A team of VFX artists have some sharp critiques about the Warcraft movie. An adaptation of the hit video game series, the movie saw Orcs and humans waging war against one another. The cast included Travis Fimmel (Anduin Lothar), Paula Patton (Garona), Toby Kebbell (Durotan), and even more actors to fill out its large ensemble cast. The Warcraft movie's ending has been the subject of criticism, as it left an opening for a sequel that never materialized. Unfortunately, some serious visual effects issues held it back.

As part of their "VFX Artists React to Bad & Great CGi" series, the Corridor Crew took a look at the 2016 adaptation. While reflecting that "everything just looks a little too nicely lit," the team discussed the faulty motion blurring and a lack of any clear cause and effect in the fight scenes. Together, they believe that all of those failures created "a garbled mess" of a movie. They did still acknowledge some successes in character designs, but there were many failures. Check out one of their major critiques below:

You're objectively correct in all your observations here, but I think it's awesome, the way it looks. I think everything about this looks super sweet. There's nothing about the lighting that's taking me out of this. Nothing about that that makes me go, oh, this is cheesy, like visually every frame of this is super cool, like I am seeing a different problem entirely, and it's got - it has nothing to do with the VFX. You can film in any direction, you got all these cool CGI creatures, and what you're doing is you're trying to make a brutal intense orc versus Knights fight, and you're restricting yourself basically to the PG kind of stuff, where it feels like nothing has impact or stakes. We don't see pain, we don't see people struggling. It's like a bunch of quick hits there. Lots of rapid cuts. I guess other than the one shot where the guy's hand gets chopped off. And I'm not screwed up. I don't have problems. I'm not psycho. It just so happens that was the only shot that showed any cause and effect, I guess.

What The VFX Issues Meant For Warcraft

Better VFX Might Have Created A Better Reception

The VFX issues caused serious issues for Warcraft. It completely failed at the domestic box office, earning just $43 million against a $160 million budget. The movie did see success overseas, as it earned about $440 million worldwide, but the domestic failure made the movie a downright disappointment. After marketing and cuts from the theaters, it would have needed approximately $450 million to break even. Unfortunately, that meant that Warcraft 2 was never confirmed, despite Blizzard's high hopes. The chart below showcases the extreme box office challenges:

The failure could be attributed to the negative reviews. While audiences were somewhat favorable on Rotten Tomatoes, offering a 76% score, the movie was the victim of extreme disdain by critics. It earned a Tomatometer score of just 29%, which easily earned a Rotten designation. Critics cited VFX issues and difficulty with distinguishing Orcs as some of the main reasons for their negative response. Had the movie secured better visuals, the spectacle itself could have satisfied viewers. If so, audiences may have been more inclined to watch, and that follow-up movie would have been a possibility.

Our Take On Warcraft's VFX Issues

The Warcraft Movie Deserved Better

The VFX issues were not the only problems with the 2016 movie. The story was lacking, Warcraft's biggest characters were difficult to define or distinguish, and the world itself felt derivative of The Lord of the Rings. The Corridor Crew was correct in identifying the visuals as major problems, as the lack of any weight in combat meant that nothing felt particularly impactful. The motion blur was poorly implemented, the fights never felt like they had any gravity to them, and the lighting took away from any sense of grit. There was no balance, which is why it failed outright.

Source: Corridor Crew