So Is This It For Video Game Movies?

I don't think the "future" of video game movies will ever hinge on the success of one film. Hollywood execs are always going to be more inclined to favor an established IP adaptation that has a pre-built audience over something original, and video games remains a pool of loglines they've yet to tap as thoroughly (and recursively!) as, say, books.

I think it's more important that the right video game movie get made at the right time. Dismissing what is undoubted a litany of its own problems (from what I glean, writing, characterization, an emotional core), Warcraft is sort of the wrong video game movie at the wrong time. Trend-wise, fantasy's not "in" right now so much as near-future and now-future/YA stuff is. And the momentum on Warcraft as a cultural phenomenon faded years ago. I'm sure many'll be motivated by nostalgia to see it, but the sort of... weird ubiquity of World of Warcraft as a thing people do--people not typically classified as "gamers"--is behind us.

I'm also convinced that Warcraft is not great source material. Sure, it has a lot of lore, but that's contrasted by a lot of... anachronistic, reference-heavy meta humor (specifically World of Warcraft) that makes for a challenge when finding the right tone for a flick like this (too serious and it implodes, too self-aware and it seems like a joke easily dismissed by moviegoers).

It's also not a series particularly known for its characters. When you brush all the glitz and gloss of action and CG and set pieces away from films like these, what you ultimately need is a film about well-written people we give a shit about. If there's no emotional resonance, no emotional core, it's a hollow film experience. And I think the problem with fantasy, sometimes, is that if you angle it wrong you don't show anything relatable to potential viewers (that is to say, it's really hard to identify and sympathize with an eerily real-like but clearly fake green orc monster if you aren't familiar with Warcraft and seeing, say, a TV spot).

/r/movies Thread