[The Cynic]

Just watched the film on Blu-ray...Ok movie but fantastic visuals. Found myself amazed at the main orc's pregnant wife (Mrs. Orc?). She was a marvel. Unfortunately, the design of the orcs and wolves and dwarves were exaggerated so no matter how wonderful the animation is, it will struggle to look "real". Close up facial shots were jaw-dropping. Interesting fantasy world. Too bad....

[ShaneP]

Just watched the film on Blu-ray...Ok movie but fantastic visuals. Found myself amazed at the main orc's pregnant wife (Mrs. Orc?). She was a marvel. Unfortunately, the design of the orcs and wolves and dwarves were exaggerated so no matter how wonderful the animation is, it will struggle to look "real". Close up facial shots were jaw-dropping. Interesting fantasy world. Too bad....

Sounds like me and you both come from the same "I don't know anything about the Warcraft universe except there are orcs in it" school.

But yes, great points both on how great the animation is yet how difficult it had to be to make their exaggerated physiques appear photo real. It's kind of like the challenge with The Hulk. How do you make a gigantic green guy look real?

But ILM managed to do it in my opinion on both counts. But yes, had to be challenging.

[The Cynic]

I am sorta familiar with Warcraft, I played it for a month or two a few years back. I was surprised that the bright daylight shots worked best for me, other than the opening closeup on Durotan. That shot was pretty amazing...But, yes, it was like a tusked Hulk convention..

[ShaneP]

Yeah in interviews ILM did back during the release they mentioned the numerous challenges. They didn't just have the physiques overall, but the hair, jewelry, and then…those damn tusks that looked like they would impair their speech. WTF? It was like these orcs had every challenge imaginable. That ILM did as well as they did is a credit.

[ninja turtle]

Yes the design of the orcs could be a problem.sometimes. One of the most realistic scene in terms of Cgi integration with live action, was the one with Balckhand killing the human boy. Another amazing one is the scene in the tent, when Blackhand points his handblades(or whatever they are) against Durotan's throat.

[aslan]

This is my long (ish) rant about this "film". Do not bother reading it, just want to get it off my chest.

As already stated here, the design of the orcs severely hampers the attempts at naturalism and organic reality. So the simple solution would seem to be, change it!!! Instead the production chooses to hamstring itself so as to stay true to this other made up thing that preceeded it. Sometimes filmmakers manage to make decisions on a given show that may seem reasonable, but turn out to be mistakes at every step of the way. Warcraft is the epitome of this.

We have all seen films that feature a miscast or bad performance from an actor, it happens. But what is a poor vfx company to do when one of it's mocap performers is so utterly unsuitable, so blatantly abysmal? Well it seems the answer is still to translate that performance with the fidelity and honesty of the other actors. And what we get is the bad orc who's name I can't remember. The singular worst performance I can ever recall. The equivalent of hiring Russel brand to play Darth Vader.

Who thought the run cycle of the orcs was a good one to go with? In two years of post no one raised a hand in question ?

Why is every shot so crammed and ugly in its composition ? Has the art of stage lighting regressed back to the 50's ?

The director gave very little time for ilm to show off the amazing subtlety of their performance range. Rather he seemed content with a General constipated look for his characters. Tmnt2 had so much more fidelity and naturalness to its cg performances.

The whole endeavour feels like a production caught in two minds, and never finding a real answer.

To be fair, I liked the main hero guy. He obviously thought he was starring in Lord of the rings and really gave it some heart. And the female orc was friggin brilliant!!! Just so good, and the model for the way ALL the orcs should have been.