The Warcraft film: six years later

Community General Discussion
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https://www.wowhead.com/news/the-warcraft-movie-was-released-in-theaters-six-years-ago-on-june-10-2016-327338

June 10th marked six years since the live action Warcraft film was released. Wowhead put out a news story about it, so I’m kinda curious to feelings about it on the forums.

Overall, did you guys think it was a hit or a miss?

All things considered, I myself enjoyed it, and I had ultimately hoped it would do what the first Sonic film eventually wound up doing. However, I think the key problem is everyone wanted either Warcraft 3 or something WoW related as the story. They all wanted the payoff without the journey or the stories to set that up.

Granted, it made $439 million worldwide against a $160 budget (still the highest grossing video game film despite the success of Sonic), but it still lost Legendary/Universal at least $15 million with some numbers putting the projected loss in the $50 million range once you factor in the advertising budget. I also don’t think it was helped by the fact that the week it came out was pretty stacked as Michael Bay’s second TMNT film came out the week before, and Now You See Me 2 came out the same day. While both were rather mediocre films IMO, they were the types of films that tend to do well enough outside of major blockbusters in the Summer film season (one being more aimed at kids/families, the other having an all star cast that attracts normies like moths to flame)

There’s also the fact that Captain America: Civil War/X-Men: Apocalypse were still playing, and Finding Dory/Central Intelligence were out a week later.

In short: too much big competition in a short period that doomed it from the start.

Overall, 2016 was a surprisingly stacked year, and I’m not really sure there would have been a time to release that film that would have worked to its advantage. To this day, I’m still bummed that they never got a chance for at least the second film of that planned trilogy. Ideally, I think I would have had the opening minutes of the second film being a super condensed version of the events of WC2 with the rest of it being some of the key stuff related to WC3 (mainly Arthas and Thrall happening concurrently, final scene being Arthas returning home), and the third film essentially being an adaptation of Wrath (keep in mind not every adaptation needs every last event and character, an AU version of Wrath would have made for an excellent conclusion if the films didn’t progress past that point)

But enough with my thoughts on it for the time being. What about you guys?

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It was only 2016? I thought it was way older.

It was, at best, an almost mediocre movie. That’s being generous.

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I enjoyed being in a theatre with a bunch of other WoW players and fans. The movie itself was trying to hard to be a film that set up a series that it forgot to be a good film in its own right.

Had they done Arthas’ story and didn’t rely so much on such obvious CGI I think it would have been better.

I’ve never felt compelled to re-watch it.

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I thought the part of the story they chose to do was a poor choice. I think they could have done better starting somewhere else. I think an animated series more like League of Legend’s Arcane would have huge potential though. The movie was ok, not great and not horrible in my opinion. I also am just not a fan of movies in general. Probably have only watched 5 in my life.

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I actually got a free few tickets to go see it… I didn’t hate the movie, it had some things that pissed me off… but overall it was, “ok” a solid 6/10.

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we need a second film i want to see alleria on the silver screen in all her hotness.

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Maybe if they slowed the pacing a bit and developed the characters more, it would have taken off. Probably would have been a better series than a movie.

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I think they missed the mark.
They had one chance to tell the Warcraft story to a broader audience (people who don’t necessarily play WoW)- and they go with the story from the first Warcraft game.

What they instead should have done, is go with a more fleshed out and popular story line- like the Scourge of Lordaeron for instance, with Arthas being an antihero. Or like the Second War- leading up to a big finale with the Siege of Blackrock Spire- and an epic showdown between Doomhammer and Lothar.

But they instead, went in a somewhat safe direction of starting with the Warcraft I storyline, which many never played.

I appreciate it from a lore perspective. I just don’t think it was a good idea if your goal is to make a good film and interest people who aren’t familiar with Warcraft.
I’m not saying its bad- but they can always tell that story at a later time.

I thought Medivh and Gul’dan were the best parts of the film. When neither of them were on screen, I was incredibly bored.

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I thought the movie was fine.

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They had so many stories they could of told yet they butchered the one they chose. Still though, the movie itself was watchable if you knew nothing about the Warcraft franchise. My 7 year old son thought it was ok.

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I remember seeing it with my friends, we ate so much food! It was awesome!! I don’t remember the movie because I was distracted :lips:

Also it was 6 years ago, I’m sure I watched some of it. I remember there was like a big war outside of Stormwind (?)

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Distractions? Pray tell.

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Good movie, shame it didn’t get a sequel.

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One of the worst movies I have ever watched.

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Ghostbusters 2016 was worse in my opinion.

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Warcraft and chill…

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I prefer Overmind and chill.

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Missed that, luckily.

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Rita said “friends” …

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With some goblin jumper cables and an ample supply of butter perhaps?

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