Topic: Games to Film

[Talon]

Game-to-Film adaptations are pathetic. Im sick and tired of watching these half-assed movies that could potentially be quite entertaining if some care was taken in writing their scripts and directing.

The biggest problem with these movies is their target audience.  Ten years ago maybe the majority of video game players were teenagers or younger, but times have changed and either a.) these teenager have grown up or b.) more mature aged people are playing games now. So why do we still get these cop outs of films?

Resident Evil for one i think could have been pushed up a rating and given a story closer to the game (Original Resident Evil)... The game was pretty entertaining and did have some depth to it. Put me off watch Apocolypse.

Mortal Kombat Annihalation extremely pathetic its only selling point its name. The Mortal Kombat franchise has always been about the story and its intricacies, it could be made into some quite credible viewing. I didnt mind the first Mortal Kombat although cheesy at times it seemed to have some sort of story to it rather than Annihalaion.

StreetFighter again its selling point in the name.  Push it up a rating and make it more like its anime counterpart.

The list of bad video-game movies is as long as the amount of video-game movies there is a few more are: Double Dragon, Dungeon's & Dragons, Mario Brothers, Alone in the Dark ... etc

Ok so I have ranted and raved a bit only because I like these franchises and when I see how hollywood has no respect for them it annoys me and im sure a few of you.

What do you guys think of how hollywood destroys, vandalises and butchers these games?

Personally there is one game to film I am developing quite an intrest for and thats "Alice".  Hopefully it will stay to true to the game and take it a bit futher. Its got a great idea and story to build upon just dont comercialise it too much if at all.

[couchmonkey]

I've made peace with it.  I just don't bother watching game-based movies.  I think the problem is that Hollywood doesn't really understand most of the games it was adapting into movies.  A couple of major problems are:

(A) You can't simply read a game and translate it like you can a book or a comic-book.  You have to invest 10-40 hours into playing through, often to glean just a few measly plot details.  Granted, Hollywood has done a questionable job of adapting books and comics over the years too, but even so I'd say the average book-to-movie translation works out much better than the average game-to-movie translation.

(B) Games usually have poorly fleshed-out stories, and matters are made worse when a game was designed in Japan, so communication between the game designers and the movie writers and directors is probably almost nonexistant.  The movie creators have to fill in the details of the story and they usually do a poor job.

[09n]

True a lot of movies get it wrong. However the TV series of the Sonic the Hedgehog games was very succesfull.

[Ian Sane]

The problem with game movies is the same problem that until X-Men came out comic book movies had.  The movie studios don't make the movies for the fans of the games.  Instead they make them for the mass audience which means they have dumb down everything and alter things to fit market trends and such.  The attitude obviously is that games are for nerds and thus any film based on a game too closely will not attract enough people.

Personally I think that a Metroid film for example could be REALLY good but it would result in a very arty quiet film with minimal dialogue.  Afterall the story in the Metroid Prime games are told almost entirely through reading historical information from logs and lores.  This could be adapted to a really great film but it would have limited appeal.  Movie studios don't pay bomb to buy the rights to make arty films with limited appeal.

Things could change though if a true videogame fan made a fairly accurate movie adaptation that was critically acclaimed, enjoyed by the fans, and pulled in decent money.  This would have to be on a low budget though so it would have to be something like a fighting game where the film's thrills would be provided by fight choreography and stunts instead of special effects.

[nickmitch]

A Metroid movie would have to be based on the logs and lores since Samus is alone and there would be 0% dialogue. Most people wouldn't get any of it if it wasn't based on the lore.
I think spider-man was more true to the book, except for how Peter got his powers and the origins of the green goblin.
I think an animated Earthbound movie would be good.
The new (relativly) Sonic X is ok but not as popular as the original.

[Forte]

I think that the Metroid movie would only work under one condition.  She has to be a bounty hunter and she has to be looking for someone throughout the movie.  That is what she is anyway.  The Metroid games are great, but going around killing Zoomers and Sheegoths and huge things like Kraid aren't going to make an interesting game.  I think the movie should focus more about her bounty, space pirates, and the Chozo.  It will be significantly different than the games, but it will still have the same basic feel.  I hated previous game-based movies, and I REALLY don't want Hollywood to screw up one of the best game series of all time.  That is why I pray to God everyday that they don't make a Zelda movie, because that is my favorite game series, and making Link an actual person with a voice would just SUCK!!!

[King of Twitch]

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I think an animated Earthbound movie would be good.

Jimmy Neutron reminds me a lot of Earthbound, check it out.


I think a Myst movie, about how the rise and fall of the D'ni might make a good movie; a CG cartoon about the world of Pikmin might be good of course only if they were in the right hands.

I made a video of full-length video of OOT if anyone wants to pick it up for distribution.

[09n]

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The new (relativly) Sonic X is ok but not as popular as the original.

I know Sonic X is not brilliant but I was thinking further back. Much further. If Nintendo made a Zelda movie themselves with computer animation not actors it would be a box office smash. Please excuse my herecy, but I didn't think Metriod Prime was all that great. Feel free to send hate mail.