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(Good) Videogame Movie Adaptions: Has The Time Come?
Professor Snugglesworth
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During a pre-Oscars interview, actor Jake Gyllenhaal made a comment on how the upcoming Prince of Persia adaption would be the movie that would officially start the trend for serious film adaptions of popular videogames.
Marketing gimmicks aside, I believe he's got a point. Disney's PoP adaption is certainly the most ambitious and most expensive attempt yet, and whether it ends up being a faithful adaption, much less a decent film, are pretty much moot points: The movie's going to make a big profit, will undoubtedly spawn sequels, and will most certainly cause other studios to follow suit.
Much like how X-Men kick-started the comic book movie surge (I personally say it started with Blade, but let's not veer off-course), a similar surge with videogame adaptions is inevitable.
So what are your thoughts on this? Are we at a point where we'll start seeing big budget 3D videogame movies? Are they capable of being good films without butchering the source material? Why are we still getting abortions like The Legend of Chun Li and the upcoming King of Fighters (which, judging by previews, makes one wonder if the filmmakers even did a passing glance of the game, or even viewed a single piece of artwork)? Will the videogame movie surge happen before the anime surge (which is predicted to start with either Akira or Battle Angel Alita)?
Feel free to discuss past efforts as well. There are four videogame movies I can personally attest to being both faithful to their adaptions as well as wholly entertaining.
1. Silent Hill: The most recent example, Silent Hill's theatrical debut gets my personal pick for the best live adaption of a game series thus far, and that largely is due to the director's respect of the franchise. It's no coincidence that the movie hits a low point in its later half once he decided to veer off from the original story (instead adding some bullshit about witches). I'm highly looking forward to the sequel.
2. Mortal Kombat: Beloved by many people here, the MK movie hasn't aged well as far as kung-fu action sequences go, but is still an enjoyable and campy movie with some great one-liners and almost perfect replications of the original cast. Mortal Kombat was never a series meant to be taken seriously anyway (and I feel sorry for anyone who does), so it's a pretty solid adaption overall.
3. Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete: There's going to be a lot of debate if this one even counts, as well if it was even good. I say yes on both counts, as it delivered stunning visuals and truly over-the-top battles mixed in with some fantastic makeovers for Cloud and company. The Complete edition is far and away definitive, as it adds actual cinematography and an easier to understand plot, along with even more action. It's fanservice, pure and simple, but for FFVII fans it was the ultimate reunion of a beloved series.
4. Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie: Still my number one choice as the greatest videogame adaption of all time. The first Street Fighter anime remains one of my most-watched movies, featuring some incredible animation, beautifully choreographed fights (supervised by actual martial arts experts), and a terrific representation of the Street Fighter cast. It's no surprise that Capcom continues to take inspiration from this movie and implement it into current SF titles today, and it will continue to live on as not only an excellent game adaption, but one of the best martial arts movies ever. You can't go wrong with the heavy-metal composed dub, but the original Japanese track is worth watching as well (you can get both now under one DVD).
Marketing gimmicks aside, I believe he's got a point. Disney's PoP adaption is certainly the most ambitious and most expensive attempt yet, and whether it ends up being a faithful adaption, much less a decent film, are pretty much moot points: The movie's going to make a big profit, will undoubtedly spawn sequels, and will most certainly cause other studios to follow suit.
Much like how X-Men kick-started the comic book movie surge (I personally say it started with Blade, but let's not veer off-course), a similar surge with videogame adaptions is inevitable.
So what are your thoughts on this? Are we at a point where we'll start seeing big budget 3D videogame movies? Are they capable of being good films without butchering the source material? Why are we still getting abortions like The Legend of Chun Li and the upcoming King of Fighters (which, judging by previews, makes one wonder if the filmmakers even did a passing glance of the game, or even viewed a single piece of artwork)? Will the videogame movie surge happen before the anime surge (which is predicted to start with either Akira or Battle Angel Alita)?
Feel free to discuss past efforts as well. There are four videogame movies I can personally attest to being both faithful to their adaptions as well as wholly entertaining.
1. Silent Hill: The most recent example, Silent Hill's theatrical debut gets my personal pick for the best live adaption of a game series thus far, and that largely is due to the director's respect of the franchise. It's no coincidence that the movie hits a low point in its later half once he decided to veer off from the original story (instead adding some bullshit about witches). I'm highly looking forward to the sequel.
2. Mortal Kombat: Beloved by many people here, the MK movie hasn't aged well as far as kung-fu action sequences go, but is still an enjoyable and campy movie with some great one-liners and almost perfect replications of the original cast. Mortal Kombat was never a series meant to be taken seriously anyway (and I feel sorry for anyone who does), so it's a pretty solid adaption overall.
3. Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete: There's going to be a lot of debate if this one even counts, as well if it was even good. I say yes on both counts, as it delivered stunning visuals and truly over-the-top battles mixed in with some fantastic makeovers for Cloud and company. The Complete edition is far and away definitive, as it adds actual cinematography and an easier to understand plot, along with even more action. It's fanservice, pure and simple, but for FFVII fans it was the ultimate reunion of a beloved series.
4. Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie: Still my number one choice as the greatest videogame adaption of all time. The first Street Fighter anime remains one of my most-watched movies, featuring some incredible animation, beautifully choreographed fights (supervised by actual martial arts experts), and a terrific representation of the Street Fighter cast. It's no surprise that Capcom continues to take inspiration from this movie and implement it into current SF titles today, and it will continue to live on as not only an excellent game adaption, but one of the best martial arts movies ever. You can't go wrong with the heavy-metal composed dub, but the original Japanese track is worth watching as well (you can get both now under one DVD).
Professor Snugglesworth on
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That should be... interesting. Most video game movie adaptations suck. If they could get some Avatar-esqu mo-cap 3D CGI goin' on in there it might even be awesome.
A WoW movie would just be awful imo, its art style and cartoony nature just doesn't lend itself well to a live action flick. Sam Raimi is fantastic with fantasy settings but i've heard nothing but rumours, it doesn't seem like a project Sam Raimi would take on to be honest, but who knows.
A lot of people around here who saw the trailer yawned and said "Oh boy, Pirates of Persia" because it does, in fact, look very similar in style to a Pirates of the Caribbean film. But hey, we're a bunch of cynics (not necessarily a bad thing, but we are)
Thing is, that shit sells
I've been talking to a lot of people about it that don't play video games at all and didn't know it was even based on a game, and the fact that it just looks like an awesome action movie and features a topless Jake Gyllenhaal is a big enough sell
Will it happen immediately? No. It didn't happen immediately with comic books. After X-Men hit in June of 2000, we still had nearly two years (May 2002) before the big one hit (Spider-Man).
That's not to say they will magically all be good. We will have our X-Mens, Spider-Men, Iron Men, and Beginning Batmen. We will also have our Elektras, Catwomen and Fantastic Foursomes. And much like superhero films, they are going to have to pick and choose carefully; just like no one should have ever made a Catwoman film, no one should have ever made Super Mario Bros. movie. Some properties just will not work.
Also, Snuggles, if you're going to say that Blade started off (even though I really hated Blade), then I will say that Mortal Kombat is the game equivalent
Prince of Persia's trailers don't seem that bad, but I'm not sure it'll really be the one to turn the tides.
THere's nothing wrong with making a Catwoman movie in theory, and what is wrong with the first 45 minutes of that movie (not watching the rest), has nothing to do with the Catwoman licence.
In fact, the movie itself has nothing to do with the Catwoman licence.
I'm not trying to argue with you, its just that that movie was so terrible for reasons like super powered basketball, bad acting, bad script, bad action and the makers thinking we'd forgive more as long as we saw more of Halle's boobs. I wouldn't be surprised if the script was written as a standalone and some goose decided to change it to catwoman, much like a die hard sequel.
Awful, awful film.
Beat me on 360: Raybies666
I remember when I had time to be good at games.
I have nothing against a proper Catwoman film, but two things:
1) She needs to be introduced in a Batman film
2) There should be some kind of consistent universe going on around her
DC had nothing then. Batman Begins and Superman Returns hadn't hit yet. Their only try during that whole time was a misguided Catwoman film.
Just so...so strange
What matters is whether a good film is made, and a good film can be made out of anything if people bother to make the effort.
The majority of videogame adaptations haven't been trying very hard.
Imagine Uncharted 2 on the screen, it'd be 2hrs of a wise ass doing District 13 parkour but over tanks and trains and I'd fucking love it!!!
I hope PoP sets the mark, like X-men did (or Blade), and then in a few years we'll get video game gems, like The Dark Knight was for comics.
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"Director Neill Blomkamp explores the lives of Marines and ODSTs on a last, desperate mission in a post-invasion Earth – a mission that may secure the salvation, or usher the destruction of the entire galaxy. Edited together as a standalone piece for the first time, these three shorts are the first glimpse at what a live-action Halo could and should look like and a must-see for Halo fans of every stripe."
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Ugh... that Max Payne movie... so bad. All they had to do was take the script from the game, and give it to actors. Somehow, they screwed even that up.
The DVD had a Uwe Boll commentary track on, the guy considers himself a complete genius. There's on shot in the film where someone jumps in the air and throws an axe at a zombie, the film slows down and the camera spins around the character then follows the axe. The commentary goes along the lines of:
"Ahh, here is 'The Matrix' shot. A technique pioneered by the Wachowski brothers and, I believe, perfected by me."
His version of Alone in the Dark was fantastic too, invisible reptile characters killing marines with guns. I don't think anyone is actually alone in the dark for the entire length of the movie.
I also bought Mortal Kombat and Super Mario Bros.
I love awful movies.
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That said, I'm curious what happens with the Halo, WoW, and Bioshock movies (all of which I'm pretty sure are in the works?) and terrified at the possibility of a take on the Mass Effect universe (and my monumental expectations that would follow).
We may very well see a good movie based on a videogames someday, but that may be more thanks to the movie makers than the source material.
This raises a question to me that is relevant to the topic on hand: Are the stories in games improving? Meaning, are video games maturing as a medium for story telling? That in and of itself would seem to be an important ingredient in the 'good VG movie' formula.
District 9 is the scraps of the Halo movie. Neil Blomkampf (god bless you! I have no idea how to spell it!) was the director on the Halo movie, with Peter Jackson producing. They got stuff all set to go (go youtube the Halo movie screen test stuff. Its phenominal.) and then microsoft pulled the plug.
Well, they had already worked real hard on locations, effects and all that and didn't want it to go to waste - so they moved the resources they had for the Halo movie and did District 9.
I really hope after the OSCAR NOM, Microsoft is calling him back and APOLOGIZING PROFUSELY.
It should. Capcom put out a Resident Evil equivalent, except it wasn't nearly as entertaining (stiff, emotionless character models, slow story). Still better than Anderson's abortions.
Youtube'd
They had their chance. It seems Fox would much rather seek out another director and fess up to everyone that they fucked up. I hope another studio has Neil make a different videogame movie just for spite.
The Mass Effect adaption would kick quite a bit of ass if he was in charge.
Also, I finally saw a trailer for PoP today. Looks pretty darn good, and faithful enough to the source material without feeling gamey.
I hope the Dahaka is in it.
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Resident Evil: Degeneration wasn't perfect
But at least it was entertaining and felt like it fit into that fiction
I can't claim either of those with Advent Children
Though to be fair, I can't say that any of that Compilation of FFVII actually feels like it fits in neatly
There was a real lack of talent involved there.
Take the Punisher movie with Dolph Lundgren. The movie was slightly hamstrung by only having access to the names "punisher" "frank castle", and his family death. They couldn't even use the skull tshirt.
It's not a good movie, but it is entertaining and is pretty good within it's realm of B movie action.
Whereas the Catwoman movie threw everything out and they made a terrible movie. Now that the Marvel Movies are getting connected, I agree that it would be cool in DC movies, espescially as it will be consistent in one overall movie studio. Glad Catwoman won't be part of it.
And I will second that House of the Dead is goddamn hilarious. That said, I didn't pay for watching the dvd and it was on tv the other night, so I probably enjoy it more having not spent a penny.
Beat me on 360: Raybies666
I remember when I had time to be good at games.
Sit with a bottle of spirits, take a shot every time:
1) You see a clip from the video game
2) There's a bullet time/slow motion scene
3) There's a continuity error with the weapon the person is carrying (i.e it swaps to a different one)
4) Someone dies horribly
5) A zombie jumps off a spring board
That should get you through it.
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Movies shouldn't be about special effects and fan service. It just detracts.
I think Silent Hill is another good example of what not to do. If you're going to use special effects, and it's not made out of rubber and corn starch, you should put money into it. You should also hire costume designers, because going to the costume store down the street really isn't good enough. And a better cinematographer.
That movie was awful.
You might die, though.
But that's a pretty awesome way to go.
This is also something I've been saying for a while.
You get the odd game that manages to strggule to the level of a decent blockbuster on plot (eg. Uncharted 2), but not a lot more than that.
Kind of bewildered by this, since the cinematography was the only good thing about Silent Hill. Do you even watch a lot of horror/films?
Now, the script and acting were mostly horrible, but that's another matter.
Also Im pretty sure I read that the majority of monsters and effects WAS make-up and costumes, not CGI. Obviously some stuff was CGI, but around the movies production the director had a blog where he talked at length about how the true scares come from movements and little nuances that only humans can create, so most of the creatures would be people in costume.
But it's not that we're dumb, and are entertained by any old rubbish. It's because the story is nestled in a videogame. And for some reason, we become very attached to the story. We care about the characters we're controlling and interacting with and so the story, bad as it usually is, tends to be enhanced by the cumulative experience.
I think there are other levels to it that I can't quite explain, but until filmmakers find some substitute for this "X factor" that videogames have, which enable them to feel stronger narratively than they really are, film adaptations of games will remain either as fan service, be very boring, or be dumb-for-fun action flicks.
I'd take that any day, even dumb for fun action flicks can be done well.
the latest die hard movie was a video game dumb level script, but fun, yeah. and done decently enough I have watched it more than once.
Crank, over the top dumb, ok that is why I love it, but again that could have easily been a video game movie.
the Death Race remake..... check
Punisher: War Zone was ultimate joy
I could go on and on...... give me one of those with a video game wrapper on top.
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Don't get me wrong, would I love to go and see a brilliantly made Metal Gear Solid movie in the cinema? Yes I would. But I wouldn't say that I am desperate for that film to be made, nor do I think the franchise is missing out on some kind of recognition by not being made into a movie. Metal Gear Solid, for me, exists as a videogame and that is more than enough. I think it is a respectable body of work, which has entertained me over four whole games. I am invested in the chatacters and I thoroughly enjoyed the story.
The only reason I can think of that is left, for wanting MGS to be made into a successful box office smash at the movies, is wanting the masses to see. For it to be appreciated by everyone, even people who haven't played MGS.
But if they haven't played MGS, they can't appreciate MGS. Because MGS is a game. A brilliantly crafted piece of work which rivals many movie franchises for me in terms of entertainment value.
But a game none the less. And that is how MGS shines.
I do watch a lot of horror (admittedly, not much passed the 90s). Some of those shots are pretty good, but they add a ton that just detract from the film. Close ups, bad angles, it's...Too bad.
It's definitely not the worst thing about the film, though. I just think they could have picked up someone better.
That's pretty cool, about the make-up and costumes. I was just referring to the CGI they did use. I totally agree with him, though, human actors really add something.
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I wish he would come back to games, though.
And Julia was the best Bison.
I'd take that over The Legend of Chun-Li any day.
As for Silent Hill: great production and sound design, horrible screenplay.
And I do mean horrible. Still, it's by far the most accurate visual recreation of a game.
It has colorful fighting styles in a championship battle to declare fighting championship of the world.
It was actually a better fighting game turned movie then any other fighting game turned movie - except there was no game! DOA, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter et. al. look downright awful compared to this B movie.
It was actually semi-decent. All they had to do was get a game license and tweak the script just a little and they would have had an excellent REAL Street Fighter movie.
And I would like this opportunity to say that Mortal Kombat Annihilation is my nomination for worse film ever made . ever . It's soooo horrible and I had the unfortunate luck to see it in a theater. With someone who was old enough to know better. Who liked it!
A game like Uncharted wouldn't even need to be marketed as "video game turned film" it has characters and stories that are timeless and a big budget would make something that could easily be ICONIC if done right.
Like how my generation grew up on Indy... this would be the movie that would wipe that fourth Indy movie right out of our mind. Of course it could also be brilliant and not catch on - See how critics were calling Serenity a throw back to classic Star Wars...
I say take video games and make movies but don't announce it to get the quick tie in. We all know what Halo or Uncharted is... don't market to us.
Look at Stand By Me or Shawshank Redemption - before it was cool to be into horror, these stories weren't marketed as being Stephan King books and they were runaway successes if not in sales at least in the collective minds of movie lovers.
It think the problem stems from the limitations that each form imposes on the other. Movies to games can't deviate too far from the movies plot and typically the developers take the story of the movie, cut it up, and pasted into the game. It leaves very little room open for creation.
When going video game to movie there's even more of a problem, usually in the special effects and budget department. Then you have stupid stuff that for whatever reason, movie makers feel they need to change to make it flow better as a movie. Even the smallest details like how the hero finds his costume can be irritaing to fans if movies decide to add a twist to it. Not to mention movies are confined to about 2 hours, where you have a game lasting 10+.
There are plenty of games that I would love to see as movies Metal Gear, God of War, Dead Space, but the actual reality is that they were meant to be games. With all that said, PoP does look awsesome and even though I have my doubts, I would like to see it do well.
"Faster, Faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death." -HST
Doom, for example. Not what I'd nominate as being movie material, but hell, they butchered what plot there was. Resident Evil started out well, then someone got it in their heads that it needed more bullet time and Mila Jovovich jump kicking zombie dobermens. Then in the next film she gets psychic powers? WTF? Max Payne, I feel was the biggest letdown. The story was the most praised aspect of that series, and they completely brutalized it.
Silent Hill, while flawed, has so far made the best game-to-movie transistion. I'd see a sequel, but nothing has come of it and the movie has been sitting on the shelf for years.
MGS, God of War, Shadow of the Colossus and Uncharted are the highest on my list for games I'd love to see made into movies. Prince of Persia was another one, and here we are. I plan on supporting this fully.