So, I get the idea you didn't like it much. I can't speak at all to the movie, but your review is fantastic. Not sure how you turned something so lame into real entertainment, but you did. Well done. Forever and ever I will pass on WoW. I never liked orcs anyway.
I liked the movie quite a bit, but primarily for Khadgar the apprentice mage, that said I'd rather take a murder-mystery fantasy story in a small town over another big-project that's badly done and handled as you said.
Excellent essay. While I like this movie the criticism you level at it is absolutely correct on every point!
Glad you can see my side of things, even if we disagree on the entertainment value of it all. I’d love to see a fantasy murder mystery. Thanks for reading!
I don’t think we wholly disagree, as I agree with much of what you said even as I enjoyed the film… ok now I sound weird, but anyways this was a great read. Also a murder mystery could be interesting, one involving a hero like Khadgar trouble is I doubt hollywood is smart enough to produce such a story nowadays.
The bonus features on the dvd showed the director and such talking about how passionate they were and I thought that would’ve made the story more likely to be really good. Guess they got a little carried away.
Great insights! And yeah, I watched the WoW movie one time and I was so severely underwhelmed that I've purged most of it from my memory. Your review was therefore funny and perfect 😂
I found a list of fantasy movies/tv shows made in the last twenty years and so many of them have made zero impact. I watched the first Fantastic Beasts movie, but until looking at that list, I completely forgot it was a thing.
quality > quantity! Storytelling can't be compromised. Entertainment shouldn't be distinct from storytelling--if its done well it all works together. A question for you--is this a problem with fantasy stories broadly understood, be they in writing or cinema? or is this a cinema specific issue with translating fantasy onto the screen?
It’s certainly easier to spot the spectacle over substance when it comes to movies. I’ve heard that Netflix is now writing movies with the expectation that the audience isn’t paying full attention to the plot, so there goes good stories even more. So yes, movies are being made with buzzwords and battles in mind, not making good characters. (I tried watching The Wheel of Time show and couldn’t make it through season one.)
I haven’t read any new fantasy books in a long time; I’m not sure what they’re doing anymore. But if the rise of romantasy is any indication, they’re not too concerned with strong plots and interesting characters. I doubt we’re likely to see Tolkien-esque poetry being included in a new bestseller.
People’s attention spans are being shot to blazes and the type of stories that are remembered don’t mesh with what a Tiktok mind gravitates to, and movies and tv shows have suffered for it. Books might hold out for a bit longer, but I don’t have much hope of seeing any great fantasy books from a mainstream publisher for a good while.
Yeah, most fantasy is competing to simply not be “too bad,” which means most of it is still bad. I don’t remember the D&D movie being that woke; I think it could’ve been a whole lot worse.
Very interesting. the WoW movie certainly sounds like a hot mess. But the so is Hogwarts when you know the REAL story (wink wink)
I don’t even know how they edited it at all. There’s just so much stuff in there.
So, I get the idea you didn't like it much. I can't speak at all to the movie, but your review is fantastic. Not sure how you turned something so lame into real entertainment, but you did. Well done. Forever and ever I will pass on WoW. I never liked orcs anyway.
Thanks! I had fun writing it. More so than I did watching the movie.
I liked the movie quite a bit, but primarily for Khadgar the apprentice mage, that said I'd rather take a murder-mystery fantasy story in a small town over another big-project that's badly done and handled as you said.
Excellent essay. While I like this movie the criticism you level at it is absolutely correct on every point!
Glad you can see my side of things, even if we disagree on the entertainment value of it all. I’d love to see a fantasy murder mystery. Thanks for reading!
I don’t think we wholly disagree, as I agree with much of what you said even as I enjoyed the film… ok now I sound weird, but anyways this was a great read. Also a murder mystery could be interesting, one involving a hero like Khadgar trouble is I doubt hollywood is smart enough to produce such a story nowadays.
Yeah, that movie was bad. And not for any of the obvious reasons like wokism etc. Just bad.
Warcraft has huge, sprawling and frequently retconned lore. IMO they tried to cover too much of it for a single
movie. There is no reason they couldn’t make a good one from the source material.
The bonus features on the dvd showed the director and such talking about how passionate they were and I thought that would’ve made the story more likely to be really good. Guess they got a little carried away.
Great insights! And yeah, I watched the WoW movie one time and I was so severely underwhelmed that I've purged most of it from my memory. Your review was therefore funny and perfect 😂
I found a list of fantasy movies/tv shows made in the last twenty years and so many of them have made zero impact. I watched the first Fantastic Beasts movie, but until looking at that list, I completely forgot it was a thing.
Glad I could entertain you with this review!
Well, yikes! I am certainly glad I did not watch THAT movie...and never shall!!
Haha! Yeah, it’s not even “so bad, it’s good.” Glad I could steer you away from it.
quality > quantity! Storytelling can't be compromised. Entertainment shouldn't be distinct from storytelling--if its done well it all works together. A question for you--is this a problem with fantasy stories broadly understood, be they in writing or cinema? or is this a cinema specific issue with translating fantasy onto the screen?
It’s certainly easier to spot the spectacle over substance when it comes to movies. I’ve heard that Netflix is now writing movies with the expectation that the audience isn’t paying full attention to the plot, so there goes good stories even more. So yes, movies are being made with buzzwords and battles in mind, not making good characters. (I tried watching The Wheel of Time show and couldn’t make it through season one.)
I haven’t read any new fantasy books in a long time; I’m not sure what they’re doing anymore. But if the rise of romantasy is any indication, they’re not too concerned with strong plots and interesting characters. I doubt we’re likely to see Tolkien-esque poetry being included in a new bestseller.
People’s attention spans are being shot to blazes and the type of stories that are remembered don’t mesh with what a Tiktok mind gravitates to, and movies and tv shows have suffered for it. Books might hold out for a bit longer, but I don’t have much hope of seeing any great fantasy books from a mainstream publisher for a good while.
Yeah, most fantasy is competing to simply not be “too bad,” which means most of it is still bad. I don’t remember the D&D movie being that woke; I think it could’ve been a whole lot worse.