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."
lets see here (Score:3, Funny)
games make TERRIBLE movies
Re:lets see here (Score:3, Funny)
Re:lets see here (Score:5, Interesting)
How is that bad, when you consider the general action/horror genre as a whole?
Re:lets see here (Score:3, Informative)
resident evil goofs [saunalahti.fi]
Re:lets see here (Score:2, Funny)
Re:lets see here (Score:4, Funny)
err...
uh...
Pokemon?
Crap, you're right. They all suck. I'm just waiting for Frogger: The Movie.
Re:lets see here (Score:5, Funny)
Re:lets see here (Score:3, Funny)
Could you imagine the horror?
MS Hearts: The Movie
The old hat Content versus Form (Score:3, Insightful)
"Good Game" is not a descriptive enough term to determine whether or not some bit of content will translate well to another format. Game 'genres' are comparatively less like genres and more like species. You can find common ground between the worst Ahnuld action flick and your favorite movie (assuming they are not the same) - differences in movie genres are all content-based.
But while the ancestor of the arcade genre are arcade action games, graphic adventures have their
Re:lets see here (Score:3, Insightful)
When a studio decides to make a movie on a video game, they are trying to cash in on the name. It is self marketing. People will go see the movie because they know the game, not because it is a good movie. So to maximize profits, the studio hires the cheapest (i.e. least compitent) writer, director, actors. Bam! Bad movie. It has absolutely nothing to do with the subject matter.
Re:lets see here (Score:3, Insightful)
It probably helped I liked all the actors involved, especially Bob Hoskins. The man does a great job with a Bronx access.
In any event, I thought it was a bit cheesy, but that doesn't necessarily make it a bad movie. I thought it was quite humorous.
Just not enough people agree with me as there will be no sequel.
Everone's taste are different, but it doesn't mean I don't like every other bad movie out there.
Anyhow, I have to go, the goombas are
Metal Gear Solid (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Metal Gear Solid (Score:2, Insightful)
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
Re:Metal Gear Solid (Score:3, Interesting)
If you allowed Hideo Kojima to write a new MGS script solely
Re:Metal Gear Solid (Score:3, Insightful)
No (Score:5, Insightful)
Something suffers because the time to market seems to influence the outcome of the product,
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.
How about this... (Score:3, Funny)
How about someone make a movie that's original?
Hmmmm....nah, it'll never work! The kids don't like stuff like that.
Re:No (Score:5, Insightful)
Unless the movie can hire writers that can cut out the parts that make it distinctive as a game, and put more movie ingredients.. a game can be made into a good movie easily.
Take Mortal Kombat. What made it a good fighting game is the variety of characters, cool moves, good control and what not. Isn't that what makes any fighter game good? But when they made the movie, they kept MANY of the characters in it. If they took two of the characters who would be natural enemies, and expand on just that, it may have been better.
Take Mario Bros. Go through many obstacles, save the princess. The movie was the same exact thing minus mushrooms making you grow. As the movie went on, things got harder until the end when things finally resolved.
Now let's take something that may have been a made up game that could have been made into a movie that existed. Let's take an action movie, since they have battles and what not.. not so emotion based. Let's take "The Rock", the Nicholas Cage movie. Cage and Mr Connery have to get back some nasty bio weapons and save 150 hostages. Also have to take out the enemy. It sounds like a drawn out rainbow six mission, no?
So imagine taking the simple elements of a game, and making that a movie. Wouldn't THAT be the key? Zelda 64 isn't a rehash of Zelda or Adventures of Link, right? So why should a movie about Zelda be a rehash of an old video game?
Re:No (Zelda) (Score:4, Insightful)
But I don't see how a good Zelda movie could be made. Ignoring the fact that Hollywood only makes movie-games when it's looking to make a quick buck and never when they want to produce something of artistic merit, Zelda's just too far outside their definition of "cool." If they made a Zelda game, you can bet they'd get someone really annoying to play Link.
Remember: three of Nintendo's big four heroes, Mario, Link and Samus either never or hardly ever get dialogue in their games. (The fourth is Kirby, who also never gets dialogue, but neither does anyone else in his games.) I think it'd wreck the characters to give them dialogue. Just like Sonic, and thus the Sonic Adventure games, seem a lot lamer when he's got a speaking part.
Re:No (Zelda) (Score:3, Insightful)
Have you ever seen the cartoon series [planetnintendo.com]? I made the mistake of downloading the first episode once, and it was absolutely terrible. Link had the ridiculous catchphrase, "Well excuuuuuse me, Princess!" that he said nearly every other line. In order for a Zelda movie to work, they'd have to find someone that would kind of be a cross between Frodo and Pippin from the Lord of the Rings movies, and avoid anyone with annoyin
Nooooooo!!!!!!!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
God spare us all....
Re:Nooooooo!!!!!!!!! (Score:2)
Tomb Raider was a golden opportunity to deliver a straight-up adventure movie, with enjoyable casts and good heroes. Tomb Raider just messed it up. All they had to do was to do a movie "inspired" by Indiana Jones and it woulda been good. "The Mummy" was a great movie based on this idea, IMO...
Re:Nooooooo!!!!!!!!! (Score:3, Insightful)
Appalling wasn't it. Yet it was quite possible to make a good film pout of that. Likewise Resident Evil - terrible piece of crap, but there was good potential. The problem seems to be the directors and production crews that take up/get handed these films to make. Personally I think the problem is that the sort of directors/writers who take on these projects are people who love video games, and they are too close to the game to step back and rewrite/reorganise things to properly wo
Come now.. (Score:5, Funny)
Kjella
Stephen Spielberg's Tomb Raider (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:File to game, yes, game to film, no (Score:3, Informative)
No, they don't. As a whole, they make about the same amount of money as movies as a whole at the box office. The box office is not where movies generate cash, though - it's TV syndication, rentals, and tie-ins.
Games are a *far* cry from that kind of money. And there are way more games than movies.
Hence, the average game doesn't make much at all. It's the block busters that carry the industry. (Like the movie industry)
Well... (Score:4, Funny)
Tetris: The Movie (Score:5, Funny)
I think that movies make even worse video games, though:ET for the Atari anyone?
Re:Tetris: The Movie (Score:5, Funny)
That's a GREAT idea! Some folks in the San Fernando valley may want to buy the option for that script.
Re:Tetris: The Movie (Score:5, Funny)
Too late [imdb.com]!
Well - at we'll get to see Kirsten Dunst jumping and running in a very short skirt.
Obligatory (Score:2)
Re:Tetris: The Movie (Score:3, Interesting)
John Woo and Nibbles? (Score:2, Funny)
Clue! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Clue! (Score:3, Informative)
Whats with movies today? (Score:2)
There seem to be very few original works, especially when it comes to mainstream movies.
Originality - that seems to be a thing of the past.
Oh well, enough rant for a day.
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.
Re:Final Fantasy (Score:2)
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,
Pong (Score:4, Funny)
Grim Fandango (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Grim Fandango (Score:2)
Oh, fucking boy. Another Star Wars game. Yes, Mister Satan, I'll take another 100 years of torment, sirthankyousirmayihaveanother.
Perhaps (Score:2)
In order to portray the story correctly, you actually have to be able to tell a story...
In short: Perhaps, if they'd try harder (Score:5, Insightful)
The reason why games usually make terrible movies is pretty obvious. It's because the movies are usually made out of high-profile action games - to cash in on the name, as is standard practise in Hollywood.
These kinds of games are, of course, plot-free zones. Hence, the movie makers fill the void in an ad-hoc fashion, usually with horrible results.
Speaking of Zelda, anyone remember the old Zelda cartoons that we had on TV once? That's a classic example of what I'm talking about; those cartoons made my eyes bleed. Badly.
I can imagine that it WOULD be possible to make a good movie out of a good, plot-filled game, such as the old Lucasarts/Lucasfilm Games ones. Those would at least be funny. But, that hasn't happened yet. I'm still crossing my fingers ...
Zelda movie (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:In short: Perhaps, if they'd try harder (Score:2)
Yeah, they need to make a cartoon about Sam & Ma...wait a sec...
Re:In short: Perhaps, if they'd try harder (Score:2, Funny)
The Warcraft Series (Score:2)
Starcraft Also has a pretty cool story line, but I'd love to see a Warcraft movie.
Game and movie simultaneously (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Game and movie simultaneously (Score:3, Funny)
Jedi Knight Games might may a good film (Score:2, Insightful)
Ooooh! (Score:3, Funny)
Now if only EA would release the damn game for a modern platform . . .
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.
Just wait for.... (Score:5, Funny)
different targets (Score:5, Insightful)
Example: most adventure/shoot-em-up games are almost all fighting, with the occasional puzzle. These are entertaining because they tax your reflexes or your strategic thinking. It's fun to do that yourself, and so they're entertaining, but it's boring to watch someone else do that for more than about 10 minutes.
Also, because there's so much time spent in fighting & puzzles, the story background and character development in games is often (yes, often, not always, but very often) weak to non-existent. A shining example: Final Fantasy. That game has more character development than most adventure games do, and it was still a boring movie.
Short answer: there's a long gap between things that are fun to *do* and things that are fun to *watch*. The only thing that clearly falls in both catagories is sex, but I'm not going to go there right now.
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
Re:different targets (Score:3, Interesting)
Zelda now? (Score:5, Interesting)
I can't wait to see what the original zelda theme sounds like when a full symphony plays it.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Zelda now? (Score:3, Informative)
Been there, done that [altpop.com] (though you might have to pirate it these days)
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.
Okay... an LA Zelda could rock... (Score:5, Funny)
Seriously, that chick was getting kidnapped or shanghaighed so many times that she probably has to have 911 preprogrammed on speeddial in her cellphone just to keep up.
Re:Okay... an LA Zelda could rock... (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, it's a different Zelda in every game. It's almost always a different Link too. They occur in different time periods (possibly timelines). Reconstructing the Zelda chronology is a continuing project among Zelda fans.
I think Ocarina has just enough plot to fill a movie, provided we don't have to sit through eight dungeons and bosses.
Sam and Max!! (Score:2)
*mumble mumble stupid lucasarts mumble mumble*
Savage (Score:2)
Here's a transcript of the voice over so you can get an idea, "In a Savage age, beyond the fall of civilization, a leader will rise. To rebuild and restore what once was. The days of uncontested human domination are over, two armies in sight, the smell of battle is in the air, and the drums of war begin a dance of death. Victory or extinction? Glory or defeat?
Games that could work (Score:2)
But monkey island would be quite nice aswell.
However, what would beat PacMan - the movie?
Nethack (Score:5, Funny)
The biggest question is who to cast as '@'
Re:Nethack (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Nethack (Score:3, Funny)
The only movie where the main character dies in the first 5 minutes.
It depends on the game. (Score:3, Insightful)
tombraider (Score:2)
It's not the game, it's the writing (Score:5, Insightful)
(1) Most video games have thin, unelaborated setup plots. Nobody cares when it's the game, as long as the play/action is good. When it comes time to move things to the silver screen, though, it's much more important.
(2) A good video game movie could be based on a character's adventure in the world set up by the game -- but in addition to simply treating it as a sequence of scenes where the character accomplishes the same goals as the video game (or even some new goals you make up), and throwing in cool effects and kick-butt action, you'd have to make the character emotionally and intellectually three-dimensional. Why do they do what they do? Where are they vulnerable and strong? How do they grow/change over the course of the movie? However, most video game movies don't try to do this at all -- just walk through the levels, kids! -- and so you get bored out of your skull.
Willow? (Score:3, Insightful)
I remember an exception : Willow was a perfect match on screen and in its 16 colors pixel adaptation...
I just remembered I need to boot my computer... with my Tredair!
chocolate-covered sirloin (Score:3, Insightful)
The only reason they're occasionally, misbegottenly commingled is the built-in audience for whichever is the later rendering. And it's not reason enough, for my money.
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:Mortal Kombat (Score:4, Insightful)
A diverse group of fighters, both heroic and villainous, are invited to a secret martial arts tournament on an island, and fight it out in a series of battles that culminate in one of the heroes defeating the shadowy host of the tournament in single combat. There were even characters directly lifted from Enter the Dragon- Liu Kang for Bruce Lee's virtuous character, Johnny Cage for John Saxon's playboy, Shang Tsung for the evil guy with the claw hand. However, instead of coming off as just a lame rip-off, Mortal Kombat mostly stays within the realm of homage of it and innumerable other kung fu flicks, and throws in some special effects that were pretty sweet for their time, making it, if not exactly a classic of the genre, at least watchable.
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, however, was an abomination, and should never been made. It utterly fails in all areas of filmmaking- the dialogue is wooden and often unintentional funny, the special effects are not on par with the original released two years earlier and look incredibly cheap, and most damning for what should boil down to a kung fu flick, the fight choreography really sucks.
It's usually a terrible omen for a film sequel if half the original cast declines to return to their roles in the sequel. As the parent mentions, even Christopher Lambert avoided this one- and as a perusal of his IMDB entry shows , it's quite rare of him to pass up the opportunity to act in a terrible, terrible sequel. If he acted in the Highlander sequels, but not Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, what does that say about the latter movie?
Deus Ex? (Score:2)
Unfortunately it would probably get overly Hollywoodized (good guys made 100% good, bad guys made 100% evil, JC Denton made into a generic big-gun-wielding action hero) but if instead it was scripted/filmed in a way that reflected the style of the game, it'd be impressive.
(Of course, the other issue is that its anti-authoritarian plot and characters' musings on the nature of freedom might not be too
Endger's Game (Score:3, Insightful)
How About A Direct Conversion? (Score:5, Informative)
Heck, it might even sell more games. Though I would go for a direct to DVD release rather than a theatre release since to market may not be very big.
Wrong question. (Score:2)
The way that question is asked reveals a profound ignorance of where movie ideas come from. Movies are high-stakes ventures. So in the end, it's not about entertaining people it's about making money. Hollywood likes movie ideas that make money, hates movies ideas that don't. Whether the movie itself is any good is irrelevent.
Marketing is everying. So most movies are based on something that has established name recognition. Twenty years ago, I saw so many bad movie
Re: (Score:2)
What makes a good movie. (Score:3, Insightful)
What makes a good video however is being fun and entertaining. Take Metroid as an example. A fun game but no story at all. So now we have a game that is fun to play, but is kinda boring in review. From a game to movie perspective Megaman X makes much more sense and has ore to work with. You have the outsider (X as the first reploid and as such the father of the maverics), the internal conflict of the main character (why and I here and why do I fight), character progression (the destruction and rebirth of Zero and how it affected X's relationship with him).
MGS would make a better movie than any of my previous examples, however. You have a progression of plot with characters reveling much about themselves throughout the game/story as opposed to get key X to find location y and kill boss z.
No. Case in point: Wing Commander (Score:3, Informative)
Re:No. Case in point: Wing Commander (Score:3, Insightful)
The *games were better movies than the movie* by a long way, and had bigger stars (Jason Bernard, Malcolm MacDowell, Mark Hamill, Biff from back to the future I wish I co
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.
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.
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.
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.
--
i left the
The best adaptation ever: Tomb Raider! (Score:3, Funny)
Now, hear me out. In the game, all you did was look at her boobs while you wandered around the boring game. At the movie, you just look at her boobs while she wanders around the boring movie.
Sounds like a 100% adaptation, to me.
steve
Home World (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:IMHO, the only thing that MIGHT work... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Depends on the writer, really... (Score:2)
I remember using that when I was about 5 years old. (I'm 18 now...)
You shouldn't be able to make a freaking teenager take a trip down memory lane, for christ's sake.
Re:This link says it all. (Score:2)
You jest, but Band of Brothers comes damn close (Score:4, Interesting)