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A Warcraft 3 Nit
This is something I should have written about back when I actually noticed it, which was probably six months ago. But I think I forgot to mention it then, so here I go.
It's about the cut-scenes in Warcraft 3. Now, I take a back seat to none in my admiration of Blizzard's cut-scenes; they're the best. Whoever makes them should really be making full-length animated movies. But the writing for some of the WC3 scenes was surprisingly weak.
Example: Wait a minute. I'd better spoiler all this with my patented invisible ink (i.e. white font). If you want to read the rest of this, hit Ctrl-A or select the blank area by clicking and dragging over it with your mouse. In other words,
SPOILERS!
Oh, and there are also spoilers for RoboCop 1, if you never saw that (really great) movie.
Okay. Example: Two orc-chieftans are heading towards a massive arch-demon for a final showdown. One of them has been tainted by drinking water infused with the blood of the demon, which is source of the insane rage and evil of the orc race. In the great showdown, the other orc leader is knocked unconscious by the demon, who has shown that he is virtually invulnerable to their weapons.
And the tainted orc leader, near the point of death, throws his axe at the demon and kills it. Why is he suddenly able to overcome its incredible defenses? Because...because he really wanted to this time, apparently.
Now, this was the flaw that I desperately feared in RoboCop 1. His secret fourth directive forbade him to take action against any official of the corporation that "made" him...and at the end, he had to take action against the corporate vice-president, who was holding the president hostage. At the moment I first saw the movie, I had a terrible fear that RoboCop's humanity would enable him to make a supreme effort and defeat the programming, which would have basically been a really cheap (and illogical) deus ex machina. Instead, the president fired the VP, at which point the 4th directive no longer applied. Now THAT was logical, and very funny as well.
Unfortunately Blizzard went with the other option: an unexplained defeat of a formerly insurmountable obstacle (accompanied by the usual scream of "AAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!" by the hero, to indicate his Really Strong Feelings). This was just stupid. Particularly when a logical, or at least nearly-logical and far more dramatic alternative was available.
The demon had shown that he was invulnerable, and the tainted orc had shown that even though he had some protection from the effects of the demon-blood taint in his veins, it was still there. It would have heightened the drama and improved the story immensely if, in the final confrontation, the orc had wondered if the demon's protection included protection against himself...and then smeared his own demon-tainted blood on the blade before hurling it at the archdemon. The blood could have burst into flame as it penetrated the demon's force-field like defenses...it would at least have made some sort of sense, to use the demon's own weapon against him.
The finale was also basically pretty confusing. I was able to figure it out eventually, I think; the super-giant-colossal demon-god was basically nuked by a zillion of those little wisps. They were minor little units of the night-elves, and had an almost useless "explode" power. But suddenly millions of them appeared and blew up the big bad boss. The theme of the small and despised causing the downfall of the mighty and proud is an old one (Tolkien was not the first to use it), but it would have worked better if there were actually a source for all those wisps. As it was, the cut scene was hard to understand; Big Bad Demon goes to the World-Tree, but just before he can destroy it a million wisps come and blow him up. Where did they come from? Why? Do not ask, because you will receive no answer.
I will also say that the Prince was annoyingly stupid. He was practically TOLD that he was going to be turned evil, and like some moron character in a bad TV show he totally shrugged it all off. I find the "stupid character" plot an extremely aggravating one. Which is one of the reasons why I like the work of Lawrence Watt-Evans so much; his characters have the most common sense of any I've read.
Okay, enough ranting.
It's about the cut-scenes in Warcraft 3. Now, I take a back seat to none in my admiration of Blizzard's cut-scenes; they're the best. Whoever makes them should really be making full-length animated movies. But the writing for some of the WC3 scenes was surprisingly weak.
Example: Wait a minute. I'd better spoiler all this with my patented invisible ink (i.e. white font). If you want to read the rest of this, hit Ctrl-A or select the blank area by clicking and dragging over it with your mouse. In other words,
Oh, and there are also spoilers for RoboCop 1, if you never saw that (really great) movie.
Okay. Example: Two orc-chieftans are heading towards a massive arch-demon for a final showdown. One of them has been tainted by drinking water infused with the blood of the demon, which is source of the insane rage and evil of the orc race. In the great showdown, the other orc leader is knocked unconscious by the demon, who has shown that he is virtually invulnerable to their weapons.
And the tainted orc leader, near the point of death, throws his axe at the demon and kills it. Why is he suddenly able to overcome its incredible defenses? Because...because he really wanted to this time, apparently.
Now, this was the flaw that I desperately feared in RoboCop 1. His secret fourth directive forbade him to take action against any official of the corporation that "made" him...and at the end, he had to take action against the corporate vice-president, who was holding the president hostage. At the moment I first saw the movie, I had a terrible fear that RoboCop's humanity would enable him to make a supreme effort and defeat the programming, which would have basically been a really cheap (and illogical) deus ex machina. Instead, the president fired the VP, at which point the 4th directive no longer applied. Now THAT was logical, and very funny as well.
Unfortunately Blizzard went with the other option: an unexplained defeat of a formerly insurmountable obstacle (accompanied by the usual scream of "AAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!" by the hero, to indicate his Really Strong Feelings). This was just stupid. Particularly when a logical, or at least nearly-logical and far more dramatic alternative was available.
The demon had shown that he was invulnerable, and the tainted orc had shown that even though he had some protection from the effects of the demon-blood taint in his veins, it was still there. It would have heightened the drama and improved the story immensely if, in the final confrontation, the orc had wondered if the demon's protection included protection against himself...and then smeared his own demon-tainted blood on the blade before hurling it at the archdemon. The blood could have burst into flame as it penetrated the demon's force-field like defenses...it would at least have made some sort of sense, to use the demon's own weapon against him.
The finale was also basically pretty confusing. I was able to figure it out eventually, I think; the super-giant-colossal demon-god was basically nuked by a zillion of those little wisps. They were minor little units of the night-elves, and had an almost useless "explode" power. But suddenly millions of them appeared and blew up the big bad boss. The theme of the small and despised causing the downfall of the mighty and proud is an old one (Tolkien was not the first to use it), but it would have worked better if there were actually a source for all those wisps. As it was, the cut scene was hard to understand; Big Bad Demon goes to the World-Tree, but just before he can destroy it a million wisps come and blow him up. Where did they come from? Why? Do not ask, because you will receive no answer.
I will also say that the Prince was annoyingly stupid. He was practically TOLD that he was going to be turned evil, and like some moron character in a bad TV show he totally shrugged it all off. I find the "stupid character" plot an extremely aggravating one. Which is one of the reasons why I like the work of Lawrence Watt-Evans so much; his characters have the most common sense of any I've read.
Okay, enough ranting.