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Warcraft director Duncan Jones: “I wanted to make a great film”

27 points by confiscate 10y ago

gdulli 10y ago
The 16% score on Rotten Tomatoes suggests that he didn't. It's a shame because we could have had another movie as good as Source Code or Moon, the last two movies he directed. But instead it's this CGI waste of time that anyone could have made.
- minimaxir 10y ago
  Apparently Warcraft is one of the movies where Critical and Audience perception strongly differs. (and it will likely get sequels regardless, as China's intake is absurd) I may have to resurrect my Critical score vs Audience score visualizations.
- draw_down 10y ago
  I wish them the best and all, but I saw the trailer over this past weekend and it looked like a real slog. But then I'm not one for dragons and orcs and all that stuff anyway.
  - vidarh 10y ago
    If you don't like Orcs and all that stuff, you probably won't like it, but the movie is a lot better than the trailer gives you the impression of.
- projektir 10y ago
  They gave one of my favorite movies, The Thirteenth Floor, a score of 29% while it's rated decently in other places and is a pretty good film, definitely not garbage... I'm having a feeling some reviewers just don't know what to do with certain movies that do not fit a particular mold, and then keep trying to compare them to other movies when it's not appropriate, and Warcraft is also most likely being punished out of the gate for being Warcraft. Reviews from people so far seem to be pretty good.
  - gdulli 10y ago
    I don't really buy that. The last Mission Impossible got a 93% on RT. Civil War got a 90%. Genre movies that aren't trying to be more than simple entertainment tend to do well on RT if they're good. It's more like Warcraft is being punished for being "a Battlefield Earth for the 21st century" according to the article.
    - projektir 10y ago
      Aren't Mission Impossible and Civil War both popular, accepted franchises? With fairly simple, clear-cut storylines? Warcraft is not really in the same bucket. It's closer to something like John Carter, where some people are in the know, the rest don't know what it is, and it's trying to squeeze a truckload of information into not enough time. And in the case of Warcraft in particular, a lot of people perceive it as embarrassing.
bdz 10y ago
I liked it. But you really have to be a Warcraft fan for that. For anyone else it's just a bland generic fantasy movie.
- cmg 10y ago
  I've been playing World of Warcraft for about 6 years now. I know what's happening and who the major players are, but I'm not a lore geek by any means. I'm looking forward to seeing the movie this weekend. My partner, on the other hand, made it up to level 8 on a new character - with the Recruit-A-Friend XP bonus - before giving up. They just couldn't get into the game and went back to playing LOTRO. They like fantasy films; they know there's orcs and dragons but couldn't tell Sargeras from Deathwing. I'm curious to see how our feelings on the movie differ.
  - minimaxir 10y ago
    It's worth noting that the primary purpose of the Warlords of Draenor expansion was to introduce the eponymous Warlords, as they are important characters in the movie that casual WoW players would have likely not known otherwise. That didn't work out well due to movie delays, and most of the Warlords are pretty generic.
- eumoria 10y ago
  I think this just shows the curse in full effect. What's needed is a movie based on a video game that's truly good even if you don't understand the source material. A movie based on a book doesn't require you to read the book first. I see a lot of reviews saying there's tons of inside winks and nods. There should be a few for the serious fans but the point of a broad, big summer movie should be that everyone can get into it even if you've never heard of Warcraft.
  - doodpants 10y ago
    > What's needed is a movie based on a video game that's truly good even if you don't understand the source material. There is one. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within[1]. IMHO, it's the best video game-based movie so far, and arguably the only actually good one. [1]http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0173840/?ref_=nv_sr_1 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0173840/?ref_=nv_sr_1
a_small_island 10y ago
I'm hoping it will be half of what the Fellowship was. Please.
- mrslx 10y ago
  thats a tall order for most films. but i do share the hope.
kitsunesoba 10y ago
It's worth noting that Warcraft is doing quite well in overseas markets, which suggests that there isn't anything fundamentally wrong with the film. I suspect US performance will be better than the critics indicate.
Fricken 10y ago
The 'Warlords of Draenor' [1] cinematic Blizzard used to promote it's 2014 WOW update was badass. I mean, I conventionally dislike stuff of that nature, I'm no WOW player, but the short got right what everybody else gets wrong. So I was accidentally excited for the feature film it inspired. The older I get, the less frequent appearances by my inner 12 year old become, so it's always refreshing when it happens. My worldview has never been so self-assured as it was the day before I hit puberty. Unfortunately, when the trailer for the feature descended it revealed itself to be another cringeworthy iteration of the sanitized pablum we've come to expect from Hollywood. Once again the big studios just can't be trusted to resist the urge to bashfully position figleafs over the patriotic nerd-genitals that inseminated this monstrosity. [1]https://youtu.be/TLzhlsEFcVQ https://youtu.be/TLzhlsEFcVQ
- AlbertoGP 10y ago
  After watching now the 'Warlords or Draenor' you mention I'd say that the movie is somewhere between that and the movie trailer which indeed looks like drivel.
pillowkusis 10y ago
not a very helpful comment, is it? Is there a single director in hollywood who DOESN'T want to make a great film? They go around intentionally producing garbage? Even if they're not putting 100% into their craft I think every director (perhaps ever) would choose "make a great film" over "make a bad film."
AlbertoGP 10y ago
I watched it with friends in Germany last weekend and although I've never played Warcraft or any other similar game (most of what I know comes from watching the Log Horizon anime), I did enjoy it very much. They did a great job with the main Orc character: he has a personality and I felt identified with him, and at the same time the motion capture and CGI worked great, making him feel alive to me.

27 points by confiscate 10y ago

The 16% score on Rotten Tomatoes suggests that he didn't. It's a shame because we could have had another movie as good as Source Code or Moon, the last two movies he directed. But instead it's this CGI waste of time that anyone could have made.

minimaxir 10y ago
Apparently Warcraft is one of the movies where Critical and Audience perception strongly differs. (and it will likely get sequels regardless, as China's intake is absurd) I may have to resurrect my Critical score vs Audience score visualizations.
draw_down 10y ago
I wish them the best and all, but I saw the trailer over this past weekend and it looked like a real slog. But then I'm not one for dragons and orcs and all that stuff anyway.
- vidarh 10y ago
  If you don't like Orcs and all that stuff, you probably won't like it, but the movie is a lot better than the trailer gives you the impression of.
projektir 10y ago
They gave one of my favorite movies, The Thirteenth Floor, a score of 29% while it's rated decently in other places and is a pretty good film, definitely not garbage... I'm having a feeling some reviewers just don't know what to do with certain movies that do not fit a particular mold, and then keep trying to compare them to other movies when it's not appropriate, and Warcraft is also most likely being punished out of the gate for being Warcraft. Reviews from people so far seem to be pretty good.
- gdulli 10y ago
  I don't really buy that. The last Mission Impossible got a 93% on RT. Civil War got a 90%. Genre movies that aren't trying to be more than simple entertainment tend to do well on RT if they're good. It's more like Warcraft is being punished for being "a Battlefield Earth for the 21st century" according to the article.
  - projektir 10y ago
    Aren't Mission Impossible and Civil War both popular, accepted franchises? With fairly simple, clear-cut storylines? Warcraft is not really in the same bucket. It's closer to something like John Carter, where some people are in the know, the rest don't know what it is, and it's trying to squeeze a truckload of information into not enough time. And in the case of Warcraft in particular, a lot of people perceive it as embarrassing.

bdz 10y ago

I liked it. But you really have to be a Warcraft fan for that. For anyone else it's just a bland generic fantasy movie.

cmg 10y ago
I've been playing World of Warcraft for about 6 years now. I know what's happening and who the major players are, but I'm not a lore geek by any means. I'm looking forward to seeing the movie this weekend. My partner, on the other hand, made it up to level 8 on a new character - with the Recruit-A-Friend XP bonus - before giving up. They just couldn't get into the game and went back to playing LOTRO. They like fantasy films; they know there's orcs and dragons but couldn't tell Sargeras from Deathwing. I'm curious to see how our feelings on the movie differ.
- minimaxir 10y ago
  It's worth noting that the primary purpose of the Warlords of Draenor expansion was to introduce the eponymous Warlords, as they are important characters in the movie that casual WoW players would have likely not known otherwise. That didn't work out well due to movie delays, and most of the Warlords are pretty generic.
eumoria 10y ago
I think this just shows the curse in full effect. What's needed is a movie based on a video game that's truly good even if you don't understand the source material. A movie based on a book doesn't require you to read the book first. I see a lot of reviews saying there's tons of inside winks and nods. There should be a few for the serious fans but the point of a broad, big summer movie should be that everyone can get into it even if you've never heard of Warcraft.
- doodpants 10y ago
  > What's needed is a movie based on a video game that's truly good even if you don't understand the source material. There is one. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within[1]. IMHO, it's the best video game-based movie so far, and arguably the only actually good one. [1]http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0173840/?ref_=nv_sr_1 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0173840/?ref_=nv_sr_1

a_small_island 10y ago

I'm hoping it will be half of what the Fellowship was. Please.

mrslx 10y ago
thats a tall order for most films. but i do share the hope.

kitsunesoba 10y ago

It's worth noting that Warcraft is doing quite well in overseas markets, which suggests that there isn't anything fundamentally wrong with the film. I suspect US performance will be better than the critics indicate.

Fricken 10y ago

The 'Warlords of Draenor' [1] cinematic Blizzard used to promote it's 2014 WOW update was badass. I mean, I conventionally dislike stuff of that nature, I'm no WOW player, but the short got right what everybody else gets wrong. So I was accidentally excited for the feature film it inspired. The older I get, the less frequent appearances by my inner 12 year old become, so it's always refreshing when it happens. My worldview has never been so self-assured as it was the day before I hit puberty. Unfortunately, when the trailer for the feature descended it revealed itself to be another cringeworthy iteration of the sanitized pablum we've come to expect from Hollywood. Once again the big studios just can't be trusted to resist the urge to bashfully position figleafs over the patriotic nerd-genitals that inseminated this monstrosity. [1]https://youtu.be/TLzhlsEFcVQ https://youtu.be/TLzhlsEFcVQ

AlbertoGP 10y ago
After watching now the 'Warlords or Draenor' you mention I'd say that the movie is somewhere between that and the movie trailer which indeed looks like drivel.

pillowkusis 10y ago

not a very helpful comment, is it? Is there a single director in hollywood who DOESN'T want to make a great film? They go around intentionally producing garbage? Even if they're not putting 100% into their craft I think every director (perhaps ever) would choose "make a great film" over "make a bad film."

AlbertoGP 10y ago

I watched it with friends in Germany last weekend and although I've never played Warcraft or any other similar game (most of what I know comes from watching the Log Horizon anime), I did enjoy it very much. They did a great job with the main Orc character: he has a personality and I felt identified with him, and at the same time the motion capture and CGI worked great, making him feel alive to me.