So What's the Deal with Video Game Movies? Why Can't They Get It Right?

[KillerMcQueen]

I'll continue to hold out hope that one day we'll get a film that causes studios to see that there's actually potential in adapting some games into movies when you actually hire talent that respects the source, gamers are getting older and older after all, eventually most people in the industry will have grown up playing games.

 

[jmc]

I'm telling you it's not due to the lack of talent or even the studios incompetence, it's the medium that is the problem. Movies and video games are like trying to mix oil and water.

 

[kguillou]

I have hope for Tomb Raider. Alicia Vikander is a strong actress and doesn't seem like the type to star in trash............then again so did Fassenbender. Heyo!

 

[jmc]

I wouldn't hold out any hope for Tomb Raider, although that's probably the one that's got the best shot at coming up with something decent if they use the rebooted origin story as the template. But still, they're going to have the same question all others have face - what exactly are they suppose to adapt?

 

[Web-Head]

I think the Division and Tomb Raider have good chances of being good.

 

[KillerMcQueen]

I'm telling you it's not due to the lack of talent or even the studios incompetence, it's the medium that is the problem. Movies and video games are like trying to mix oil and water.

Video games are an incredibly diverse medium, as is film, spanning every possible genre imaginable, you cannot lump them all together, I think it's foolish to say that it's impossible and blame it on the medium, the problem is the talent, not one video game movie has even been a good film, and the number of times they've at least respected the source in a video game film could be counted on one hand.

 

[jmc]

Video games are an incredibly diverse medium, as is film, spanning every possible genre imaginable, you cannot lump them all together, I think it's foolish to say that it's impossible and blame it on the medium, the problem is the talent, not one video game movie has even been a good film, and the number of times they've at least respected the source in a video game film could be counted on one hand.

We haven't had a single movie in over 25 years be even half decent. Law of averages says at least one of those 40+ movies made during that period would have been actually good. It's not foolish if the stats back it up.

 

[Xrated48]

I figured the only three video game movies that could work were Assassins Creed (Completely Wrong), Uncharted (always felt like the video game version of Indiana Jones) and, The Last of Us (no point of making it since the game feels like a movie anyway)

 

[KillerMcQueen]

We haven't had a single movie in over 25 years be even half decent. Law of averages says at least one of those 40+ movies made during that period would have been actually good. It's not foolish if the stats back it up.

And how many of them have had actual talent backing them? How many have been made by people who are passionate about the source medium? Or even have an ounce of respect for it? Speaking in averages in relation to a medium that hasn't been shown any respect by studios or filmmakers is hardly fair. If more of these films had been made by talented filmmakers who had any respect for the medium than the stats would back it up. But when the talent doesn't exist in key areas of all of these films productions and respect is not shown to the source than you cannot discount an entire medium's potential to be adapted. You take the teams that made most of these films and give them a non-video game source to adapt and they'd probably all still make terrible films.

 

[KillerMcQueen]

I figured the only three video game movies that could work were Assassins Creed (Completely Wrong), Uncharted (always felt like the video game version of Indiana Jones) and, The Last of Us (no point of making it since the game feels like a movie anyway)

I wouldn't discount Assassin's Creed's potential because of one bad film, from the sound of it it would be bad even if it wasn't a game adaptation, and it places almost all of its screentime on what is generally considered the franchises least interesting aspect (present day).

 

[jmc]

And how many of them have had actual talent backing them? How many have been made by people who are passionate about the source medium? Or even have an ounce of respect for it? Speaking in averages in relation to a medium that hasn't been shown any respect by studios or filmmakers is hardly fair. If more of these films had been made by talented filmmakers who had any respect for the medium than the stats would back it up. But when the talent doesn't exist in key areas of the film's production and respect is not shown to the source than you cannot discount an entire medium's potential to be adapted. You put the teams that made most of these films and give them a non-video game source to adapt and they'd probably all still make terrible films.

Assassins Creed had Ubisoft behind it, and yet it still ended with crappy reviews. Again, this falls less on the talent and says more about the medium itself.

 

[KillerMcQueen]

Assassins Creed had Ubisoft behind it, and yet it still ended with crappy reviews. Again, this falls less on the talent and says more about the medium itself.

And yet the Assassin's Creed film takes place almost entirely in the present, while the games take place almost entirely in the past, and the stories in the two time periods in the games are two very different things, with the past taking the vast majority of the focus, it says that they made nonsensical decisions in the writing process, not that the games are incompatible with film.

 

[Tony Stark]

It's more the misunderstanding of the modern day stuff in AC, it being the least interesting part. The point of the Abstergo stuff was meant as a point of understanding what is happening in our time based on what happened in the past. It sounds like they got that concept backward. In the game the Demsond Miles character, who would be the equivalent to what Fassbender's character is, was to give the player, or the audience a first person perspective of opening the secrets of what Abstergo is looking for. The character borrows hevily from the neo character from the Matrix, and there's alot of parallels between the story lines, so the fact that the first Matrix worked very well as a film tells me that this could work as well.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

So, Assassin's Creed apparently joins the long, sad list of movies in this genre. It's time to call this genre dead. If it hasn't happened after 25 years and over 40 movies then it's never going to happen.

I expected failure, but this is lower than I expected.

 

[jmc]

And yet the Assassin's Creed film takes place almost entirely in the present, while the games take place almost entirely in the past, and the stories in the two time periods in the games are two very different things, with the past taking the vast majority of the focus, it says that they made nonsensical decisions in the writing process, not that the games are incompatible with film.

You talk about having talent and respect for the material, the company that designed the bloody game, the ones who should know the series inside out, was involved with the Assassin's Creed movie production. They approved this, they were hands on with it. So what does that say if the people who created the game thought this was a good idea? What does it say that even those who created the game couldn't find a way to adapt it to film? You can't keep pointing fingers at lack of talent or respect, especially when the last two video game adaptations had great directors behind them. At some point you have to start looking at the medium itself and ask if that's the problem. You can't just keep saying it's a lack of talent or respect that's screwing these films over, you don't make 40 movies over 25 years and not get at least one decent movie unless there's some underlying problem that goes beyond creative talent or studio execs. Is it not possible the medium of video games just doesn't really fit well for film?

 

[KillerMcQueen]

You talk about having talent and respect for the material, the company that designed the bloody game, the ones who should know the series inside out, was involved with the Assassin's Creed movie production. They approved this, they were hands on with it. So what does that say if the people who created the game thought this was a good idea? What does it say that even those who created the game couldn't find a way to adapt it to film? You can't keep pointing fingers at lack of talent or respect, especially when the last two video game adaptations had great directors behind them. At some point you have to start looking at the medium itself and ask if that's the problem. You can't just keep saying it's a lack of talent or respect that's screwing these films over, you don't make 40 movies over 25 years and not get at least one decent movie unless there's some underlying problem that goes beyond creative talent or studio execs. Is it not possible the medium of video games just doesn't really fit well for film?

The studio blatantly ignored what people liked most about the games, how are you not seeing that? It completely invalidates the argument that it can't be done when they don't even try to adapt them in a manner representative of the games, and when they do that it doesn't matter if the game developers themselves were behind it, and honestly, I don't think Ubisoft cares about the film very much. I understand that video games are a medium that tends to differ quite a bit from films, but I don't see that as being an impossible barrier, a challenge, yes, but not impossible.

 

[Tony Stark]

yeah I refuse to believe this couldn't work as a film because the Matrix worked (at least the first one).

This is obviously somewhat different but there are similar beats and you can see the influence. This was just bad script writing.

 

[jmc]

The studio blatantly ignored what people liked most about the games, how are you not seeing that? It completely invalidates the argument that it can't be done when they don't even try to adapt them in a manner representative of the games, and when they do that it doesn't matter if the game developers themselves were behind it, and honestly, I don't think Ubisoft cares about the film very much. I understand that video games are a medium that tends to differ quite a bit from films, but I don't see that as being an impossible barrier, a challenge, yes, but not impossible.

And maybe what people liked most about the games wasn't working during the script phase. See, that's the problem, what's representative of the games isn't always easy to define given that gameplay is more often than not given precedence over the story being told. You concede it's a challenge, and yes it is, but at the same time it might also be too challenging. You're trying to point to proof that doesn't exist that you can convert a video game into a movie, when in actual fact we have 25 years of failures to show it's not easy. The proof is firmly in favour of there being some underlying problem when it comes to adapting games to film. We've had too many failures to continue to say it's just the lack of talent.

 

[TheVileOne]

To me there isn't a simple solution or answer to any of this.

My core belief is that games just have a style and interactivity that doesn't translate, even if they have big cinematic style and cinematic storytelling.

You can't say it was totally a lack of talent. The film had Michael Fassbender who has been on this project I think for years. We are talking at least about five years he's been on this. Fassbender is an acclaimed actor. Additionally, you had a cast full of Academy Award winners and award winning actors such as Jeremy Irons, Brendan Gleeson, Charlotte Rampling, and Marion Cotillard.

I haven't seen Kurzel's other movies, so I don't know if he's truly a great director or not.

Now for the writers, there isn't a ton of eye-popping credits between the three that are credited for the film. It seems Kurzel got his Macbeth writer on this. Or Fassbender helped with that too since he also worked on Macbeth.

 

[liesse00]

Like the Cubs and the World Series, a really good video game movie will happen someday.

 

[TheVileOne]

I dunno. To me there are just fundamental problems that keep it from becoming a reality.

 

[TheVileOne]

So should we declare this a dead genre now after Assassin's Creed and Warcraft or what?

What kind of prospects do Tomb Raider and Uncharted really have now?

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

I think it is so poisonous that no studio will give them the support they need nor will proper talent want to get involved with them.

 

[Web-Head]

So should we declare this a dead genre now after Assassin's Creed and Warcraft or what?

What kind of prospects do Tomb Raider and Uncharted really have now?

Not sure, but I think the Division will at least be decent. Gyllenhaal has been pretty good at choosing roles as of late.

 

[TheVileOne]

Not sure, but I think the Division will at least be decent. Gyllenhaal has been pretty good at choosing roles as of late.

You really think The Division will pull through and continue moving forward now? Also, last time I checked, The Division game hasn't been doing so well post-launch. Interest dropped in that game relatively quickly.