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

[Lencho01]

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.

Maybe they shouldn't bother to make the style and interactivity of video games in films. They're two different things. It'd be like making a film based on a book with a narrator explaining everything on the screen. Some things work on film and some don't. It's TPTB's job to figure out what those things are and also make a good film.

 

[Tacit Ronin]

The reverse doesn't elicit the same level of failure. There have been a handful of movie games that have been good. Like Wolverine Origins and Spidey 2.

 

[Tony Stark]

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.

That's not true in every case. Look a game like Mario Brothers, you are correct. There's not really a story there just a premise, i.e. rescue the princess.

The story telling in Warcraft, and in Assasin's creed is far, far, far beyond any Hollywood film. There have been hundreds of novels and comics that were written from the source material of Warcraft. Assasin's creed has admittedly struggled in the last few games from a story perspective, but the Desmond Miles story is far beyond the story telling that goes on in a lot of Hollywood films.

The problem is not the source material, the problem is in execution and in getting directors that are actually interested in making the film which is the primary reason.

Has there ever been a real top notch writer director associated with a video game film? I doubt it, and a lot of it probably has to do with the fact that there have been so many juvenile attempts at making them that they don't want their name associated with the franchise.

 

[Tony Stark]

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.

Bingo!

Yeah it's not the acting that's a problem. They can find actors to do these films because there's enough actors that they can't be too picky, but there's much fewer directors, especially quality directors and writers to bring a project the attention it needs.

There are a ton of story driven video games now where they bring in academy award winning actors like Willem Dafoe and Kevin Spacy to do motion capture performances for the game. You would think someone would be able to adapt this material.

 

[TheVileOne]

That's not true in every case. Look a game like Mario Brothers, you are correct. There's not really a story there just a premise, i.e. rescue the princess.

The story telling in Warcraft, and in Assasin's creed is far, far, far beyond any Hollywood film. There have been hundreds of novels and comics that were written from the source material of Warcraft. Assasin's creed has admittedly struggled in the last few games from a story perspective, but the Desmond Miles story is far beyond the story telling that goes on in a lot of Hollywood films.

The problem is not the source material, the problem is in execution and in getting directors that are actually interested in making the film which is the primary reason.

Has there ever been a real top notch writer director associated with a video game film? I doubt it, and a lot of it probably has to do with the fact that there have been so many juvenile attempts at making them that they don't want their name associated with the franchise.

Yes. Arguably Duncan Jones on Warcraft. Mike Newell directed Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. His last big movie before that? Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

 

[LoganGambit87]

at this point only way i will get excited is if disney is doing a video game adaption

they killing it with mcu,star wars and pixar

 

[TheVileOne]

Well Disney is doing Wreck-It Ralph 2, but that doesn't really count. Wreck-It Ralph is an original movie first that happens to be set in a game world with some actual real-life gaming characters in it, but even then they are background characters.

 

[Web-Head]

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.

It really just depends. I don't think whether the game was extremely successful or not will matter much in the long run and in some ways may benefit the movie, if it does get made.

 

[TheVileOne]

Thing is, The Division in an online multiplayer game. The main character is the player. The player has no name or identity outside of what's created by the player. The player chooses the gender, race and ethnicity of the character.

I think the game does have a compelling premise, but it's not really a story you can simply convert to a movie either.

I guess what I'm asking is, what's the movie. How do you condense it to two hours and satisfy audiences?

 

[Web-Head]

Thing is, The Division in an online multiplayer game. The main character is the player. The player has no name or identity outside of what's created by the player. The player chooses the gender, race and ethnicity of the character.

I think the game does have a compelling premise, but it's not really a story you can simply convert to a movie either.

I guess what I'm asking is, what's the movie. How do you condense it to two hours and satisfy audiences?

Yeah I've played the game. I honestly have asked myself the same thing, but in a way this could give them more lee way

 

[lime]

Get Tim Burton to make a Limbo Animated film in the same style as the game, and it will win the Oscar.

But, how are people surprised by the reaction to Assasin Creed. It looked terrible from the trailers. Same of Warcraft.

Next to ruin is Meteal Gear Solid. Unelss Hideo Kojima works on it.

 

[NotNickFury]

What I wonder is how the Need for Speed movie did so badly. You'd think, given the Fast and the Furious films, that taking something like Need for Speed would be relatively easy.

 

[3dman27]

What I wonder is how the Need for Speed movie did so badly. You'd think, given the Fast and the Furious films, that taking something like Need for Speed would be relatively easy.

so it would seem

 

[TheVileOne]

What I wonder is how the Need for Speed movie did so badly. You'd think, given the Fast and the Furious films, that taking something like Need for Speed would be relatively easy.

The Fast and Furious movies aren't underground racing movies anymore. They are basically big action movies just with really fast cars. Now, they are more like superhero movies just with fast cars and tough guy con artists instead of capes and superpowers.

Maybe people saw Need for Speed as nothing more than a cheap knockoff cash-in, which it basically was at the time.

 

[Ivan Drago]

Somehow convince Spielberg to do a Halo movie. Didn't he produce a Halo TV show?

Spielberg+Sci-Fi=Good things.

 

[jmc]

I know The Last of Us is often touted as being a game that is perfectly fit for film, and I've often thought it myself, but I've just watched an hour long well crafted fan film that was pretty faithful to the story and dialog and I'm not so sure anymore that game is likely to lend itself as easily as we think to film.

I think simply put a film adaptation could never do that story justice. It would require wholesale changes, the elimination of main characters, and a scaling down of the world, entire seasons might have to be removed too. The other thing was I was playing the game over the weekend and what I found was part of the thing that draws you in is the world you're inhabiting, you spend so much time looking for artefacts and building the story of what happened through exploration alone. Again, this comes back to the gameplay, the cutscenes and dialog are only part of the journey, the rest is on you the player to discover yourself.

In this case I honestly think no matter how good a production you do, no matter how good the actors you get, the main issue with adapting that game is time and the fact the original is so superbly crafted in the first place. I honestly don't know what a film could bring to the table that the game hasn't already done.

 

[LoganGambit87]

The Fast and Furious movies aren't underground racing movies anymore. They are basically big action movies just with really fast cars. Now, they are more like superhero movies just with fast cars and tough guy con artists instead of capes and superpowers.

Maybe people saw Need for Speed as nothing more than a cheap knockoff cash-in, which it basically was at the time.

i think people constantly forget before fast five which was the first film to get away from street racing the highest grossing fast and the furious film grossed 363 million

 

[Isildur´s Heir]

Like i said before, video game movies are made for money reasons, nothing else.
The directors involved have no idea that it's based on a game, don't care or never played it.
Until a good video game movie is made, no one will look at it as nothing more than a cash cow.

Now, can a good video game movie ever be made?
Absolutely!

All it takes is to take the fundamentals of the game; the story, the characters, what's the point of all of that.
Have the director or the writer play the game and finish it; if they can't, have them watch someone play it and explaining what's going on.
Games needs changes, you can have a 2 hour movie with a character running around, alone, shooting stuff; but, if you understand the game, you know how to change it without killing it's meaning.

There are tons of games that can be turned into good movies, even games that, at first, you don't see it (Doom comes to mind).
Bare in mind that almost all games have bad stories (not all, so, don't give me the "this game has a great story"), but great premises.

 

[Isildur´s Heir]

I think simply put a film adaptation could never do that story justice. It would require wholesale changes, the elimination of main characters, and a scaling down of the world, entire seasons might have to be removed too. The other thing was I was playing the game over the weekend and what I found was part of the thing that draws you in is the world you're inhabiting, you spend so much time looking for artefacts and building the story of what happened through exploration alone. Again, this comes back to the gameplay, the cutscenes and dialog are only part of the journey, the rest is on you the player to discover yourself.

A game and a movie are totally different things, to compare them is pointless; but one doesn't invalidate the other.

In this case I honestly think no matter how good a production you do, no matter how good the actors you get, the main issue with adapting that game is time and the fact the original is so superbly crafted in the first place. I honestly don't know what a film could bring to the table that the game hasn't already done.

Real people in "real" situations?!?
That's the same reason books are made into movies, because you are watching it unfold on screen instead of making it in your mind.
And you also lose stuff in the translation, you lose stuff that is not put into the movie.

A movie takes away the pointless stuff in game, that is so good because it's a game.
For example: Find the 20 parts of the bomb
No one wants to watch a 2 hour movie about finding pieces of a bomb scattered around an area.

The example above is generic, not about "The Last of Us", which, sadly, i never played.
But that is just to show that the idea that a movie can't do a game's justice is not true, unless you can't understand the difference between the two mediums.
A movie is a passive medium, look at it like as you are a god looking through a window into a new reality and watching people going about their lives.
A movie is about watching, understanding it, and connecting to those characters and what is going on, at the same time, making parallels between it and your own live or things you know.

A video game is an active medium, one where you are the character and you deal with it accordingly.

 

[MadVillainy]

A game and a movie are totally different things, to compare them is pointless; but one doesn't invalidate the other.


Real people in "real" situations?!?
That's the same reasons books are made into movies, because you are watching it unfold on screen instead of making it in your mind.
And you also lose stuff in the translation, you lose stuff that is not put into the movie.

A movie takes away the pointless stuff in game, that is so good because it's a game.
For example: Find the 20 parts of the bomb
No one wants to watch a 2 hour movie about finding pieces of a bomb scattered around an area.

The example above is generic, not about "The Last of Us", which, sadly, i never played.
But that is just to show that the idea that a movie can't do a game's justice is not true, unless you can't understand the difference between the two mediums.
A movie is a passive medium, look at it like as you are a god looking through a window into a new reality and watching people going about their lives.
A movie is about watching, understanding it, and connecting to those characters and what is going on, at the same time, making parallels between it and your own live or things you know.

A video game is an active medium, one where you are the character and you deal with it accordingly.

I agree.

I mean on the subject of AC. It's not bad because it's based on a VG it's bad because the idiots decided to make a movie where 2/3 of it take place in the real world. The whole appeal of the game was the past gameplay. WWhy remove that? It's like if they adapted Harry Potter and then just did 1/3 at Hogwarts

 

[GR8GODZILLAGOD]

I know The Last of Us is often touted as being a game that is perfectly fit for film, and I've often thought it myself, but I've just watched an hour long well crafted fan film that was pretty faithful to the story and dialog and I'm not so sure anymore that game is likely to lend itself as easily as we think to film.

I think simply put a film adaptation could never do that story justice. It would require wholesale changes, the elimination of main characters, and a scaling down of the world, entire seasons might have to be removed too. The other thing was I was playing the game over the weekend and what I found was part of the thing that draws you in is the world you're inhabiting, you spend so much time looking for artefacts and building the story of what happened through exploration alone. Again, this comes back to the gameplay, the cutscenes and dialog are only part of the journey, the rest is on you the player to discover yourself.

In this case I honestly think no matter how good a production you do, no matter how good the actors you get, the main issue with adapting that game is time and the fact the original is so superbly crafted in the first place. I honestly don't know what a film could bring to the table that the game hasn't already done.

The Last of Us' story is already perfectly told and paced. There's no way it can be condensed into a 2-2 1/2 hour movie and still do it justice. I honestly expect the planned movie to just be stuck in development hell.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

I agree.

I mean on the subject of AC. It's not bad because it's based on a VG it's bad because the idiots decided to make a movie where 2/3 of it take place in the real world. The whole appeal of the game was the past gameplay. WWhy remove that? It's like if they adapted Harry Potter and then just did 1/3 at Hogwarts

Exactly.

 

[Fallen Angel]

The Gran Turismo movie that's in the work's will save us.

 

[jmc]

Real people in "real" situations?!?
That's the same reason books are made into movies, because you are watching it unfold on screen instead of making it in your mind.
And you also lose stuff in the translation, you lose stuff that is not put into the movie.

A movie takes away the pointless stuff in game, that is so good because it's a game.
For example: Find the 20 parts of the bomb
No one wants to watch a 2 hour movie about finding pieces of a bomb scattered around an area.

The example above is generic, not about "The Last of Us", which, sadly, i never played.
But that is just to show that the idea that a movie can't do a game's justice is not true, unless you can't understand the difference between the two mediums.
A movie is a passive medium, look at it like as you are a god looking through a window into a new reality and watching people going about their lives.
A movie is about watching, understanding it, and connecting to those characters and what is going on, at the same time, making parallels between it and your own live or things you know.

A video game is an active medium, one where you are the character and you deal with it accordingly.

If you've not played the game them you're not really understanding where I'm coming from. You're talking about 20 hours of story that is deliberately paced a certain way for character development being trimmed to fit 2 and a half hours on film. Video games like these if anything are more suited to television than movies. As I said, cutscenes are only part of the story, the other part is controlled by you the player, which is part of the problem with adapting video games. A Last of Us movie would have little resemblance to the video game, and if that's the case it begs the question why bother adapting it in the first place? There's absolutely nothing a film does for that story that the game doesn't already cover in great detail.

 

[Isildur´s Heir]

If you've not played the game them you're not really understanding where I'm coming from. You're talking about 20 hours of story that is deliberately paced a certain way for character development being trimmed to fit 2 and a half hours on film. Video games like these if anything are more suited to television than movies. As I said, cutscenes are only part of the story, the other part is controlled by you the player, which is part of the problem with adapting video games. A Last of Us movie would have little resemblance to the video game, and if that's the case it begs the question why bother adapting it in the first place? There's absolutely nothing a film does for that story that the game doesn't already cover in great detail.

Yes, i haven't played it, but that doesn't invalidate what i said.

By saying "There's absolutely nothing a film does for that story that the game doesn't already cover in great detail", you are making the mistake of addressing it like the movie would replace the game somehow.
That's a mistake since it wouldn't happen, not was there any point for it to be so; just like a movie doesn't replace a book.

But sure, not all things are easily translated into movie; maybe a tv show would be better suited.
When i talk about video game movies,i do not invalidate a tv show; in fact, in this case, the word "movie" has both meanings.

But, like i said before, a movie would not have those things that are so good in games because they are gameplay features, like upgrades, opening locked doors (shiv doors, there are 13 in the game, from what i gathered), or finding parts of some device.