A team of visual effects artists gives some scathing critiques of the War film. An adaptation of the hit video game series, the film saw Orcs and humans waging war against each other. The cast included Travis Fimmel (Anduin Lothar), Paula Patton (Garona), Toby Kebbell (Durotan) and even more actors to round out its large cast. THE War end of the film has been the target of criticism, as it left an opening for a sequel that never came to fruition. Unfortunately, some serious visual effects issues held it back.
As part of the “VFX Artists React to Bad & Great CGi” series, the Runner Crew I took a look at the 2016 adaptation. Upon reflecting that “everything seems a little too brightly lit“, the team discussed faulty motion blur and the lack of any clear cause and effect in the fight scenes. Together, they believe that all these flaws created “a distorted mess“ of a film. They still acknowledged some successes in character design, but there were many failures. Check out one of his main criticisms below:
You are objectively correct in all your observations here, but I think it looks amazing. I think everything about it looks super cute. There is nothing about lighting that will get me out of this situation. Nothing about it makes me think, oh, this is cheesy, like, visually every frame of this is super cool, like I’m looking at a totally different problem, and it has nothing to do with the VFX. You can shoot in any direction, all these cool CGI creatures, and what you’re doing is trying to make a brutal, intense fight between orcs and knights, and you’re basically restricting yourself to liking PG type stuffwhere it seems like nothing has any impact or risks. We don’t see pain, we don’t see people willing to fight. It’s like a lot of quick jabs there. Lots of quick cuts. I think besides that scene where the guy’s hand was cut off. And I’m not screwed. I have no problems. I’m not a psychopath. Turns out this was the only photo that showed similar cause and effect, I think.
What visual effects problems meant for Warcraft
Better visual effects may have created better reception
Visual effects problems caused serious problems for War. Completely failed at the domestic box officeearning just $43 million against a budget of $160 million. The film was successful overseas as it grossed around $440 million worldwide, but the domestic failure made the film a total disappointment. After marketing and theatrical cuts, it would take approximately $450 million to break even. Unfortunately, this meant that Warcraft 2 was never confirmed, despite Blizzard’s high hopes. The graph below shows the extreme box office challenges:
|
Title |
Budget |
Domestic Box Office |
Worldwide box office |
Tomatometer Score |
Popcorn Meter Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
War (2016) |
US$160 million |
US$43 million |
US$439 million |
29% |
76% |
The failure can be attributed to the negative reviews. Although audiences were somewhat favorable on Rotten Tomatoes, offering a score of 76%, the film fell victim to extreme disdain from critics. It only got a Tomatometer score of 29%, which easily earned it a Rotten designation. Critics cited visual effects issues and difficulty distinguishing Orcs as some of the main reasons for your negative response. If the film had guaranteed better visuals, the show itself might have satisfied viewers. In that case, audiences might have been more inclined to watch, and the follow-up film would have been a possibility.
Our take on Warcraft’s visual effects issues
The Warcraft movie deserved better
Visual effects problems weren’t the only problems with the 2016 film. The story was lacking, WarThe greatest characters in were difficult to define or distinguish, and the world itself seemed derived from The Lord of the Rings. The Runner Crew was correct in identifying the visuals as major problems, as the lack of weight in combat meant nothing felt particularly impactful. Motion blur was poorly implemented, the fights never seemed to have any gravity to themand the lighting took away any sense of courage. There was no balance, which is why it failed completely.
Source: Runner Crew / YouTube