The Warcraft movie is ill-conceived propaganda for the Alliance

[Greebo]

http://arstechnica.com/the-multiverse/2 ... -alliance/

[Anaie]

I liked it a lot. Best movie ever, nah.... fun? yup! I think they did a great job overall for a video game adaptation and a fantasy film. 95% of each of those types are crap, and I think this was better than most of them. The acting is a bit weak on the human side (except Lothar is pretty awesome), but the orcs were amazingly done and the magic cgi was amazing. Also, the gryphon was pretty bad ass.

[Yrzuli]

And shell out the extra $$ for 3D, and IMAX if possible.

I am not a fan of 3D, though it's growing on me. Anaie got us 3D IMAX tickets and it was amazing.

[Anaie]

Definitely Alliance sympathetic, but they did an awesome job with Orcs. The sheer size and strength, and the respect for honor (and the rage).

[Neevah]

We're going see it tomorrow night. I'm not surprised that it's more sympathetic to Alliance, after all that's the Human side and that's the side audiences will always (wrongly) defer to. They just don't know any better, that's all. They need us steady Horde compatriots to show them the way of honor and glory.

We can also shout Lok'tar ogar or Peace through Annihilation at the end of the movie, as well...

[Syreenna]

I don't agree with much of what was said in that review. I enjoyed the movie very much. I can see how someone would be lost if they didn't know anything at all about the lore, and it did jump around in location pretty fast in the beginning, but after that, I really liked it. I also thought they did a good job with how they portrayed the orcs.

[Anaie]

I am really hoping for a Director's Cut adding in the 40 min they made him take out.

[Duskheron]

Went and saw it today, and it's not anywhere near as bad as most of the reviews say. I think they could have cast some of the roles differently (Medivh should have been older, Khadgar...was a little off, I can't quite pick exactly what it was about him that bothered me). Moroes was brilliant. Lothar was (of course) awesome. Llane was kinda -eh-. It's like they put all of their budget in getting A-List actors for the orcs who were 100% CGI, so you couldn't tell who they were anyway.

The griffins were pretty bad-ass. There weren't many wolves, but the few hero wolves were great. Gul'dan without his cloak was pretty awesome.

It started out a little too 80's B Fantasy Movie (probably where they lost a lot of the reviewers) and stuffed too much back lore into the beginning probably for people who aren't aware of the lore. Some Garona things I liked, that I won't mention for possibly spoilery reasons.

[Yrzuli]

Khadgar...was a little off, I can't quite pick exactly what it was about him that bothered me

Khadgar would have come off better had Medivh soul-sucked him and aged him. I mean, they deviated from lore considerably, but they could have kept that tidbit in.

And fuck... I want Blackhand's shoulders. Full on dangly spines. BAMF. I'd keep playing a warrior if I could get those.

[Duskheron]

Yeah, Blackhand's shoulders were amazing.

[Neevah]

We went see it last night and oh my god I wanted to cry at how they perfectly captured the cities and the architecture and the landscape. It really felt expansive, making the continent seem so much larger than what's represented in game. The CGI was freaking incredible, I was able to pick out who was who (though they claimed that Orgrim Doomhammer was Frostwolf clan, which I thought he was chieftain of his own clan?)... I had more trouble keeping up with the humans, honestly. I agree Llane was just kinda there, Lothar was pretty sweet, young Khadgar made sense, the queen, I couldn't even tell you her name.

Anyhow, it's definitely a movie I'd watch again, just to see if I can spot more tidbits that I might have missed the first time around.

Edit- Removed the part that could be considered spoiler, sorry guys!

[Syreenna]

Ruuki---careful with spoilers! :)

[Ulrezaj]

The orcs were incredibly awesome. I actually want to play them now. The lore changes, in my opinion, had a very intuitive flare to them because, when I read the books, the things they amended were an overall improvement or had been adjustments to the previously unexplained, mysterious, and shady parts of lore. Plus, the books and the film can both be portrayed as canonical because the books were usually told as a narrative from either Drek'thar's memory, or from Thrall's presentation of what Drek'thar taught him, providing room as a tertiary source for misconceptions and fabrications.

I'm especially pleased with Khadgar. He played amazingly well since he wasn't casted as the OP mage with no weaknesses. Medivh was solid. I like that he didn't look like a notable person so that they could emphasize his character and power. Moroes needs to be used again.

The Alliance RTS let's-discuss-the-plan narratives were the worst part imo. It both took away from character building opportunities and there were simply way too many of them. Seriously, they could have consolidated planning sessions into one or two scenes and done something else like show how Stormwind nobility interacts with the peasants or vice versa. That way, we can see why they were so passionate about their kingdom. The Alliance's utopia theme that Anduin Lothar's sister kept projecting should have been spun as a noble's "Let them eat cake" perspective.

Gul'dan was amazing. Seeing Grom makes me wish he was actually a major part of Warlords of Draenor, I hope they actually use him in WoW later on down the line. They captured the violence astonishingly well, making it actually feel like there was a serious problem. They didn't present "The Noble Savage" concept like I worried they would. Instead, the orcs - even the good ones - came off as a group of people who acted upon necessity, doing whatever it takes to survive (with both short-term versus long-term goals in mind as motivating factors).

The critics have based a lot of their reviews on the Mario Bros movie and its presence has so scarred American culture (even after all this time) that it disables them from watching the movie in its full glory.

[Ulrezaj]

Watch this Slam Dunc (one minor spoiler in it fyi).

[Anaie]

What a tosser of an interviewer. Apparently he took down his original posting of the video, and this is a repost from someone else.