In spite of its hefty budget and impressive worldwide box office numbers, the Warcraft movie wasn’t exactly considered a runaway success — at least not stateside. Critics and audiences alike had their fair share of complaints,and now Screen Junkies’ Honest Trailers series is airing its own.
Like the Honest Trailers before it, the Warcraft one calls out the film’s flaws, from its overabundance of complicated storylines to its unsatisfying climax. The narrator does not mince words. He calls it “overly ambitious” and a “high-budget mess” — albeit a “gorgeous-looking” one. However, he argues that we are taking baby steps away from video game movies that are “crappy-looking, low-budget messes” and moving toward maybe, someday getting a good one.
The video also references the enormous discrepancy between the film’s box office performance in North America compared to overseas. While Warcraft‘s domestic performance was disappointing at roughly $47.23 million, it pulled in $386.31 million internationally, according to Box Office Mojo data.
Not all of the criticism is terrible — the film did earn a 75 percent rating from viewers on Rotten Tomatoes, after all. The narrator likens Warcraft to Game of Thrones given its intriguing themes of betrayal, warring sides, and heroes and villains. The problem, he suggests, though, is that the film feels like an entire season of the HBO hit “crammed into two hours.”
After poking fun at the actors’ performances, suggesting the expansion pack will have a real ending, and calling Warcraft “the world’s most expensive unskippable cut scene,” the video has one last treat in store for viewers: Matthew Patrick — aka MatPat. The Game Theory stars jumps in after the “noob” narrator calls for help wading through the many characters. They exchange barbs, closing out the trailer with a fun and fitting cameo.
