Video Game Movies

[NotSoLongAgo]

So far they've sucked, because they aren't taken as seriously as they should. I'm not even gonna complain about Uwe Boll because he's out there getting rights to every **** game ever made, so it's not like he'll ever touch a good game. But with games like Grand Theft Auto, Bioshock, Metroid, Halo, Kingdom Hearts, Gears of War, the COD series, Metal Gear, etc. you'd expect a good director and studio to come out and adapt one and make it something that can stand its ground well for generations and not just one viewing.

One of the biggest problems with these films is that they try too hard to acknowledge that they were originally video games, they don't try to be good stand-alone films, period.

Get Ben Affleck to direct a GTA, Duncan Jones to do Portal, Ridley Scott to COD, Peter Jackson to Halo or Gears of War.

What do you guys think on the topic? What would be a dream movie (or cast/crew)?

 

[scifiwolf]

Ben Affleck for GTA is not something I ever thought I'd see, but is an intriguing idea.

I think the biggest problem with video game movies is that they're nothing but constant action-driven problems, one after another. All you do is bounce from one task or objective and obstacle to another. Do this, avoid that, find object, fight guys, go through door, realize you need key from three missions ago that you never got, go back, throw controller...

Film narrative and VG narrative have totally different needs, and I've never seen anyone meld the two all that successfully.

 

[marvelman2006]

I think mortal kombat is the only movie to successfully make the transition from game to film.

 

[Speedball]

I think the problem with video game films is that the people that make them either get overwhelmed with the source material, don't understand it, or just look at this as a property that will make money, which more often than not they don't.

 

[GREEN =w= DAY]

I think mortal kombat is the only movie to successfully make the transition from game to film.

yeah for sure. even though the film has its flaws, it is still an entertaining movie that stuck to the source material and treated the characters with respect.

the second one is just a total piece of crap though. it totally raped the characters and was made for the sole purpose to ride off the success of the first film and make a quick buck.

 

[Spider-Who?]

I think I was about 8 or 10 when Mortal Kombat came out. Even then I would never had considered it a good or successful film/adaptation...

 

[GhostPoet]

I've never understood why it's so hard to make a good video game movie. There is plenty of source material to work with. The problem is they see it as a money property. They don't respect it. They just shove as much action in as possible and call it good. If you don't respect and KNOW the property you won't be able to make a good film based on a video game.

 

[Octoberist]

The other factor depends on what franchise you want to adapt.

For example, many video games ape (or get strongly influenced) by preexisting properties. Since it's done on a different medium, it tends to be widely accepted.

But for example, if some producer wants to do a movie adaptation of..Left 4 Dead or Dead Rising, that would be stupid because they are already 'remakes/homages' of the Romano films. So it's pointless.

Samething with 'Max Payne' which was already cinematic in the game anyway.

But when you have games like 'Zelda', that was influenced by Ridley Scott's 'Legend' and made it their own, I'm cool with that.

 

[Pink Ranger]

Truth is, I can't think of a good reason why video game movies are always bad (if MK1 is the best one, that's not exactly the highest bar to set).

The only reason I can think of is that it's generally the only kind of adaptation where you need to add MORE story to the pre-existing material, rather than less (i.e. as opposed to adapting a full-length novel, or an entire universe of comic books, or even an old TV series). That might make a video game adaptation harder then one would expect.

 

[NotSoLongAgo]

I think the only movie that was actually pretty good was Silent Hill.

 

[Laderlappen]

Its a different kind of medium and is really hard to make a film out of even with great people involved.

 

[Silvermoth]

I think they have the same problem as some musical adaptions. Alot of the time musical producers only agree to sell the film rights after the stage production has had every single dollar squeesed out of it. By the time they become movies most people have already seen it and are a bit over it.

It's the same with video games. Why make a Prince of Persia movie now and not five or ten years ago? Why are they waiting around with the Bioshock movie when they should get the good press now?

Because developers want to exhaust one medium before they move onto another.

 

[thejon93]

'Mortal Kombat' is definitely the best video game adaption of the bunch (and is the only one I can think of that I really liked). All the others that I hear people mention ('Silent Hill', 'Resident Evil') are terrible.

'Silent Hill' didn't scare me in the slightest. In fact, it left me more depressed than anything. There were no characters to route for, no moments for breathing room, no good performances and no fun. The thing I enjoyed about the game was the creepy atmosphere and the sense of adventure. The movie had none of that, in my opinion. All of it's violence felt really mean-spirited, as well. There's a scene where one of the characters is being burnt alive while another character is forced to watch and it's just detestable. Plus, the main "villain" in the film didn't get their just deserved, in the end, in my opinion. All in all, it was a terrible film. One of the worst films I've ever seen; I'd rather watch a marathon of Uwe Boll films than to watch that miserable sack of crap again.

'Resident Evil' wasn't that bad. It didn't take itself seriously like a lot of video game movies are doing now ('Silent Hill'), but there wasn't enough fun to be had either. I hate movies that are essentially built off a series of rooms and tasks that are there to keep the so-called "plot" moving. It's boring and uninteresting. Milla Jovovich was good in it and the zombie dogs were a nice addition, but the Licker was a terrible addition and lack of a scary atmosphere was really disappointing. The three sequels don't help much, either. Stop milking this franchise already!

 

[Boom]

Alfonso Cuaron for Halo.

Kthnx.

 

[Majik1387]

Silent Hill movie > the games

And I can definitely support a GTA movie directed by Ben Affleck after watching The Town; but it won't happen because of some stupid name copyright from a 70's movie. And as much as I adore the Kingdom Hearts games, they will never get the okay from Disney to be turned into a movie series.

I would love to see a movie adaptation of Bioshock, Metroid, Mega-Man, Left 4 Dead(it is not a rehash/homage of the Romero movies), Perfect Dark, Syphon Filter, etc

COD, Gears of War, Black Ops, etc don't deserve movies.

 

[Soapy]

So far I feel like movies based on video games have failed because the people who are in charge of them really don't get it. Or worse, they just don't care.

The studios just video game movies as using a recognizable franchise for a quick cash grab. And even when the people making the movie are actually trying, they always focus on the wrong things. "We have to make sure [protagonist] does his "special move" from the game to kill [bad guy], people will love it!! ...But we totally have to change the characterization, plot, and tone."

I think the best way to go about making a good video game film is rather than just trying to remake a specific game's story for a different medium, tell a new story set in that world. There are a lot of game franchises that have such incredibly rich lore and extensive backstories that you really don't need to base a movie on the game itself.

This seems like not only a great compromise, but also the very best way to get video game movies that are actually worth a damn. The studios get the recognizable name, the people working on the movie aren't constrained by a story and characters that are largely prewritten, and the game developers get promotion for their series and the prestige of a good film based on their work. Seems like win, win, win to me.

 

[Octoberist]

The worst thing about these directors who don't 'get it' claim they're big fans.

Like Paul WS Anderson. While his movies are fun to a degree, he doesn't 'get' the atmosphere that makes the games scary. Sure the games are cheesy too but they also have quiet moments. None of the techo stuff in the films, with kung-fu.

 

[Asr]

Metroid = Aliens

Granted, with completely different aliens of course (the Metroids), but a similar execution as the Aliens movie could totally work. You can start the movie with a squad of mercs or bounty hunters investigating a distress signal, going underground and getting picked off one by one, etc, and ultimately it becomes just Samus who has to face the Metroid Queen. And hey you can even pull something from Metroid II so Samus finds a Metroid hatchling!

Since the Metroid aliens are a lot less populous than Xenomorphs, a movie could make each Metroid battle a mini set-piece. And of course it'd have to feature all 4 stages of the lifecycle so as the movie progresses, the Metroids get more powerful. But as they get more powerful, so does Samus.

Legend of Zelda = LOTR

Like the other thread states, similar but not completely the same. I haven't played any of the games past ALTTP so I'll just work from the ALTTP framework here. Start with a boy having nightmares of the future (or past) who gets so upset he thinks he needs to go find his uncle at the castle to help him. But on the way, his dying uncle tells him he needs to save Zelda. Bam, what else do you need? You have a fearless boy who rises to the occasion, enters a mysterious forest to retrieve a sword (a la King Arthur tales), then has to defeat a mortal enemy. You don't even need any dungeons, and the other characters can be villagers, knights, etc (plus the monsters of course). You can even ignore Link's signature bow & arrow and just have him use the Master Sword. There have been other movies that have done this kind of fantasy action-adventure before - LOZ could pull elements from The Princess Bride, Willow, LOTR, all the movies about King Arthur including "The Sword in the Stone", etc.

Half-Life

This story is so movie-adaptable it's not even funny. Government conspiracy, soldiers killing scientists, aliens, etc. It's not like there haven't been sci-fi/action movies that featured one protagonist fighting his way through impossible odds.

 

[NotSoLongAgo]

Metroid = Aliens

Granted, with completely different aliens of course (the Metroids), but a similar execution as the Aliens movie could totally work. You can start the movie with a squad of mercs or bounty hunters investigating a distress signal, going underground and getting picked off one by one, etc, and ultimately it becomes just Samus who has to face the Metroid Queen. And hey you can even pull something from Metroid II so Samus finds a Metroid hatchling!

Legend of Zelda = LOTR

Like the other thread states, similar but not completely the same. I haven't played any of the games past ALTTP so I'll just work from the ALTTP framework here. Start with a boy having nightmares of the future (or past) who gets so upset he thinks he needs to go find his uncle at the castle to help him. But on the way, his dying uncle tells him he needs to save Zelda. Bam, what else do you need? You have a fearless boy who rises to the occasion, enters a mysterious forest to retrieve a sword (a la King Arthur tales), then has to defeat a mortal enemy. You don't even need any dungeons, and the other characters can be villagers, knights, etc (plus the monsters of course). You can even ignore Link's signature bow & arrow and just have him use the Master Sword. There have been other movies that have done this kind of fantasy action-adventure before - LOZ could pull elements from The Princess Bride, Willow, LOTR, all the movies about King Arthur including "The Sword in the Stone", etc.

Half-Life

This story is so movie-adaptable it's not even funny. Government conspiracy, soldiers killing scientists, aliens, etc. It's not like there haven't been sci-fi/action movies that featured one protagonist fighting his way through impossible odds.

Completely agree, in fact I was gonna mention Half-Life, it has a great story, I really enjoyed that one. I remember watching a video on youtube that was a machinima of Mario, where it was a crime drama and while it probably wouldn't be the best idea, that type of take on a mario film would be better than the one it got. But I don't want a Mario film anyway.

 

[flickchick85]

While I agree with the notion that the problem is none of the higher ups take the material seriously enough, I still don't understand how they can make crowd-pleasing blockbusters out of a theme park ride that had no discernible story, yet they can't adapt one of these games that already have solid stories (and visuals to a certain degree) in place.

I don't play video games. At all. But remember when I was younger I loved the stories to certain RPGs, like the Final Fantasy series, etc. And I understand they've gotten FAR more cinematic since then. So hopefully they can get their act together. I think David O. Russell's Uncharted movie sounds promising, even though I know literally nothing about that game.

But honestly, I feel like at this point, since we've had SOOOOooo many duds that the first video game movie that turns out to be both creatively and commercially successful will be something of a cinematic milestone, lol. Which is sad.

 

[MadVillainy]

Silent Hill movie > the games

And I can definitely support a GTA movie directed by Ben Affleck after watching The Town; but it won't happen because of some stupid name copyright from a 70's movie. And as much as I adore the Kingdom Hearts games, they will never get the okay from Disney to be turned into a movie series.

I would love to see a movie adaptation of Bioshock, Metroid, Mega-Man, Left 4 Dead(it is not a rehash/homage of the Romero movies), Perfect Dark, Syphon Filter, etc

COD, Gears of War, Black Ops, etc don't deserve movies.

Wow GTA doesnt deserve a film at all. The whole point of GTA is that you the player can do almost whatever the f*** you want. a movie would completely lose that angle that appeals to most if not all GTA players. That's the problem with adapting any large open world game like Red Dead Redemption, GTA, etc.

Gears of War definitely deserves its own movie. There is no reason why it doesnt.

The other factor depends on what franchise you want to adapt.

This

I've never understood why it's so hard to make a good video game movie. There is plenty of source material to work with. The problem is they see it as a money property. They don't respect it. They just shove as much action in as possible and call it good. If you don't respect and KNOW the property you won't be able to make a good film based on a video game.

This

The worst thing about these directors who don't 'get it' claim they're big fans.

Like Paul WS Anderson. While his movies are fun to a degree, he doesn't 'get' the atmosphere that makes the games scary. Sure the games are cheesy too but they also have quiet moments. None of the techo stuff in the films, with kung-fu.

This x2

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Bioshock
Uncharted
Gears of War

are the 3 that deserve adaptations the most and have the most potential. So many others have great potential too

 

[Sundancer]

I understand the hate on Silent Hill, but I think it has it's good qualities too. Gans (the director) really wanted to do Silent Hill 2 for the emotional arc but admitted he had trouble fitting in the town's origins.

The first Tomb Raider isn't that bad. Neither is Prince of Persia.

 

[NotSoLongAgo]

Wow GTA doesnt deserve a film at all. The whole point of GTA is that you the player can do almost whatever the f*** you want. a movie would completely lose that angle that appeals to most if not all GTA players. That's the problem with adapting any large open world game like Red Dead Redemption, GTA, etc.

But you do realize that rockstars sandbox games have storys right?


And another reason they fail is poor choice of game. House of the Dead, Mario, Postal, etc

 

[Octoberist]

A movie like Silent Hill shouldn't explain the origins of anything. Just have the characters get stuck in the town and try to get out. Along the way, maybe HINT towards the backstory.

A little bit of mystery doesn't hurt.

 

[Poetic Chaos]

I'm a big JRPG fan so film adaptations of Grandia or Skies of Arcadia would be my ultimate dream. So much adventure.