Warcraft: The Beginning

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Movie
German title Warcraft: The Beginning
Original title Warcraft
Logo de Warcraft.jpeg
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2016
length 124 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
JMK 12
Rod
Director Duncan Jones
script Charles Leavitt ,
Duncan Jones
production Thomas Tull ,
Jon Jashni ,
Charles Roven ,
Alex Gartner ,
Stuart Fenegan
music Ramin Djawadi
camera Simon Duggan
cut Paul Hirsch
occupation
synchronization

Warcraft The Beginning (Original title Warcraft , English for warfare ) is an American fantasy film from the year 2016 , which on the Warcraft - Franchise by Blizzard Entertainment is based. The two film studios Legendary Pictures and Universal Pictures produced the film in collaboration with Blizzard. The film is the first real-life adaptation of a Blizzard game. He tells the events of the very first Warcraft real-time strategy game Warcraft: Orcs & Humans from 1994 with some freedom and is also based on parts of the book World of Warcraft - The Rise of the Horde .

Directed by Duncan Jones , who wrote the script with Charles Leavitt . The main roles in the film were played by Travis Fimmel , Paula Patton , Ben Foster , Dominic Cooper , Toby Kebbell , Ben Schnetzer , Robert Kazinsky , Clancy Brown and Daniel Wu .

The film was released in German cinemas on May 26, 2016 in 2D, 3D and IMAX 3D .

action

The orc Durotan, chief of the Frostwolf clan, and his heavily pregnant wife Draka live in the world of Draenor, the homeworld of the orcs and draenei. Below are green orcs who have been strengthened by the orc sorcerer Gul'dan using his Fel magic, which feeds on the energy of living beings, and brown orcs who are free from Gul'dan's influence. Draenor is nearing its end, and the orcs are trying to find a new home for their race. Gul'dan therefore uses Fel magic to open a gate to the fertile world of Azeroth, which has been inhabited in peaceful coexistence for years by a multitude of different races - humans, elves and dwarves. A horde of the best orc warriors step through the portal to build a new gate on Azeroth which, fed by Fel magic, can pave the way for the rest of the orcs on Draenor to reach Azeroth. In addition to Durotan and Draka, Gul'dan also follow Orgrim, Durotan's best friend, Blackhand, a loyal servant of Gul'dan, as well as the half-Orc woman Garona, who is supposed to work as a translator for Gul'dan, through the gateway to Azeroth. Draka gives birth after the transit between the two worlds, and Gul'dan uses his Fel magic to save the child from certain death.

The orcs begin attacking human villages and taking prisoners to power their gate. When the first attacks on remote outposts of mankind become known, Anduin Lothar, knight of the human kingdom Stormwind and brother-in-law of the king, is entrusted with the investigation of these incidents. Lothar receives the initially unwanted help from the young magician Khadgar, a former student of the Kirin-Tor order, but who broke off his training after he felt the arrival of Fel on Azeroth. While examining a corpse from one of the orc raids, Khadgar discovers traces of Fel magic on it, and together with Lothar he turns to Medivh, the guardian of Tirisfal and one of the most powerful magicians of Azeroth. After telling Medivh of the raids and the existence of the Fel, a plan is made to capture an orc and question him about the plans of his armed forces. During their search, Lothar, Medivh, Khadgar and their escort are attacked by the orcs; however, by tapping a trail of Fel magic, Medivh can kill any orcs infested with Fel magic. Durotan, Orgrim, and Blackhand successfully escape while Garona is captured alive.

With protection from King Wrynn and his wife Taria Garona, she takes trust and tells them about Gul'dan's plans. She leads Lothar and Khadgar to the orcs' camp, where the construction of the portal for supplies is already in full swing. Lothar immediately goes back to Stormwind to warn the king and his allies of the impending danger. Before Garona and Khadgar can retreat afterwards, they are intercepted by Durotan, who proposes an alliance with the Frostwolf clan in order to stop Gul'dan's plan, since Durotan the dark nature of Gul'dan and the danger posed by Fel magic for his family and the orcs. The humans enter into a negotiation with Durotan's clan, but both groups are attacked by Gul'dan's henchmen who have set up an ambush under Orgrim's orders. Medivh is able to ensure the retreat of the king, Lothar and Garonas with a magical barrier wall, but Lothar's son Callan is accidentally separated from the rest of the delegation by the wall and killed by Blackhand in front of his father.

Convinced of the danger they face but unable to unite the other races of Azeroth in a war alliance, Wrynn sees no choice but to accept Durotan's suggestion and begins an expedition to free the prisoners the target of the orcs. Meanwhile, Khadgar investigates the portal, but is also terrified to discover that Medivh is possessed by Fel magic and has brought the orcs to Azeroth. Medivh gives Wrynn the false hope that the Frostwolf Clan has prepared to fight by their side, and arrests Lothar, who is in deep crisis after the loss of Callan. Looking for help, Khadgar returns to the Kirin Tor and is contacted by Alodi, the legendary first guardian of Tirisfal, who encourages him to trust his abilities and his friends. Meanwhile, the Orcs denounce the entire Frostwolf clan as traitors to the Horde, but Orgrim, who regrets the betrayal of his friend, helps Draka and her son Go'el to escape. Then he frees Durotan, who challenges Gul'dan to a Mak'gora (an honorable duel to the life and death). However, Gul'dan uses Fel magic to kill Durotan. Meanwhile, Draka is caught and killed by Gul'dan's orcs, but can first put Go'el in a wicker basket in a river. Khadgar returns to Stormwind City and frees Lothar from prison, and together they set out to stop Medivh.

When Wrynn arrive at the orc camp with Garona and his human army, they find the crucified corpses of the Frostwolf orcs and an overwhelming superiority of their enemies. Meanwhile, the corrupted guardian uses the power of Fel magic to open the gate between Draenor and Azeroth, and gradually transforms into an image of the demonic power that lies behind Fel magic. In order to kill Lothar and Khadgar, Medivh activates a golem , on which he was still working before his corruption, but the two companions can outsmart the guard and withdraw the fel from Medivh. Wrynn's army pushes forward to the prisoners, can free them and send them through the portal, which the dying Medivh reactivates as a last atonement, in order to open a way back to Stormwind for them. However, when Medivh finally dies, the portal collapses, cutting off Wrynn's army from retreating. Surrounded on all sides and with death before his eyes, Wrynn orders the reluctant Garona to kill him and thus become a heroine among the orcs, so that she can work from her side towards a peaceful solution between humans and orcs. Shortly afterwards, Lothar appears on the battlefield and is challenged to a Mak'gora by Blackhand, who was strengthened by Gul'dan's Fel. However, Lothar can kill Blackhand. Gul'dan refuses to accept Lothar's victory, but Garona reminds him of the rules of Mak'gora, and the orcs let Lothar go away unmolested with King Wrynn's body.

Back in Stormwind, Lothar finds Garona's dagger on Wrynn's body, misunderstands the evidence and believes she has betrayed the king. With Wrynn's death, however, the other races of Azeroth were also united against the Horde, and Lothar is appointed supreme commander of the new allied force. Meanwhile, Orgrim leaves the orc horde to look for Go'el and pass on the memory of his brave father to him, and Go'el is fished out of the river by a few humans.

production

Genesis and Staff

A press release dated May 6, 2006 first announced plans to collaborate between Blizzard Entertainment and Legendary Pictures for a Warcraft film. At BlizzCon 2008, Mike Morhaime confirmed that the script had already been finalized. On July 22, 2009 it was announced that Sam Raimi, who was best known for the Spider-Man trilogy, was hired to direct the film. Raimi announced on October 12, 2009 that Robert Rodat would be writing a new script, centered on the history of the Alliance, for the film, which was then planned to be released in 2011. On July 13, 2012, Sam Raimi announced that he would no longer serve as a director after directing The Fantastic World of Oz . In a later interview, he stated that Robert Rodat had worked on the script and it was accepted by Legendary Pictures, but Blizzard Entertainment used a contractual veto to tell the Horde and Alliance perspectives.

On August 2, 2012 it was announced that Charles Leavitt would write a new script. On January 30, 2013 it was announced that Duncan Jones would be directing. In addition, he will write the script. Jones had previously received the BAFTA for best newcomer as well as several other awards with his directorial debut Moon and was able to convince the critics with his second film Source Code . Both films hold a very good Rotten Tomatoes - review .

At PAX East on April 23, 2016, Jones explained that it was mainly the orcs that made him want to direct. Jones had taken a look at the script while Sam Raimi was still overseeing the project. However, he only saw the orcs as villains for the plot, which Jones found inappropriate and Blizzard therefore submitted its own script that portrayed the orcs and humans as both good and bad.

"They have just this amazing thing they created and we want to treat it with as much respect as we can."

"They (Blizzard) have this amazing thing ( Warcraft ) that they created and we will treat it with a lot of respect."

- Duncan Jones : About the announcement that he would be directing

"When I made my pitch, everyone was so relieved."

"When I presented my idea, everyone was so relieved."

- Duncan Jones : About his script change

Warcraft , which cost $ 160 million to produce, is Jones' first fantasy film . The Hollywood Reporter reported in September 2015 that Legendary Pictures and Universal Pictures producers identified Warcraft as a "problem movie." The reason for this is the high budget and the fear that the film will not be successful. Jones disagreed with that. According to their own statement, fans of the computer game series should rediscover elements in the film that they themselves know from the game. According to Jones, Warcraft fans will feel right at home in the movie. The film tells the events from the very first Warcraft real-time strategy game Warcraft: Orcs & Humans from 1994 and is based on parts of the novel World of Warcraft - The Rise of the Horde (original title World of Warcraft - Rise of the Horde ) by Christie Golden , which was published in German by Panini-Verlag in 2007 and tells the prehistory of the coexistence of draenei and orcs on Draenor. In this way, moviegoers can also be addressed who do not know the background story of the games and want to be taken to Azeroth.

“It's not about just turning a game into a movie. It's about finding the elements of the game that made you love it and finding a way to translate it all into a completely different medium - the linear narrative of the film. If you find something that is essential, human, and worth telling, and the right characters to guide you through the story, that story will work. "

- Duncan Jones : About the special challenges that arose when adapting the game template

Cast and dubbing

The role of Anduin Lothar, the leader of the Alliance, was cast in October 2013 with Travis Fimmel . The actor said he had never heard of Warcraft before and admitted, "To be honest, I had no idea what I was getting myself into." The Horde protagonist, Durotan, was cast in December 2013 with Toby Kebbell . In addition, the cast of Ben Foster , Paula Patton , Dominic Cooper and Robert Kazinsky was announced in the same month . In December 2013 Daniel Wu and Clancy Brown also joined the crew. At the beginning of March 2014, the young actor Burkely Duffield joined the crew. During a presentation at BlizzCon 2014, a number of additional actors were announced who will take on minor roles in the film.

Most of the actors received mostly new German voices. Dominic Cooper is voiced by his main voice Robin Kahnmeyer , just as Travis Fimmel is dubbed by Björn Schalla , as in the TV series Vikings as Ragnar Lothbrok. In addition, the YouTubers from ApeCrime ( Cengiz Dogrul , Andre Schiebler and Jan-Christoph Meyer ) were hired as voice actors. They each spoke a human and an orc in the film, as Universal announced.

role Actor / original speaker Voice actor
Anduin Lothar Travis Fimmel Björn Schalla
Garona Paula Patton Vera Teltz
Medivh Ben Foster Marcel Collé
Llane Wrynn Dominic Cooper Robin Kahnmeyer
Durotan Toby Kebbell Alexander Doering
Khadgar Ben Schnetzer Julius Jellinek
Orgrim Robert Kazinsky Tommy Morgenstern
Blackhand Clancy Brown Tilo Schmitz
Gul'dan Daniel Wu Martin Keßler

Filming and post-production

The shooting took place mainly in Vancouver , started on January 13, 2014 and ended on May 23, 2014. The actors who slipped into the roles of orcs were also present during the shooting and stood next to the actors in front of the camera. However, the characters they played were animated in a post-production using CGI . Like every other member of the Orc Horde, Durotan was completely computer generated. During the shooting, Kebbell had to wear a suit with marking points on it, and his movements and facial expressions were scanned using the motion capture process and later edited. That the characters still have human traits is shown right at the beginning of the film in a scene in which an orc sheds tears. Critics later described the sensitive close-up of the orcish eye area as convincing, and this breathed enough life into the character to make it forget its artificiality and to make the emotional narrative of the film believable. Other critics commented later on the use of CGI, this had not really worth it despite the great effort, and in combination with the live-action elements of the film, this leads to is that this lifeless anfühle and the viewer too much from Film distance .

In addition to Helen Jarvis and Rod McLean , who accompanied the filming and were responsible for the post-production of the film as art directors , Ken Murano was responsible for the interface between the filming, post-production and visual effects as motion capture technical supervisor. Here, the image material created on the computer was combined with the real film recordings. The visual effects implemented by CGI were realized by Industrial Light & Magic , led by film technician Bill Westenhofer , who received an Oscar for the best visual effects for The Golden Compass and Life of Pi: Shipwreck with Tiger . Industrial Light & Magic developed a new type of motion capturing process to represent the orcs. With the help of this novel motion capturing process, Gul'dan, Durotan, Orgrim, Blackhand, Grommash Hellscream and Draka were ultimately about half of all characters in the film on the computer. Hal Hickel, the animation supervisor for the film, said of the work of his team: Technology gives us a lot of weird and interrelated details about the face that an animator may not necessarily think about. This allows the animators to concentrate on the last ten percent of what makes a scene look really nice. Instead of all that hard work getting it to 90 percent, you can really focus on the little things that really make it special [...]. Everyone had a philosophy in developing this project, which is that we will use the motion capture services as much as possible, as well as the live action performances.

According to Industrial Light & Magic's visual effects supervisor Jason Smith, the character details required forced the company to move forward in many areas. New technologies such as Haircraft, Muscle Meters, and Tusk Deformer are said to be some of the best visual effects the company has ever developed, says Smith. The new technologies were partly co-developed by Pixar . The Company used for realistic and concept faithful representation of the worlds of Azeroth and Draenor, and the figures books , comics , art books , as well as concept art from Blizzard Entertainment. VFX supervisor Bill Westenhofer , who is familiar with the game , campaigned for the integration of a Murloc as an Easter egg for the fans. According to Thomas Tull , the entire post-production took more than 20 months.

Equipment and costumes

Gavin Bocquet was responsible for the production design and thus for the equipment of the film set on which the actual shooting took place.

In 2013 it was announced that Nick Carpenter , Vice President of the Art and Cinematic Department at Blizzard, was planning to work with Weta Workshop , a New Zealand film project service provider, on the film. Weta Workshop was previously best known for its props in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit . Weta Workshop created many props for the film, including the armor of the people and the weapons of the characters. After filming was finished, Weta Workshop sold many of the props from the film, some as copies of the originals.

Mayes C. Rubeo had designed other costumes, which in the film were almost exclusively worn by human figures that were not animated on the computer . Here, Rubeo was based heavily on templates from the game. Rubeo had previously designed costumes for epic fantasy films for the films Apocalypto , Avatar - Departure for Pandora and John Carter - Between Two Worlds .

Sound design and film music

Wylie Stateman , who has already been nominated for seven Oscars , was responsible for the sound editing of the film as Supervising Sound Editor.

In October 2014 it was announced that Ramin Djawadi would write the music for the film, which should be based heavily on World of Warcraft . Djawadi had previously been nominated for three Emmys , for example for the theme song for the series Prison Break and for his work on the series Game of Thrones and FlashForward . The 61:04 min long soundtrack was released on iTunes on May 27, 2016 and was released on CD by Back Lot Music on June 10, 2016 . The first title of the soundtrack, Warcraft , was released in advance on May 13, 2016 . The score also contains original pieces from the Warcraft games. The soundtrack reached its highest position in the German iTunes album charts at number 81 in June 2016 and stayed there for two days. In December 2016, the soundtrack was included in the list of candidates (longlist) as a candidate for the 2017 Academy Awards in the category Best Film Music , but was not nominated.

Title list of the soundtrack

  1. Warcraft - 1:58
  2. The Horde - 3:17
  3. Medivh - 2:43
  4. Honor - 4:45
  5. Forrest Ambush - 3:43
  6. Lothar - 3:35
  7. Gul'dan - 3:13
  8. The Beginning - 2:29
  9. Strong Bones - 1:34
  10. Victory and Defeat - 3:02
  11. The Book - 2:27
  12. Two Worlds Colliding - 3:22
  13. The Incantation - - 3:43
  14. Half Orc, Half Human - 1:26
  15. Whatever Happens - 1:43
  16. My Gift to You - 2:31
  17. Llane's Solution - 7:25
  18. Mak'gora - 5:01
  19. For Azeroth - 2:49

Marketing, exploitation and accompanying works

Director Duncan Jones at Comic-Con 2015

At the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con , visitors were presented with a teaser depicting a fight between a human and an orc. On the BlizzCon 2013 and 2014 were each panel held for the film. At the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con, visitors were shown six minutes of film scenes. The reactions to the film scenes were positive; Collider Jones' emotional approach is praised as well as the technique, which in the Orcs even exceeds the “fantastic effects” from Planet of the Apes: Revolution . Slashfilm headlined the film scenes: “Think of a dirtier, darker, more reserved avatar . It feels like a video game that has been turned into a movie. "

During BlizzCon 2015, the first official trailer was released and the official title Warcraft: The Beginning announced. In the US, the film continues to be titled as Warcraft . Several commercials and movie posters were released in January, February and March 2016 . The second official trailer was released on April 19, 2016. The action scenes and visual effects were praised, but the music used in the trailer was heavily criticized. GameStar wrote : "A mix of Call of Duty style and dubstep , which at first glance seems quite strange and somehow out of place." Duncan Jones also distanced himself from the choice of music and made it clear that the finished film will use Djawadi's own music . At PAX East on April 23, 2016, a panel was held and a trailer was shown, which included both old and new scenes. At the end of April 2016, an international trailer in English and Japanese was published. In mid-May 2016, several new commercials, some film scenes and some film posters were published that depict the actors and their motion-capture counterparts. On May 18, 2016, Legendary released a making-of of the film entitled A Look Inside . The almost two-and-a-half-minute video presented new scenes from the film, the individual characters and various actors and the director Duncan Jones have their say. Four new TV spots were released at the same time.

On May 24, 2016, Madame Tussauds Berlin opened a Warcraft extension to the film in its exhibition rooms . The Tussauds exhibition shows life-size wax figures of the two main actors Travis Fimmel and Paula Patton in their costumes as Anduin Lothar and Garona. A Warcraft expansion had also opened in Madame Tussauds London .

Blizzard devised a marketing campaign in which every World of Warcraft player who logs into the game within two months of its theatrical release will receive transmogrification weapons. In addition, from the day of the premiere in Germany, visitors to the film can use a code that they receive in connection with the admission ticket to obtain a free digital version of the World of Warcraft series and get 30 days of playing time. This version of the game includes all expansions up to and including Warlords of Draenor . Cinemaxx is committed to Germany as a partner. Blizzard also released Legion , the sixth expansion for World of Warcraft , on August 30, 2016.

On May 23, 2016, a few days before the German theatrical release, the official book for the film, Warcraft - The Official History of the Film (original title Warcraft Official Movie Novelization ), was published. The book, jointly edited by Legendary and Blizzard Entertainment, was published by Panini-Verlag and was published in English by Titan Books on June 3, 2016 . The companion is written by Christie Golden , who has written several Warcraft novels.

On the start day, Zauberfeder Verlag published Warcraft: The Beginning - Behind the Scenes (original title Warcraft: Behind the Dark Portal ) by the author Daniel Wallace. The English original was published by Legendary Pictures, Universal Pictures and Blizzard Entertainment and was released by Insight Editions in the United States and by Titan Books in Europe on June 3, 2016 .

publication

On October 1, 2013, it was announced that the film would be released on December 18, 2015. The release date was first postponed to March 11, 2016, later to May 26, 2016 in order not to compete with the films Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice . The film was first shown on May 24, 2016 as part of an official preview at the Grand Rex in Paris . The film celebrated its German premiere on May 25, 2016 at the Sony Center in Berlin on Potsdamer Platz. On May 26, 2016 the film was released by Universal Pictures in 2D, 3D and IMAX 3D in German cinemas. The release date in China was June 8, 2016, and June 10, 2016 in the United States.

As early as May 9, 2016, the film was presented to selected journalists in the USA as part of press screenings. The first impressions of the film were consistently positive.

reception

Age rating

In Germany, the film was approved by the FSK from the age of 12 because the events in it were clearly fictional and explicit cruelty was dispensed with. The certificate of release states: The understandable story is staged in opulent images and with numerous mass and action scenes, but also offers calm and figure-centered passages that provide emotional relief. Good and bad can always be clearly distinguished, and the use of numerous familiar motifs from films and games makes it easier for young viewers to find their way around.

Reviews

Warcraft met with little enthusiasm from professional film reviews. The film was only able to convince 28 percent of the Rotten Tomatoes critics (out of a total of 190 reviews). The consensus states that "Duncan Jones is wasting his talent and the film is a lame adaptation of a successful game". At least Warcraft offers "visual thrills". On Metacritic , the film scores 32 out of 100 points (out of a total of 40 critics).

Variety's Geoff Berkshire saw a problem with the film in the fact that the filmmaker was trying to tell a story with soul, but had to fight against the ridiculousness inherent in the material on which he was based and therefore it was predictable that an expensive and nonsensical adaptation of the online game could at best be moderately successful on an artistic level. Even if the world in which the film is set was created elaborately from the film music and in a comprehensive post-production by CGI, Berkshire describes its content as trite and kitschy.

Fans of the Warcraft games, however, rated the cinematic adaptation more positively. Michael Graf from GameStar admitted that it was probably the most expensive fan film of all time, but the film was also produced with an unbelievable and unbelievably lavish attention to detail. He describes the result as a "visually stunning epic", to which he, as a Warcraft fan, notes every second that it was a matter close to his heart to bring Azeroth to the screen. Graf also notes: "With its grandiose panoramas, costumes and backdrops, 'Warcraft: The Beginning' captures the look of the games and the legendary Blizzard render sequences excellently." However, Graf also criticizes some of the fight scenes: "You can tell that the fight -Choreography doesn't always work, maybe because the digital orcs are so much bigger than humans. "

Tobias Heidemann from the games magazine GIGA , on the other hand, is convinced of the fight and action scenes in the film: “Everything has momentum and direction. The physical momentum is skilfully guided through the scenery, the perspectives are well chosen, and the human actors never appear to be shadow boxing with tennis balls. In short: The visual kinetics work. ”However, Heidemann noticed another thing negatively: He said that even if the conceptual concerns behind the design decisions were very sympathetic and gave many fans a few nice moments of recognition, the members of the alliance would watch a lot often looking for live role-players .

Regarding the suitability of the film for cinema-goers who do not know the original game, critics say that those who do not already know the universe often do not understand the film; The film explains - despite its simplifications - often far too little, and thereby loses many of its special charms, even if a viewer without prior knowledge would have to find their way due to the tight pace of the film and the interesting characters in it.

David Kleingers of Spiegel Online has an explanation for why the narrative was not important for the success of the computer game, but cinema-goers who have no knowledge of the original game might be put off: “The film's lack of narrative originality , was never a problem for the groundbreaking strategy and role-playing games of the 'Warcraft' universe, on the contrary: They consciously rely on generic scenarios borrowed from Tolkien and other relevant sources to make it easier for users to get started. ”Next, says Kleingers, Jones fail because of the thankless task of developing a coherent narrative from motifs and set pieces from the Warcraft computer game series, and deliver only a low-tension déjà-vu that persists in the general places of the genre without any ideas of its own. Kleingers sums up: "Seldom has there been a more joyless fairytale and myth salad than in Azeroth, the scene of the action , which is somewhere between Camelot , Disneyland and Middle-earth for package tourists."

David Steinitz complains in the Süddeutsche Zeitung about the film's "total failure of the plot": the dialogues are "miserable", the film is in a "staid dramaturgical corset" and is overall "incredibly boring".

Björn Becher from Filmstarts.de , on the other hand, saw an “optically bombastic fantasy action adventure” which “thanks to the consistently high speed” offers “action-packed pleasure” for the audience. Becher praised the camera work by Simon Duggan and the motion capture recordings of the orcs. In terms of narration, the film remains fragmentary, but purely directing, Duncan Jones plays "in the top blockbuster league". Since many conflicts and storylines could only be sketched out in this first part, there was still “room for improvement” for the sequels.

Audience reaction

The reaction of the audience was, unlike that of the critics, clearly positive. Viewers on Rotten Tomatoes gave the film 3.9 out of 5 points (out of a total of 53,829 ratings). In addition, the film has an audience rating of 8.3 out of 10 on Metacritic (out of 2,585 total ratings) and an audience rating of 7.1 out of 10 on IMDb (out of 154,635 total ratings).

In addition, most of the users on MMO-Champion , an online portal and Internet forum about World of Warcraft and other Blizzard games, as well as on the official World of Warcraft forum, rated their cinema experience as very positive.

Gross profit

While Warcraft flopped at the box office in the USA, the film was internationally successful: the budget of 160 million US dollars is offset by worldwide box office revenues of almost 434 million US dollars so far. This makes Warcraft the 13th most successful film of 2016 and the most successful film adaptation of a computer game to date.

The film started on May 26, 2016 in 11 international markets, including Germany, Russia, France and Denmark, at number 1 in the cinema charts with a total grossing of 9.3 million US dollars on the first day. The film was particularly successful in China, where it grossed US $ 46 million on the first day alone and set new records for weekday cinema revenues and cinema revenues from Chinese IMAX theaters. The film kept this top position until Fast & Furious 8 was released in Chinese cinemas. Warcraft: The Beginning grossed more than $ 220 million in China alone. In North America, however, the film fell far short of expectations and grossed only $ 47 million there.

In Germany, the film had its best theatrical release of 2016 on the launch day with 160,000 viewers and a turnover of 1.9 million EUR. In the launch week, the film attracted 542,931 visitors to cinemas in Germany. The film recorded a total of 1,235,017 visitors in Germany and sales of around EUR 14 million, which puts it in 16th place in the annual ranking.

Awards

Annie Awards 2016

  • Nomination in the category Animated Effects in a Live Action Production
  • Nomination in the Character Animation in a Live Action Production category

VES Awards 2017

  • Nomination for the character Durotan in the category Outstanding Animated Performance in a Photoreal Feature

future

The making of a trilogy depends on the financial success of Warcraft: The Beginning , according to Duncan Jones. Chris Metzen and he already have ideas for the second and third part. Metzen ended his career at the beginning of September 2016, which means that the creative development of a possible sequel is unclear.

In February 2018, director Jones commented on a sequel. He would still be ready to take over the direction of the sequel, but is just as unclear about the possibilities of a sequel as the people responsible.

Web links

Commons : Warcraft: The Beginning  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release Certificate for Warcraft: The Beginning . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; test number: 159812 / K). Template: FSK / maintenance / type not set and Par. 1 longer than 4 characters
  2. ^ Age rating for Warcraft: The Beginning . Youth Media Commission .
  3. ↑ Markus Fiedler: Warcraft: The Beginning in the Film Critics - The Orcs Conquer the Big Screen. In: pcgames.de from May 25, 2016. Retrieved May 29, 2016.
  4. ↑ a b c Jochen Redinger: Warcraft: The Beginning - All information about the film start. In: gamestar.de from May 25, 2016. Retrieved May 29, 2016.
  5. ↑ Norbert Rätz: Warcraft The Beginning: A brilliant cinema release in Germany - record sales expected! In: buffed.de on May 28, 2016. Retrieved on May 29, 2016.
  6. ^ Blizzard Entertainment and Legendary Pictures to produce live-action Warcraft movie ( Memento November 25, 2007 on the Internet Archive ). Retrieved December 11, 2015. (English)
  7. ↑ Alex Billington: World of Warcraft Movie Still on the Horizon? In: firstshowing.net of October 15, 2008. Accessed December 11, 2015. (English)
  8. ↑ Medievaldragon: Sam Raimi Announces Robert Rodat as Warcraft Film writer In: blizzplanet.com of October 12, 2009. Accessed December 11, 2015. (English)
  9. ↑ Rae Grimm: No Warcraft Film for Sam Raimi In: ign.com, July 18, 2012. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
  10. ↑ Kyle Buchanan: Sam Raimi on Oz, The Avengers, and Two Huge Movies He Never Made In: vulture.com, March 5, 2013. Retrieved December 11, 2015. (English)
  11. ↑ Max Nicholson: K-PAX Scribe to Pen World of Warcraft In: ign.com from August 2, 2012. Accessed December 12, 2015. (English)
  12. ↑ Borys Kit: Warcraft Movie Lands Source Code Director In: hollywoodreporter.com from January 30, 2013. Accessed December 11, 2015. (English)
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  27. ↑ Mike Fleming Jr: Paul Dano, Travis Fimmel, Anson Mount, Anton Yelchin On 'Warcraft' Short List In: deadline.com of September 23, 2013. Accessed December 12, 2015. (English)
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  29. ↑ Justin Kroll: Ben Foster, Toby Kebbell, Rob Kazinsky Join 'Warcraft' for Legendary. In: variety.com of December 4, 2013. Retrieved December 12, 2015. (English)
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  31. ↑ Legendary Pictures: Daniel Wu & Clancy Brown to join the cast In: twitter.com of December 18, 2013. Accessed on May 20, 2016. (English)
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  52. ↑ Megan Farokhmanesh: World of Warcraft film post-production will take about 20 months to 'get right' In polygon.com on May 6, 2014. Retrieved on February 17, 2016.
  53. ↑ Matt Goldberg: New 'Warcraft' Featurette Focuses on the Super Nerdy Production Design In: collider.com, May 24, 2016.
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  56. ↑ Aaron Sagers: Exclusive: Warcraft Director Duncan Jones Discusses Comic-Con Character Sculpts, Unveiling In: The Huffington Post, July 9, 2015.
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  69. ↑ 145 Original Scores In 2016 Oscar Race In: oscars.org, December 13, 2016.
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