WoW Moviewatch: Wrath of the Lich King, Casino Royale Style
by Michael Gray 
Dec 21st 2009 at 12:00PM
The Ancient Gaming Noob picked up this awesome trailer for Icecrown Citadel, created originally by Kesudor. The title of this piece is Wrath of the Lich King, Casino Royale Style. If you're a fan of the James Bond movies, there's no way you can miss the obvious homage to those distinctive, elegant opening credits.
Two things in particular stood out to me as clever takes on the style. First, the heavy use of Frostmourne as an iconic image mirrors the use of a gun in the James Bond trailers. Displaying a weapon in this kind of trailer gives the audience a sense of menace, and helps cement what genre the movie lives in.
The second clever touch was the cut-aways between Sylvanas and Blood-Queen Lana'thel. As you watch the video, there's a still image of Sylvanas staring out at the audience. Small bits of glass float by the Dark Lady. When the glass is over her face, you instead see Lana'thel. It's hard to tell what plot elements might be implied by this interaction, but it was still a pretty classy touch.
Ultimately, this was a fun trailer, and I really enjoyed it. I'll be keeping an eye out to see what other fun stuff Kesudor might create.
Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an e-mail at machinima AT wow DOT com.Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, WoW Moviewatch
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Wolftech Dec 21st 2009 12:05PM
That was awesome...
Dethbryngr Dec 21st 2009 12:09PM
That was fun to watch. Very cool
TiM Dec 21st 2009 12:25PM
When did the lich king staart using those breathe right nose thingys?
Hava Dec 21st 2009 12:37PM
Seriously! Haha. Is that part of the helm just built into the face-skin?
Anyway, it was a lovely video. The Sylvanas/Lady Deathwhisper part was beautiful and kinda chilling.
RedGuard Dec 21st 2009 5:30PM
Hah, yeah I was about to post about that :P
Barinthos Dec 21st 2009 12:14PM
It was decent I suppose.
But was it me, or did he spell some of the names wrong?
Hoggersbud Dec 21st 2009 12:28PM
It wasn't just you.
ben Dec 21st 2009 12:42PM
yes, Varian Wynne was it?
Cephas Dec 21st 2009 1:04PM
As far as I can tell, Varian Wrynn was the only name he misspelled, which makes me think it was intentional, but if it's a joke, then I didn't get it.
Deadly. Off. Topic. Dec 21st 2009 1:20PM
I didn't get the joke either if there was one to make.
Barinthos Dec 21st 2009 1:33PM
Ok, after seeing his name misspelled I kept overthinking the rest of the name and wondering if he was parody-ing the names intentionally, but the rest of them were spelled correctly.
So i'm assuming he just messed up Wrynn's name.
TheChao Dec 21st 2009 12:21PM
That was pretty hot.
Also liked the touch of putting the Helm of Ner'zhul on Bolvar's head for that split second.
JLocke Dec 21st 2009 12:41PM
A lot of possible foreshadowing here, especially with a certain paladin near the frozen throne
Cephas Dec 21st 2009 12:50PM
What you might not immediately appreciate is that it's not just a homage to 007 intros, but it's practically a shot-for-shot recreation of the Casino Royale intro. The shot in this version that puts Lana'thel's face over Sylvanas' face is in the 007 intro a reticle moving across the face of the queen of hearts and replacing it with an actual woman's face.
Zeplar Dec 21st 2009 1:16PM
It was good before I compared it to the Casino Royale intro.
It was amazing afterward.
Mognet T Dec 21st 2009 1:22PM
Loved that too.
Alexander Dec 21st 2009 2:14PM
I just watched them side by side, and holy crap, almost identical. This version is a bit faster, about 15 second difference between the two. None-the-less; amazing work.
Allison Robert Dec 21st 2009 2:49PM
To be more specific, the actual credits sequence in "Casino Royale" gives a bit of foreshadowing (actually, more like a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with 21 guns in the background huge blinking neon sign kind of foreshadowing) with Vesper's face replacing the Queen of Hearts for a little less than two seconds.
Great job and homage on Kesudor's part.
Brendan Dec 21st 2009 12:53PM
No dancing Bond (or in this case WoW) girls = fail.
Cephas Dec 21st 2009 12:57PM
As I already noted (see the post above yours) it's almost a shot-for-shot recreation of the Casino Royale intro. If you want to call fail on something, call fail on the original not having dancing Bond girls. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWaB4ISFnbg