Movies based on Video Games

[Wolf Kanno]

Read this interesting article (http://www.cinemablend.com/new/5-Big-Reasons-So-Many-Video-Game-Movies-Have-Failed-124247.html)about why video games often seem to fail when they transition to the silver screen. What are your thoughts?

[Del Murder]

The article makes some points but all of them can pretty much be summarized as: Hollywood doesn't give games enough respect when adapting them. I agree that's one big issue, but another issue is that games are designed to be interactive experiences while movies are not. Comics, shows, and novels have better success being made into films because those are also one-way experiences.

Another thing is that movies can enhance aspects of comics, TV, and books and provide a different experience that you would not get in the original medium. For TV, it is usually episodic with more subtle storylines or overarching ones that span entire seasons or multiple seasons, whereas movies can provide single big budget grand experiences. Comics are visual but the pictures are still and voiceless and are also generally also episodic in nature. Books tend to be more self-contained and can have grand epic plots, but they aren't visual at all. Each of these has its advantages in its own right but movies can enhance the experience in a different way. For games, many big budget games already play like a movie with high tech visuals, grand plots, and decent if not great voice acting. There's not a lot for movies to enhance here. In fact, movies take away the gameplay component which is key to the enjoyment of it as mentioned above.

[Depression Moon]

Some games don't have much story to them at all like Mario Bros. and Tetris which is getting a movie for some reason. Yeah, it comes down to them simply not caring as much. There's a lot of content to work with where you can keep the spirit of the game alive on film and a good one will make me wish that it was a video game. The state of video game movies are so bad at the moment, that gamers are claiming non-game movies such as Scott Pilgrim and Wreck-It Ralph as video game movies, but at least Wreck-It Ralph is video game inspired and has a setting. It's just not based on one.

Warcraft and Assassin's Creed are the next two that people are hoping break the trend. Ratchet & Clank looks bad and Angry Birds looks mediocre.

[Peter1986]

I have always felt that the heart and soul in video game movies is missing - it feels more like they are trying to cash in on the title, and that both the producers and the actors are like "whatever, let's get this done so we can sell it".

Some games have a lot of potential, though;
for example, Final Fantasy 9 has got very likeable characters, and the storyline is actually pretty fascinating, and told in a brilliant way.
If they could make a movie with a similar pacing and similar atmosphere then I am sure that it would be very successful.

I vote for Selena Gomez (https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/a4/18/2d/a4182ddd249c1112712f013559b0e198.jpg) playing Garnet. :cool:

[Shaibana]

i havent read the article but imo they usually dont stay very close to the source.
my biggest example is Resident Evil.
and im pointing a huge finger at Alice. she ruined the movie imo

i dont think ive seen That many game-movies tho :3

[Freya]

I am kind of looking forward to the Assassin's Creed Movie though. Micheal Fassbender hasn't disappointed me yet and he's a fabulous actor. Plus Ubisoft fought to keep a hand in the story instead of letting them take over and run wild adding in crazy crap. So it should be good. I think that will be the big difference though, that the game company actually has say over the script so there aren't any ridiculous movie executives adding in stupid things because they didn't understand the source material.

Plus the Warcraft movie looks fun!

[Shaibana]

I am kind of looking forward to the Assassin's Creed Movie though. Micheal Fassbender hasn't disappointed me yet and he's a fabulous actor. Plus Ubisoft fought to keep a hand in the story instead of letting them take over and run wild adding in crazy crap. So it should be good. I think that will be the big difference though, that the game company actually has say over the script so there aren't any ridiculous movie executives adding in stupid things because they didn't understand the source material.


i really hope you are right, freya, i really love assassins creed and it would really hurt me if they completely screwed it up.

[Depression Moon]

There might be a Pokemon movie coming. Studios have scrambling for the rights for a live-action Pokemon movie. (http://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2016/04/16/pokemon-live-action-movie-rights-enters-bidding-battle/#501b3df08cb3)

[Ayen]

i havent read the article but imo they usually dont stay very close to the source.
my biggest example is Resident Evil.
and im pointing a huge finger at Alice. she ruined the movie imo

i dont think ive seen That many game-movies tho :3

The saddest part about this is that there was a screenplay that followed the original game more and had all the characters in it, but they scraped it in favor of Alice in Zombieland.

I'm still a hopeless romantic longing for the day that a studio will come along and manage to find that balance we now have for comic book movies. I don't think they'll sell if it's solely made for gamers, though. I mean, MCU movies are considered the best around and I know several people in the comic book community who are sour they aren't all pitch perfect adaptations. But for this to work it involves the people on board actually giving a trout about the source material. Marvel's a special case since they have their own studio, but others have managed to get it done and comic book movies were in the same boat as video game movies in the past.

My browser is having trouble loading the site, so I didn't read the article.