For the Chinese mainland film market, which takes IP as its standard, "Warcraft", which has been brought by Wanda's legendary film industry, is tantamount to a huge dose of cardiotonic - local brands are still at the level of online novel adaptation. , but people have even used the game settings to make movies - in the near future, we can also see that although it is difficult to protect itself, Ubisoft's ambitious but ambitious Ubisoft will rush to the big screen with a lot of IP adaptations. Backed by the name of Borderlands, Splinter Cell, and the late Tom Cressey, Assassin's Creed is tantamount to a shirtless whitewash attempt: ” Throwing it to others to do it, I was stunned that it was made into a novelty of the prince’s revenge.
The main body of "Warcraft" spans two major game types, RTS and MMORPG, and builds a grand fictional world and story background. The tribal wars of races and tribes are endless, and it is a milestone that cannot be ignored in the game industry. work. However, from a purely game development point of view, both game genres have declined, making it difficult for them to resonate enough with contemporary players. In terms of stand-alone, RTS is no longer as mainstream as it was in the 1990s. The pleasure outside the game brought by the multiplayer online of "War 3" has been gradually replaced by the cinematic narrative. Even if the background setting is excellent, the interaction between the game world of RTS and the players is outdated, and there are far more games with more mature systems and fresher ideas that have been creating new worlds one after another; After many years of successful operation, although the blood has been lost day by day, it is still a giant with a huge individual body. However, the rise of MOBA caught Blizzard by surprise, and the rushed "Heroes of the Storm" was tepid. Bureau - after all, ass is justice, and there are no bad people who love ass.
For a work of the magnitude of "Warcraft", there must be a lot of excellent work behind it, which has attracted a large number of die-hard players. However, these former glory have in turn become a burden for Blizzard. The higher threshold is not friendly to novices, and other types of bold breakthroughs and attempts are rarely seen (except for Hearthstone, which does not touch the core issue). How to make more effective use of these existing contents to more effectively expand the influence of IP itself?
Movie.
Whether the game belongs to the ninth art or an Urban legend, but the dissemination and influence of the film can truly be called the seventh art. The film industry is larger, more efficient, and more easily accepted and absorbed by more people. As an excellent carrier of information, why not try a movie adaptation?
The answer is hard. The story world of "Warcraft" is really too big, there are too many main characters, and several important events and clue characters seem to be unable to take on the heavy responsibility of seeing the whole picture. From the perspective of game types, both RTS and MMORPG are not story-driven and character-driven, but more task-driven. The former lacks immersion in interactive experience, while the latter relies on players to explore independently. Whether it is abstract reshaping from the background setting or direct adaptation of the game itself, there are many challenges, which is also one of the important factors that the "Warcraft" movie has been difficult to produce for many years.
In comparison, other game adaptations that have a good commercial and word-of-mouth response have one thing in common, that is, the original work has an obvious and highly representative image of the protagonist—this image is exactly what the player is playing in the game. Avatars in the world. The game design of strong characters and strong stories makes it unnecessary to have a grand and complete world view, and can only focus on each adventure experience, which also provides players with a very good immersive environment. The player itself is no longer an observer, but a participant or even a leader of the entire event and story. During the various interactions with the game world, the image of the character itself becomes fuller, and conversely, the story itself has a better appearance. multiple layers and meanings. The logic of such game works and movies is actually consistent, and it is much easier to convert the two. Although "Warcraft" has its successes, the transformation efficiency of the story is obviously much lower due to the influence of loose narrative.
But high difficulty does not mean impossible. With the feelings and love scattered everywhere, Duncan Jones, the "Second Generation of Stars" who has only directed two low-budget sci-fi movies, carried the banner and launched a great and arduous battle.
But again, sentiment does not equal quality. The world would be a lot easier if the two could simply be equated, right?
has the ambition of "The Lord of the Rings", but Duncan Jones does not have Peter Jackson's control over the big scenes and big stories. In two hours, the entire screen was organized by Duncan Jones and the mediocre "Seventh Son" screenwriter Charles Levitt. Looking at the big picture, all that is left are set-style local battles - this is especially obvious in the 50-minute encounter. And the final battle scene greatly exposed Duncan Jones' disappointing scheduling ability. The whole scene was extremely chaotic and unorganized. If it wasn't for the more speechless protagonist's halo plot, it would have been a big investment. The worst war scene in the movie.
On the narrative level, Duncan Jones' inexperienced weaknesses are exposed, the exaggeration and lack of vitality of blindly piling up the irreversible skills of the plot, the lack of convincing settings and development, and the details of the story are not enough to catch people. At the beginning, he smashed the whole world into the audience abruptly, without caring about the feelings of the new audience. Too much subtext makes the rhythm seem spacey, and the shot coherence needs to be improved. Thinking that Peter the Great could make the villain book into three episodes and lengthened "The Hobbit", layer by layer like peeling an onion, this can only be said to be a great waste of excellent material. Epic movies made into cartoons are not even more likable than Blizzard's own CG shorts.
One world, one dream for Alliance and Horde? It was almost consumed by the long foreshadowing and lack of ups and downs in the plot. Although not drowsy, the lengthy and rough action scenes are difficult to excite non-Warcraft fans. "Warcraft" takes a long time to build up a dramatic enough battle, but it always seems to be disrupted by unnecessary plot points. In a way, this is another more crammed Dawn of Justice with many characters and plots always busy targeting potential sequels rather than the movie itself.
The exhausting characterization and plot design in the finished film makes one wonder if Duncan Jones, who was amazing with "Moon" and "Source Code", invested too much love and love in the long shooting process. Enthusiasm, consumes too much energy and leads to malfunction.
In terms of character settings, although there are many events within two hours, the characters still maintain the original settings and cannot escape the shackles of the established image: the leader is still a tall leader, the hero is still a hero who is never confused, and the female warrior can still fight. Men's female warriors, occult warlocks or mysterious warlocks. The actors' performances are also rarely under-tuned and low-energy, and compared to the character development in "Moon" and "Source Code", where the gradual self-discovery and self-knowledge finally reached new heights, it hardly seemed like it was made by one person.
As if the world of Azeroth wasn't quite ready to jump from Blizzard CG into a brutal 3D capital game.
Although the waste of plot and characters has created a big gap for understanding the world of Warcraft, on the other hand, high-quality special effects production kimono transformation is not inferior to any similar movies.
The first is the bright visual effect, which shows a very unique expressive force with the unique aesthetic concept inherited from the game, which can be called a gorgeous and luxurious live-action cosplay. CG enables the film to achieve a very fine and highly restored, full of feelings, whether it is from the magnificent scene shaping or the lifelike biological simulation. Orcs and cities look like the art style in the game. Although the gorgeous decoration and huge shoulder armor are very impractical - I think the frozen shoulder is more terrible than the loss of the head - but it is based on the low-poly modeling in the game back then. An organic extension of the character. Even if the material is inexplicably cheap, even like a rubber skin versus a plastic case, and inexplicably not as textured as "The Lord of the Rings" 15 years ago, the PG13 rating ensures that this bloodless battle will put its best effort into the game. visual impact. In terms of soundtrack, the addition of the original sound of the game and the majestic momentum created by Ramin Javadi, the soundtrack of "Pacific Rim" and "Game of Thrones", have created a sense of grandeur and epic atmosphere, and the effect is really shocking.
And Duncan Jones' willingness to please old players is also revealed in a bird's-eye view lens - it's completely the base of the big map of "War 3".
In fact, the plot of "Warcraft" is not complicated, and there is not much deviation in the introduction of characters. Perhaps the most unforgivable part of the "Warcraft" movie is that due to the lack of emotional connection caused by the dull plot development and flat character setting, it cannot effectively mobilize the emotions of the audience, especially the general audience. After the lack of emotional resonance, the conspiracies and struggles on the screen seem to have nothing to do with the audience, which is embarrassing, especially the forced offline of some IQs, the killing of the plot, and the hasty ending, which is particularly regrettable.
"Warcraft" can do better, there are reasons to do better. A lengthy plot can be condensed into a 5 to 10 minute introduction summary, but after piling up too much content, there is no guarantee that it will hold the audience's attention for 2 hours. If you like the fantasy action drama generated by CG, but don’t want to experience the world view of “Warcraft”, I am afraid that you really need to be willing to Blizzard to act in person. Whether it is a CG feature film or a live-action movie, I am afraid that it will be more touching than this regrettable work that has become a capital plaything.
Whether it is with the mentality of experiencing the past or visiting the new world, "Warcraft" can still provide a good movie viewing pleasure-in the early stages of the movie, the characters and stories can still create some mystery and temptation. , holding the mood of pure entertainment, maybe the look and feel will not be so bad. But the truth is, Warcraft is confusing and exhausting as a film, mixed with flavors, and not pure and straight-forward enough.
"Warcraft" will be much better than most people think, but it is difficult to become a classic that makes people dream.
Considering ILM's excellence in orc-making, if this were a fully animated film - like Rango - it would be a far cry from what it is now: after all, it was originally a CG major. The factory's CG benchmark.
But in short, "Warcraft" is a relatively successful work among the few game adaptation movies so far. For fans of the game who know the story, the performance is above average. For ordinary moviegoers, it's better to try harder.
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