Warcraft (2016)

[Actionmage]

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The peaceful realm of Azeroth stands on the brink of war as its civilization faces a fearsome race of invaders: orc warriors fleeing their dying home to colonize another. As a portal opens to connect the two worlds, one army faces destruction and the other faces extinction. From opposing sides, two heroes are set on a collision course that will decide the fate of their family, their people, and their home.

"Written by Official site"-- IMDb

[Actionmage]

I just saw it today and really enjoyed it!

I play the game, so seeing some of the sets were very cool. I don't know if I loved it, but I enjoyed the story it was telling. Others can probably say what was streamlined or changed for the movie, but it did feel like a fast ride, swooping from spot to spot.

Things I totally loved:

*the sheep, One Take Charlie, as per the credits!

*the murloc gurgle

*Callum Keith Rennie just being in the cast

*Baby orc growl!

*Garona-- I want a Garona solo movie now. I didn't realize I wanted one until she acted as Llane asked and after the second face-off. Paula Patton massively rocked.

*Ben Schnetzer as Khadgar -- he was fun! (and cute)

I have more thoughts, but I'll stop for now.

I would have enjoyed more trolls and gnomes and dwarves and tauren, but here I am hoping for a second movie.

[ikmccall]

I have never played the game, let alone seen a single screen cap. But the tv commercials  look so good.

[Morrigan2575]

Never played the game but i got a free ticket for the movie so I gave it a shot. I actually enjoyed the movie, it wasn't a perfect movie but, I definitely liked it, will probably watch it again once it gets to Netflix/Cable.

The Good:

Absolutely beautiful to look at, the visual effects were amazing. I also loved the sweeping transitions from one location to another. I'm guessing that was a nod to the game but it totally worked.

Loved the fight/action sequences, they were very well done and, really showed just how massive/powerful the Orc's were.

Loved the humor, I didn't expect to laugh in this movie but, there were a few scenes that made me chuckle.

I liked how the Lothar/Khadgar and the Llane/Garona relationships developed.

The Bad:

The pace felt off throughout the movie. There were many scenes that felt rushed and there were others that seemed to drag on longer than necessary.

I think they tried to capture too much in a 2 hour movie. I almost think they needed at least another 30 minutes.  At best they could have divided the movie in two and take more time to develop the character and relationships.

The Forced Romance was unnecessary and didn't work, IMO. I see why they did it but, it would have worked better, IMO without it.

[thuganomics85]

Never really played the game and honestly, the thing I know most about the Warcraft franchise is the infamous "LEEROY JENKINS!!!" meme/moment, but I'm a sucker for all things fantasy, and I was wanted to see Travis Fimmel in a role outside of Vikings, so I gave it a shot.  Overall, it was another film this year where I didn't think it was a bad as the critics made it out to be, but wasn't as great as it could have been.

What I found strange was that in some ways, it was pretty accessible to people who haven't played the games, but in other ways, it was kind of confusing.  I get to main gist of it pretty easily (orcs screwed up their world, so they use magic to get over to the human world, fuck things up, and build another portal to get the rest of the horde there), and the characters and their motivations made enough sense, but I felt like there were other things they could have explained better (mainly the magic, and the differences between the green stuff and the blue stuff), and I wish we got more on the other races, who just seemed to be hanging out in the background for no reason.  Hell, I don't even know what those creatures in the orc world were called, that they sacrificed to open up the first portal.

Acting wise, I enjoyed Fimmel as Lothar, even though he honestly was almost just a tamed version of Ragnar from Vikings at times.  Fun seeing currently Preacher co-stars Dominic Cooper and Ruth Negga as the Emperor and Empress.  I usually like Ben Foster, but I thought he was kind of miscast here.  Paula Patton did fine, although I still wonder if the character's main purpose was to show someone who was part of both worlds, or just a way to get a sexy orc in here.  Maybe both?  And it didn't help that Ganora sounds a lot like Gamora, and I kept thinking back to Zoe Saldana and her similar look in Guardians of the Galaxy.

All the actors playing the orcs were alright, although only Daniel Wu as Gul'dan, left much of an impression.  Disappointed over how Insignificant Blackhand was, because he was played by Clancy Fucking Brown, and you shouldn't waste Clancy Fucking Brown!

The visual effects were pretty good and the fight scenes were enjoyable enough.

Have no idea what was going on with that random scene with Glenn Close.

Fun seeing a few familiar Canadian actors pop up like Callum Keith Rennie and Ryan Robbins.

Curious to see where the franchise will go, because it didn't fare so well in the USA, but it made a killing over in China, so I wonder if this will be one of those films who underperform domestically, but get saved by the overseas crowd.  I do feel like it has potential.

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I think they tried to capture too much in a 2 hour movie. I almost think they needed at least another 30 minutes.  At best they could have divided the movie in two and take more time to develop the character and relationships.

I think I agree, and I did read somewhere that Duncan Jones (the director), had to cut about 40 minutes from the film, so I do wonder if that would have made it flow better (if maybe a bit too long though.)  I'm curious to see if there will be a Director's Cut for the Blu-ray.

[Actionmage]

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 (orcs screwed up their world, so they use magic to get over to the human world, fuck things up, and build another portal to get the rest of the horde there)

Almost; the orcs follow the powerful. They followed Gul'Dan, who was an orc mage who used The Fell  ( I had never heard of this part of the story).

That is the difference between the green and the blue magics. The green was The Fell and was death-based magic. Want to save a baby? Kill something else/ steal it's life essence and give it to the dead child. Want to open an interdimensional portal to a world in order to take it over? Kill hundreds or thousands of living beings in order to power the magical portal. The blue represented a method of non-death-based magic.  The scene were Medivh (Ben Foster) turns his blue pool green was nicely done and sad.

So, with Gul'Dan in charge and using his brand of magic to do everything, all the time, the orcs' home planet is a barren husk. Just like the lush forest they land in becomes a dusty canyon where the other gate is.

I forgot to mention how neat the Khadgar/Lothar vs. Medivh/clay golem fight was!  It also carried over the sad, but a) the teleport was great and b) we got to actually see the cool 'leap-onto-the-flying-mount' scene from all the trailers.

 

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I'm curious to see if there will be a Director's Cut for the Blu-ray.

Add me to the list.

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and, really showed just how massive/powerful the Orc's were.

I am now curious how us Little Teeth stack against a Tauran, the bovine humanoids in the game. Orcs were like basketball tall, but with American football width, but with muscles all the time.

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The Forced Romance was unnecessary and didn't work, IMO. I see why they did it but, it would have worked better, IMO without it.

Yes.

Lothar had pain in his backstory. I get that. Yet it almost seemed, if it wasn't actually, an excuse for him to be an ass to everyone. Yes, he seemed to care for his sister and her husband. He obviously cared about his son. Lothar, though, didn't seem to care if you had reasons for your belief if he didn't believe in what you were saying. I am not talking about the vetting Garona scene in the throne room.  He could tease Khadgar, but assaulted him in our first view of both characters. Lothar seemed to stick a protractor in Khadgar's arm in order to intimidate and unmask. See, the assiness can be seen as just part of the job. The instant distrust after the instant "romance" can be read as sadness and The Job as opposed to an ass who waits to 'I told you so'. 

Without the "romance", it's people who fought side-by-side who are divided by a miscommunication. With the supposed romance added to Lothar and Garona, it makes it seem that Lothar has no trust in the woman he whisper-implored to come back alive.  Other than when it was important to the story for Lothar to be assy, he wasn't too much of one. Mr. Fimmel was fine as Lothar, though; even if I wasn't crazy about him, I could understand why he reacted to stuff.

[Unusual Suspect]

I wanted more Khadgar. Rather than focus on Lothar, move the timeline back a bit, and show Khadgar leaving the Kirin Tor and investigating the Orcs and Fel magic.