Gaming Goovies: Why games'n'movies don't mix

I agree with the people who are saying that trying to make a film from a specific game is difficult because everyone comes away from a game with a different experience of it, thus anyone who goes to see a film made from a game expecting to see exactly what they experienced will walk away disappointed, and from what I've read over the years that is exactly the attitude that most people seem to take when going to see a film based off a game.

So I'd like to see a film set in the universe of a game, rather than trying to replicate the events of the game as played. For this treatment I chooses the Zork universe, of course what the film would actually be about eludes me at the moment, but the universe gives plenty of scope to make a good film in; and of course plenty of scope for a bad one too.


Leaving the topic for a minute

Sky One here in the UK are going to be showing Hogfather in two, two hour parts over Christmas, so I'd imagine it will turn up elsewhere in the world at some point... or you know on the torrent sites.

Wikipedia Page, IMDB Page, and a website with some production photos.

In a strange scheduling twist Sky appear to have chosen to show the making of program before the actual mini-series. Radio Times program details.

 

my dream goovie? Starcraft, done by Ridley Scott or Peter Jackson. Starcraft is one of those games where you can afford to take a few liberties with the story and it still all would make sense. If bruce willis was a little younger, I would say he is a shoe-in for Jim Raynor, and hell, why not Milla Jovovich for Kerrigan? While we're at it, why not Gary Oldman for Arcturus Mengsk and maybe even Ian Holm for Edmond Duke. If you didn't notice already... I really liked Fifth Element

 

good article, but I think Silent Hill was a glaring omition. Even for those who know nothing of the game, it is a great japanese horror/creepy feeling movie.

AvP kicked @rse! It was my long time boyhood dream come true.

Resident Evil is the best translation, period. Of course, I am also a big zombie movie (zoomie?) fan. I look forward to the next two.

FF: Advent children rocks!

cool, I knew about RE but not the others. MK2 was a bit weak but I'd go see a third. I say AvP becomes the knew godzilla! who needs plot, just gimme fifty movies of alien and predator kicking each others butt! I'd pay to keep seeing it.

OMG, I forgot about that movie! I was a big fan of the game. I don't remember much of the movie, I think I only saw it once. Maybe there was a reason I didn't see it again?

Zelda should never, EVER be a movie. I mean, how can you translate countless hours of harassing chickens into a movie? And I think in real life, Link would look kinda... well, the term fairy comes to mind.

goovie suggestion: Kingdom Hearts
Make it a cg movie and put in enough to entertain both kids and adults like many of the pixar movies of late.

 

Well...Eragon went from book to movie/game...and from what i've seen and heard the PS3 adaptation is really well done (six-axis controller + flying on a dragon = awesome.)

I guess that would be a bame/boovie though.

I think that Half-Life 2 would make a decent movie...but the original Half-Life would just be...hell, I didn't even understand the GAME, let alone understand what was going on well enough to make it a movie...not easy to follow.


I saw Warcraft mentioned as a nominee for a Goovie...and following the trail, what about another of Blizzard's fantastic game series: DIABLO. There are a lot of reasons this could be a great movie. First of all, the fantasy genre is BIG these days...Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter doing very very well. Secondly, who doesn't love the whole premise of the Diablo series? Vanquishing evil is pretty much ALWAYS a good storyline, especially since the Diablo series is already a really well developed story (I think, anyway.) Basically you could just run through the story of Diablo II, and the boss battles could make for some really cool special effects, and the entire idea is just begging to have some axe-weilding barbarian action scenes, as well as some potentially really badass contributions from the Necromancer. I dunno, just my 2 cents.

Edit: Zelda could be a really really great movie...especially following the style of the Twilight Princess (even if they did make Link right handed...wtf...link has always been a lefty.) in making it all look a little darker and grittier, as opposed to the always delightful, yet brightly colored, Zelda games of the past. The Zelda storyline is fantastic all the way up through, and you can't deny that the franchise has been capturing hearts and minds (damn puzzles) since it debuted on the NES.

Furthermore, Link is plenty awesome to be in a movie...though casting him would be tough.

 

Personally I liked wing commander, but I never played the games. I agree that starcraft is begging for a movie and also a sequel.

 

Have you seen V for Vendetta? Awesome performance and you never see his face.

How about Donkey Kong or Rampage? A movie about a giant ape jumping over and smashing things. Maybe Peter Jackson should direct.

Real suggestions:
Carmageddon: Filmed sort of Days of Thunder vs Running Man
Unreal or Unreal 2: 2 has several parts that a movie could be based on.

 

yah after reading the warcraft back story I have high hopes for the movie, I'm puzzled why any movie based on a game seems to fail on some hard hitting level, I think a lot of them came from very deep and rich stories but they seem to fall flat in the implementation. I do have high hopes for hitman (which could be very borne identenity but darker more psychological) and high hopes for max payne. MGS is basically a movie just watch the MGS4 extended trailers and lengthen it to 2 hours.

for game to movie? I really like the homeworld backstory of theological warfare, but that movie has no human characters so it wouldn't lend well to a movie adaption (could make a good book though)

for cheap thrills: serious sam, over the top action
deep story: warcraft (if they did it all in their cgi style it could be the best cgi movie ever made, prolly done live action LotR style)

I think prey, god of war, or dynasty warriors would all make it to the scene

I would vote for a cstrike movie, but only if it was an overthe top comedy parody of itself

 

as an afterthought a lot of games to movies seem to go for the cheap thrill+ name recognition, ala street fighter, mortal combat etc, where any other mediocre action movies save with a known local and characters, If a movie wants to succeed it needs to not just follow generic movie making, but develop the stories and characters that are already amazing in some games (halo, warcraft back story etc). I think all these movies are falling flat for that reason, no one wnats to make a deep movie based on established characters

 

It has to be awesome. *cough*Vin Diesel*cough*

Pratchett is one of my favourite authors, but the Discworld is one fantasy universe I've always felt should never be translated into a movie. It's simply impossible. His characters are fluid. The moment those characters are depicted visually, all the possibilities die and only that one interpretation may be shown.

Reading the above paragraph again, I suppose what I said could apply equally to any other book, on the face of it. Somehow, though, I feel like the Discworld's charm lies partially in not seeing these very clearly defined characters right in front of you while you're reading.

 

And thus its appropriateness.

 

That and the fact that people would want to change it. In an interview Pratchett talked about a major Hollywood studio discussing doing a movie adaption of Mort but wondering whether they could remove the Death character as American audiences might find it too creepy

 

Alien Vs. Predator the movie didn't originate from the video game, but rather a series of comics published by Dark Horse. 20th Century Fox started bouncing the idea of an AvP movie to executives over ten years before the movies release. Unfortunately the movie that was shot and filmed didn't follow a script that was based up on the comic and turned out rather bleh. Seriously, when that movie was rated PG-13 here, I knew something was wrong before I even saw it. Though the AvP games where a blast to play.

There are three Dead of Alive movies in Japan directed by Takashi Miike, but they have nothing to do with the video game. They're probably better critically than the Dead or Alive movie based upon the game.

Golden Eye isn't just the best movie to game adaption, it is simply one of the best games ever released, period. Since EA has lost the rights to make games based of off James Bond movies, there is hope that Free Radical will pick up the license and do a proper sequel.

 

I think that movies of computer games are a waste of time in the modern era. Sure back in the day it was nice to see a glossy Hollywood take on a game (or in theory it was, since the movies were always cack) but these days games are so highly polished and generally have such good graphics and sound that a movie is completely superfluous. Game designers are making great characters and great stories which are far, far more engaging than mere films (I mean can you imagine watching a movie that lasts as long as the average game takes to play through?) and the idea that games are an inferior artistic medium is, I think, one that won't last long.

Take the Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay computer game as an example. Now unknown to many this is actually a bloody good game that sneaked under the radar. It has the same lead actor and character as the Riddick movies and it also features a pretty decent cast of voice actors in its own right. The net result is that it is far, far superior to the movies of the same series. Alien Versus Predator as well, classic games, absolute unmitigated turds of movies (and yeah, I'll presume the sequel to be a turd, anybody going to disagree?). Why does this happen? Because modern games have everything a movie has, character, plot, action and so on (some movies even struggle to manage that these days) and are able to go beyond this with interactivity and engagement with the viewer.

The fact is that we're seeing more quality games, and more people spending time and money playing them. Hollywood has nothing on that, partly because once you've seen a movie you've seen it, and compared to a video game that is a pretty hollow experience, and also there's the problem that Hollywood isn't making good movies anymore.

Let's face it ladies and gents, video games are the future. The movie industry? Feh, just bury it where it falls.

 

Hovis, I would have to disagree with you about the movie industry. While Hollywood has been rather stagnant in terms of creativity, one only has to look at smaller budget movies, even those starring big name people (Babel anyone?) to see at least sparks of creativity. What goovies need is someone who cut their teeth on a wide variety of games when they were younger and can bring that spark of what made them keep playing to the screen. I think this is why current goovies just don't work, because the directors are just too damn old/old fashioned/money driven to really sit down and think about what made the game good, and see if that can translate on screen. For example, take Half Life/Half life 2. What made both of those games fantastic was the sense of isolation and the sense that YOU, the player, was Gordon, down to every last action he does. Would that move well to the screen? No, it would be horrible, because it would either bore the audience to death, or it would betray what made the game so great. However, I would have to say games such as Resident Evil translate much better, which can somewhat explain why even a so-so adaption is well accepted by both game and movie audiences. I could start rattling off even more goovie potentials with great game aspects which translate well to screen, such as the planning and execution (pun intended) of hits in Hitman, the character interactions and betrayals in Starcraft, or the scope of battles in Warhammer 40k. Directors just need to find the right aspect and stick to it.

 

I partially agree with hovis, though not to as much an extent as the movie industry collapsing. While i do agree that hollywood is churning out multi million dollar drivvle after drivvle after sorry acting after poor plots.. The smaller budget films are flourishing. While they may not do well at the box office due to a less than substantial (if any) media exposure and will hardly make any profit at all, i like to think that these films don't intend to make money, they are truely intended for enjoyment and art purposes. Babel, as mentioned before, is a brilliant film, by what would consider the most influencial and artistic writer/director out there. He also directed 21 grams, another low budget shiner that should have won Benicio Del Toro, and Sean Penn an award.

As regard to the gaming industry, i think movies tend to go half and half with audiences there for the film, and those there for the game. If they had stayed completely true to Resident evil, we'd probably be sat there for 31/2 hours, watching Jill and Chris wander aimlessly around a mansion, occasionally bumping into Barry or each other along the way, and solving endless puzzles. If done artistically, the game fans might have enjoyed it as a true depiction, but the people there for an action packed, scary zombie movie.. would have either left, or fallen asleep. They have to balance it out, and i guess this is why they flop. Too true to game, you'll bore people, to hollywood movie like, and you'll piss off the game fans. But half and half doesnt always work either, as you tend to have either:

1. A decent movie(5%)
2. An average movie (35%)
or
3. Something so poor it flops, gives the writer and director a bad name, and pisses off the fans to an extent that they end up in a boxing ring with a German saussage (60%)

Game-movie adapaption i think should be pretty much left alone, unless you can create something that would translate very well. Max Payne would, as it's pretty much a movie anyway! the story is completely linear, there are no "action/consequence" themes, all you do is blow **** up, shoot things in bullet time, and get read a story in between. I think this would be near perfect if done right, it has all the elements of something for everyone, and the edge of being gritty and almost film noir.
as the other example; a Half-Life movie, would not be such a good thing to play around with. You play a character that never utters a word, never has any in-depth character relation, and the game really makes you feel like Gordon just doesn't give a damn, and hes just going through motions.

Basically put, you have to pick the right game, give it just the right amount of orrigionality to make a new story, almost as if it's a new game to the series, but one that doesn't deviate from the beginning so blatantly. This would probably be a mammoth task, and should not be attempted by amateur writers, even most professional people shouldn't attempt it. It should be left down to someone completely creative and imaginative, who can do justice to something regarded so highly by it's fans.

 

But why? Why make a movie of a game when you could just make a movie of an entirely different thing?

That's part of the problem, so many movies today are tie ins to comic books or TV shows or novels or computer games that people have forgotten that movies, if they are to work at all, need to be movies. 90% of what makes a game good is the playability, that's a quality that cannot ever manifest itself on a movie screen no matter how you cut it.

Resident Evil made a reasonably good movie, mostly because Milla Jovovich is so hot that she'd be watchable filling out a tax return and worthy of an Oscar nomination if she was chewing the end of her pen as she did it. But in no way is the film of Resident Evil, entertaining popcorn flick that it was, comparable to the quality of the games. And even so Resident Evil only works because it takes some basics from the games and then happens to be a well made movie behind that, which is something that most movie/game tie ins, and most movies these days, fail to be.

There is a cinematic quality to many games, but that doesn't necessarily make them good cinema. For instance Hitman works brilliantly as a game but as a movie it'd lose everything that made the game good. It'd have to be a good action/crime movie on its own merits and nothing more. Why? Simply because what makes Hitman so great is the tension, because you know you know the outcome isn't fixed, you know that you have to make the plan and carry it out and if it goes wrong you might very well have to start over. That moment of tension when you cross the line and you're putting the plan into action is priceless and can't be captured on screen. It'd be "Oh look, baldy has gone into action and killed a bunch of guys" and sure it could be entertaining, but it'd be a poor comparison to the game. I must have clocked easily twenty hours, probably more, on Hitman: Blood Money and I can't imagine a movie being that entertaining.

 

The Alien games where good

 

House Of the Dead could not be called film. is possible to be named ****, big ass...

 

I liked the resident evil movies for what they were, no brainers with guns, zombies and a hot chick.

But why wasn't Tomb Raider mentioned, great games (mostly) and the films were very watchable especially with Angelina as the lead. Yummy.

Scott

 

Thinking slightly harder I remember that Cosgrove Hall did animated versions of Soul Music and Wyrd Sisters for Channel 4 back in the 90's which were pretty good, though they did take some liberties with the details and swapped out some of the printed word gags for visible and audible ones, they are very enjoyable.