SpoilerWas able to see a screener of the Warcraft movie earlier tonight. Here are my thoughts, with some very minor spoilers. (self.wow)
submitted 1小時前 by mrgoodnoodles
I deleted my original post because I hated the title. Also, It's a very underwhelming post. I'm better at just answering specific questions.
First things first: a disclaimer.
Disclaimer: I'm not a movie critic. I'm not a journalist. My original comment can be found somewhere in my recent post history. I have my girlfriend to thank for bringing me to a screener with her. I work in construction. I have nothing to gain with this post. Secondly: I'm in California. It's 11:45, and I have work at 8 AM sharp. My hopes are that this post gets enough upvotes so I can come back to it tomorrow and write a simplistic, non-spoiler filled...opinion of the movie. Review would be the wrong word, as I'm sure I'm immediately biased as a WoW player. However, I saw that post about the youtuber who saw it last night and gave it an 8.9, and people were very quick to call him out on that high score. I work in construction, so please take that as some kind of consolation that I don't have any interest in leaning one way or another.
Mrgoodnoodles' super informed movie scale: Between 60 and 70 out of 100. I'll give it a 69, because I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. The visuals (CGI, costumes, choreography) really tipped the scale for me. A more realistic score pins this down to an objective 65. Many will score it lower, I have no doubt. My opinion is that I enjoyed 90% of it because I didn't take it apart during every scene.
There are things that brought the score down to a 50 for me, but I really must grade this movie on a curve (see visuals below). I can't rate a movie without taking in to account the hard work of the production team, and they did their jobs very well. I wanted to break the movie in to pros and cons, but I didn't have a notepad and play/pause button.
Plot:
I'm still unsure about the plot here. The story just jumps around a lot, and if you have never played WoW, I'm not sure you would be able to understand what was going on. The only way I can describe the plot is that it is like a piece of unbreakable pumice: it's filled with holes, but somehow it's structurally stable. It's weak and somehow still gets the job done.
Choreography and everything that falls under a strictly visual category:
Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. I don't think I need to say more than that. I know that early on, every little screen grab and still was picked apart and subsequently shit upon by nitpickers, but the end result really was breathtaking. Several individual scenes really come to mind, and they usually involved animation of characters themselves. I don't want to ruin the movie for you, so just ask if curious.
Really, as I said above, props to the whole production team. Everything just looked as clear as an unmuddied lake. As clear as an azure sky of deepest summer. OK, you get the point.
The only bone I have to pick with the choreography is the costume and makeup, really the overall design, of Garona. That's no secret, really, as we've all seen the latest trailers. Just think Gamora, but Paula Patton. Who coincidentally looks a lot like Zoe Saldana. I guess there's a couple other things but that's the main one, really. Didn't even put on an accent for the character. Just...didn't even try, really.
Dialogue, performances, etc:
I'm happy to say I only cringed, like, one or two times. I knew what to expect from Travis Fimmel because I'm a big Vikings fan. I never really enjoyed his acting. Whatever. I didn't go in to the movie expecting Patrick Stewart-level acting, and the movie didn't deliver anything special performance wise. Just thought you should know. The dialogue does do a decent job of moving the plot forward where it needs to, and fails in others. Dumb romantic subplots are here to stay, folks (I say dumb but I'm not sure if it is even accurate, lore-wise). I'll just say that some characters had some great dialogue while others were just "meh."
Special category: Gul'dan
Fucking Gul'dan kills it. In a good way! Voiced by Daniel Wu, I got goosebumps during a few scenes. Just great character design and dialogue all around. SPOILER AHEAD Gul'dan drains life force directly from Draenei, humans, and other Orcs constantly in this movie. In other words, the main spell (aside from Kadghar and Medivh using teleportation every 10 minutes) was life drain. SPOILER OVER
Movie/WoW consistencies:
I just don't know enough about it to comment on it. I never played the first two Warcraft games so I don't have that story line bagged. At the end of the movie, everything plot wise seemed in place for setting up the Warcraft 3 story line.
OK, that's it for tonight. It's 12:26. I'll pick this up tomorrow. I feel like I'll do better explaining everything if the right questions are asked. So please ask me about specifics, and I will answer the best I can without spoiling the movie for anyone. Goodnight! Or good afternoon/evening, if you're in Australia. Sorry for the wall of text. TLDR: I mostly liked it.
巴鹿军
