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Warcraft (2016)

Started by monolith, July 08, 2015, 01:02:25 PM

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Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

I want it to do well because of Duncan Jones. My eyes glazed over at the mention of the word "lore", though.

SavageHedgehog

I quite liked it, but the best praise I can offer (as someone who has no idea about the games) is that it's "endearingly naff". I was quite bored for much of the film, but started to be won over as it approached the end, and to be honest even the "classics" in this genre (Conan, Lord of the Rings) have me checking my watch. I'm sorry to say it did indeed remind me of Battlefield: Earth, as well as a number of other half-remembered flops of the recentish past, including Ronin 47 and most of all Dungeons & Dragons (OK, it also reminded me a bit of the successful and reasonably well-liked first Mortal Kombat movie as well). It's not *quite* on that level, for better or worse to my ears there were no particularly egregious lines to be memed from here to eternity, nor does it have any baffling stylistic decisions in the vein of Earth (indeed, some shots are quite impressive) but it has a similar feeling. Visually, it's kind of ugly, often unappealing and somewhat chintzy, and brings to mind the mid-late era Cannon films where they started to get bigger budgets which were evident in some ways but mismanaged in others (e.g. Masters of the Universe). But part of me misses the days when Hollywood would make either over-reverent or slightly confused, slightly odd adaptations of these niche franchises rather than making efficient mass-produced films straight from a comic-con focus group, and this to me seemed to fall into that tradition.

I will say that when
Spoiler alert
the young apprentice(?) falls into, um, some green light that turns people evil and was being taken over I thought "oh, that's a shame"
[close]
so clearly I must have cared on some level.

monolith

Quote from: Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth on June 09, 2016, 12:55:11 PM
I want it to do well because of Duncan Jones. My eyes glazed over at the mention of the word "lore", though.
"Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) can cause many physical and psychological symptoms including glazed eyes. It is also said that glassy eye is caused by not blinking often enough, causing your eyes to become "dry" and lifeless.
Disabled World 6 Jul 2009"

Hope that helps.

Head Gardener



I figured out what was going on after half an hour and laughed out loud a few times, it was better than I expected

Glebe

^Yes, it's possibly the free complimentary coke their handing out at screenings influenced my opinion.

QuoteI quite liked it, but the best praise I can offer (as someone who has no idea about the games) is that it's "endearingly naff". I was quite bored for much of the film, but started to be won over as it approached the end, and to be honest even the "classics" in this genre (Conan, Lord of the Rings) have me checking my watch.

Actually, while there are some befuddling scenes, on the whole the film moves along at a fair old clip, particularly compared to yer average fantasy epic. As I previously said, though, I felt a couple of the characters were given far too brief an introduction.

As a fan, I'll happily endure the extended editions of the Rings films... as for Conan, I only saw it once but recall it being utterly leaden.

monolith

Apparently there's a directors cut of this which is nearly an hour longer. Looking forward to that on the Blu Ray/DVD.

It's no 'Battlefield Earth'. A better comparison would be 'The Chronicles of Riddick', which was a similiar attempt at targeting the RPG/Games Workshop demographic with a film containing expensive-but-gaudy effects, silly costumes and campy performances.

I enjoyed this film. I played the first two Warcraft games back in the day, and I played WoW for a few years. I have to say though, the film made me realise just how little I'd been paying attention to the lore of that universe. I've seen comments from people who got excited about how they saw this or that orc chieftain standing in the background, because it's some super-exciting lore character, but I didn't notice those easter eggs at all. I didn't even remember major characters like Medihv or Lothar.

Bad Ambassador

I thought it was awful. A boring, incoherent story filled with flat, uninteresting characters. It doesn't matter how detailed the world is or how finely rendered the visuals are. That's what Avatar did and that's now been largely forgotten. If you don't care what's happening to the people on screen or why, you've made a shit film.

monolith

Glad you went to see it at least, my main worry was it wouldn't earn enough at the box office to warrant a sequel but it's nearly at 300 million and every penny helps!

Production budget was 160 million and they usually have to double it to break even so whilst it's not a run away hit it's not flopped as badly as the critics predicted at least and there's at least some hope for a sequel as the story gets far more interesting from here on in.

Bad Ambassador

The screen was 90% empty.

monolith

Mine was 90% full but it was on opening day (midday slot though). Probably won't have legs after all the fans have been to see it so I wouldn't expect it to reach much more than 300 mil.

Bad Ambassador

Considerably less than it needs to break even.

Ignatius_S

Quote from: monolith on June 12, 2016, 08:09:58 PM
Glad you went to see it at least, my main worry was it wouldn't earn enough at the box office to warrant a sequel but it's nearly at 300 million and every penny helps!

Production budget was 160 million and they usually have to double it to break even so whilst it's not a run away hit it's not flopped as badly as the critics predicted at least and there's at least some hope for a sequel as the story gets far more interesting from here on in.

That rule of thumb tends to be based on domestic box office. In the States, studios get about 50% of the US box office receipts but overseas, the amount varies – 30% is sometimes used as an average, but when all costs are taken into account, it can be as low as 15%.

Also, there will be the marketing budget – it's often claimed that on average, an amount equivalent to 50% of the production budget is spent on marketing.

However, on a more positive note. A number of companies have financed this film, including a few/several Chinese ones – because of that I suspect the cut of the Chinese box office will be larger than normal. Also, from what I've read previously about the market there for foreign films, there's a zero marketing cost for the studios – I can't quite remember the full reason, but it's because all the marketing is done by the Chinese distributor.

In terms of a break even point, one of $500 million has been bandied about – although my gut feeling is that's a little too low, wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. However, no one knows for sure – film accounting is an arcane science and it's hard to get concrete information. Because there are multiple investors, the yardstick for success/is a follow-up viable, is going to be lower than if it was just a studio coughing up the cash.

Increasingly, blockbusters have to perform well globally to be successful – although things look grim for this one in the States, that there's obviously a strong market elsewhere is encouraging. This is a bit of a tangent, but I think illustrates how the overseas market can trump the American domestic one – a noticeable number of Sylvester Stallone's films did very modest business in the States, but really well elsewhere (I think Daylight is a good example); IIRC, he very appreciative of European audiences because of this. It was that non-domestic audiences that kept him in those kind of leading roles.

monolith

Aye, I remember reading that there were a lot of Chinese investors and the cut of the Chinese box office would be big, if so then they are laughing as it's breaking records for fun over there.

Will be a bit gutted if there isn't a sequel, I'm happy with the film but I'm far more excited by what is potentially to come as it's much better.

Glebe


Glebe

8 Terrible Movies Chinese Audiences Loved For Some Reason.

Warcraft is the only one on that list I've seen... 'terrible' is a little harsh.

Maybe Hollywood movies are kind of going like the way some bands were 'big in Japan' in  the '80s. Or something.

monolith

It's been decided by the critics that it's "terrible" despite fans liking it and it enjoying a healthy 7.7 on IMDB.

7.7 seems a little high and it will probably drop but it's no where near as bad as the critics have made out (I know I sound like a broken record but it seems odd the vitriol it has attracted for what is just a standard and (in my opinion) a well made fantasy film).

This was also quite a strange interview with Duncan Jones (skip to the end if you can't be bothered with the passive aggressive questioning):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0f9fpwGsyg

Looks like the interviewer was trying to rile Duncan Jones up but he just calmly batted back the questions and at the end the guy walks out of his own interview without closing properly or thanking the interviewee. Duncan Jones tweeted about it and said he asked the guy if he had upset him on his way out and didn't get a proper answer. Very weird!

Glebe

Quote from: monolith on June 15, 2016, 04:42:35 PMThis was also quite a strange interview with Duncan Jones (skip to the end if you can't be bothered with the passive aggressive questioning):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0f9fpwGsyg

Looks like the interviewer was trying to rile Duncan Jones up but he just calmly batted back the questions and at the end the guy walks out of his own interview without closing properly or thanking the interviewee. Duncan Jones tweeted about it and said he asked the guy if he had upset him on his way out and didn't get a proper answer. Very weird!

Fuck's sake, interviewer is a total DICK.

I'll say it again, it's really not the failure critics are calling it. Yes, the story's a bit muddled and some characters aren't properly established, yes, there are some unconvincing plot points, yes, it runs out of steam towards the end and
Spoiler alert
kills off perhaps the most interesting character (noble orc lead)
[close]
, but for pure, unalloyed fantasy cinema, it's a sumptuous pleasure for the most part. I'm usually one of those people who avoids those kind of time-passing 'for a raining day' blockbusters, but this had a bit more heart and ambition then your average CGI fest. And while I've long been aware of WoW, I knew virtually nothing about it until the film came along, but I wasn't totally confused or anything.

Cloud

Haven't played it for yeeeeeeears (like, played it to about level 30 or 40 not long after it first launched) so much of it was lost on me and me being a bit unsure what was going on. Went because my mum was itching to see it (she's like, level 100 or whatever the max is now) and my dad wasn't :p
As such I didn't come away thinking "wow that was amazing" but at the same time I didn't really see why it's had such a slating, and while it wasn't great at standing on its own without prior knowledge of the game, it didn't seem terrible at it either.  I was a bit lost, but not completely lost. She seemed to enjoy it. It's a lukewarm score for me, but it wasn't bad, certainly not as bad as the critics are moaning.  Critics gotta criticise, I suppose.  I'm pretty sure if I was still a player I'd have been super hyped.

Dannyhood91

I haven't played any of the Warcraft games, but I'm pleased to know Jones is an active fan of the series and has by accounts made a video game film that ISN'T shit. Gives me hope for the future.

Dannyhood91

Quote from: monolith on June 15, 2016, 04:42:35 PM
It's been decided by the critics that it's "terrible" despite fans liking it and it enjoying a healthy 7.7 on IMDB.

7.7 seems a little high and it will probably drop but it's no where near as bad as the critics have made out (I know I sound like a broken record but it seems odd the vitriol it has attracted for what is just a standard and (in my opinion) a well made fantasy film).

This was also quite a strange interview with Duncan Jones (skip to the end if you can't be bothered with the passive aggressive questioning):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0f9fpwGsyg

Looks like the interviewer was trying to rile Duncan Jones up but he just calmly batted back the questions and at the end the guy walks out of his own interview without closing properly or thanking the interviewee. Duncan Jones tweeted about it and said he asked the guy if he had upset him on his way out and didn't get a proper answer. Very weird!

What a pretentious cunt.

(soz 4 double post)

monolith

Bit harsh mate, I only posted a youtube video.

Dannyhood91


Dannyhood91

Seriously though, what was that journalists endgame with that interview? Storming off at the end because Jones didn't grovel at his feet for making a film that he didn't find to his liking. What was the though process there?

Puce Moment

Yeah, I thought Jones came out of that extremely well and the interviewer appears to be enraged that a children's film is not to his liking.

Infantilisation of a generation.

Glebe

'Warcraft' Is the Most Successful Video Game Movie of All Time.

It's amazing, really... once upon a time a Western blockbuster would be a total write-off if it wasn't a US hit.


Glebe

Why 'Warcraft 2' May Never Play in US Theaters.

Quote"Who says it needs to have American actors?" Sky Moore, a partner at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan who's worked on several U.S.-China co-production deals, told TheWrap. "I would suspect that the sequel would be more China-centric. It's very possible it wouldn't be released here."

That's just mental.

greenman

You'd think the nature of Warcraft as mostly western fantasy would mean mostly western actors although perhaps more European next time?

Not getting a cinema release in the US doesn't of course mean no money from the US, if you have a smaller hardcore viewship then sticking to home viewing may well give better returns than having to invest a lot in promotion of a cinema release.

Glebe

Well, the power of the Chinese market in particular now is at least giving films a second lease of life. Not that everything that flops in the US doesn't deserve to or anything, but it's giving some good films a chance as well as the stinkers. I actually thought Warcraft, despite it's flaws, was an entertaining, spirited and richly designed movie. It's not brilliant or anything, but it didn't deserve the kicking it got.

Oh yeah, new interview with Duncan Jones;

Why Everyone Was Wrong About 'Warcraft,' the Summer's Most Underrated Movie.