Well, the Warcraft movie is a bit rubbish.

[Redryhno]

Snip

The other guy said it was Wheaton, I was just surprised that the guy who didn't even know what the hell he was opening for at one of the bigger Cons in gaming was involved. But if he isn't, then I retract that statement completely. I just don't care for Wheaton, especially since the bullshit with BTS with Tabletop came to light.

The what with Tabletop? I'm obviously behind on something there. Not surprising I'm hardly on the pulse of the Internet news, but I am curious if you'd summarize?

And yeah - we wondered it if was him at first too but no, just a resemblance.

Long story short, Tabletop is his online show that showcases board games, some of them unique and very much deserving of the attention they get from it(I know I've gotten a couple from the show alone, Fiasco alone has become my roommates favorite since it requires even less setup than Superfight if you want to), alot are sorta more like Baby's First Boardgame, incredibly simple and don't lend themselves to sober play in reality.

Each of them are around an hour long edited footage of gameplay with various celebs, some actual celebs(Seth Green, Steve Jackson, some of the Mythbusters crew, etc.), some internet celebs, some around the same level as Wheaton himself, and a few largely random people that are only on because they're friends of him or his wife.

Now, on this show, he's the host and is a seriously sore loser, to the point that it's just not funny past the third time you see him turtle and pout(he's the guy that you can see throw dice through windows because of a crappy roll and smash your china because he spilled it on himself), and regularly gets rules wrong and sorta just fucks with the fluff of the game because he doesn't like it(like demanding that they refer to slaves as "assistants" in one particular incident).

Anyways, to the meat, he's apparently more than a bit of a diva and basically ended up screaming at one of the producers for the show because he told the audience one of the basic rules of some game(as he does this like three minute introduction to what the basic goal of the game is and how to achieve it) and ended up firing him. Which honestly wouldn't be that bad, full-on dick mode of course, but it's the basic rules of the game, if you can't get them right for the audience, you don't have anywhere near as good of a show(and to be fair, it is pretty high quality for what it is, alot of edited moments to more cleanly show the rules and special instances). Also that attitude just started to bleed over into the show itself and really detracted because the guests were there having fun just goofing off and you've got power-gamer min-max as the host every week that plays to win even at cooperative games.

Also various other largely internet related bullshit and his terrible presentation at Blizzcon causing enough of an uproar it was heavily moderated on various Blizzard sites and forums.

And that is the shortest way I can convey somewhere around three years worth of stuff. Pretty shitty summary huh? Sorry if I put information you already knew, but I wanted to make sure you knew about Tabletop is all.

 

[BoogieManFL]

I liked it quite a bit.

I also appreciate the difficulties that had to be overcome when making this movie:

1. There is only so much story you can really get from a game released in 1994. It wasn't as story heavy as WC3.
2. Video Game based movie.. Nuff' said.
3. Fitting that much into a two hour movie.
4. Making it semi-understandable for people who don't know much about the WarCraft universe.

All that considered I thought they did very well. A bit of the dialogue is exposition but what are you going to do, make a movie that only caters to the hardcore fans? That's not a money making move that any studio is going to make. The effects, especially the Orcs, were awesome. Most of the characters I felt did a good job at their roles, especially Lothar, Khadgar, and Durotan. Even if Durotan was mostly just a voice over with face capture or whatever. The three battle scenes were really cool, although as cool as it was it made me wish the last battle was a tad longer. But I imagine it was ridiculously expensive. A little more fan service would have been okay, if in small doses. Zug Zug and so forth.

I thought it was pretty damn good.

 

[HybridChangeling]

I usually put video game movies in a "not good until proven otherwise" category and in the past 15 years I have not been failed by this system. The only thing that actually interested me about this movie was the design of the orcs. They looked sort of cool, but I realized that it was directly lifted from the game. Thanks for the post, I was hoping for someone to do that.

 

[LostCrusader]

I was pleasantly surprised by it. I was expecting it to be incredibly awful based on the reviews, and it definitely wasn't great, but it was decent and entertaining. Though the love plot line felt pretty forced and the exposition was heavy.

I also thought the orc cgi looked awful in the trailer but they looked better on screen.

 

[Hawki]

People kind of like it. Even though the critics don't.
So choose your side based on your history with the critics.
I know I did like it too and my friends did as well.

I'd be skeptical of that though. How many of those votes are from people who have actually seen the movie, and how many of them are coming from a rational perspective? Metacritic is particuarly notorious for user review bombing, and it can be on the positive end of the spectrum as well.

Not saying that someone can't enjoy a film for genuine reasons, but I expect the divide to shrink over time. The same thing happened with Batman v Superman, how the audience score started high, but then dropped noticably.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

I just watched it, and holy shit I am confused. I mean, I was barely paying attention and went to the bathroom a lot, but damn, what did I just watch?

Spoilers, I guess. And I know I am mispelling a lot of the names, so bear with me.

What was the point of Durotan's death? The orcs didn't even rebel against Goldan. His entire character felt pointless to me. Even though he was the most interesting character in the entire movie.

Who or what possessed the Guardian? How is the Guardian even chosen? How is he related to King Lane?

How can Lothar just randomly become King? Why does Lane think that Garona killing him will make her some kind of leader? And what is the other half of her race?

I dunno, I don't think this movie was very good. It feels like sequel bait, nothing was truly accomplished in the end. But hey, orcs are awesome. I would watch a whole movie of just them.

Every non-CGI character was a bore to me. Lothar's actor says his dialogue in a really weird way, and the Cadgar's (Cathgar?) actor was borderline amateur. Zhukov said Garona is doing her best to be Zoe Saldana, and I couldn't stop thinking about that the entire time I watched the movie. The Guardian's actor was... an odd choice. He didn't seem very wizardy, though he was a step above everyone else.

I was also really annoyed that bar Lothar and Lane, no other human seems capable of killing orcs. I hate it when movies or games do that.

 

[FirstNameLastName]

People kind of like it. Even though the critics don't.
So choose your side based on your history with the critics.
I know I did like it too and my friends did as well.

I'd be skeptical of that though. How many of those votes are from people who have actually seen the movie, and how many of them are coming from a rational perspective? Metacritic is particuarly notorious for user review bombing, and it can be on the positive end of the spectrum as well.

Not saying that someone can't enjoy a film for genuine reasons, but I expect the divide to shrink over time. The same thing happened with Batman v Superman, how the audience score started high, but then dropped noticably.

Agreed. After the whole BvS fiasco and its review bombing of 10/10 I decided to check out the IMDB scores early on, and of course it was yet another example. This film that has such a mediocre score from critics just so happened to have a higher audience score than The Godfather, Citizen Kane etc, and it's score just so happened to have mostly consisted of perfect 10s, and it just so happened to have a higher rate of 10/10 scores than any other film on there ... yeah, excuse me if I ignore audience scores for all of these critically panned films that belong to beloved franchises/characters.

People can accuse critics of being biased all they want, but if I have to choose I'll take biased critics over the review bombing of fanboys any day.

 

[saphiren]

It is sad to see how gamers of all people are lining up to shit on the first decent videogame movie in years.
Wtf, are you stoned or something?

Sorry, but I can't stand this attitude. The idea that we should like a mediocre movie because it's aimed at our demographic is insulting, *especially* when it's arguably one of the better ones to do so. If you want better anything, whether it's vidya movies or whatever, the last thing you should do is ignore the flaws and settle for something average. Point out the flaws, bring attention to them, and say "This can be done better! Here's how!" Set high standards and don't settle for anything less, that's what'll get us REALLY GOOD movies instead of merely decent ones.

 

[wizzy555]

What was the point of Durotan's death? The orcs didn't even rebel against Goldan. His entire character felt pointless to me. Even though he was the most interesting character in the entire movie.

To sow dissent against Guldan. Not the most meaningful death but it's a start. Lots of people die in Warcraft.

Who or what possessed the Guardian? How is the Guardian even chosen? How is he related to King Lane?

This isn't explained in the movie, but in common lore it is Sargaras the master demon. The movie just seem to say he was infected with fel. The Guardian is usually chosen by a council however Medivh's mother bypassed the council and made him Guardian, and there is nothing they can do about it. He was childhood friends with the king

How can Lothar just randomly become King? Why does Lane think that Garona killing him will make her some kind of leader? And what is the other half of her race?

He didn't become king, the heir is a child, he is serving as a sort of lord protector until Varian is old enough.

 

[Mylinkay Asdara]

Snip

Snip

Snip

Long story short, Tabletop is his online show that showcases board games, some of them unique and very much deserving of the attention they get from it(I know I've gotten a couple from the show alone, Fiasco alone has become my roommates favorite since it requires even less setup than Superfight if you want to), alot are sorta more like Baby's First Boardgame, incredibly simple and don't lend themselves to sober play in reality.

Each of them are around an hour long edited footage of gameplay with various celebs, some actual celebs(Seth Green, Steve Jackson, some of the Mythbusters crew, etc.), some internet celebs, some around the same level as Wheaton himself, and a few largely random people that are only on because they're friends of him or his wife.

Now, on this show, he's the host and is a seriously sore loser, to the point that it's just not funny past the third time you see him turtle and pout(he's the guy that you can see throw dice through windows because of a crappy roll and smash your china because he spilled it on himself), and regularly gets rules wrong and sorta just fucks with the fluff of the game because he doesn't like it(like demanding that they refer to slaves as "assistants" in one particular incident).

Anyways, to the meat, he's apparently more than a bit of a diva and basically ended up screaming at one of the producers for the show because he told the audience one of the basic rules of some game(as he does this like three minute introduction to what the basic goal of the game is and how to achieve it) and ended up firing him. Which honestly wouldn't be that bad, full-on dick mode of course, but it's the basic rules of the game, if you can't get them right for the audience, you don't have anywhere near as good of a show(and to be fair, it is pretty high quality for what it is, alot of edited moments to more cleanly show the rules and special instances). Also that attitude just started to bleed over into the show itself and really detracted because the guests were there having fun just goofing off and you've got power-gamer min-max as the host every week that plays to win even at cooperative games.

Also various other largely internet related bullshit and his terrible presentation at Blizzcon causing enough of an uproar it was heavily moderated on various Blizzard sites and forums.

And that is the shortest way I can convey somewhere around three years worth of stuff. Pretty shitty summary huh? Sorry if I put information you already knew, but I wanted to make sure you knew about Tabletop is all.

Oh yeah - I have watched Tabletop from the first - and I quite like the show. I quite like Wil Wheaton actually, even though you do make a point about his "wanna win" persona... I'm not sure if that's legit or a Colbert type thing though in the end. I have even read his book.

Didn't know about the producer thing though. I thought there was some drama I hadn't heard about and I guess that might be it? Are you talking about Blizzcon year before last? I watched that via the online pass - I don't remember it being bad, there were a couple of flat moments, but that sort of thing happens at any live performance, not everyone's going to respond how you hoped to everything you say - especially if they are just waiting for the game presentations to continue. Then again, the Internet is a hotbed of "love it" / "hate it" and very little in between these days.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

I hadn't noticed it at first, but in hindsight, it did seem kind of predetermined that trying to condense such a lore-heavy franchise into a 2-hour movie would lead to some serious problems. Then again, Lord of The Rings pulled it off. I'm guessing that an important part of it is to start small. (Disclaimer: I haven't seen the Warcraft Movie).
I think in such a lore-heavy piece of material, you'd want to start with a simple main character who understands the world about as much as a first-time viewer does. Star Wars did this with Luke Skywalker, and Lord of the Rings did it with Frodo. Meanwhile, what little I heard about Warcraft suggested that distinguished military officers were the main characters, which meant that loads of exposition needed to be dumped on the audience to catch them up with the characters themselves.
Does that sound about right?

Whilst immensely popular , Lord of The Rings caught a lot of flak on the story part.

It was filmed nicely and grandiose but even the LoTR movies sort of shredded the lore, nevermind what the Hobbit did afterwards.

And oh my goodness if they ever do the Silmarillion faithfully especially how that book begins everyone not familiar with Tolkien will destroy that movie.

Oh dear gods if they did that... Silmarillion is an absolute slog to get through as a book, even though I love it I recognize its dull as dishwater compared to LOTR or The Hobbit.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

LEARN THE LORE AND GET INTERESTE BECAUSE IT WILL ONLY GET EVEN MORE INTERESTING FROM HERE.

Heck I would spoil it anyway:

In the lore Anduin Lothar (Travis Fimmel) dies in the second war.

Durotan (the main orc guy) dies as you saw but his son soon becomes one of the more important Orc characters named Thrall:

More interesting lore characters that remained characters in the entire lore began in the era of Warcraft 3.

There is Arthas who is the most favorite story of the entire franchise and alot of his actions affected so many characters.

There is also Jaina Proudmoore, Sylvanas Windrunner, Illidan Stormrage, Varian Wrynn, etc.

Now I will post my grips with this movie in the next post.

Dude. Dude. Just stop. You just posted what may be spoilers for the films going forward, to batter people who aren't interested in getting up to date on the MASSIVE Warcraft lore, to get them hype for a movie that you keep shitting on anyway.

Like seriously, you said, get interested, then you told everyone the ultimate fates of the characters, which if they're not members of the Warcraft faithful, AKA, the ones you are trying to convince to get on board with a franchise even though you've only made negative comments about the movie's soundtrack, cast, and director, is just a spoiler.

That's not incentive to get involved. That's telling people to read up on a ton of lore just to be in on a movie, and then proceeding to spoil potential upcoming events anyway. That's just so self defeating in every possible way.

Because I have so much to lose if this movie does not make sequals.

I want certains parts of the lore to get adapted, I want this movie franchise to succeed despite the terrible start.

And critics are KILLING THAT CHANCE!!!!!!

Sigh....I just want my Lich King movie done right.

 

[Vahir]

Dude. Dude. Just stop. You just posted what may be spoilers for the films going forward, to batter people who aren't interested in getting up to date on the MASSIVE Warcraft lore, to get them hype for a movie that you keep shitting on anyway.

Like seriously, you said, get interested, then you told everyone the ultimate fates of the characters, which if they're not members of the Warcraft faithful, AKA, the ones you are trying to convince to get on board with a franchise even though you've only made negative comments about the movie's soundtrack, cast, and director, is just a spoiler.

That's not incentive to get involved. That's telling people to read up on a ton of lore just to be in on a movie, and then proceeding to spoil potential upcoming events anyway. That's just so self defeating in every possible way.

Plus if someone doesn't care about the source material, enthusiastically info-dumping and spamming videos aren't going to magically get them on board. I'm somewhat of a warcraft fan and even I tune it out.

 

[Vahir]

Because I have so much to lose if this movie does not make sequals.

I want certains parts of the lore to get adapted, I want this movie franchise to succeed despite the terrible start.

And critics are KILLING THAT CHANCE!!!!!!

I get how you feel. I'm a gargantuan Game of Thrones fan, and it used to kill me, really chew me up inside, how bad I found the show in comparison to the books.

And now I just don't care, because I know that movie/show adaptations can never, ever capture the spirit of the original. There will never be a warcraft movie that's what you want. The closest you can get is a dumbed down approximation, by the nature of the medium.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Because I have so much to lose if this movie does not make sequals.

I want certains parts of the lore to get adapted, I want this movie franchise to succeed despite the terrible start.

And critics are KILLING THAT CHANCE!!!!!!

I get how you feel. I'm a gargantuan Game of Thrones fan, and it used to kill me, really chew me up inside, how bad I found the show in comparison to the books.

And now I just don't care, because I know that movie/show adaptations can never, ever capture the spirit of the original. There will never be a warcraft movie that's what you want. The closest you can get is a dumbed down approximation, by the nature of the medium.

And its the fact that there is nothing in the movie theaters that plays movies I care about.

I rarely go to the movie theater because its all the same comedies, all the same generic action movies that looks like Taken, and all the quality "Oscar Bait" movies play at the end of the year and sometimes not all of them arrive in theaters world wide.

And its sad that the only genre movies that always gets praised is Marvel and Disney animation and I dislike the modern house of mouse right now.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

It is sad to see how gamers of all people are lining up to shit on the first decent videogame movie in years.
Wtf, are you stoned or something?

That is the worst attitude to have. Forgiving mediocrity or worse just because a video game based movie is functional is letting them off. Have some bloody standards man, expect more. We should hold these things to a *higher* standard. You should be the first to demand they do it better, not give them carte blanche to pander sub-par crap at us! Demand a great movie, not "decent"