main
side
curve
  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

The Video Games to Movies Channel

Discussion in 'Archive: SF&F: Films and Television' started by Kartanym, Sep 21, 2006.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Kartanym

    Kartanym Jedi Knight star 6

    Registered:
    May 23, 2002
    Not sure if this has been brought up before (if so, please direct me Modder Masters).

    I'd like to discuss not only those video games that have been developed into some form of other entertainment (whether that be movies and/or cartoons, etc.) but also those video game franchises that actually deserve the opportunity to be developed into a fully fledge Hollywood (or other) production.

    Of course, the most recent video game to cause a stir (mainly bad) is DOA: Dead or Alive. I haven't seen it (and I doubt I ever will) but as always the reviews haven't been positive. Though I have heard the action sequences are well made, the 'story' if there is one isn't worth the film its made on. So for me, it's another title to throw on the dissapointing pile, especially if you are a fan of the franchise and have seen some of the impressive cut scenes developed for Dead or Alive 4.

    Which brings me to the first point. Besides possibly Mortal Kombat & Tomb Raider, which stayed close to the material it was based on, why is it production companies constantly chop and change scripts, turning the movie into something that simply has the same title or characters yet the premise is completly lost within the haze of visual effects.

    My other point reverts back to those video games that have an effective and entertaining world in which a movie can be based on. The Legend of Zelda and, dare I say it, Metal Gear Solid, are two such titles.

    ?
     
  2. ObiWan506

    ObiWan506 Former Head Admin star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Aug 5, 2003
    Ah, I see your points. I wonder if the same is true when a video game is made in response to a movie, and not the other way around. Is the quality better? The first thing that comes to mind are all the Star Wars games that have come out because of the movies.

    This thread is fine as long as we keep some discussion focused on the Sci-Fi/Fantasy movies portion.
     
  3. Kartanym

    Kartanym Jedi Knight star 6

    Registered:
    May 23, 2002
    Not a problem :)

    The basics, to begin with, is to figure out where exactly video games stand within the entertainment industry. Alot has changed since the Mario/Sonic days of the 90's, that much is obvious. It's a very adult based market now, though it has to be said that kids games do dominate the charts on most occasions. But is the appeal of a story as strong within this field as it is with a comic book, where alot of movies are now based upon?

    To keep with the science fiction theme, and to make mention one of my original points, I look towards Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. A decent movie, for sure, but where does it really stand, FF by name or nature? Simply put, the translation is lost simply because the writers, directors and producers didn't feel confident enough in using the stories the 'real' Final Fantasy has used all these years. Yes, they wanted it to be original, but the only connection between movie and game is the name, as I pointed out before.
     
  4. ObiWan506

    ObiWan506 Former Head Admin star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Aug 5, 2003
    Well sure. I think as games progress and evolve into more graphically sound and superior games, the audience is going to demand more from them. People want to attach themselves to the game they play, they want to be in the storyline, they want to control the character and the outcome. They want to make the decisions.

    The reason I think there's a difference between a transfer from video game to movie and a transfer from a movie to a video game is the feeling of control. When you play and control a game and suddenly see that same game as a movie on the screen, it's lost it's personal connection to you. However when you see a movie, you suddenly feel the urge to be a part of it. Which is why I think video games based on movies seems to be more successful in my eyes.

    I think all Sci-Fi / Fantasy films have that sense of a very imaginative adventure (like a video game), which is why most of us like those types of movies. Which is also why I think these films produce the best video games.
     
  5. The2ndQuest

    The2ndQuest Tri-Mod With a Mouth star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2000
    There are a lot of games now where the story can be seen as more vital to the experience than the gameplay- in otehr words, finding out what happens next is the impedus for completinga level, rather than acquiring the next level itself.

    Eternal Darkness is a good example- the gameplay is great, don't get me wrong, it's one of my favorite games, but the story really drive my desire to complete more than anything else, and would make great source material for a series of films.
     
  6. ZodVertigo

    ZodVertigo Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Apr 27, 2005
    I think the problem with most video game movies, is (A) they drift to much from the source material (B) they use to much of the source material, things that don't translate on screen (C)they change too many aspects of the characters that we adore (D) they change major plot points from the game story and serious fans pick up on that and most of the time hate it. A really good example of this was the Mortal Kombat movies, the first in my opinion was awsome, they used the good parts of the source material. They didn't go over board with fatalities (some degrees are good though and worked in the first movie) and animalities and crap like that, which is awesome in the game, but not in a movie. They stuck to what we knew about the characters and only added new things to give the characters less of a two dimensional feel. And the story for the most part was exactly what we had in the first game, it only drifted for the sake of making the plot drift smoother and it just made more sence in a movie format. The second movie in my opinion did the exact oppisite which is why it became such a farce. Of course there are exceptions, Resident Evil for example, I like those movies alot, even though it pretty much breaks all the rules of the game, but I like how it was reinvented for a movie and I'll be really interested to see how the series ends in the next few years. Final Fantasy is another good example, only in that case, even though I love the movies to death. The first, The Spirits Within, difted too far from the games, at least in design, but kept many of the thematic elements of the series, which is why I like it. It also provided a world that non-fans of the game could enjoy and understand. Advent Children of the other hand stuck to close to source material, so that no one but a fan of Final Fantasy VII could enjoy it and understand it, even though I personally love it to death because I'm such a fan of the series, I just think it's a step backwards from making a good generalized view of the series for everyone to enjoy as a movie. Resident Evil I think achived the goal though, as well as Doom (waits for flames), Silent Hill, and the first Mortal Kombat. I guess Tomb Raider did too, but I'm not a fan of the movies or games so I can't speak from experience. Does anyone remember the Mario Bros. movie? LOL!
     
  7. FatBurt

    FatBurt Sex Scarecrow Vanquisher star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 21, 2003
    To be honest its all usually dire with the odd shining exception.


    Games of movies are generally shocking licences that are designed purely to make money off piggybacking on the film.


    Movies of games fall into 3 camps.

    Good sensible adaptations which turn out to be acceptable or above (Films in this category are Resident Evil, Silent Hill.)

    Absolute utter utter tripe to below acceptable (Super Mario, Tomb Raider)

    And

    Anything by Uwe Boll (Which should be burnt pre production)



    I personally have no objections to any game based movie moving away from the actual storyline that the original was based on.

    Resident Evil is a good example of this. It would have been very easy to adapt the game 100% to a movie (and probably should have been done that way) but the adaptation they did was enjoyable and doesn't really impact badly on the game canon either.


    Silent Hill sort of followed the premise of the original game but disappeared off on a tangent. I really enjoyed SH and feel the ending left it open nicely for a sequal that it deserves IMO.


    Two decent to well made movie that were enjoyable and used the games story to create a movie even though they departed from a well known script.

    Then you get Tomb Raider, this had a great chance to create a franchise and failed monumentally due to the actors all being made of mahogany and that appallingness of the script (Did Uwe Boll have anything to do with it?)



    Final Fantasy falls in with this category but is a slight exception here, This should never really have had the FF tag added to it as it had no basis in the FF world/s. The story it'self was good but the movie itself was more a demonstration that movies can be made with Computers alone (They could have waited a bit and Lucas could have shown them that was true with the Prequels). I feel they got the FF licence just to sell the movie.



    Then you have movies based on games that don't or didn't really have too much of a plot within the game (I know stories have been expanded in comic/manga form and even more detailed games).

    Mortal Kombat, Streetfighter, SuperMario.

    With games like this you can create any story you like and use well know characters to sell the movie to the general public.

    Mortal Kombat was a good attempt and I can happily sit and watch it.

    Streetfighter (the movie not the cartoons (Which were good)) was just a farce of a movie.

    The less said about Mario the better.




     
  8. malkieD2

    malkieD2 Ex-Manager and RSA star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jun 7, 2002
    Excellent topic idea :)

    The major issue is that you get to play the computer game. So even if it is as simple as run, jump, run, jump it can be entertaining for hours at a time. However, watching a TV or film of the same thing would be dull as dish water. Hence you need to offer something more which is typically in the form of character depth, alternative story lines and obviously a start, middle, finish to the movie.

    This does extend to video games with more complex story lines and game play, but the concept is identical.

     
  9. Walken

    Walken Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    May 3, 2004
    MGS is getting a movie, its been in the works for a the last few months and Kojima announced it officially also:

    http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/top/kojima-confirms-mgs-movie-heads-explode-170549.php

    I feel the RE films have been good as their own entities, and Silent Hill was great. The main reason for people bashing it was due to the fact that they never played the games (more so 1 and 2) and therefore naturally wouldn't understand what was going on.

    Mortal Kombat was excellent, but Annhilation was crap, hopefully the new film will reconcile things.

    Street Fighter and SMB, ugh.

    As far as films that should deserve to have films, I can only think a couple, like perhaps Metroid and Syphon Filter.

    I think Halo isn't going to come out well, but we'll see.
     
  10. The2ndQuest

    The2ndQuest Tri-Mod With a Mouth star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2000
    I neve runderstood the complaints about the SH movie being unable to be understood by anyone who never played the games- I never played any of them, and was barely familiar with any aspect of them, and I understood it fine. Not to mention there's a whole huge flashback sequence towards the end of the movie that pretty much spells out exactly what happened, so people would have to be incredibly dense to not understand it.
     
  11. Kartanym

    Kartanym Jedi Knight star 6

    Registered:
    May 23, 2002
    Interesting point about SH. I haven't seen the movie, nor played the games (besides a demo of SH3, I think), but I did find the ideas and the concept very interesting. However, from the reviews I have read, people do seem to be split down the middle. Fans are happy in the knowledge that it hasn't destroyed the meaning of the games, while non-fans are completly lost. I'm not a huge fan of the horror genre, so I can't really comment on it as yet.

    Final Fantasy I was impressed with, and the story certainly had potential. As I mentioned before (in passing), the name 'Final Fantasy' was the only connection, which was the most dissapointing thing about it. I still consider the medieval/futuristic styles of FFVII or even FFIX as the source material they should have looked at.

    To be honest, and please spare yourselves the laughter until my explanation ( :p ), I actually liked SMB when I first saw it. Yes, it destroys the entire meaning of the game. But when you think about it, how could you ever have created a movie about a plumber who goes down a sewer pipe and fights mutant turtles (pun intended) and a giant dinosaur like creature that breaths fire, let alone mushroom people?! They attempted a realistic version and, yes, made far too many changes, but that was the only way it could have worked in a live action sense. If you disregard the material it's based on, it isn't all that bad, and I for one enjoyed it (and wished I could find it on DVD). But i do agree that it destroyed the reason of Mario and it should never have been considered or made in the first place .... *whew* glad that's out of the way :p

    Speaking of game to movie ideas that should never have been thought of ... has anyone seen Double Dragon?
     
  12. ZodVertigo

    ZodVertigo Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Apr 27, 2005
    Double Dragon was one movie that could have been great but was just horrible. I wonder what time period they will start the MGS movie in?
     
  13. malkieD2

    malkieD2 Ex-Manager and RSA star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jun 7, 2002
    I will comment that a lot of the cinematography of the TombRaider movies were faithful to the game, as were the themes.
     
  14. FatBurt

    FatBurt Sex Scarecrow Vanquisher star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 21, 2003
    Maybe so but the film/s was utter utter crap
     
  15. Kartanym

    Kartanym Jedi Knight star 6

    Registered:
    May 23, 2002
    The potential, the budget and (dare I say it) the leading lady were just right. Shame the scripts didn't live up to expectation. I don't mind watching either of the Tomb Raider movies, however, for a bit of harmless fun.
     
  16. The2ndQuest

    The2ndQuest Tri-Mod With a Mouth star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2000
    I think the second film vastly improved upon the first film in Tomb Raider's case. The second film was even fairly enjoyable. Hopefully the third one will continue that pattern of improvement.
     
  17. Kartanym

    Kartanym Jedi Knight star 6

    Registered:
    May 23, 2002
    I don't think a third one should be made, not unless they make a script worthy for it to be even considered. They should look closely at the recent Tomb Raider: Legend video game for inspiration, as it no doubt kicked the series to life in a big way after a few terrible years.

    There are a few other projects in the wings that have my attention. The big one, of course, is Halo. Alot will be riding on the coat tails of that one. Some are already considering it the 'X-Men' of the industry, as in the movie that will turn things around for the video game to movie market, as that did for the comic book industry (arguably it was Blade, but that's another story).

    The other project that I'll be keeping a close eye on is Metroid. It was confirmed a long time ago, but I haven't heard much about it since. If it does go ahead, it could be an interesting movie.
     
  18. The2ndQuest

    The2ndQuest Tri-Mod With a Mouth star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2000
    Yeah, Metroid was very cinematic and has a lot of potential, so long as they find a creative means of solving the "Samus is alone and thus has no reason to speak to anyone" technical angle. I just hope they stick to the mythology proper.

    Zelda could change everything- thankfully there's nothing in the works for that yet, shy a possible animated feature. This means it's still available to be my dream project one day, so it can be done right ::)
     
  19. Kartanym

    Kartanym Jedi Knight star 6

    Registered:
    May 23, 2002
    I'll write the script if you want to direct :p
     
  20. The2ndQuest

    The2ndQuest Tri-Mod With a Mouth star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2000
    if you're willing to work from my outline and allow a directorial pass at the draft, I'll have my people call your people. ;)
     
  21. ZodVertigo

    ZodVertigo Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Apr 27, 2005
    One game I wish that would be made into a movie is Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross. However I will settle for a third game.
     
  22. Darth_Berserker

    Darth_Berserker Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    Apr 12, 2005
    Doom was pretty good aswell, the first person shooter part was incredible
     
  23. ZodVertigo

    ZodVertigo Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Apr 27, 2005
    I agree, some people don't like that movie, but every negative thing I've heard about Doom were parts that were straight from game lore. I was a movie basicly made for fans.
     
  24. Kartanym

    Kartanym Jedi Knight star 6

    Registered:
    May 23, 2002
    Throwing some heat onto this fire of a discussion, Peter Jackson appeared on stage at X06 and announced a partnership between the newly formed Wingnut Interactive and Microsoft to develop games based on the Halo video game series and the upcoming movie (franchise?). He made an interesting point regarding game development, as he is interested in bridging the gap between the two platforms of entertainment and creating a new form of interactivity. I'd visit xbox.com to get the further lowdown, if you're interested.

     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.