In stark contrast to the fanaticism of fans, "Warcraft" encountered some bad reviews from non-fans. A more representative example is that "Warcraft" has suffered epic bad reviews from film critics and the media on the American entertainment website Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes.
In fact, the release of many IP movies will be accompanied by fierce competition between fans and non-fans regarding their quality, resulting in polarization in word of mouth. This kind of tearing and differentiation has become a topic more worthy of discussion than the quality of the movie itself. The appearance of the "Warcraft" movie marks the emergence of a new member in the IP movie army, and also marks that the war between IP fans and non-fans has risen to a new height.
How did this ripping come about? First of all, from the perspective of a commercial film, subjectively it definitely does not want to cause tearing. In order to make a lot of money in commercial films, it is undoubtedly necessary to serve both sides comfortably. Unfortunately, things often don't go as one wishes. The tearing caused by Dafan IP movies is fundamentally due to the existence of barriers to entry - the information of fans and non-fans is seriously asymmetric. Feelings are not a big problem. If an IP movie has a low threshold, then the cognitive bases of those with feelings and no feelings are similar; only when the threshold is high, there is a cognitive difference between those with feelings and those without feelings. only manifested.
Some comments will compare the tearing caused by Warcraft with the tearing caused by DC, but in fact, the two are still not the same.
It is easier for American comics to lower the threshold, because the core of the story is still superheroes, so it is good to start from the origin, just like Marvel, as long as the audience starts from the beginning, there is no threshold. The threshold for DC's "Bat Chao" is very high, which is also a last resort, because DC's layout of the movie universe is several years behind Marvel, and time is waiting for no one. I believe that if DC also arranges "Bat Chao" after the origin story, there will be a lot of harmony between fans and non-fans.
Is it not easy to make the threshold of Warcraft low? Not so easy. Because it's not about one or a few superheroes, it's about the whole world. It has its own geography, its own history, its own race. In this case, should we start from the origin? No, because the most exciting stories are often millions of years after the creation of the world. The previous history cannot all be filmed in the movie, but it is indispensable as background knowledge. This background knowledge is not an issue for fans, but critical for non-fans. How to choose these background knowledge is a test of the main creator.
How did "Warcraft" do it? How does it lower the bar? It chooses to throw away all background knowledge, not a word. At first glance, it seems that the threshold does not exist, and what is presented to non-fans is a simple story of two armies fighting against each other, which is easy to understand. The main creator of "Warcraft" seems to hope to bring a kind of effect of "a layman watching the fun, an expert watching the doorway", so as to please both fans and non-fans. But when you strip away all aspects of the world and tell a story, the problem arises: the story is too simple. There are heroes and villains on both sides; the villains kidnap the whole family with foreign wars-this setting is still very bad. Most importantly, the threshold doesn't go away on its own just because you avoid it. The origin of the story of "Warcraft" - how did the demise of Draenor, the home of the orcs, happen? The big reversal in the middle of the story-the human guardian Medivh actually colluded with the outside world, and how did it happen? These questions can be answered in the background knowledge, but these answers are not given in the movie, so it seems to non-fans that the plot is advanced for the sake of advancing the plot.
In contrast, "The Lord of the Rings" is much more slick - the opening chapter of "The Fellowship of the Ring" spends a lot of ink depicting the last alliance war at the end of the Second Age and the loss of the Lord of the Rings at the beginning of the Third Age. The history that is most closely linked to the story of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy; it is not mentioned in the earlier history, because it has little influence on the understanding of the story of the trilogy. This choice is very scientific. At the same time, telling the history of the past also shows that this is a huge world, so that audiences who are not fans can also feel a sense of substitution.
In addition to the problem of barriers to entry, there are also problems with the "Warcraft" story itself. "Warcraft" director Duncan Jones has directed many wonderful small-scale works before, such as "Moon" and "Source Code". But his control over the big picture is obviously still insufficient. In this regard, the plot is perfunctory. For example, the human kings, queens and other people faced new races, and it was very easy to believe in Garona, which felt like a pattern. On the other hand, the scene is also perfunctory. For example, the final battle between humans and orcs is too simple and too simple. Cinematography and editing are rigid, and it feels like the battle is incoherent, with both sides slamming into each other. It is understandable for orcs to do this, but what about humans? Why dash too? In the face of orcs with stronger impact than cavalry, and humans are equipped with firearms, why not use the classic combination of musketeers and spearmen against cavalry, and fight against orcs step by step as a camp? Is it to restore the game arms and style of play? But since the games are all live-action and cinematic, the battles should also be more realistic.
Having said so many shortcomings, I think the quality of "Warcraft" is generally qualified. As mentioned above, all the elements that commercial entertainment films should have. And fans and non-fans, there is absolutely no need to fight. Feelings are feelings, and movies are movies. If you are not on the same channel, why are you talking nonsense together? Anyway, the light of feelings can't cover up the shortcomings of the movie, and the shortcomings of the movie can't extinguish the light of feelings.
View more about Warcraft reviews
