Why are movies based on video game always terrible?

[The Overlord]

Why are movies based on video games always terrible?

 

[godisawesome]

Because they're generally faced with a conundrum of seeing that a straight adaptation of the most cinematic properties wouldn't cover any new ground and would seem almost like plagiarism, while other properties often have such bland player-insert protagonists that they doubt the viability of a faithful adapatation. Add in the occaisional refusal to utilize that same material as research for a film, and you've got a formula where most adapatations will fail.

For instance, Metal Gear Solid arguably has all the elements needed for a solid adapatation...but good luck trying to top the cinematic cutscenes from the games in the Solid series. I could see someone making a good Metal Gear and Metal Gear: Solid Snake movie, but both those games would step back a bit from the scifi that defines the Solid entries, and doing so may be seen as limiting your sequel development, which is something movie studios want right now.

 

[Alien Anal]

Why are most big budget action films rubbish?

 

[Mysteryman]

Why are movies based on video games always terrible?

Make a movie that focuses more on the story then duplicating gameplay and the results will be better.

 

[DorkyFresh]

Multiple Reasons, the first being that most video game stories aren't meant to be watched...they're meant to be played. Get from point A to B. Now get from point B to C and so on. Games are very interactive so you don't need a gripping story to enjoy the gameplay but movies are different. You can't just throw a bunch of cool action and special effects on there and expect most of the audience to enjoy it. It has to have a solid story too.

The next reason is probably MORE important than the story, which is the CHARACTERS. I could watch Heath Ledger's Joker aimlessly wander the streets of Gotham for hours simply because he's an interesting character. Unfortunately, video games neglect this way too much because so many developers think the main character has to be mundane so the player can better imagine themselves in their shoes. But I find the opposite to be true. If I'm playing as a charismatic and quirky character then it keeps me interested. I'll take Nathan Drake over Master Chief any day.

My final reason (and there are more, but I don't wanna type a novel) is that ANY movie can only be as good as it's director. Up until now we don't have any prolific directors willing to direct a video game adaptation because no one has cracked the code yet. The closest we ever got was when Peter Jackson was involved with Halo but then you have a story and character that don't have much meat on them. A lot of the best directors feel like video games won't make good movie material. There was potential with Duncan Jones directing Warcraft but something somewhere went way wrong. Too much story to fit in one movie created issues with editing, but more importantly the CHARACTERS were flat! The most interesting character was made of polygons and textures and even he wasn't all that interesting! The focus was on too much story and world building, not enough of character moments. And this was a huge disappointment for me because Moon was a great character study with minimal story!

I have hope with Uncharted though. Joe Carnahan seems like a solid writer and if Shawn Levy can channel some of the magic he put into Real Steel (a light but heartfelt movie) then it should be decent adaptation. But then there are a lot more factors that come into play like casting and such. There are a lot of recent video games that would make great movies, but just like comics or any adaptation you need the right team to understand the essence of the game and translate that into an enjoyable movie.

 

[2kt09]

I have not a fricking' clue at this point.
You CAN make great movies off of the concept of gaming: Wreck-It-Ralph.
I'm genuinely shocked at how some of the titles of this decade couldn't gain an audience. One of my favorite movies of 2016 is a videogame movie.

With that one, it was clear there was too much lore and universe mechanics to absorb while the movie went along. The one before that I've seen was as generic as they come as a kid's movie. And the one before that kept some of the mechanics of the gameplay yet stuck with a really low substance story with action more absurd than the actual series.

I can sit through Prince of Persia and most of the fighting game movies just fine.

Why are most big budget action films rubbish?

 

[Yowza]

Why are most big budget action films rubbish?

What's with the choice of username?

$=tentpole=reduced risk+people flocking to fireworks I and popcorn I suppose

 

[dark_b]

Dont they always change the story from the game to the movie . a little? Change is not problem.

storytelling. They dont understand storytelling for movies. You could make a 4 hour documentary why AC didnt work.

 

[TheVileOne]

Or a decent 20-minute YouTube dissection video, like from Midnight's Edge or Half in the Bag.

I've pointed this out before, but gaming storytelling is built to enable players to exist in the game world and enable them to do things within the game.

When Zelda first started, most of the story was just patchwork stuff written in the instruction manual. When the game starts, it's just "You are Link. Gannon's stolen the Triforce. Go out and stop him!"

A lot of games are really just patchworks of existing story types that enable you to just do whatever. Warcraft was like this fantasy D&D/LOTR type setting. What's the objective? Pick a race and wage your conquest of Astaroth or what have you. World of Warcraft? You create your own character and go on quests, journeys, join guilds, whatever.

But the point is, games are interactive experiences where the player is empowered to do certain things. Movies are not that. They are fundamentally different.

So Uncharted. This is the one that a lot of fans are like, "OK all video game movies have sucked before, but THIS ONE! THIS ONE WILL WORK!"

Why though? I love Uncharted. But why should I go pay let's say $23 to watch Uncharted in a movie theater? Why do that, when I can get the thrill of experiencing my own adventures as Nathan Drake? Instead of watching Nathan Drake, I get to be Nathan Drake. I get to punch out the bad guys. I get to figure out the puzzles for myself. I get the thrill of jumping away from fireballs. I make that all happen. If I watch a movie, someone else is just doing it. And then, it's probably just not as good as the original.

But why will Uncharted be the movie where this finally succeeds where so many others have failed? Great writers have tried but never been able to crack this. Mark Protosevich himself said he couldn't figure out how to make Mass Effect into a movie. The producers talk a big game when they announce a Mass Effect movie, but they couldn't make it materialize.

Now look at The Witcher 3. It's one of the most beloved and immersive RPGs ever. You know why I think it really works? No matter what, there isn't really a SINGLE way to play The Witcher 3. You can really play the game however you want. Players can make Geralt more compassionate and agreeable or more blunt and harder edged. Who is the right girl to choose? Really any of them are. Why does Geralt even have to choose a girl a tall? He's a Witcher. Maybe it's better he can end up with no one. What's the right way? Any way the player chooses is the right one. There isn't a fixed way to do it. The game allows you to tailor the experience how you see fit. Geralt is as amoral or morally compassionate and righteous as you want him to be. And yeah I know Witcher started as a series of fantasy books. But a movie would have only one fixed, arbitrary path. People would bicker and debate about the outcomes and moral choices. Where the game allows you to direct the action and flow of Geralt's story as you see fit.

 

[DrCosmic]

It's not just that gameplay - the center of the appeal of any game - is hard to translate into an audience experience. It can be tricky, but Let's Plays and to a lesser degree cutscenes have been doing just this for quite a while by pairing visual storytelling with character-filled dialogue (like any good film). More important to the failure of video game movies to be quality is accessibility. While we can reasonably assume the people making the Harry Potter movies read the books, or at worst, read the screenplay written by the books' author, the same can't be said of any video game movie. Worse, we can reasonably assume that Justin Kurzel and Michael Fassbender have not played through a single Assassin's Creed game, much less all of them. Think about that, the people who are trying to 'capture' Assassin's Creed have never actually experienced the thrill of stalking an unsuspecting noble, or the frustration of losing one's cover unexpectedly and having to run from guards. But they're doing Assassin's Creed.

The final nail in the coffin is the fact that video games are not live action, they are animation. Often video games try to evoke movies, but at the end of the day, everything that happens in the game goes through the animation department, even the mo-cap. Video games are cartoons, so in addition to the gameplay adaptation failures, video game movies also have the challenges inherent in adapting a cartoon to live action, see Avatar The Last Airbender, Speed Racer and, at the best end, Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Between these two things, all the failings fall. Pixar would nail a great video game movie, and arguably already did. If it were me adapting a video game, I'd basically be making a 2-hour long 'level' that distills the essence of the game, and then putting two characters in there and basically having a Let's Play kind of back and forth. But that might just be me though.

 

[Consona]

if you look at Blizzard's animations for WarCraft, Overwatch, etc., I think an animated film made by Blizzard themselves could work very well. The only thing they'd need is a skill not to make awesome 5 minut video but 2 hour film.

 

[GR8GODZILLAGOD]

Assassin's Creed was a franchise that could've easily been adapted into a good film but they still managed to **** it up by making the idiotic decision of having 90% of the film take place in the present.

 

[DrCosmic]

^You only know that because you've played the game. Until we get a generation of filmmakers that grew up on current-gen games, we're not going to see great video game movies.

 

[reverse flash]

Video games are already a theatrical experience with cut scenes and gameplay to enhance the experience for players. You cant duplicate that to a movie. Mortal kombat worked because we didnt have cut scenes yet and just read bios and endings at the arcade. Seeing that play out in live action and the characters interact was a first. Even now the new mortal kombat games have about a 2 hours worth of cut scenes that play like a real movie and fill in the gaps between gameplay fights.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

Lack of talent. Lack of money. Lack of faithfulness to the source material. Poor choices of which games to adapt.

They have been translated to other mediums just fine. It is just Hollywood that can't figure it out. Good animated films and series based off of video games have been made for decades. For example, right now we have Tales of Zestiria the X. The second season just started this week. Last year had the film Persona 3: Winter of Rebirth.

The medium isn't the problem. The filmmakers are the problem.

 

[Victarion]

I want a Devil May Cry movie. It could be a celebration of practical SFX since the games are just you pulling cool moves and mowing down demons.

 

[Arachnerd]

Videogame movies today are still where they were in the 90's, which is a shame.

 

[Reverse-Zoom]

Resident Evil worked well enough to get like 6 movies

 

[2kt09]

For example, right now we have Tales of Zestiria the X. The second season just started this week. Last year had the film Persona 3: Winter of Rebirth.

Even better example: that other thing adapted from a mobile app
The good shows tend to be adapted from very story-heavy jrpg's

The medium isn't the problem. The filmmakers are the problem.

I'd also argue the general filmmaking is the problem.
Videogames are a unique experience. The movies based off of them should be as well to set them apart from the rest.

 

[metaphysician]

I'd say the core reason is "the movie industry does not take the material seriously". All the things that people have mentioned happen, because of that. They are poor adaptations because the Hollywood types don't bother to play them or bring in people who have. Thus, poor choice in which games to adapt, poor choices in how to adapt them. Script and directing are crap, because why bother getting or doing good work, its just a video game. Etc.

This will only change when a project happens where the creative force behind it actually respects the source material. I still think the Halo movie could have been that: Microsoft wanted it to be treated like a serious big budget sci-fi action movie, and the games are good material for such. Pity their moviemaking partners were utterly unwilling to do so.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

The people they get to do them either lack talent or they don't understand the appeal of the source material.

I think it's probably because the studios don't take the genre seriously and don't mind doing a hackjob.

 

[2kt09]

The people they get to do them either lack talent or they don't understand the appeal of the source material.

I think it's probably because the studios don't take the genre seriously and don't mind doing a hackjob.

I'd say the core reason is "the movie industry does not take the material seriously".

How are Warcraft and Prince of Persia, not taking the material seriously?

Warcraft apparently took it too seriously, even with the changes from the source, that it left the audience dazed and confused from so much to grasp and understand. It was trying to be the next LOTR or DoPA.
Foreign markets seem to appreciate that. So, now it's supposedly being made overseas.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

I new Warcraft wasnxt going to do too well.


As a non-fan I didn't see much mainstream appeal.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

Even better example: that other thing adapted from a mobile app
The good shows tend to be adapted from very story-heavy jrpg's

Yep.

I'm being totally serious when I say that Yu Narukami from the Persona 4 anime is one of my favorite anime characters ever. This from a character that's a voiceless player avatar in the game.

 

[NHawk19]

Assassin's Creed was a franchise that could've easily been adapted into a good film but they still managed to **** it up by making the idiotic decision of having 90% of the film take place in the present.

Boy are you not wrong there. The first game got repetitive, but they got the setup right in a way that could easily translate to a film. Open in the past establish the Assasins. Then do the big reveal and the Animus etc as the twist. Not open with the Illuminati and Knights Templar and exposition.