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Honest Trailers Wikia

Warcraft is the 168th episode of Screen Junkies comedy series Honest Trailers. It was written by Spencer Gilbert, Dan Murrell, Joe Starr and Andy Signore. It parodies the 2016 film adaption of the fantasy Real Time Strategy game Warcraft. In addition to regular narrator Jon Bailey, the trailer features an appearance by Matthew "MatPat" Patrick of Game Theory. It was published on September 27, 2016, to coincide with the film's release on home video and Blu-ray. It is 5 minutes 23 seconds long. It has been viewed over 3.2 million times.

Watch Honest Trailers - Warcraft on YouTube

“The world’s most expensive unskippable cut scene.” ~ Honest Trailers - Warcraft

Script[]

Based on the popular Real Time Strategy game...'s story...

Footman: You are to build the town into a farming center of no less than 6 farms.

...comes the film that changed the world's expectations of video game movies from crappy-looking low-budget messes...to gorgeous-looking high-budget messes. Baby steps, you guys. We'll get a good one someday.

Warcraft

Journey to the land of Azeroth, where the kingdom of Stormwind is beset by orcs from the planet Draenor. All but the Frostwolf Clan, led by the mighty Durotan, have come under the influence of Gul'dan and his dark fel magic. Now, it's up to a small band of humans who already know the game's storyline to understand...whatever it was I just said.

Medivh: What?

Begin your quest through the world's most expensive unskippable cutscene, and immerse yourself in the world of the orcs, from their giant teeth to their delicate tooth piercings, to their toothy armor, to the teeth they strap in their baby baskets, to the teeth they yank out as souvenirs, to the prosthetic teeth this actress can barely speak through.

Garona (mumbled): Let your warriors honor their tradition.

Wait, what'd you say?

Marvel at these artificial characters' ability to convey emotion and these human actors' inability to do the same, as you spend half the movie with these boring-ass people: Lothar, the mighty warrior who gets winded walking up the stairs; King Monotone the Bored (Llane Wrynn)...

Llane: I am the King Llane. I'm told you wished to talk.

...Medivh, the mage who always has to unwind after a long day of magic with a nice hot bath; Gomorrah (Garona), the half-orc with a birth defect of being...kinda hot; and...aww, why'd they have to drag Glenn Close (Alodi) into this? Together, they'll engage in a tangle of plotlines about fatherhood, acceptance, and the corruption of power that will have you saying "Can we just go back to the orcs please? I'm bored.".

Stare in awe at this overly ambitious fantasy film where both sides have their own heroes and villains, that ends up feeling like a season of Game of Thrones crammed into two hours, with six different main characters performing five different betrayals on each other...

Alodi: The Guardian has betrayed us.

...all leading up to a climax that resolves...absolutely nothing. Maybe they'll put a real ending in the expansion pack?

So if you love the Warcraft games for their plot, but hate the sense of humor that made them so endearing..

Orc: Me no sound like Yoda. Do I?

...or if you just love to watch a bunch of dudes look at a map, horses getting wrecked, and magic guys covered in swiiiirly stuff, then according to the box office, you're probably Chinese (shows an article with the headline "Warcraft Reaches $145 Million at China Box Office in Record Time").

Starring...uh, The Main Orc Dude (Toby Kebbell as Durotan), His...Friend? (Robert Kazinsky as Orgrim Doomhammer), The, Uh, The...The Little Mage Guy (Ben Schnetzer as Khadgar)...look, I'm at a loss here. Can we get a real Warcraft fan to pinch hit for me?

MatPat: Say no more, my epic mount.

Jon Bailey: Wait, what'd you just call me?

MatPat: That's Sir Anduin Lothar (Travis Fimmel), Lion of Azeroth and wielder of the greatsword Quel'Zaram.

Jon Bailey: Ughhh.

MatPat: Gul'dan of the Stormreaver Clan (Daniel Wu), master of the Shadow Council and warlock of the --

Jon Bailey: These don't have to be so long, do they?

MatPat: A faithfully reproduced Stormwind with the appropriate district roof colors and griffin flight path!

Jon Bailey: Is that supposed to be important?

MatPat: And if you look really closely, you can see harvest golems, a.k.a. the battle pet tiny harvester, of course.

Jon Bailey: Was that even English?

MatPat: And the Murlocs of Elwynn Forest, making the iconic sounds we all fondly remember from our earliest days in WoW.

Jon Bailey: Nerd.

MatPat: Noob.

Honest Trailers - Warcraft (Feat

Honest title for Warcraft - Dawn of the Planet of the Orcs. Title design by Robert Holtby.

Jon Bailey: Dawn of the Planet of the Orcs

I can't wait for the League of Legends movie to come out six years too late, too.

 Trivia[]

Reception[]

Honest Trailers - Warcraft has a 96.3% approval rating from YouTube viewers. Reviews for this Honest Trailer were very positive, with many media sites praising the video's tone that managed to perfectly balance playful humor with scathing critique. The Daily Dot said the Honest Trailer was "hilariously scathing" and "basically tears the movie apart, criticizing its overcomplicated storyline and its emphasis on visual effects over characterization." Digital Trends noted that the Honest Trailer "does not mince words" and that it "calls out the film’s flaws, from its overabundance of complicated storylines to its unsatisfying climax."

Screen Rant wrote that the Honest Trailer "pulls no punches as it sharpens it teeth in preparation for the skewering this movie deserve." In the same article, Screen Rant also wrote "it’s hard not to laugh along with Honest Trailers, who here plays the role of the confused newb wandering into the world of Warcraft for the first time. As ever, they’ve produced a video that’s one-part scathing critique, and at least a half part homage, that’s fun to watch and enjoy, no matter how you felt about the film that it skewers."

Additionally, some sites commented that Screen Junkies observations about video game movies were astute. Game Rant remarked that "while funny, the trailer might also be an insightful look at why Warcraft has received such mixed reviews, even from fans." Screen Rant expanded on this same point, arguing that the Honest Trailer perfectly encapsulated the problem with video game adaptations:

In typical Honest Trailer fashion, the satiric critical analysis of Warcraft provides some keen insights into what went wrong with the would-be-savior of video game films. In just a few short minutes, Honest Trailers distills the critical and fan reaction to Warcraft into a digestible and entertaining take on the film. The reason? Like all critical reactions, it’s complicated, but Honest Trailers trains its laser point right square on Warcraft’s incomprehensible plot... Where movies like Super Mario Brothers disregarded the core of the story to create something new, Warcraft was reverent to a fault. In doing so, it required mass audiences with no background or history with the universe to dive right in and understand what was going on and why....Honest Trailers handles this perfectly with their snark-laced critique, pointing out many moments that simultaneously pleased the hardcore fans and alienated mass audiences, humorously dismissing characters as indistinguishable from each other (in the case of the orcs) and as boring (in the case of the humans). (James Robert, September 27, 2016, Screen Rant)

Production credits[]

Warcraft

Video thumbnail for Honest Trailers - Warcraft

Voiceover Narration by Jon Bailey

Special thanks to MatPat of Game Theory for the voice cameo

Title design by Robert Holtby

Series Created by Andy Signore & Brett Weiner

Written by Spencer Gilbert, Dan Murrell, Joe Starr & Andy Signore

Edited by Bruce Guido and TJ Nordaker

External links []

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