great, but it was a solid horror flick.

From the Mario Brothers movie (movies ?) to Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, to the unwatchable, IQ lowering, visual shit-cannons that are the Resident Evil franchise, movies based on video games have a really, really bad track record. Mortal Kombat: Annihilation has not improved with age or become a cult classic. It was just fucking awful.

This movie likely won't be any different.

I thought the first Resident Evil movie was a decent horror flick.

 

[Jayjay]

How many good movies based on video games have been worth a damn?

I'll go out on a limb say there's one. That was Silent Hill. But you still had to endure a good 15 opening minutes of utter stupidity before it finally settled down and became watchable. And Silent Hill wasn't great, but it was a solid horror flick.

I'd say the 1995 Mortal Kombat was okay. Maybe because it was just campy enough to be funny, and included that bitching theme song.

Anyway, as for Warcarft, based on the trailer it seems that the Orc women are still going to be just "normal" hot human women with green skins, while the Orc males are all basically CGI hulks. And there's even an implication of a romantic subplot between an Orc chick and a human. What's with fantasy movies and the anthropomorphic women, and interspecies hanky panky that technically qualifies as bestiality?

 

[Underseer]

How many good movies based on video games have been worth a damn?

I'll go out on a limb say there's one. That was Silent Hill. But you still had to endure a good 15 opening minutes of utter stupidity before it finally settled down and became watchable. And Silent Hill wasn't great, but it was a solid horror flick.

I'd say the 1995 Mortal Kombat was okay. Maybe because it was just campy enough to be funny, and included that bitching theme song.

Anyway, as for Warcarft, based on the trailer it seems that the Orc women are still going to be just "normal" hot human women with green skins, while the Orc males are all basically CGI hulks. And there's even an implication of a romantic subplot between an Orc chick and a human. What's with fantasy movies and the anthropomorphic women, and interspecies hanky panky that technically qualifies as bestiality?

The "orc chick" in question is supposed to be half orc half night elf, but in the movie they're making her half orc half human.

PS -- I actually own the soundtrack from that Mortal Kombat movie. Yes, I count it as one of those "so bad it's good" movies. A guilty pleasure if you will.

 

[Bacillus anthracis]

How many good movies based on video games have been worth a damn?

I'll go out on a limb say there's one. That was Silent Hill. But you still had to endure a good 15 opening minutes of utter stupidity before it finally settled down and became watchable. And Silent Hill wasn't great, but it was a solid horror flick.

From the Mario Brothers movie (movies ?) to Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, to the unwatchable, IQ lowering, visual shit-cannons that are the Resident Evil franchise, movies based on video games have a really, really bad track record. Mortal Kombat: Annihilation has not improved with age or become a cult classic. It was just fucking awful.

This movie likely won't be any different.

I thought the first Resident Evil movie was a decent horror flick.

Yes, I did lump it in with all the godawful RE's that came after it. The first one was at least watchable.

 

[purple_kathryn]

I'll be watching it. I play warcraft anyway, I like fantasy movies and i Have a pretty high tolerance for shit films. I mean - I can realise they're shit but it rarely bothers me.

 

[J842P]

I'd say the 1995 Mortal Kombat was okay. Maybe because it was just campy enough to be funny, and included that bitching theme song.

Anyway, as for Warcarft, based on the trailer it seems that the Orc women are still going to be just "normal" hot human women with green skins, while the Orc males are all basically CGI hulks. And there's even an implication of a romantic subplot between an Orc chick and a human. What's with fantasy movies and the anthropomorphic women, and interspecies hanky panky that technically qualifies as bestiality?

The "orc chick" in question is supposed to be half orc half night elf, but in the movie they're making her half orc half human.

PS -- I actually own the soundtrack from that Mortal Kombat movie. Yes, I count it as one of those "so bad it's good" movies. A guilty pleasure if you will.

I thought Garona was suppose to be half-draenei, although she herself at this point in time believes she is half-human.