World of Warcraft: The Movie..?

[Saxon]

http://www.blizzard.com/us/press/090721.html

Apparently Blizzard Entertainment and Legendary Pictures has hired Sam Raimi to direct a movie based on the Warcraft universe, not necessarily the MMO. I figured I'd share this with you guys to see what you thought about it. Blizzard's probably one of my favorite PC game companies, and I've watched it grow over the years. But, the announcement of a movie set in the warcraft universe sort of startled me. I mean, it's one thing to see something you love succeed and grow, but over the years with WoW it seems Blizzard has measured it's success with gorging on the profits with any outlet related to games they can possibly find.

For all the games that they sell, Warcraft especially, they market in a wide array of products including but not limited to; posters, mugs, action figures, novels, card games, tabletop games, shirts, hats, key chains, calenders, mice, mousepads, keyboards, soundtracks, DVDs, and prints.

And now maybe a movie.

So what I have to ask is with all this in mind and the idea that with the advent of WoW Blizzard has raked in enough money to start their own fucking country; Would you go see this movie?

I know it says a lot about consumerism, but I suppose I'm going to share the same answer with you. Maybe.

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

I probably wouldn't see it, since the Lord of the Rings movies are still relatively fresh in my mind. I can only take so much high fantasy in one decade.

[Unseen]

They announced their intent to film a movie in 2006. It's only recently that they found the director they thought would fit their vision. And yes, I will see it being the fanboy that I am.

[Visla Eraclaire]

The WoW part of this does not excite me. The Sam Raimi part of this excites me. Army of Darkness forever.

[Sumnner]

WHY CAN'T THEY MAKE A MOVIE ABOUT STARCRAFT!?!?

*wailing cry*

[Cyrus the virus]

Would you seriously not see a movie because the people who own the inspiration have a lot of money?

That said, WoW lore is fascinating and intricate and incredibly interesting to me, so I will probably see it whenever it comes out. It's sort of hard to learn all the lore in-game, there's just so much content, so it would be nice to have a chunk of it shown to me in a condensed manner.

[Josef ben Loewe]

I can not think of even one good movie based on a game... can anyone else?

If there would be enough creativity to make one good movie based on a game, they should definantly do Deus Ex and not WoW. But then I seriously hope they'll not shoot in a normal manner, but with dark blue version of the effects they used in Sky Captain and the Day of Tomorrow.

EDIT: Woah, hold on a sec! Raimi did Spider Man, which was actually quite good. Charles Roven is the supposed producer, and I especially love him for doing 12 Monkeys and the two latest Batman movies. Maybe this will not turn out as a disaster. I will probably just wait for the reviews and if it sucks maybe buy it on DVD only.

[Tainted Bushido]

I can not think of even one good movie based on a game... can anyone else?

I don't know about you, but I happened to LIKE the Super Mario Brothers movie. Maybe its jsut me, but I liked the way they applied the almost literal translation and explained a few things.

[Josef ben Loewe]

Since I didn't know the movie I just watched a trailer... it looks like it would either be pretty fun or a complete disaster. I hope I can get my hands on it somehow.

[Visla Eraclaire]

I honestly enjoyed Resident Evil. It had very little to do with the game. I like zombie movies and Mila Jovovich.

Let's see... I also thought Doom and Silent Hill were not bad at all, having tenuous connections to their source material as well.

I think the problem is more the video games that get made into movies tend not to be cinematic and so the only way to succeed is to make a film with a winning formula (zombies, shoot-em-up, or basic horror like the ones above) and then slap the VG name on it.

WoW is a whole different animal. It has a ton of story and could easily make a film because it's not a video game the same way all these others are. It isn't a linear story that would have to be translated into film or discarded. It's just a world. Tell me there's a WoW movie and I have no clue what it's about. It could be about dozens of things.

I think their biggest problem is going to be trying to please everyone and fit all the "OMG" stuff that everyone wants.

I'll see it, but, as I said, mostly because of Sam Raimi

[Unseen]

Tell me there's a WoW movie and I have no clue what it's about. It could be about dozens of things.

qft

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

The Super Mario Bros. movie is one of those movies that you have to watch under certain circumstances.

You know all those really campy sci-fi/horror B-movies they pumped out in the 50s and 60s? I find that the Mario movie is far more enjoyable if you watch it like one of those. Clear your mind of any and all expectations (because they will be ruined), grab some popcorn and a few friends, sandwich it between two other B-movies (some of the Hong Kong Kung-Fu movies from the 70s would also be good here), and just enjoy yourself.

I remember liking the first Mortal Kombat movie back in the day. Dunno if I could watch it now, though.

[Saxon]

Games-to-Movies aren't necessarily terrible by default. The ones I can remember really liking were Silent Hill and the Resident Evil movies, but it sort of varies and you can tell fairly quickly whether it's going to be a good movie or bad one, so it's rarely an issue. Sam Raimi is a great director, I'll give him that. I think whether it was intentional or not, I've seen most of the films he's been involved with and I liked most of them. I don't really doubt that he could try to put a decent story together for warcraft.

I just found the whole thing a bit shocking. I knew Blizzard was trying to do a movie on warcraft ever since they hinted at it back during WCIII, but just seeing it go from an idea to it actually being done says a lot about Blizzard. Here's to hoping the movie's decent.

[Enther]

Games based on movies usually suck. Lets hope it doesn't go both ways.

Edit: O

Didn't read.

[Toy Soldier]

Games based on movies usually suck. Lets hope it doesn't go both ways.

Edit: O

Didn't read.

I want to say movies based on anime will suck eternally, but I just have to get over the fact that Dragonball was not done the way that I wanted it to be (following the story). So I suppose I'll have to work on opening my mind and ditching all sorts of expectations when going to see certain movies as an earlier poster recommended.