Hollywood's habit of turning hit video games into non-watchable films
Posted on 27 December, 2022 by Sagelucy
Kotaku
"Rather than tapping into the goofy core that makes a game like World of Warcraft interesting, the World of Warcraft movie aims for grittinessbut misses the mark quite little. It just doesn't work. The lore is too silly. This is a fantasy world where the most famous spells of a mage transforms his enemies into sheep, yet World of Warcraft acts as being a green-screen rendition of Game of Thrones. In my theater, some of the greatest laughs didn't come from occasionally-occurring slapstick comedy but from the pathetic archmages of Dalaran and their CGI-enhanced faces. look especially absurd as you're supposed be taking serious." -- Jason Schreier [Full review]
The Wrap
"Critics use the term'soulless corporate filmmaking' around with abandon, but movies that are like World of Warcraft really manage to redefine the meaning. A film adaptation of the hugely acclaimed MMORPG (that's Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) World of Warcraft , this latest video game adaptation is near the bottom of this deadly genre. It's like Battlefield Earth without the verve or the laugh-out-loud humor and you've got World of Warcraft ." -- Alonso Duralde [Full review]
Variety
"Hollywood's habit of turning hit video games into non-watchable films continues unabated. The epic battle that takes place in center of World of Warcraft isn't the clash between humans and orcs. That's only what takes roughly two hours of screen time. The real problem is filmmakers who are trying to present a story with passion and struggling against the inherent absurdity of their product they're working with. It's not difficult for a mage to see that this expensive and ridiculous version of an online gaming phenomenon was preordained for the mediocrity of its artistic execution." -Geoff Berkshire Geoff Berkshire