Games, Movies, Comics Collide

Three unrelated pieces of news floating around today all point to the ongoing collision of older medias and gaming. Most Exciting: Joystiq reports that the rights to make a Sin City game have been picked up by Red Mile entertainment. Despite their role as the creators of the Jackass game, that seems like good news. Less Exciting: The two Lego Star Wars games sold really, really well, and so it's not terribly surprising that Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga has been announced by the folks at LucasArts. Next Generation has the details, saying the game will be released on the PS3, 360, DS, and Wii. The Wii/DS games will be redesigned for their unique control schemes, and the high-end consoles will feature online co-op play. Truly Confusing: Fox has picked up the movie rights for a The Sims movie. Given the way many people play The Sims, I can only assume it will be rated NC-17 and released straight to DVD.

Comments

collision indeed

[superchob]

Almost without fail (I said almost), any game based on a movie, or movie based on a game has been crap. I suppose the developers are hoping that the popularity of the title from the original medium will generate enough interest that they don't have to invest money in the actual gameplay. I don't see this as a good trend

Re:collision indeed

[Vexor]

The respective Halo and Half Life movies will undoubtedly burn your retinas. I'd certainly agree that movies to games (or vise-versa)are all bad. Comics to either medium seem to do relatively well if done right.

Re:collision indeed

[RsG]

It's worth remembering that not all adaptations have been like that. Hell, the various AvP games are way better than the AvP movie.

I think the trend is for game adaptations that try to recreate the original movie/comic/whatever to suck. This covers most of the direct movie tie-ins, which as you say are lacking in actual gameplay. Games that simply use the fictional universe established by their parent sources have the potential to be much better.

See for example the long list of Star Wars games - the best ones (KOTOR, Tie Fighter, the Dark Forces/JK series) don't simply take the movies and try to make a game out of them, but instead use the setting without recycling the plot.

Re:collision indeed

[Higaran]

Yes, but you have to remember that AVP games were made first, and the movie second. Games that try to be tied directly to a movie, suck because they are usually made cheaply and quckly just to cash in on a quick buck from the hype of the movie.

Re:collision indeed

[EWAdams]

The developers don't have any say in the matter, any more than book authors (with the sole exception of J.K. Rowling) have any say over what happens when their books get turned into movies. It's the publishers and the movie studios who make these decisions, not the developers, and they're concerned with profitability, not quality.

Re:collision indeed

[flyingsquid]

Almost without fail (I said almost), any game based on a movie, or movie based on a game has been crap.

I propose a national task force to deal with this.

SCENE: Office of a big-shot Hollywood MOVIE PRODUCER. He is sitting back in his big leather chair, smoking a fat cigar, thinking out loud.

MOVIE PRODUCER: Hey, I know what we could do. It'd be a shitty movie but if we do it cheap enough, we'll still make a profit! We could base a movie on 'Daikatana'!

Murmurs of assent come from around the room. But suddenly, the door to the MOVIE PRODUCER's office bursts open. We see a FEDERAL AGENT, dressed in a dark suit and dark glasses, burst in, flanked by two members of an elite team wearing body armor and carrying submachine guns. The MOVIE PRODUCER gets up, backs away. The FEDERAL AGENT walks right up to him, stares him directly in the eye, unblinking. Then punches him in the nuts.

MOVIE PRODUCER: Argh!!! What did you do that for???

The FEDERAL AGENT pulls out a badge and shows it to the MOVIE PRODUCER.

FEDERAL AGENT: Sorry, sir. My name is Agent Rex Hightower, and I'm a member of the FBI's Movie Adaptation Task Force. Any time a member of America's movie industry decides to adapt an old TV sitcom, cartoon, or videogame into a movie, I'm required by federal law to intervene and stop them. The American people finally decided that they had taken enough of your crappy movies and that direct action was required. And that's where we come in.

MOVIE PRODUCER: It'll take more than a tap in the cojones to keep me from making that movie! You don't understand the money involved! That movie will make millions!

FEDERAL AGENT: No sir. You don't understand. We're very serious about what we do. You see, that was just a warning. Next time, the gloves comes off. [quiet for a moment] You don't even want to know about what happened to that poor bastard who was trying to turn 'Mister Ed' into a feature film...

So that's my idea for how things would work. Actually, it probably wouldn't work as a law. But it would be a clever premise for a movie... hm. Have your people call my people.

Re:collision indeed

[(A)*(B)!0_-]

"Comics to either medium seem to do relatively well if done right."

I am going to have to respectfully disagree with you sir. Prior to Spider-Man on the PS1, there really, in my opinion, had never been a good video game based on a comic book. Looking back there were games like Maximum Carnage on the SNES that, first of all, was really just a generic beat 'em up with Spider-Man skinned on and, even ignoring that, was a poor beat 'em up at that. You, of course, have all the Superman games which I think most can agree have been terrible. I remember a Superman game on the Genesis that was just awful. Again, generic side-scrolling. [Of course, Superman presents special challenges in making a game but I'm not going to get into that.] So I think that the rule on comics to video games has been that the video game was poor. I heard that the X-Men Rise of Apocalypse game was fairly good but missed it so I can't comment. Really, I think the only good comic-to-vg has been those Spider-Man games, with the one for PS2 being a really enjoyable game.

Now, as far as comics to movies go - again, I think that there have been problems. For every Batman Begins and Sin City, you've got a Batman and Robin, Superman IV, Batman Forever, Captain America, The Punisher [either one]. Although maybe there's just a limited sample to really comment on but I feel like there are more stinkers than good films. At the end of the day, X-Men 3 was a huge slap in the face to readers of the comic and I am still mad about it so perhaps all of the above is just nonsense that was leading up to me being snide.

The trick is that the changing medium means you're not usually going to have a direct translation of content. You still have to retain the spirit of the characters and their motivations. X-Men 3 took the idea, flushed it down the toilet, and spit in my face over and over again.

Re:collision indeed

[spun]

Sounds great, but our focus groups tell us the movie producer character is not sympathetic enough. Could he be played by Brad Pitt? Also, we need a love interest, is Selma Hayek available? Oh, and the FBI agent should be a talking dog. Or a baby, it really doesn't matter.

Re:collision indeed

[Vexor]

The trick is that the changing medium means you're not usually going to have a direct translation of content. You still have to retain the spirit of the characters and their motivations. X-Men 3 took the idea, flushed it down the toilet, and spit in my face over and over again 100% with you on that The different director really letdown the masses. Granted it had it's moments but overall it was lousy. As for comics into games the one's of late haven't been too bad. They've certainly gotten a bit better over the years. The Spiderman 3: The Movie game is good to a point. The game got less then favorable reviews mainly because it didn't follow the movie plot really at all. I'd agree with gamespot's review 100%. Step sideways not forward when compared to Spiderman 2:The Movie, which by most accounts is pretty awesome. However games like The Hulk: Ultimate Destruction for the gamecube is a superb game.

As for comics into movies I liked all the Spiderman's and the first 2 X-men's were most excellent. The Punisher, Fantastic 4 and Ghostrider were all very good as well. Mainly X-Men 3 and Superman (I won't go into Catwomen or the Hulk) are the most recent attrocities to grace the big screen.

Re:collision indeed

[CthulhuDreamer]

Go with the baby. It'll kind of be a "Fight Club" meets 'Looks Who's Talking"...

Re:collision indeed

[Chibi Merrow]

I'd certainly agree that movies to games (or vise-versa)are all bad.

Goldeneye was arguably better than the movie it was based on... The Riddick game was also supposedly surprisingly good. There are others if I take the time to remember them. Important thing is, they're not all crap.

I can't think of anything spectacular going in the other direction, however... Resident Evil made a lot of money, I guess. If you like anime, there's some good translations from cart to screen on the other side of the pond, but that's about it.

Re:collision indeed

[(A)*(B)!0_-]

I think it's a really tricky balancing act between satisfying the original fans and appealing to a wide audience. Obviously, in Spider-Man 3 if you want to introduce the black suit, you have to change it because the Secret Wars aren't going to fit into the movie (and still leave time for anything other than the Secret Wars) and I understand that but some of these liberties are a little tough to swallow.

I missed the Hulk game when it came out - maybe I'll pick it up now. Thanks for the suggestion.

We're going to have to agree to disagree on the Punisher movie. Fantastic 4 was serviceable although I think this sequel may be trying to bite off more than it can chew including Galactus. Although if they do it justice, it could be awesome.

Re:collision indeed

[Anonymous Coward]

"I can't think of anything spectacular going in the other direction, however.."

Silent Hill.

Re:collision indeed

[AK Marc]

Sagan had some say in Contact. That's why it wasn't made until after he died. (I could go into why, but if you read/saw them both it should be obvious)

Re:collision indeed

[!coward]

I did see the movie and I did read the book. Being a huge SciFi fan, and an avid reader since my childhood, it's no surprise that the book felt so much better to me than the movie. But then again, Carl Sagan was an excellent writer, IMHO.

That being said, keep in mind that Sagan died December the 20th, 1996, and that the movie was released in July, 1997 -- a little over half a year later. Taking into account that movies don't get released the minute all post-production work is done, and that movies of this sort (ie, that have a big bugdet, need some serious CGI effects, etc), get shot at least a year before, it's safe to say that Sagan was very much involved in every aspect of it.

I specifically remember the director/producers saying that their only regret was that Sagan didn't live long enough to actually see the _final_ cut. Which to me means that he was kept in the loop as to what was going on, and was probably aware of all the main changes to his original story.

I understand where you're going with what you said, there are huge plot differences between the book and the movie, but I'm sure you also realize that there are considerable differences between both mediums.

The language, dialogs, and scene delivery _have_ to be different, and I feel that most changes were done in a positive way. Some things annoyed me, sure, but I'd say that any book worth its salt, when read by anyone with an ounce of imagination, will always feel/sound/"look" better in the confines of our own brain than plastered on the big screen, where you'll only get someone's take on it, regardless of how good that take is (case in point, the LotR trilogy -- not nearly as good as the books, which everyone who saw and liked the movies should really read, but still pretty much the best movie adaptation for anything as epic as Tolkien's writing, and quite possibly the best Big Screen rendition of the books that can be done).

Re:collision indeed

[AK Marc]

The way I heard it (before he died) there was continuous head-butting over atheism. The book shows the religious figures in a completely different light. In the book, there are multiple people from different countries that go along. In the movie, she is the only one and asks that people take her word on faith. This echos the religious figures from earlier in the movie, making her a religious figure, and not a figure for science. In the book, she has the science. There is the exact time of the static recorded matching the experiences of those that went through. They all matched. There was the sand that was in the capsule. There was the corroborated story from the others. She slept with the religious figure in one of the first scenes. That's a complete change from the book, and alters the perception of her. For these and many more, I heard that he was to the point of trying his best to kill the movie because of the changes made in it. It's easy to say that it's a shame he didn't see the final cut, once he is dead, but to say so implying that he would have liked it is something that can never be proven. I guess you are asking me to take it on faith?

The LOTR movies are the best adaptation I have ever seen, except for possibly The Secret of NIMH and other children's books and short stories. There are problems with the movies, but aside from promoting the presence of the few female characters that appeared in the books, none of the meaning of the books was changed. Parts had to be omitted for brevity, and other scenes changed to account for the change, but the substance and themes were very true to the books. That is not the case with Contact. Major themes were changed. The whole point of the book changed.

Re:collision indeed

[Anonymous Coward]

The Sinclair Spectrum adaptation of the Sly Stallone film 'Cobra' was pretty good.
It came 89th in the YS official top 100 spectrum games of all time.

I can't think of any other game of a film that could claim such an honor.

This should be interisting.

[Higaran]

I'm sorry but I just have to say it, the sincity game is going to suck major ass, mostly because of who is making it. A sims movie, what the hell were they thinking, like what the movie even going to be about, or is it people walking around with baloons with pictures on them of what they are talking about, I don't see a way for either of these projects to end well. The lego starwars collection I probably will buy for the 360 when it comes out, since I've only bout one game it the series so far, that is the only thing that sounds good in this whole thing.

Re:This should be interisting.

[antiaktiv]

I'm calling it right now, the sims movie will be about a guy who realizes his life and all his actions are being controlled by someone playing sims, and in the end he finally manages to break free.

Re:This should be interisting.

[Vexor]

I wonder if the sims in the movie will speak Spanglish like the sims in the game. Will there be softcore pr0n in the hottub as well?

Re:This should be interisting.

[flyingsquid]

I can't wait until The Sims Movie: The Game comes out. I bet it'll be such a runaway success, they'll make it into a movie!

Re:This should be interisting.

[Kelbear]

It's actually named Simlish.

Re:This should be interisting.

[Clockworkalien]

Nah, the trick ending is going to be that Sims are made of people! Stop playing Sims! Don't you realize that Sims is people! SIMS IS PEOPLE!

Slow news day

[Anonymous Coward]

the collision occurred long ago

Almost collision indeed

[Anonymous Coward]

"Almost without fail (I said almost), any game based on a movie, or movie based on a game has been crap."

Maybe, but you wouldn't even have "almost" if people didn't try.

I only hope Uwe Boll is involved.

[Control Group]

Boy, can I not wait to see a movie where people run around peeing on the floor, sob into their hands, fly into fits of rage over crappy wall art, and wave their arms in the air like a monkey as their house burns down around them.

Or maybe a movie about a crazy but urbane gentleman in a storm trooper outfit who slaughters people in his back yard by removing the ladder just after they get in the pool?

FFS, half the time actually playing the game was boring (and let me tell you, there's nothing like playing the Sims at 4:00 in the morning, yelling at your sim, "will you get off the fucking computer and go to bed").

Wait a minute...

[__aaclcg7560]

Who wants to watch a movie about a bunch of basement geeks playing "The Sims"?

LEGO Star Wars DS

[paranand]

This is actually good news as far as the DS version goes. The "Original Trilogy" on the DS was a glitchy mess. Now that it's back in the hands of Traveller's Tales, who made the series in the first place, there's some hope for the completely redesigned game (albeit one that should have come out in the first place).

Recursion

[Rob T Firefly]

They could make a movie out of the customized Sims I once had going, where blocky, unconvincing replicas of the original Starship Enterprise crew stood around alternately talking, arguing, and/or kissing while nothing else of note happens.

...wait, that was already done as "Star Trek: The Motion Picture." Never mind.

It's all the same.

[the dark hero]

Movies, comic books, and video games share a common trait. Storytelling through visual media. So it makes sense that there are plenty of crossovers. My only problem being is that the crossovers can end up hideously unoriginal and trite. I'm all for a game set in the Sim City universe, but i doubt a visual retelling will be handled as well as the movie. The Star Wars franchise has given us many brilliant crossovers along with many stinkers. All in all i just hope for quality and creative games based in an existing universe, but most people can't deliver compelling content when trying to remain "faithful" to the material.

Re:It's all the same.

[CastrTroy]

But the simcity universe is supposed to be our universe. It's Simulation of real life. So what exactly makes this different from a movie about things that happend in everyday life? I don't even see how you can turn something like the sims into a movie, because there is no storyline, and it's not about anything that doesn't happen in the real world.

The Sims?!

[pragma_x]

What the hell is the script for this going to look like?

Girl: blah, blah blah, blah! Blah blah blah!! ::waves arms in a display of frustration::
Boy: blah. ::sets carpet on fire::
(continues on page 113)

This will be the most heavily subtitled movie in history, a complete throwback to silent film, or just highly experimental (no understandable dialog, 100% based on body language and pantomime).

Re:The Sims?!

[Aladrin]

Don't forget the thought bubbles with the cryptic icons, occasionally with a 'no' symbol over them. And the ++ and -- floating from their heads as they make and lose friendship.

Xbox: Chronicles of Riddick

[_PimpDaddy7_]

One of the top 10 videogames for the original Xbox

No Online Wii Play?

[morari]

The Wii is capable... Or will be. Right? Mortal Kombat Armageddon committed such things as well (though getting Khameleon as a selectable character is definitely better than playing online, no doubt). Is Nintendo directly holding back online play by not setting up the system or are these third parties just hanging back and watching, waiting for Nintendo to release their own enabled games and set a good template?

Re:No Online Wii Play?

[Hellpop]

Am I the only one scratching my head and saying "Wha?????"?

Re:No Online Wii Play?

[Turn-X Alphonse]

I think we're just seeing the games being released now which were being made when the name changed to Wii and all the features were revealed. Give it another 6-12 months and we'll start to see more online play for the Wii.

Remember Live didn't have many online games at first, because people weren't going to commit to the unknown, but once they saw what it could do they all started to include it in some form.

Re:This should be interesting.

[vivaoporto]

Yeah, and that will be original. All over again

Next month.

[Cyno01]

Pokemon Battle Revolution is coming out at the end of june and its going to be the first wii game with online multiplayer, and also be the first wii game that'll interface with the DS (pokemon diamond and pearl).

Re:Next month.

[morari]

It's another Colosseum like game, right? Where you don't actually do anything but upload your handheld critters and watch them fight in 3D. I guess XD did kind of have a small RPG storyline, but still nothing to warrent a purchase unless you already had the handheld games. I'd love to see a full featured Pokemon game on the Wii (you could still upload your critters, if you wanted!). Heck maybe even some quasi MMO, along the lines of the Dreamcast's Phantasy Star. *shrugs*

The Sims Colon The Movie

[ghostsixsix]

I think the only way to make this work is to have a gamer sucked into the world of The Sims like Jeff Bridges in Tron. Hilarity ensues. But we all know it will probably end up getting directed by Uwe Boll. Either way, I'll wait until it's free on cable (and if their's nothing else on).

Re:The Sims Colon The Movie

[Seq]

I was thinking of the game actually ends up controlling real people. I can see the movie studios jumping on this

"It's like 'Stranger Than Fiction', but with a Video Game! We'll be RICH!"
"Wasn't there an episode of Stargate Atlantis with this plotline?"
"People who play the Sims != People who watch Stargate"
"I'd be stupid not to give you my money"

Lego Star Wars on Wii

[Luyseyal]

Maybe this version of Lego Star Wars won't crash on Wii. <eyes rolling>

-l

Other Great Movie Ideas

[Anonymous Coward]

(Shamelessly stolen, in part, from comments on that article.)

Tetris

Didn't Penny Arcade satirize that already? Noooo! Giant falling tetrads! Run for life! Or at least get that guy from Star Tropics. I remember them wanting tetrads for reasons that are no longer clear to me.

Pong!

It'd be all: pong. Ping. Pong. Ping. Pong. [2 hours pass] Dink! GAME OVER

Nethack

One @, one d, one life, no food. Stupid, stupid freaking a, I JUST WISHED FOR THE DAMNED PYEC on that last fountain, too!

Sim Ant

Well, at least now I can get my revenge on those stupid ants. Where's the magnifying glass?

Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom

Quick! Punch the well for coins! Throw scissors and point left before Saladron kills ... err ... beats you and rock, paper, scissors! Escape from Sgt. Pepper! Okay, that damn game is just too fruity.

A Boy and His Blob

Where'd I put those damned Root Beer jellybeans? I know! They must be in the sewer! Hurry! We have to find treasure and buy vitamins to save Blobonia!

Adventures of Lolo

Move the Emerald Block and hurry up man! If you don't, we're going to get wasted by that fireball! Okay, now get on the egg and...

Rampart

Build up those walls, men, and step on it! We only have 20 seconds before a new wave of ships! Okay, put the cannons over there and FIRE!

Donky Kong

What??? Is that Steve Ballmer in a monkey suit? Why does he keep chanting "Developers!"? What's with that penguin hostage, shouldn't it be some lady? And why is he throwing chairs instead of barrels? This movie makes NO sense!

That game from the Simpsons

Foolish dingo! You must find and devour the seven crystal babies or end up in Deep Diggery Doo... FOREVER!

Re:This should be interesting.

[antiaktiv]

It's a film based on a videogame. Has there ever been an original film like that?

Already done

[rjung2k]

Online Wii games are already available. Pokemon Coliseum has been available in Japan for a while, and Mario Strikers Charged Football was released in Europe this week.

It's all the same...cardboard cutout.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Movies, comic books, and video games share a common trait. Storytelling through visual media."

Another trait is that all three are larger than life.

the script?

[Kumeelyun]

What the hell is the script for this going to look like?

Forget the script, what is the soundtrack going to sound like? I'd say they'd get some famous artists or even some older artists looking for a comeback to re-record their songs in Silmish and then sell the album as a double disc: English version and Simlish version. Or if they go cheaper they'd just get some unknowns desperate for a deal to torture their lead singers by making them learn Simlish.

Having said that, I'd nominate "The Humpty Dance" by Digital Underground simply because I'm curious as to what "just grab 'em in the biscuts" and "you look like MC Hammer on crack" sound like in Simlish.