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Does A Good Game Make A Good Movie Idea?
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."
Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Mario...
games make TERRIBLE movies
How about a metal gear solid movie. Imagine if that came out in the movie format instead of the game format... Wait it did come out in the movie format! What sucks though is that lots of these game-movie adaptions stray away from the main story of the series which is what makes the series so unique to begin with. Case in point, Final Fantasy Spirits Within.
Or maybe it just depends on what your idea of what a "good" movie is since video games are lacking so much of what "good" movies have by nature.
The same way a movie makes a bad game idea.
Something suffers because the time to market seems to influence the outcome of the product,
Two words: Tomb Raider
God spare us all....
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
Games and movies have different life cycles.
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.
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Well there was that Super Mario Bros movie...
An Aztec movie would be great!! Oh, wait, they've already made one...
Fedora and everything!
-If
Run a pencil-and-paper RPG campaign with your far-off friends: Gametable!
It is good that video game movies are a fairly recent innovation. Lest we end up watching pong for 90 minutes.
I think that movies make even worse video games, though:ET for the Atari anyone?
John Woo and Metroid sounds promising, but God help us if somebody tries to make a movie about Nibbles. Or does Tremors already count?
...would be Tarantino taking on a big-screen adaptation of GTA3.
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was a pretty ok movie. I mean, it wasn't based directly off the FF games ( as each one changes drastically anyway ), but it was still an overall good movie.
My biggest complaint was the voice acting sucked in parts, but seeing as how it WAS 100% computer gen, and we've yet to have a perfectly scripted game as well, it's a small oversight.
Slashdot sucks
Duke Nukem: Forever. If they can figure out the plot and casting, it's going to be a blockbuster.
Clue was pretty good and it's "based" on a game.
What is it with people who do not want to come up with an original and new idea, and make good movies? They just seem to want to rip ideas off, from books, videogames or whatever it is that they can find and make a quick buck.
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.
How about some movies based on 'Medal of Honor' and 'Call of Duty'?
Now *there's* some virgin cinematic subject matter!
How about a game where you're a Kiwi who has to kill
all the aliens on this planet who exist to eat humans?
Then it could be made into a movie. Especially good
is if Peter Jackson was to make the movie.
Tetris: The Movie
Great game, horrible movie idea.
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.
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I am still waiting anxiously for Pong: the Movie to come out in theaters.
Sorry, it looks like they hit you with an ad. They must not like internal linking.
Wh47 d1d j00 541, 31337 15n't t3h r0xor5 ne m0r3???
That game provided me more dramatic entertainment than two thirds of the movies I've seen. It convinced me beyond any doubt that games are a form of art.
The Raven
They could make really good independent films and do make awful big budget movies.
In order to portray the story correctly, you actually have to be able to tell a story...
Mortal Kombat and the original Tomb Raider were enjoyable movies. They were by no means LOTR calibur, but c'mon you can say the same about comic book movies or just about every sci-fi movie ever made. There is every bit as much crap in sci-fi for example as there is for video game movies so why are we complaining?
I think instead of worrying about why video game movies suck, why don't we think about all the bad movie to video game translations!!!
In the history of video game movie translations only a handful have even been decent. Most of them suck horribly. That is the real problem...
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 ...
I hear there's rumors on the Slashdots
I've always thoughts The warcraft series a fantastic plot and lots of cool magic....though it'd probably be a little too close to the LOTR series...
Starcraft Also has a pretty cool story line, but I'd love to see a Warcraft movie.
How could I say to men: "Speak louder, shout! For I am deaf!"? -Ludwig van Beethoven
The first Star Wars movie was a good adaptation of (Atari's?) fly-down-a-trench-and-shoot-things game. They managed to add quite a lot of detail and story to it. (The story and characters were still pretty flat, but look what they had to work with!) To me, it did suffer a bit that the main focus shifted from the main idea of the game, flying down the trench and shooting things. I sat there for over an hour before they finally got to the point. It was good, not great.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
How would Tetris be translated into a movie? :D
Just last Thursday I heard a lecture about digital effects in movies and games by George Joblove and Douglas Kay, two former ILM-ers who have now moved to Sony Imageworks and Mondo Media, respectively. One of the clips that Douglas Kay showed was a concept for a project they're doing which is a combined movie and game. The idea is that the movie is done entirely digitally, and at a technological level that can be reproduced on a game console, so that there is a seemless transition between the movie environment and the game. Sounded like a good idea to me.
This side up.
Those jedi knight FPS games might make a good series of movies if they scaled back on the special effects and wrote some better dialog.
Fighting games for instance already come with plot and character motivation. Each character already has a certain disposition and a point for being in the tournament or whatever situation it is. For example, one person is fighting for honor, another to save a loved one, and another just because they are an asshole.
What plot is there in a game like Mario Bros.? If they tried to stay true to the game you would have 2 hours of "The princess is in another castle!".
The Mario Bros. movie just sucked, straight up. So did Double Dragon. It was amazing how much artistic license was taken, and how badly they did.
Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter were OK. At least they were fun to watch.
Can't wait for M*U*L*E - The Movie.
Now if only EA would release the damn game for a modern platform . . .
It is funny how these type of stories come up now and then because, for awhile now, I've been really set on the idea of a Grim Fandango movie. I can't think of any game which could more readily translated onto the big screen. Even as a video game it still boasted an incredibly well developed story with a wonderful atmosphere and stellar voice acting.
My dream? Pixar doing Grim Fandango. Something like that would, in my mind, help make up for all the Tomb Raiders and Mortal Combats.
forma3
Games don't translate well because most stories in games are second rate to the ones told in movies thus far. They haven't really needed to be up to par because gamers accept the stories being this way. Often times it's because too much of a story would make things very linear; a good game lets you make decisions as to how you advance.
Because of that, new scenarios, characters, etc are required to try and fill in the gaps. The result is a poorly produced movie that is unable to please the game's fan base because it's too far of a stretch from what they've seen in the game. Granted, it doesn't help sticking a license with bad directors, producers, and writers but I do worry that even in the best hands gamers wouldn't be pleased.
Until Slashdot fixes the funny modifier, use insightful or interesting. The poster knows your intentions.
If you liked "Saturday Night Fever", you'll love Dance Dance Revolution: The Movie!
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
I mean, look at the adaptation they made of gorilla.bas after all.
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.
How about Peter Jackson doing Zelda?
I can't wait to see what the original zelda theme sounds like when a full symphony plays it.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic would make an outstanding movie. If someone actually bothered to make it, the storyline and characters are much better than anything Lucas is putting out in the "current" trilogy.
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.
Where the wind blows, the tumbleweed goes.
I think the world would benefit from a Zelda trilogy. Three movies, one storyline, Link meets Zelda for the first time three times.
but seriously, Zelda COULD make an awesome film or group of films. I've always wanted to see A Link to the Past as a film... there is plenty of story for several films.
the problem, of course would be adapting the storyline to be suitable for a film. The best game to adapt to a movie would be, in my opinion, A Link to the Past. I can already see the scene where Link first arrives in the dark world... and it is beautifully done. (i don't know about peter jackson, though... why does everyone automatically assume he's the best director ever for fantasy? he's not.)
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.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Zelda. That game was actually inspired by Ridley Scott's Legend, so a movie based on Zelda would almost be a full circle then...
Would make an excellent movie!
*mumble mumble stupid lucasarts mumble mumble*
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? The very hand of fate lies in the warrior grip, of the Savage."
Please note I don't work for s2 games, just a happy customer.
Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley
Castlevania.
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.
Fallout would definetly work out.
But monkey island would be quite nice aswell.
However, what would beat PacMan - the movie?
GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
I always thought that Nethack would make a good movie.
The biggest question is who to cast as '@'
I would love to see Tim buton take on a game->movie conversion. He as done a great job with comic->movie in batman and his theatrical style would probably fit right in.
It depends on the game, I dunno if I was the only person watching the Final Fantasy movie thinking "This should be a video game" there was too much in the movie to be explained in that short time frame of a movie. I'm sure any good video game turned into a movie will probably be bad since we're expecting too much of it. And they'd try to make a blockbuster, not a movie that's true to the game. But then again Final Fantasy Avant Children is coming out, that seems like it's true to the story of Final Fantasy and not just trying to be some movie that just happens to have the name of a popular video game in it when having almost nothing to do with the game itself (Mario Brothers.)
AH come on, tombraider the MOVIE was much more exciting than the video games. Well, at least the later ones. Sure, I loved making Lara Croft run around for hours on end with minimal action, but the movies were much more fullfilling and conclusive to what was going on than the video games.
There are a couple of basic problems with translating a video game to a movie:
(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.
Tweet, tweet.
Half-Life the Movie?
Penny Arcade Link
Etiquette is etiquette. He kills his mother but he can't wear grey trousers.
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!
Same thing the other way around.
Hate me!
Will we see Samus helmetless and out of her power suit? Will it just be another tired Aliens clone?
...
If they make a film on Metroid one day, and Samus isn't naked at least once in the film.
You can call the SWAT Team, to contain all the riot caused by Geeks and Nerds Metroid fan
Whats prettier than a girl with a big frozen beam?
A girl with two big frozen b...
It's funny how I make sense to others and not myself...
"Pacman - the return of the killer ghosts!" coming to a theatre near you!
That game has a whole world of colorful characters they could really create some stories around. It might sound crazy, but I think it might make a good movie or possibly a cartoon.
A good story makes a good story.
"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 roots in interactive fiction, MMORPGs hail from MU*s, CRPGs descend from board games, and other physical games translate to video well without need of additional story (e.g. Chessmaster, Hoyle's). Differences in game genres are both form- and content-based, and not to any set ratio.
So the answer fully depends on why the game is "good". If it's good because it has a compelling story, great characters, etc., then duh, it will probably make a good movie. If not, then in the absence of a good script doctor it will not.
Street Fighter Mortal Kombat Super Mario Brothers Final Fantasy is the only one i give good credit to. Its a game that could do it. Why because the story is different in every single game. So a move that shares a title and has a different story did ok.
See Sig! See Sig Zig! Zig Sig Zig!!!!!
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.
Seeing bad movies only encourages them. Watch responsibly
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.
Blasphemer!
A good movie is a good movie! LOTR was shit, IMHO, great book(s), very poorly done. The subject of a movie can be everything, surprise me! Just make sure it's good. I haven't seen a really good Sci-fi movie in ages.
Action games like first-person shooters need some sort of background theme simply to have some context in which to frame several hours of gameplay in: the difference between an impressive demo of a game engine and a memorable gaming experience that the player can sink his sense of self into.
It doesn't have to be terribly much: a vaguely sci-fi setting with a martial theme seems to work for most. That's usually pretext enough to explain why ten people are running around in a maze shooting brilliantly multicoloured plasma bolts at each other.
A movie, on the other hand, needs a whole lot of it: a plot, dramatic structure, believable characters -- oodles of detail that would have been contextual overkill for a game.
So, it's no wonder that videogame transplants seem a bit flat on the silver screen.
A while ago I saw something about a Deus Ex film being under consideration - if done right, that could work.
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 popular politically at the moment...)
I think an online team based game using the battle room as inspiration would be great. Lets just hope Warner Brothers does right by Orson...
Don't waste time... procrastinate now!
If you didn't mean *computer* games, we can point:
... ...
*D&D: the movie = One of the worst movie I ever seen, but it is a good game
Video games:
*Final fantasy = quite bad although but visually good. And these are *very* good games
*Street fighter (thats an old one (with van damme)) = *BAD*. The games are good though
*I didnt see tombraider, but I assume it is bad. The game is bad too.
I thought I could think of more movies than that...
Conclusion: Movies made from games are generally bad. Games made from movies too (Example: Enter the matrix).
perception is reality
Why not just make the movies directly from the game using the cut scenes and footage of expert player gameplay. Sega did something like this with the first Shenmue game for Dreamcast. It's actually rather interesting to watch.
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.
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
Marketing is everying. So most movies are based on something that has established name recognition. Twenty years ago, I saw so many bad movies based on song titles, I swore never to watch another one. (Well, I might make an exception for this song.) Popular books always used to get made into movies, even if the book wasn't all that cinematic. And now we're seing movies based on theme park rides. Why? Marketing. Known trademark. Anything but creativity.
I'm suprised it took them so long to get around to video games. Established audience, well-known brand, yada yada.
To answer the question that was meant: can you make a decent movie out of a video game? Hey, you can make a decent movie out of last week's canned peas if you can find the right talent. Look at who is making the movie, not the meaningless marketting noise.
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An argument could be made that a video game is as suited to instpire a film as a work of literature. Vast sums of money and time are habitually invested in adapting novels to film, and people seem to enjoy watching them. But artistically speaking, there's a complex question. If you merely translate the written story to screen, you can be obsessively faithful, you can provide inventive visuals, you can try to get good performances from actors, but the end product is unlikely to surpass the original work or stand on its own. If, instead, you use the source material as general inspiration but build an original movie that departs from the source as much as necessary to take full advantage of the artistic potential of the film medium, you have the potential (seldom realised, of course) to produce a work of art that stands alone. On the other hand, if you depart too much, then it can seem less appropriate to name the film for the inspiring source.
So why couldn't a game (e.g. Doom) result in a good movie? It probably wouldn't turn out so good if you just tried to stage the "story" (such as it is) that loosely organizes the video game experience. But there's no reason someone couldn't make an entertaining and exciting (and even intelligent) film about the legions of hell overrunning a research base on Mars. For one thing, you're not saddled with the hundreds of pages of language, verbosity, internality and -- don't forget -- legacy, of esteemed literature.
Also, don't forget that last year they took an amusement park ride and made a film ("Pirates of the Caribbean") that was far more fun than it had any right to be.
A good story makes a good movie. The Legend of Zelda series more or less historically suck for stories and are about exploration. (I have played and beaten all the games but the N64 ones). In Wind Waker the story was about Hyrule but not about Link. A good story is one where the characters themselves change and learn more about their own selves and manage to change in some capacity. That makes a good movie.
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.
There is nothing wrong with being gay. It's getting caught where the trouble lies.
Of all the games I have played I feel that the GK series had the best plot developments, which means it has a better chance to be morphed into a good film. Jane Jansen really knew how to weave random bits of real history into her fantasy games. I never could stop playing them.
:-)
Although some of her dialogue was weak, that certainlly couuld be fixed up for the movie. Plus it could be really cool to see some of the orig. actors who played the real versions in GK2. Sins of the fathers, The Beast Within, and Blood of the Sacred Blood of the Damned. Those were some good stories. Now lets see 'em in film
How about we come up with something original. Why not make an original movie...not a re-make, not based on a tv show, not based on a video game, not based on a SNL skit...
How about someone make a movie that's original?
Hmmmm....nah, it'll never work! The kids don't like stuff like that.
"Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it." - John Lennon.
Wing Commander was an excellent game series. Wing Commander the Movie actually made me vomit. It was so bad that they couldn't even get Mark Hamill (who played the lead character in the last three games' cutscenes) to show up as Blair.
I may be just another Disgaea fanboy, but I think Disgaea could make a pretty kickass movie if they cast it right-- or avoided casting in wrong, in other words. No Sarah Michelle Gellar as Flonne, for example.
I mean, there's definitely character development, humor, heartbreak, tension, and a well-devised ending. Of course, the Christian fundamentalists wouldn't be charmed by a movie where angels and demons actually get along in some capacity.
Some other good video games that could have potential in movie form, IMO:
-Chrono Trigger (although it could just be twisted into Timeline with robots, I realize)
-Parasite Eve
-Silent Hill (Actually in the process of being made a movie, IIRC)
-Final Fantasy Tactics (the original, not Advance)
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Planescape: Torment.
Can anyone who has played this game doubt that it would make the most awesome movie?
If only they could get the voice actors from the game to act in the movie!
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Wing Commander.
Although I can say I've had the pleasure of not watching it.
Are you local? There's nothing for you here!
How about those two games?
Well, for one, the stories infiltrate the players' consciousnesses in very different ways than they might in a movie.
Still, the same basis might make for some great movies.
I've seen a few posts in this discussion bagging out the Final Fantasy-The Spirits within movie, with complaints like this one:
I have a slightly different recollection of the movie. I had played one or two of the FF games, and I remember thinking during the cut scenes in FFVII that this really needs to be made into a movie. I got really excited when it was announced that such a thing was to happen.
I finally got to see it, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I found the plot quite FFish, and it seemed to assume a familiarity with the FF style. A friend who came with me didn't quite understand what was going on. I ended up going through the whole FFVII plot with him, and everything seemed to make sense after that.
The main difference is in how the two genres relate to a plot line. In a movie the audience's attention needs to be focussed solely on the story. You can move fairly quickly, develop some complex characters and have two or three subplots moving together. Even if you don't quite understand it, or you miss something, a well made movie should still be understandable.
In a game (RPG at least) you're more concerned with moving the character yourself--designing him or her to be the character best suited to beating up the bad guy at the end while still being able to get through the earlier stages. You have to guess where the story's going to go so you can plan ahead.
You also have to choose whether or not to go on the subquests (if you can find them). Spending a day and a half breeding a golden chocobo would not go down well in a movie!
In a game, forgetting the slightest detail can leave you stranded. I remember spending two whole days flying my airship around the wrong part of the world because I missed a single word in an instruction (again in FFVII). And I wouldn't have got that chocobo if I hadn't got myself a nice walk through off the internet.
These things will have a dramatic effect on the development of the plot and the sorts of things they can do. The fact that the Final Fantasy series use different characters all the time gives more leeway in a movie. Peronally, I think the best way would be to develop the two in tandem, a la the Matrix. I haven't yet played the game so I don't know how well it worked there, but I suspect they were on to something.
I guess the whole experience taught me it's a poor effort if you need to go outside the movie (as my friend found) or the game (that walkthrough was the only thing that kept me in it) to be able to get your money's worth.
Cogito, ergo sig.
Duble Dragon man!
Movie was quite funny....
Warning: This sig contains a small bug. ==> *
I still think that Chrono Trigger would make for a great movie adaptation. It's got a compelling plot (preventing the end of the world), great characters (Magus, anyone?), the all-time creepiest scenario (the Kingdom of Zeal, 12000 BC), time travel, and the miraculous resurrection of the main character.
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.
Among other things, Call of Duty was pretty heavily influenced by the fantastic HBO miniseries Band of Brothers (rent it or buy it! You won't be sorry!). Hell, the first of the three campaigns in the game puts you in the shoes (or rather, the chute) of a member of the 101st Airborne as he and a bunch of other paratroopers drop over Normandy the night before D-Day; Band of Brothers follows the 101st from training to Normandy through the European theater of operations. Several of the missions from the war covered in the show are modeled in Call of Duty. Particularly impressive is the similarity between BoB and CoD's interpretations of the Battle at Brecourt, an assault on German artillery emplacements connected by a system of trenches. Damn cool stuff. :)
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!
...Angelina Jolie made sure that movie had at least two distinct advantages. Now disasters like Wing Commander don't have any extenuating circumstances.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
was a good monster/zombie movie. While I haven't played all the different RE games, I can say that the movie captured the atmosphere of the games I did play and made for an entertaining film. I'm looking forward to RE2 this summer.
Now, I know I will be jeered for this: I have not, actually, played the game itself. So I can't say whether the movie is based on a good game or not, but I think it's an excellent movie. An outstanding sci-fi horror, and for once, it's placed in a well-illumonated high-tech setting. Also, Milla Jovovich featured an amazing performance. She really gave a touch of warmth and humanity to the movie. The real kind of warmth, not the phoney one, which you see in so many movies nowadays. Yes, I'm that impressed with her acting. Better (another jeer coming up, I guess) than in "5th element".
Sigged!
... or would it be too much like Austin Powers?
the metroid movie might be decent..
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.
Ballistic: Ecks vs. Se... ...er, nevermind.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
Who never played the monkey island games?
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.
I'd suggest: Deus Ex
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.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
peter jackson has made other movies besides lord of the rings. to pin him onto zelda is saying he's a single genre director.
if he never does another fantasy movie, its probably a good thing. he's done a great job with LotR, now lets see what he can do in other areas.
The only one I've seen is Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, though to be fair that may not count because it's more CGI anime. Even then the world and story are not related to the FF gaming world, at least as I (minimally) understand it. The other game inspired movies have been dismal.
The Tomb Raiders were awful movies, but this is true about a lot of action movies made now. I don't think the Tomb Raider premise lends itself to movie making: platformer meets FPS does not translater to the screen. It didn't work for Super Mario either.
The key to a good movie is the world and the story line: video games rarely provide that. But video games aren't alone here: few Science Fiction or Fantasy books translate to the screen well. The same with horror: most of the adaptations of Stephen King's books are rotten (The Shining and The Dead Zone being two big exceptions). The screen plays just suck: this was one of the incredible things Peter Jackson and co. did with LotR - the adaptation was done well.
One area where the transition from the printed page to the screen (both movie and video game) has gone well is with manga and anime.
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.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
It's not out yet, but Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children looks pretty good. Hopefully it will not be like Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within...
I think that movie has a great moral to it...apparently theme park rides make better movies than video games.
I don't try to be right, I just try to make people think
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.
There is much pleasure to be gained in useless knowledge.
Personally, I'm psyched for a Silent Hill movie. As a videogame series, it seems to be running a bit dry (although I hope SH4 will dispel that idea), but I can't even begin to imagine the potential atmospheric terror if it is correctly adapted to the big screen. Yes, you can say that it blatantly rips off ideas from other well-known horror pieces like Jacob's Ladder, but it's still well-founded enough to stand on its own. If they were to base it on one of the games, right now the best candidate without a doubt is SH2, seeing as how it manages to stay coherent even if the player hasn't gone through the first game, and the "love story" can make for a great melancholy angle. But the best reason by far is Pyramid Head. An MGS movie would also be great, but in the end, it just wouldn't work, seeing as how half of the game's plot and character development happens through codec conversation, and there's no effective way to translate that into a film. In any event, if such a thing does happen, only David Hayter can be allowed to play Snake (live action or animated/CG), and hopefully as much of the rest of the cast as possible.
I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone mention Goldeneye yet. Not very revolutionary (1st person shooters were pretty common fare when it came out), but damn was it fun. It has my vote for best movie to game translation.
But the story is really pretty basic. Amnesia guy fights the baddies but that is all a setup and at the critical point he has to ask himself who he really is. The old baddie or the new goodie. (the movie could hardly have him fall to the darkside, that ain't how hollywood works) Can you say Total Recall?
The side stories ain't much better. If you saw them in a movie or book you would cry "CLICHE" and feel offended.
Anyway anyone who is a fan of the game would already know the story and hardly be intrestted in seeing it again.
So if you make a new story all you are doing is making a new star wars movie. Will that be successfull? Does the pope shit in the woods?
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
...if they would just write the script, then remove all references of the game.
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.
...with horrible lines like, "well excuuuuuuse me, princess," how can we forget? :-)
:-)
Remember kids: only Steve Martin should impersonate Steve Martin.
Heh....now, if they made Zelda into a live-action comedy with Steve Martin as a royal retainer....that line might actually work.
IGN interviewed American McGee last month about turning Alice, Oz and Grimm into feature films.
I think the visuals could be interesting, but here's to hoping they have a decent story and script...
This sig intentionally left justified.
Translating a book to film has sometimes been done baldy and sometimes been done well. The same is true for games.
The big difference is that books always about telling a story and games are sometimes about twitch reflexes. Twitch games could be made into a movie, but what's the point? Story games could be made into great films.
The Final Fanatasy games are about telling a story more than anything. The movie failed because the story in the movie was not as good as the stories in the games.
In the FF games, the authors have 70+ hours of game play to create an environment. There are all kinds of sub plots, funny characters, and emotional episodes. The scenery in the games is very rich with complex architecture and cultural settings.
In the FF movie, there was no humour and very little emotion.
I don't see how most games could make a good movie. The joy of them, no matter how good the story, is that you're making that story unfold. Most games have very few dramatic devices, and are more of a challenge of skills or time investment that reward you with short movies/dramas. The problem is filling in all those moments of GAMEPLAY with drama: how do you do that? You can't. You either take a lot of creative license with the game (and thus base it much more loosely on the game) or end up with a lot of dreadfully boring action.
I think you could use a game as a basis for a story - maybe - but you could never straight up make a good movie from the game. Very few games have enough story to make a movie from without altering it, in my opinion.
I actually enjoyed the Super Mario Brothers movie. It was campy, but it was supposed to be. Leguizamo is always a stitch, and Hoskins is a perfect match for Mario. I don't mind making Koopa 'human' -- after all, any time you let Dennis Hopper chew scenery, it's a good thing.
Resident Evil sucked a lot less than Tomb Raider. I've never gotten around to the Mortal Kombat movie, but I've been told it was at least watchable, and a bit fun.
Final Fantasy? 90 minutes of my life I want back. It was pretty... lame. House of the Dead? Not interested.
Aliens vs. Predator? Hard to say if that is based on a game, a comic or just an ordinary franchise sequel. Did it even come out?
Others? I found this list. I'd managed to forget Wing Commander, Street Fighter, and those celluloid cases for ritalin, the Pokemon movies.
Design for Use, not Construction!
The movie they made about that Star Wars video game kicked ass!
paintball
It really depends on the game, obviously... Half-Life, for one, would really kick ass as a movie - if done properly. So would Max Payne.
If it weren't for fog, the world would run at a really crappy framerate.
The truly awful thing was that Wing Commander was essentially a ripoff of Larry Niven's "known space" books. The kzinti...oops sorry...kilrathi made cool enemies, and the "known space" stories had about 30 FUCKING COOL MOVIE PLOTLINES THAT WOULD HAVE WORKED JUST AS WELL WITH s/kzinti/kilrathi/g, dammit!
With the exception of maybe Mortal Kombat, all the video game based Hollywood movies I've seen have been unbearable.
That doesn't mean that it cannot be done right, but most games wouldn't translate well into movies, and Hollywood just seems to use lisences from popular games to make a quick buck.
Some people here have said that Peter Jackson would be able to do a Zelda movie. Maybe he _could_ pull it off, but I think it'd be hard to fit everything that makes Zelda games fun into a movie and still make it a good movie. Watching Link go through dungeons and solve puzzles and find a boatload of items in treasure chests probably wouldn't translate to the big screen all that well.
The word is now that John Woo is going to be doing the Metroid movie. I've played through every Metroid game (some several times), and I don't recall seeing pidgeons or martial artists on Planet Zebus. Seems they are tying a big name director with a big name game franchise.
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah
Don't know how many people here actually still play 'old school' adventure games, but The Longest Journey was one that had the story, plot and characters to keep me playing it through to the end - and I'm not actually a big adventure game player. TLJ would make a good movie, IMO - a film crew that manages to retain the feel of the game provided.
And don't forget TMNT... - a.c.
Weren't there rumblings a while back about doing a Quake movie? If done right (a big if), it could be interesting.
In Soviet Russia, Chuck Norris will still kick your ass.
I always thought they did a decent job on Resident Evil, -- enough to warrent a sequel anyway.
The new movie ("Apocalypse") is supposed to feature the Jill Valentine character. I wonder if as in the game she'll have to spin around in place to turn around.
{ - Generic Guy - }
do a Monkey Island movie.
A witty and silly movie full of Slapstick plus a catchy sound track.
I mean who wouldn't go see it !
Only problem. what actor could accurately portray guybrush?
"Look a three headed monkey !"
<bart
I think what you meant to say was Full Throttle 2 was cancelled, there was no annoucement of a Grim Fandango 2.
From the sound of things the FT2 wasn't not living up the first one, and I think it was due to someone who inspired FT being dead. Unlike FT2, according to Steve Purcell the game was going along fine, and even though Lucasarts hasn't been doing to well with their recent releases, I would probably trust him that the game was living up to past Lucasarts adventure titles and standards.
NOT.
It is worrying then that Boll is about to unleash an Alone In The Dark movie on the unsuspecting world, while he also has Blood Rayne and Far Cry movies in pre-production.
Worrying isn't the word. Hasn't the man learned his lesson from House Of The Dead? These are bad ideas! Take the hint already!
Video games are just not developed enough. The reason they're not developed is because the end result is what the person does playing the game. By the time a screenwriter would end up fleshing out the basic story line enough to make it into 1.5-2 hours of screen time so little of the original game is left. I'd even say it would get to the point that the game fans would be disappointed because they had their own ideas on character development that they do not see on screen.
The other side of this coin is the concept by the general public that the only people who are going to 'get' the film is fans of the video game or the idea that the only people who enjoy video gaming is minors. After all, look at how many people liked LOTRs... Had Jackson called the movie 'Dungeons and Dragons' it would have been scoffed at. But those of us who play D&D and have read LOTRs know that they're pretty much the same thing.
As a side note; the only video game movie I ever really liked was Final Fantasy. It seems to fit my theory well as I have never played any of the Final Fantasy games and everything was new to me. I expected nothing in the way of story line. The downer side of this is that had the movie not been associated with the video game I'd have had the same impression of it. I didn't run out to buy the game after seeing the film.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
Others have already mentioned the really bad ones. I'd only add Parasite Eve (Japanese) and Street Fighter (Jean-Claude Van Damme, Raul Julia, *yikes!*).
However, I wouldn't mind seeing a movie version of Leather Goddesses of Phobos.
It's a very dark ride.
I never played any of the games, so I had no bias going in to see it. The entire presentation was captivating, with the only minor flaws being the black-haired(?) one-liner chick, and the poor quality of the laser grid defense thingy. Everything else made sense, and kept me on the edge of my seat. I even bought the soundtrack CD for the movie. It was one of my favorite movies of the year.
-==- Buy a Mac and leave me alone!
As much as I love the following, there's _NO WAY_ a movie should be made of them:
Frankly, some games are just plain better than movies.
.)
I was amazed when I first played Metal Gear Solid on the PSX. It was like playing a 5-6 hour long tom clancy story, but I was in control. The script was awesome, the acting (voice acting in this case) was top notch and the directing was the best I've seen in a game and was better than most movies.
Now, you can play longer games as a running show, like the final fantasy series, that had some great episodes (and some lesser ones. .
So, when done right, story-driven games are more enjoyable than movies to me. Let's just hope they keep making such jewels.
We should have been
So much more by now
Too dead inside
To even know the guilt
My only exposure to the movies-from-vidgames genre so far has been to watch 'Final Fantasy.' While the animation and CGI work was decent enough, the story was weak at best, certainly not enough to earn the movie a permanent spot in our collection.
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.
Bruce Lane, KC7GR,
Blue Feather Technologies
I really loved that game, I still play it through from time to time, especially after a hardware upgrade.. Sure it was a buggy performance hog, but it would be cool to see a movie of it. With modern hardware you can modify the .ini file to be able to see pretty much the whole world from up on top of Castle British, it's pretty cool.
It is not that video games make bad movies, it is just that those who make the games often have no idea what it takes to make a good movie.
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.
which came first ? the lightcycles video game or the movie Tron ?
I thought that the plot of Mafia would make a brilliant film, even though it might be quite derivative from films like "The Godfather"....
Another game that could *easily* be made into a film is any of the Gabriel Knight trilogy by Jane Jensen - she's already written two books on the first two games, and they'd make a great and intelligent series of films if handled properly... Of course, "Blood of the Sacred - Blood of the Damned" would probably be considered too heretical to ever make it to mainstream release...
Did stink, but losing Christopher Lambert didn't hurt it much. His replacement (James Remar) accorded himself very well.
The cast they gained (Jax) hurt them a lot more than what they lost. That and the awful script.
Funny that I should see this posted today. I just finished The Longest Journey this afternoon, and let me just say that it's a hell of an adventure. The way the writers gave even the most minor characters interesting dialogue is nothing short of amazing. And the main character is completely believable.
This could get made into a movie with a minimum of modification. But, of course, it'll never happen. Guess I'll just have to content myself with the sequel...next year...sigh...
I wrote a short story in fifth grade based on Adventure, which I'd played on the TTY at a friend's house. That would've been in 1980, I think, and my friend's dad was a professor at the University of Michigan. My teacher thought it was pretty good (or maybe he just said that about every assignment we turned in).
-Rich
I'm surpised nobody's mentionned this yet, but we have a legend of zelda movie, it's name is Legend and it stars Tom Cruise.
I'm not joking around, or being a troll, I'm being honest here... just watch it. Granted that it doesn't include some of the latest 'themes' of the series. Tom doesn't have an Ocarina or anything like that, but it's still a guy in green tights VS a big bad monster using a magical sword. In fact, Miyamoto admits to being inspired by this movie.
i think prequels may be a good model for movie adoptions of video games. any decent game has a plot and a setting. it would sense to make a movie to "set up the story".
.sig business long ago.
just waiting for pacman the movie with michael madson as pacman explaing why he is so afraid of these monsters.
--
i left the
I think a GREAT Zelda movie could be made. As long as they don't treat it like the game series lately; that is making a game for total idiots*
All it would take would be a great writing and directing team and not let the producers/studio ruin it by turning it into something it's not.
* Everytime you pick up a bottle, "This is a bottle. To use a bottle..." blah, blah. Or the map! Why does it need to tell you everytime you get an item how to use it?!? Are video game players so stupid these days? And why can't you skip or speed up the stupid dialog? Worst game ever.
I think it even won some awards.
g i
http://snowstorm.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/site.c
To see the game the movie was based on.
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
I've always maintained a movie based on the story of the first two games in the Myth series would make GREAT movies. Myth: The Fallen Lords and Myth II: Soulblighter. Heck, some fans of the game even did a fan-fiction movie of it using iMovie.... with no budget mind you. Avon's Hope: A Myth Movie
I wonder if InfoGrames would let one of the big 3D animation places make TA into a movie... I see the movie as being a prequel to the game.
"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."
Well, it's a better plot than most pornos.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Actually the worst thing about Jackson's film interpretation of The Lord of the Rings was giving Glorfindel breasts.
+5 insigthful
I hope that footage isn't just a bunch of VR Missions because that would be boring as hell.
N4st0r, trixx0r h0bb1tz0rz! Th3y st0l3 0ur pr3c10uzz!
The fact that Link was hornier than Vinnie Delpino (of TV's "Doogie Howser, M.D.") AND he ripped off Martin Short made him painful to watch in those days.
N4st0r, trixx0r h0bb1tz0rz! Th3y st0l3 0ur pr3c10uzz!
Troll!? WTF
mods.on.Crack
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
Before I saw Event Horizon, I always thought that the original DOOM would make a GREAT movie. In the right hands, all of the basic concepts for a pretty interesting action adventure movie were there. Granted, DOOM is a mindless and purely action-oriented FPS, but if someone had gotten on the ball and made a movie before the whole "survival horror"/zombie vs. modern technology fad caught on in both video games and movies, I'd always felt a carefully planned DOOM movie would have been great. The problem now is that many of the traits that were first pioneered by DOOM have already been done, and poorly at that, so anything in a DOOM movie made now would probably just seem too cliche and corny.
--
Is it me, or did it just get fatter in here?
Sun put Super Mario Bros on their Looking Glass desktop.
Tomb Raider wasn't that bad of a game to base a movie off of, being essentially based off of Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones character. Instead of a globetrotting American professor you have a globetrotting British society woman, but the settings and potential plots are not significantly different. Certainly Lara Croft's mysteriously backstory could have led to a gripping script, and her John Woo action stylings could have let to a much grittier and more intense movie than Spielberg's fist fights ever could.
What sets the two apart is that Jones was written, directed, and acted by people at the top of their field. Harrison Ford injected character into Indiana Jones in a way that Jolie is still trying to come to grips with, and Spielberg ensured that there were plenty of "moments" in the movie where the audience would really feel for the characters.
The amount of skill required to pull off a great movie, like a great game, is tremendous. While these movies are handled by second-string directors they will continue to be terrible. There is nothing inherently wrong in basing a movie off of a game, any more than basing it off of a book or a song, but it will always take a skilled cast and crew to make a movie good no matter what it is based off of.
The ______ Agenda
I was thinking why not make a movie on the PC game 'Thief - The dark project'. The story is quite interesting, with a blend of action and the supernatural.
They could always make sequels using stuff from 'Thief 2 - the metal age' and the new one 'Deadly Alliance'
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
Oh, you're not stuck, you're just unable to let go of the onion rings.
Those help messages are in the game because there's always new players, and because many items (like the Hookshot) are not immediately obvious. Bottles are actually rather tricky for new players -- without that help message, most would never guess that you could do things like bottle fairies. It'd be nice if they could be turned off, but on the other hand, since there's not really a huge number of special items in Zelda relative to the length of the game, I think the description and music fanfare (Dum-duh-dah-DAAA!) lend a sense of ceremony to whenever you get a new goodie.
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.
I guess it's mostly a movie already, but if they cut out 90% of the cutscenes they could make an excellent 3-hour sci-fi movie.
No!!!.....Next question
STOP ROCK VIDEO
People have spoken that a movie and a game to both work well need a good plot and good action. Homeworld was both. The action in the game was great, you had the plot of the story and the characters where there developing as it went along and you really felt a part of the story versus just watching and have you head slump over in bordom.
Life is to be experienced, not frowned upon. -Uknown
Have you ever seen the cartoon series? 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 annoying cuteness.
Unfortunately, most of the focus of Zelda games is acquiring new stones or trinkets or other items so you can eventually have a showdown with Ganon, so I'm not sure how well this would translate into a movie. Watching the main character work by himself (or with a fairy or a talking boat) to collect various items would definitely not work. Any writer would have to be able to draw on what has made the Zelda series so successful - empathy for Link, the loss of innocence and childhood, the desire to help and be heroic, and the obvious implied attraction between Link and Zelda - and create a fresh new story from that.
I think it would be easier to accomplish that than making a Metroid movie with more than one character (unlike the game), but I'm not a screenwriter.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. -- Gandhi
Wing Commander the game series, particularly III and IV, were actually great sci-fi cinema. The cutscenes themselves could be cobbled together with no changes (well, not all the branches, but one path through them) and played on a computer screen, into a camera, on the Sci-Fi channel and would probably get great ratings and sell DVD sets.
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 could remember his name, John Rhys-Davies, and John Spencer from West Wing).
Those games were full-on big-budget movies, certainly better than any sci-fi movie available at the time (the mid '90s being something of an abhorable drought as far as science-fiction cinema went). Wing Commander IV was actually a *great* movie.
I'm repeating myself here.
John Woo and Samus Aran ? I can only hope.
... another issue is picking a game that has a complex story rather than one with more built-in artistic license ... i.e. Chronotrigger vs. Dungeon Siege. We have YET to see a movie that sticks to the original story at least marginially (Mortal Kombat being the closest) AND with a complex plot ... Name ONE. Resident Evil doesn't count :-p .
. ... after all, even if the ratings say it sucks, I'm still going to see the Chronotrigger movie ... and this truth, in and of itself, sucks) .
... there are so many differing notions and ideas that you can play with for games2movies because so much of the discussion has been left for imagination and debate (think "The Matrix" and compare with its sequels.) :-) But I doubt everyone else feels the same way I do.
Re: Storytelling in games: I agree, but a lot of the fun of Deus Ex comes from the reading material and Shadowrun-like environment/atmosphere: there's so much, and it gives you an insight into the game's world.
After reading an IGN article that interviewed the screenwriter about the Deus Ex Movie, I'm not so certain that it will become a good movie, because they don't specify even half of what made the game truly memorable. My fingers are crossed, however.
Of all the 13 or so games that were turned into movies, each broke away and added to the original plots/stories, and none of the base games had much of a serious plot to begin with -- this allowed for much more of an open canvas, I imagine, but it also hurt the audience reception slightly
IMHO, the things that make a movie good are plot/ story/ acting/ environment-atmosphere/ music/ scope/ replayability
For a game, they are handling/ environment-atmosphere/ music/ features/ replayability/ plot/ story.
Any one of those things can make either type stand out as "good", but a combination of at least three of each makes for memorability -- if you want a classic, you need more, and if you want a good conversion, the high marks can be in different areas, but if you want a classic (not yet seen) then my theory is that the high marks in the cateogires must also stay in tact along with anything else during translation from console to cinema, which makes for twice as many problems -- like attempting to roll several dice to get the same group of numbers twice in a row. It doesn't seem that hard, with ready-made music and great game storylines already out there, but have we seen it yet ? I'm not saying that Tomb Raider wasn't good, but I am saying (like everyone else) Chronotrigger would be better, (even in terms of $$ made
Another issue is fan ideas
Unreal Tournament 2004 is a prime example:
it's far better than both 2003 and Quake3 due to more features/replayability/plot/atmosphere/music/handl ing, especially with the sports theme/atmosphere/environment which really lends itself to the other categories/dimensions listed. It could make a great movie, but because there is a lack of story, the need for artistic license to fill in the blanks could potentially destroy it. In other words, I, for one, think that both game and movie could be good, if you add more rpg elements and the game's engine to the team management (think Pokemon meets Shadowrun), or explain the respawning like the Matrix, where unlimited energy, wireless connections, cloning vats, replicators, and other planets take the place of a computer-generated universe -- hey, it'd give an in-game excuse for network lag, okay ? Players jack in, and the connections to their respective "tournament" bodies are only as good as the network
All in all, John Woo or not, I've not seen anyone with the balls, cash
--I gots 99 problems but a new machine ain't one!
AMD! Asus! Whoot! 6 years!
I think there are a lot more movies not based on games that are REALLY bad and the worst ones are probably not the ones based on video games.
What I am curious about is whether the ratio of decent videogame-based-movies vs bad videogame-based-moves is really higher than decent or better non-videogame-based-movies vs bad non-videogame-based-movies.
In my taste, the videogame-based movies that stand as decent are resident evil and tomb raider 1 (I find it better than fast&furious for instance)
Alien vs Predator
August 2004
apple.com/trailers/fox/avp
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
Yeah, some parts were funny,..... unintentionally
That's right. All your base.
You are the only person that liked Super Mario Brothers
That's right. All your base.
A movie from hollywood with a plot!
FRA: STFU GTFO
Its possible to take a realy good idea and create utter crap, either with games or movies. All too often the populism of one is seen as easy money in a half arsed attempt at risk avoidance.
Tomb Raider being a case in point, as much as I appreciate Ms Jolie in the tight and shiny, as a film, with plot and intrigue it failed miserably.
Take your pick of the crappy movie spin off games.
This perpetual motion machine Lisa made is a joke, it just keeps getting faster and faster. - Homer
For '@' I'd recommend Steve Buscemi. You can't go wrong whith that one.
I mean aren't all video games movies, crap, because for the most part, respectable Hollywood writers don't take games seriously, and don't want to be involved in a project like this? And even if they do get someone, somewhat capable, chances are they won't be fans of the game/understand the game well enough to make a good script.
I think to date, the Resident Evil movie is probably the best one so far, and that?s not saying much. American McGee is making a movie Oz, to get his game released; I think that might actually turn out good. I also think Max Payne would make a good game.
I think in a few years when people who grew up playing games are older, and in charge of making movies, you will see more quality game to movies adaptions.
Max Payne would make a good movie I meant of course.
Starcraft has a better, more believable story then warcraft 3 for instance.
I would like to see jim raynor first facing the evacuation of the planet he was stationed on, in hot pursuit by the attacking zerg.
Followed by teaming up with mengsk, then losing kerrigan. Meeting with the protoss to fight the zerg overmind together. It would be difficult to get every aspect of the game in the movie (would make a long movie) but most happenings are essential for development of the story.
The starcraft expansion pack has enough story line for an sequel of that movie.
There are tons of video game clips stuck in the middle of action scenes in the movie "House of the Dead". It truely sucks!
Meh.
Best videogame-based movie ever.
In some terms, no, it's not bad at all. A lot of people just don't know how to judge them. Take for instance, House of the Dead. Sure, it didn't have a good plot and it had a lot of senseless violence, but you have to know where it's coming from. It was based after the game, so in judging it from that factor, I think it's a pretty good movie. Also, I enjoyed Resident Evil for the same fact.
There are occasions where a movie is just plain horrible though, such as Final Fantasy. But I'd rather see a movie made after a game than games being made after movies.
"Instant gratification takes too long." - Carrie Fisher
Of all the video games turned into movies, which one had a decent plot ? none. They were all primarily arcade/action games with no plot...they were chosen because of popularity.
There are lots of games with good plot that would made for successful movies: Half life, for example: it would make a great adventure. Or Max Payne. Max Payne, especially has all the plot already written, and it is very close to a film noire. There are also lots of adventures that can be directly translated into movies. There are also RPGs with great storyline...Lord of the Rings is just an RPG turned into a movie.
I mean, seriously, the script is practically already written! How hard could it be? :)
Don't just stand there, get that other dog!
Featuring such brilliant frases as:
"I see fragged people"
"LoL"
and
"They have set us up the bomb"
My other UID is 1337
I have simply three words for all of you: "Halo the movie!!!!!!!!!!"
Hmmm... you just may have something there. Let me amend my comment: the chances are slim that a movie studio can make a good Zelda movie, but if they made it the way you describe, then perhaps.
And I think it's possible to make Link's helpers (be they fairy or boat or whatever'll be next) into characters. Tatl, from Majora's Mask, had a lot more personality than your standard help system. "That's a Gecko. And it's pretty angry! It's pretty weak, too. It probably shouldn't be making a fool of you. It gets itself excited and then it just runs around. I hate it." When I think about it, Tatl actually rocked. At least she didn't say "Hey! Listen!" all the time.
And yes, the cartoon was abysmal.
I don't mind that there's a bit of a production every time you collect an item, heck that was in the original. What I do mind is being told how to use a map or bottle everytime you collect one. In fact, if it told you that only the first time you collected an item that would be fine. Besides, it tells you how to use the items in the item selection screen so it's redundant.
Also, since at the end of a long dialog it asks, "Did you understand [yes] [no]" there's no reason why they couldn't make it so you could speed up or skip the dialog. If you did miss something important then you would have a reason for selecting [no].
Nintendo must have the most STUPID people testing their games. Better yet, they could have had settings: Easy (never played a videogam, ever), Intermediate (have played games before, maybe even Zelda; don't need as much instruction) and Difficult (I am gifted when it comes to videogames). That would have taken NO effert what-so-ever.
At any rate, a movie could be done well, it wouldn't be hard to do, but knowing Hollywood it would turn into one big piece of crap. And you're right, because everybody would have expectations--and they would all be varied and different--somebody would be disappointed no matter what actor they chose for the rôle.
The thing that made Ocarina of Time such an interesting story was how you learned your way around this world as a child, and then once you think you've completed the quest, you're suddenly turned into an adult, and everything you had just learned about has been destroyed. I was genuinely saddened by the destruction of the zoras and the rock-eating guys. There wasn't anything like that in Wind Waker, except at the very end, and even then it wasn't quite as heavy. Any good Zelda movie would have to have some sort of loss and eventual redemption for it to be good, but I guess that describes a majority of movies.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. -- Gandhi
Actually, some movies have done well with little dialog. Take, for example, some actors that didn't speak English overly well at the start of their careers. Still lots of dialog in the movie, but the main character said much more with his/her expressions and body language than by voice.
In the case of Zelda et al, it's not hard to throw in some basic communication dialog. You walk up to a person and they tell you something... but it wouldn't be much different if you'd had link say "hey, have you heard about X?", or "Anything interesting happened around here recently?"
If done right... a Roger Wilco or Leisure Suit Larry movie could have a fairly rich plot... and at least a wet-your-pants-funny storyline to go with it.
Actually, there is a "the Dig" book. It wasn't half-bad... and while I only played the game throught the demo, it made me wish I had a copy of the game to compare it to.
A decent book and a decent movie: You've got plot and somewhat of a visual layout. Through in a good director and some decent actors and you *might* just have a pretty good movie.
after all, they were already movies and you just had to click to keep them going - phantasmagoria comes to mind.
Yeah, Zelda games do have a way of smacking you halfway through with: "So, you thought the game was almost over? DENIED! Go back in time! Dark world for you! Dungeon stew! "
Actually, I thought the end of Wind Waker was exceptionally powerful. It's true that the great ocean overworld wasn't affected by the ending, but the rest... man!
Spoilers below, if you haven't played the game and plan to, don't read on:
The big secret of the game is that the Hyrule of Ocarina of Time is sunken beneath the ocean, frozen in time, in a big air bubble. In the last scenes of the game, this Hyrule gets destroyed, to Ganondorf's loud, delirious laughter (though he wasn't responsible). I found it a disturbing, and yet extremely cool, moment -- that's the first time voice has actually mattered a whit to a Zelda game, even if it wasn't dialogue.
Okay, I know that some Anime are already movies, but how about Anime into a LIVE ACTION MOVIE ?!?!?!
I HIGHLY recommend making Robotech into a full length (2 or 3 part) movie. Take specifically MACROSS and make it into a full, live action, special effects movie with all the tear jerker scenes to make the women happy. Don't make it sappy, don't add cheesy lines, don't add horrible SGI, don't add bad props, don't add humor.
It needs to be heart renching, sad, action, and a very special tough of special effects and camera angles to get the transformations perfect. Go ahead and chop some of the cheesy dialog. Use the BOOK, please GOD, use the Books.
Also, from books, use the Diary collections from the beginning of each chapter to get the feel of the movie going for people who don't know the series.
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