The Warcraft Movie Vs. The Critics

Yes, i'm going there.

    So, I wanted to stay out of the conversation on this.  It seems to me we are being punched in the gut by people telling us critics are stupid, jaded, and don't know what they are talking about when it comes to movies.  Warcraft has really been a focus of attention for this with rottontomatoes showing the critics score of the movie at 27% positive, and the audience score at 83% positive.  That is quite the divide.

    There are many people who look at this and immediately go to the thought that critics don't know what they are talking about.  I'm going to argue, that with this movie it might be a little true, but that if critics had no clue what they were doing they wouldn't have jobs.  Newspapers, radio shows, and TV shows would not pay them to go to movies and give us reviews.

    The other movie this year that had a lot of critical backlash was Batman Vs. Superman. (Rotten tomatoes Critics 27% Audience 66%) and that was a movie I enjoyed. To be fair, it by far wasn't a perfect movie and there were several things that drove me crazy (dream sequences, not enough Wonder Woman, and "Martha!") but I liked it.  There was enough good in it that I can honestly say I liked the movie but if I had to give an honest review, it would have been 2.5 out of 5 stars just built upon the problems in the movie that I know would bug other people.  The review didn't mean I didn't like it, it would mean that I knew it was a very flawed movie and that I expected a lot of folks would have an issue with that.  So let's go back to Warcraft.

     Right now the audience is loving it, despite the critics not rating it very well.  Some of the critics are very obviously not rating it fairly or making bad comparisons.  (On the Instance, Scott Johnson mentioned a critic who called it "This generations Battlefield Earth." As if there was similar hype to this movie as there was for John Travolta's crap fest which was a big deal for other reasons.)  Guess what, I bet you if you go into the theater expecting a Shakespearean production you're going to hate this movie as well.

    This movie is what it is.  I haven't seen it yet, and hope to in the next couple of weeks, but if it's anything other than a popcorn flick where I leave a bit of my mind behind and enjoy all the references to the game I play it's not what I'm expecting.  I am not expecting any Oscar worthy performances or a narrative that shapes the movie genre.  I am not expecting hours of character development and nuanced performances.

    I am expecting to go see a movie where a big CGI orc picks up a horse and chucks it at somebody.  If I see orcs and humans beating the crap out of each other backed by a decent story, I'll be happy.  Why? I'm tempering my expectations accordingly.

    I'm also going to say that the critics here may not be in the wrong for the most part.  For your average chick flick, drama, thriller, movie fan this movie might not be for them.  The critics job is to warn people away from this movie who might not enjoy it, they are doing that.  Let's be honest, us folks who are the target audience are going to go in excited and happy.  Take the critics reviews with a grain of salt, understand they speak for the movie audience as a whole, not just our Warcraft playing, orc loving demographic.

 

   If you want to see this movie, go see it.  You may love it. If you bring your non-fantasy loving girl friend, or boy friend they will probably hate it.  Let's all just go to the movies and have a good time.

Lag


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