PvP and the Warcraft Movie

Indelible — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 00:00:50 GMT

At Blizzcon 2007, Blizzard executives Paul Sams and Chris Metzen as well as Legendary Pictures CEO Thomas Tull and Chief Creative Officer Jon Jashni gave a presentation and held a short Q+A session to answer the crowds questions and to throw the press just enough to let them know that the project is very much alive.

One thing was clear after it all ended. Blizzard are not intending to make another PC game movie but rather an epic story that just so happens to based on lore created for a PC game initially. If we know anything about the Warcraft lore, we know that it is now shaped by far more than the PC games. Novels, comics and even cinematics have been labelled cannon by Blizzard so this just goes to show that this really isn't a PC to big screen conversion.

Another thing that was clear is the epic proportions Blizzard are going to, to make sure this movie is not only a massive success to the already-established fan base but also a massive success to the wider audience who haven't experience Warcraft yet. This is evident from the whopping $100 million budget that's been assigned to it as well as the comparisons to, "300, and, "Gladiator." Warcraft has a lot to live up to, being one of the tent pole movies for 2009.

What amused me was the description Metzen gave for the Warcraft movie, saying it was a, "war," movie. What does this mean? Well clearly it means we are going to be seeing epic battle scenes on a massive scale and this prospects impresses me. They did say, "Lord of the Rings," lots and this was very dangerous ground to tread in my opinion. If they take to much inspiration from the battle scenes in, "Lord of the Rings," the may be accused of copying the material and not giving us Warcraft-specific battle scenes. Then again, I've been playing WoW for a very long time and my idea of a Warcraft-specific battle scene is 8 hours in Alterac Valley. Ah, the good old days - the days when HK farming was perfectly fine because everyone else was doing it.

That leads me to my point. Will there be any familiar battles in this new movie? It would be amazing to see what Legendary think Arathi Basin or Warsong Gultch would look like in their view and I'd love to see Alterac Valley make an appearance in the movie so is it such an outrageous concept? I don't think so. None of the battlegrounds focus on anything other than the Horde v Alliance equation and don't really have massive lore behind them. In fact, they add to the lore, defining the major battles between the two factions. In my eyes, it would be criminal to leave these out and the movies should have at least one in there, at least for nostalgias sake. Come on, Metzen - do a kid a favor.

At the end of the day and as with all Blizzard projects, you never know what to expect. This movie could be a massive success, topping box office sales all over the world. On the other hand, it could be a complete flop.

We shall just have to wait and see but this gamer has one thing to say - say YES to AV for the Warcraft Movie!

Hardcore WoW fans and the Warcraft Movie

Indelible — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 23:17:34 GMT

Warcraft: The Movie has created massive hype, not only in the player base but also outside the player base. Finally, people who are not interested in playing the MMO will be able to see (at least) a small aspect of the Warcraft Universe and what the epic storyline is all about - Horde V Alliance.

Warcraft: The Movie has been defined by Blizzard and Legendary as a war movie sighting examples like 300 and Gladiator; Lord of the Rings and Braveheart, when talking about what they want from the movie. They haven't said whether they are intending to have battles featuring lots of people fighting lots of people but have said that new technology (specifically the technology used in 300) will allow them to make the movie really good. In the end however, it is all down to the Director according to Metzen and we aren't going to be finding out who any time soon.

As Metzen said at the WoW panel at Blizzcon, the Warcraft movie will mainly focus around the Horde V Alliance War and it will be told from the Alliance perspective, specifically humans. To the player base, this might appear like Metzen and co are preparing to step into the realm of clearly defining Alliance as the good guys and Horde as the bad guys. This has, of course, set off rebellions from the hardcore community.

The Alliance players who play the game specifically because of the Alliance are cheering in the forums at the prospect of having themselves portrayed as the be all and end all of good, while the Horde players are sitting, biting their finger nails at the idea of being the bad guys. Is it really going to be this linear or have we been subjected to simplistic movies for too long?

If we know one thing about Metzen, we know that he is capable of creating story lines that are easily followed but deep and meaning full. For example, in the game neither the Horde nor Alliance are evil or good but both are subject to their own conditioning. Both have aspects of good and both have aspects of evil. Will this be portrayed in the movie?

Then there is the worry of characters and to that, we've been told that many characters will be featured in the movie but the main hero is a brand new addition to the franchise. Fans are worried that the franchise is becoming saturated with heroes but many will have noticed that there are no new heroes entering the game at the moment so perhaps this new hero is a good thing.

Next we have the time period it is set in...1 year before the events in WoW. Many fans are worried that this will be none canon in their eyes and ruin the continuity of the Warcraft franchise but Metzen and Legendary have both said that they are not looking to create a PC game move but that they are looking to create a movie BASED on a franchise that just so happened to emerge in the gaming industry.

So there are a lot of things for fans to be worried about and we shall have to wait until 2009 to see what we think. Interestingly however is the use of, "properties," when referring to Legendary being the new home of Warcraft in Hollywood. That is a plural and considering the recent Diablo fiasco on the Legendary website, could it be that this is a small hint the Legendary have the movie making rights to ALL of the Blizzard franchises? Could we see not only Warcraft but Diablo and Starcraft coming out of Legendary in the next decade?

The Daily Quest : legendary

PvP and the Warcraft Movie

Hardcore WoW fans and the Warcraft Movie