Movies Based on Games

[MJN SEIFER]

A little topic inspired by what Rodarian did.

What do you think of it when it's done the other way around? A game becomes a movie?

I think it can work if it's done right, though I haven't seen that many - I thought Final Fantasy: TSW was a cool film, but it didn't scream out Final Fantasy to me, aside from a few potential references (Hein and Sid are totally Hyne and Cid), and before anyone asks, yes, I have seen Street Fighter: The Movie - in fact I have it on VHS.

I do like it a bit, but the main flaw of it is that whoever made it, only glanced at the games, and just made a load of stuff up (one good guy in the game is a bad guy in the film, two characters act and look completly different to how you'd expect them to act, on character is the same person as another even though he's not.) It's a good film - if you pretend it's not based on Street Fighter, which defeats the object. Sorry guys...

I saw the Mortal Kombat film, and I thought that did better - I don't know how close it was to the game because I don't own any MK games (yet...) but as a film it was entertaining, and one section was so obviously based on a stage in the game (I have never played one, but I could tell - it was obvious!)

Now, do Pokemon movies count or not? (think carefully before you answer) either way, I liked most of them.

[Bolivar]

Yeah, I actually thought the Mortal Kombat movie was pretty cool as a kid; I know now I'd at least get that cool B-movie and nostalgia feel from it, maybe at best it's an ok kung fu flick from the '90s!! Actually, I love the Johnny Cage intro, I gotta youtube that jawn!!!!!

I actually did like The Spirits Within, but I regretted the fact that it was only very loosely based on only one individual specific theme from Final Fantasy. It wasn't great, but I thought it was a cool step forward with CG being big at the time and all.

I think it's safe to say most are pretty bad though.

I don't know, I think some can work really good. Obviously there's the problem of telling something that could be 4-30 hours in story in 90-200 minutes. I guess we'll see with games making such ridiculous amounts of money.

[Depression Moon]

I haven't liked one yet. I thought that the first MK movie was ok back then, but I haven't seen it since then so my opinion might change.

Disney's Prince of Persia might finally break that barrier.

Can't believe you never played a MK game. I mean back then the only big fighters were MK, and SF.
Pokemon was a game first, right? So it should count

[NorthernChaosGod]

l still really like the first Mortal Kombat movie, it's pretty rad for a video game movie.

The second one was kind of bad, but I still like it. Haha.

[Bolivar]

l still really like the first Mortal Kombat movie, it's pretty rad for a video game movie.

"Let's dance..." LOL coolest scene ever

[Loony BoB]

I'll echo the many Mortal Kombat mentions. I don't count cartoon movies (that includes anime), to answer the question mentioned near the end of the original post. Not Pokémon, anyway. That was more of a movie based on a TV series based on a game than a movie based directly on a game.

EDIT: The Resident Evil movies were watchable.

[Rodarian]

Very few games ever did well as a movie..

I'll echo some of the other responses and say that Resident Evil does an alright job as with the first Mortal Combat movie (The sequel was complete )

As much as I give my sympathy to the FF.TSW..It really did tank for me... Square really made an awful mistake.. But at least they learned a hard lesson about it.

Oh and Blood Rayne movie was so awful I couldn't watch no more than 20 mins of it.

[Pheesh]

I enjoyed the Mortal Kombat movie when I was younger, the theme song is too awesome to be ignored.

I also really liked the Silent Hill movie, but I treated it more like a movie than a movie based on a game. I didn't go into it with too many expectations.

[Iceglow]

Dead or Alive, Blood Rayne 1 and 2, Mortal Kombat 2 and 3, Street Fighter, theres a long list of horrible movies based on games. I'm surprised some of them actually got made especially the later MK movies I have seen.

Theres a select few game movies what get my thumbs up, usually I'm left disappointed by movies based on games mostly because like a great book thats slaughtered in making the movie such as this travesty of a movie of a fantastic book they don't get it right and that irritates me. I will ofcourse name the Resident Evil movies, I forgive them for changing parts of the games layout and style for movie making but they didn't impede the movies they made them better, following the games formulas would not have worked properly and the movies would have sucked. I also liked the original MK movie and the FFTSW movie though not directly tied in to a game, Advent Children too deserves an honorable mention I feel. BoB is right however, the Pokemon movies were based on the cartoon which in itself is loosely based on the game, though like all good tv series or movies based on games they changed it to make it work, how boring would it be following the series if it involved grinding for 40+ hours to get your pokemon to level 100?

A good point to discuss in this is also what movies based on games you'd like to see done? I'd put it out there and say I could envisage a Metal Gear movie shot very much in the style of maybe the later bond movies (Daniel Craig era) or the same style as the Bourne series of films though I feel the bond style will work better since it's a less busy less hasty version of the bourne style. I just feel that it'd really work well especially if they put a decent director/producer/screenwriter team behind it, ofcourse you'd need to focus on just one of the 4 games because doing more than one in one film would make it too cluttered and too long. Gears of war done in similar syle to the Resident Evil films would also be awesome, lancers on the big screen oh yeah baby.

[Depression Moon]

BoB is right however, the Pokemon movies were based on the cartoon which in itself is loosely based on the game, though like all good tv series or movies based on games they changed it to make it work, how boring would it be following the series if it involved grinding for 40+ hours to get your pokemon to level 100?

You know that's not right right? Grinding has nothing to do with the story of the game.

[Iceglow]

BoB is right however, the Pokemon movies were based on the cartoon which in itself is loosely based on the game, though like all good tv series or movies based on games they changed it to make it work, how boring would it be following the series if it involved grinding for 40+ hours to get your pokemon to level 100?

You know that's not right right? Grinding has nothing to do with the story of the game.

Training, levelling up to evolve your pokemon is a huge part of the games storyline (ignore the gyms and the elite four and the tournaments for a second, what is the very first quest you're given in pokemon red/blue by Oak and in all subsequent games? Fill the pokedex! this is why levelling and grinding is a huge part of the storyline), if you don't do it you don't win and thats simple fact in fact, if levelling up wasn't a part of the game storyline then the pokemon would not have levels. The tv series and the movie cuts down a lot of training though especially in the later series you do see Ash training against Brock and Dawn's pokemon but never for more than 2 minutes or so or they get interrupted by team rocket If this was included in the movies "oh no! Pikachu is not level 74 he's only level 50 and cannot defeat XX pokemon!" *cue grinding* even in montage form it'd suck and therefore they deliberately leave this out because it is boring and would suck hugely. The cartoons eloquently decide to cut this out making them better for not boring their viewers with the small details. Same as Resident Evil movies they paraphrase the games mechanics in to a watchable form.

[Crowseye]

I think you could argue that in the first incarnation of the Pokemon cartoon series, the training was incorporated into the battles Ash fought while traveling between the Gyms to earn his badges.

Anyway, the Mortal Kombat movie is not great art, but I thought it was a lot of fun for fans of the game series, even many casual ones.

In college I attended a presentation/lecture by some of the people that worked on the development of FF:TSW, and my overall impression was that, for them, the movie was far more about showing what CGI could do than contributing anything to the FF brand. Having a bunch of "yes men" working on a project is generally bad (see Star Wars prequels), but IMO your team should have some genuine enthusiasm for the material they're working with.

[~*~Celes~*~]

I loved the Mortal Kombat movie. In fact, I'd watch it again The Mario movie, however, was too inaccurate some area for my tastes.

I would love to watch them make a movie out of Diablo, though I can only wonder how it would turn out.

[Pheesh]

I swear I read something about a God of War movie being done a few years back. Anyone know what happened with that?

[Wolf Kanno]

I still feel that the first MK movie is the best and truly captured the spirit of a game based off cheesy Kung-fu movies.

The movie is pure B-Movie gold with excellent lines like...

"I don't like this Liu. I'm in a hostile environment, I'm totally unprepared, and I'm surrounded by a bunch of guys who probably want to kick my ass... Its like being back in high school..." ~Johnny Cage

Its still a fun movie. I also liked FF:TSW though more as a sci-fi piece rather than as an FF movie (though I feel Square has never made a good film for any of their FF titles).

I do kinda like Mario Bros. but once again in a cheesy sorta way and like TSW, not because I feel the movie properly associated itself with Mario.

Other films have been pretty... bad. Double Dragon alone is one of the worst I've seen but then again, I've avoided most of Uwe's films. I never got a chance to check out Hitman or Max Payne but I would gather they probably didn't do that well. I'm still dreading the KoF movie in the works.

As for games that could be an excellent movie, though MGS is an obvious choice, I don't see it being successful. I feel the games themselves already show a great level of movie quality as it is and trying to recreate that with different actors would sorta kill the magic. Its like watching a remake of a good film, it would be nice but I hardly feel it has a chance to beat the source material.

I think the only way a MGS film would work would be to actually do an MG film instead since the first two titles didn't have the benefit of their later brethren's technology. I would actually like to see Kojima remake MG and MG2: Solid Snake as cinematic pieces, if not as games, then at least as films. Kojima would also have to have total control as well as most of his writing and art team.