Does A Good Game Make A Good Movie Idea? 464
Brakz0rz writes "Here's a BBCi article by Daniel Etherington with an overview on how videogames translate onto the big screen. I can't say I've been impressed by any such effort so far. The article touches on John Woo's upcoming Metroid adaptation. Etherington writes, "One of these days, someone has just got to make a decent video game movie. How about Peter Jackson doing Zelda? Now that would be promising." I would enjoy that more than the games franchised from the LOTR trilogy."
Metal Gear Solid (Score:5, Interesting)
File to game, yes, game to film, no (Score:5, Interesting)
A decent game often gets better in its second abnd third versions as technology improves and the story lines get more mature.
Films sequels are rarely better than the original and often dramatically worse.
Today, games make more money than films. A successful game franchise - that has many years of life left - can be ruined by one poor film tie-in.
So the ideal model is to take a good film and turn it into a series of games, and to resist at all costs the temptation to make film sequels. (Yes, I'm thinking of the Matrix).
LoTR does not really count as a film + sequels since it is based on an existing story and was shot in one go.
Final Fantasy (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd like to see a GOOD Final Fantasy movie based on one of the actual games. Six has always been my favourite, I'm sure the story is strong enough to be made into a good movie, but there's so much to it that two hours may not be enough. It might make a good two-part or three-part movie like LOTR, though, I doubt it has enough audience to have anyone know what the Hell it was.
I'd wager to say most movies made from games in the past (like the awful Streetfighter movie and Super Mario Bros) are just trying to capitalize on the name. I did like the first Mortal Kombat movie, though, and Tomb Raider was silly but at least entertaining.
Maybe we need more movies made from RPGs, they seem to have more in the way of actual plot to begin with.
Grim Fandango (Score:5, Interesting)
Game and movie simultaneously (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:In short: Perhaps, if they'd try harder (Score:1, Interesting)
Grim Fandango (Score:5, Interesting)
My dream? Pixar doing Grim Fandango. Something like that would, in my mind, help make up for all the Tomb Raiders and Mortal Combats.
Zelda now? (Score:5, Interesting)
I can't wait to see what the original zelda theme sounds like when a full symphony plays it.
Star Wars: KOTOR (Score:5, Interesting)
Video games are a different medium than films. Resident Evil and Tomb Raider were more action-oriented games with hardly any plot. Hmmm... what kind of a movie do you think is going to arise out of a video game like that?
Basing a movie off of an RPG, such as KOTOR, would at least give the writers and directors more meat to play with. They probably wouldn't have to do too much yet still remain true to the game.
Most overlooked game-to-movie translation... (Score:3, Interesting)
A couple of years ago I had hear John Woo was interested in making a Symphony of the Night film. Konami apparently has a trilogy of scripts floating around. I can see it must have never gone anywhere. John Woo has been expressing his interest in making a videogame movie for a while now. Honestly, I don't have high hopes for this Metroid game.
I want a movie about the first Castlevania game before everything turned to cheesy anime hell, when it was a European horror game about Simon Belmont just fighting zombies and trying to destroy Dracula.
By the way, I know many here probably don't consider it a great film, but I remember Mortal Kombat doing pretty well when it came out, and lots of people went to see it simply because it was a fun action flick with a great techno theme song. In my eyes, it was the first true successful game-to-film translation, even if it isn't regarded as a classic movie (few are). I guess Tomb Raider would have to be considered as well since it did successfully, but I never saw it.
They're even making Spy Hunter starring The Rock. It's insane.
Re:Metal Gear Solid (Score:3, Interesting)
If you allowed Hideo Kojima to write a new MGS script solely for the silver screen though, it would be awesome. I'd pay for the movie, the DVD, the Special Edition DVD, and the Special Edition Box Set which includes 40 hours of footage that wasn't good enough for the original.
Re:Tetris: The Movie (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:lets see here (Score:5, Interesting)
How is that bad, when you consider the general action/horror genre as a whole?
Mortal Kombat (Score:5, Interesting)
It wasn't all that bad. It was an okay action movie. I mean, it had Christopher Lambert.
Mortal Kombat 2, on the other hand, was such an incredibly disgusting piece of shit it almost makes Tomb Raider look like Indiana Jones.
Re:No (Score:5, Interesting)
There's an essay called "Run Lara Run" by Margit Grieb, a doctoral student out of the University Florida, published in the collection "ScreenPlay: cinema/videogames/interfaces" that connects Run Lola Run with videogames.
Other essays in the book are worth checking out. Also, people have described Matthew Barney's experimental films "The Cremaster Cycle" as videogame-inspired. [gamegirladvance.com]
Instead of trying to just stick videogame franchises into schlock pop cinema, it would be good if some brainier filmmakers continued to pluck the truly most compelling aspects of the videogame experience and translated them into film. But they won't - and it's mostly the fault of fan culture, I'm afraid.
Re:Final Fantasy (Score:3, Interesting)
For Final Fantasy (and many other games) I think Hollywood shouldn't be looking at movies as much as miniseries. That would allow them to spend enough time to do a good job. There are lots of great properties too. FF 7, 9, and 10 were all fantastic.
Chrono Trigger (Score:1, Interesting)
It's a pity that FF: Spirits Within tanked so badly, especially because it didn't even tap into the rich back stories that Square has developed for its games, like Final Fantasy VI.
You jest, but Band of Brothers comes damn close (Score:4, Interesting)
Only the ones with no plot each game.... (Score:3, Interesting)
No plot at all, unless you count things like the t-mode messages. Goldmine for a movie, better as one of the oldest multiplayer games in existance!
hmmm (Score:3, Interesting)
would be cool if they had the game music done by the guy who did the metroid prime music. that would fucking own.
especially the ridley theme.
dude, I wanna see ridley. and he better have his theme.
surrounded by monkeys (Score:2, Interesting)
Those were probably the best adventure games ever made, filled with humor everywhere, probably the only game where it's not boring to talk with the other characters
If they could bring up a movie with a good plot, related to monkey island, and with the same kind of humor! (which will be very hard i think), it would be a great great movie.
Now making a movie of an action game is something pretty stupid, couldn't even watch more than 15 minutes of tomb raider 1, and some years later i even saw they made a second opus? what a disapointement
we all want monkey island! monkeys everywhere, with some scenes filmed in 320*240 pixels & 16 colors (must be great on a cinema screen) =)
and the music of monkey, of course
Let's think of blade runner, i played the game, which i enjoyed a lot, before seeing the movie, the game was great, the movie disapointed me
let's think of dune, played both games, those were amazing! then i saw the movie, again, i was deceived...
The connection between game and movie is hard to do, i don't know if it's even possible, they are too different.
But the only movie about game that would attract me is that monkey island. Which isn't planned, and probably never will be.
my game = movie suggestion (Score:3, Interesting)
The original storyline provides a -lot- of world material to work with. Of course, it would have to be done by a good scifi/action director, or it'd be hosed.
I'd say that there's simply a lacking of good movies in general; it's not exclusively endemic of game => movie adaptations. Hollywood excels at cranking out shit. The Hulk, anyone? There are dozens of forgetable movies every year.
Flying against evidence aren't we? (Score:3, Interesting)
Star Trek Original Series Star Trek 25th aniversery and Judgement rites. Two excellent adventures.
It can work but it needs really carefull work. X-wing worked because it really only used the setting of star wars. You weren't Luke Skywalker or Han Solo but rather one of the many nameless pilots that got killed in the movies.
The star trek adventures are perhaps the most perfect adoption. They played EXACTLY like a tv episode. The only minor point was some extremely pointless space combat shooter element that was thrown in for god knows what reason. The adventure part worked, the space combat bit didn't.
And that really is the lesson. Focus on ONE gametype and realise that certain things just can't be done in games. So far we have had numerous attempts at games that put you on the bridge of the Enterprise in combat and they just don't work.
Will a good movie ever be made based on a game? Well tron is a nice movie. But then it was based on fantasie games, the games in the movie only coming AFTER the movie.
Frankly most games just don't have a universe rich enough to make a game. It is easy to make a shooter out of story but a lot harder to make a story out of shooter. Can anyone really imagine what the plot would be for an ID game?
So I agree with you why it is difficult but it has been done in one direction at least. so movies -> games at least can work.
One should keep in mind... (Score:3, Interesting)
Most books make crappy movies, why would video games be any better?
Addendum: Hollywood may be in a serious rut with relatively few new ideas, but it is absolutely revolutionary compared to the game industry.
How about good SF&F novels instead? (Score:3, Interesting)
I've always held the belief that it's good, solid STORYWRITING that makes a movie or video game succeed, not how many FX you can cram into X number of minutes. Look at 'Field of Dreams' for example. Minimal FX, but a terrific story, and well-told to boot.
What I would REALLY like to see is some of the older 'classic' SF novels turned into movies that FOLLOW THE BOOK with a high degree of accuracy. These days, adapting something like Heinlein's "Have Space Suit, Will Travel," or perhaps the original "Red Planet" would, I think, make for a heck of a blockbuster.
It is not that video games make bad movies... (Score:3, Interesting)
The people who are involved in making the game often have no idea how Hollywood works and those in Hollywood are often so inbred in the industry they don't want to stray to far from the original game or the tried and true formulas of the industry. Demographics tell them that the game was popular so lets not mess with the formula and make a film just like the game.
There is no reason, other than talent on both sides, that stops anyone from making both a great game and a great movie. Right now both camps could use a fresh influx of new ideas and talent.
Twisty Little Passages (Score:2, Interesting)
prequels may be a way (Score:3, Interesting)
just waiting for pacman the movie with michael madson as pacman explaing why he is so afraid of these monsters.
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i left the
Re:Clue! (Score:2, Interesting)
Same goes for Clue, it's not the best film but the cast is really good and it works.
Re:different targets (Score:3, Interesting)
The problem is that people don't make movies out of those kinds of games, they make them out of games like Tomb Raider. Also, the kind of people who are uncreative enough to write a script out of a game franchise aren't creative enough to make a good script at all.
Another thing is that the really good games can't be told in two hours. It takes two hundred hours to fully complete the Baldur's Gate series if you're fast and do a reasonable number of quests. No one is going to invest that much time in a movie. It's just not worth it.
All of that said, there are some games that would make really good movies, if they were done correctly. Max Payne and Metal Gear Solid (PS1) come to mind as action movies. Some things would have to be done creatively though. The dream sequences in Max Payne would need to be worked out and the radio chatter in Metal Gear Solid would also need to be dealt with.