Video game movies are supposed to suck

[StoneGold]

It seems every time a video game movie is announced, people start freaking out about how it is going to turn out. And rightly so, because 99% of the time, they suck. But what I am amazed at is that people seem to think that there is a way that most of these games could have been made good.

I put forth the theory that most game plots suck for conversion into a movie. And of those that don’t suck, most movies that could be made out of them would be worse than the game anyways, even if they followed the storyline exactly.

For instance, Metal Gear Solid. Probably the first, best example of a cinematic game, and one of the games that gets brought up most often for conversion into a movie. But no movie could ever be as good as the game. You would have actors whose bodies and voices wouldn’t be as perfect as the character models matched with the voice actors in the game, the story would have to be shredded, all so that you could see some dude run around in Snake’s clothes.

On the other hand, you have a game like Castlevania being turned into a movie. Thing is, Castlevania never had much of a story beyond guy with whip fights Dracula. Yeah, there’s some back story, but no real character backstory. The fun was in the gameplay, not the story.

So in summary, game movies that didn’t suck are flukes. And let’s be honest, they were never all that great to begin with, were they?

[Erebus]

It seems every time a video game movie is announced, people start freaking out about how it is going to turn out. And rightly so, because 99% of the time, they suck. But what I am amazed at is that people seem to think that there is a way that most of these games could have been made good.

I put forth the theory that most game plots suck for conversion into a movie. And of those that don’t suck, most movies that could be made out of them would be worse than the game anyways, even if they followed the storyline exactly.

For instance, Metal Gear Solid. Probably the first, best example of a cinematic game, and one of the games that gets brought up most often for conversion into a movie. But no movie could ever be as good as the game. You would have actors whose bodies and voices wouldn’t be as perfect as the character models matched with the voice actors in the game, the story would have to be shredded, all so that you could see some dude run around in Snake’s clothes.

On the other hand, you have a game like Castlevania being turned into a movie. Thing is, Castlevania never had much of a story beyond guy with whip fights Dracula. Yeah, there’s some back story, but no real character backstory. The fun was in the gameplay, not the story.

So in summary, game movies that didn’t suck are flukes. And let’s be honest, they were never all that great to begin with, were they?

Well, there's Mortal Kombat, and uhh... Tomb Raider? And maybe... no, wait that movie blew... uh...

[Serik]

Doom could've been a good movie, but they totally bastardized the concept. Genetically created monsters? This isn't Resident Evil, morons. We want to see the Marine battle hordes of hellspawn, walk into hell, and kill Satan with a BFG - not a bioforce gun, a big f***ing gun.

But yeah, most videogame movies are total crap. The directors/writers follow the game too closely or create their own story that’s far worse than the actual game.

[Black Atom]

Converting Super Mario Bros., for example, should never have been attempted but I don't really see any problem with converting something like
Metal Gear Solid, Halo or, heck, even Castlevania (it couldn't be any worse than Van Helsing.)

The problem is not that video games can't be converted. The problem is that video games properties, historically, weren't taken very seriously and only made into movies because the names were profitable. Comicbook properties suffered the same way, until producers started realizing the potential those characters had and dropped them into hands of people who cared about them. All it will take is someone making an excellent VG adaptation before everyone starts jumping on the bandwagon. Sure, there'll still be terrible ones, but there'll also be more good ones.

[Kid Kamikaze10]

It seems every time a video game movie is announced, people start freaking out about how it is going to turn out. And rightly so, because 99% of the time, they suck. But what I am amazed at is that people seem to think that there is a way that most of these games could have been made good.

I put forth the theory that most game plots suck for conversion into a movie. And of those that don’t suck, most movies that could be made out of them would be worse than the game anyways, even if they followed the storyline exactly.

For instance, Metal Gear Solid. Probably the first, best example of a cinematic game, and one of the games that gets brought up most often for conversion into a movie. But no movie could ever be as good as the game. You would have actors whose bodies and voices wouldn’t be as perfect as the character models matched with the voice actors in the game, the story would have to be shredded, all so that you could see some dude run around in Snake’s clothes.

On the other hand, you have a game like Castlevania being turned into a movie. Thing is, Castlevania never had much of a story beyond guy with whip fights Dracula. Yeah, there’s some back story, but no real character backstory. The fun was in the gameplay, not the story.

So in summary, game movies that didn’t suck are flukes. And let’s be honest, they were never all that great to begin with, were they?

I seriously think you are underestimating the story potential of many video games, much like people believed that comics couldn't be made to legit movies. There are many games out there that could be made into good movies with the right people behind it. However, the American movie industry as a whole has gotten really lazy as of late (and although he's not from the US, Uwe Boll fits into this catagory).

You don't have to make a video game movie like a "video game" (like Doom or RE2), or molest the entire storyline and just have people that look like video game characters or certain trademark stuff from the game (DOA, Alone in the Dark) . Just put some effort into taking the original storyline from the game and adapt it to the big screen, like a movie, not a video game.

Granted, it can't be a game like Virtua Fighter, which barely has an inch of a storyline, but if you can make three great books about Halo (which doesn't have a very advanced plot), I'm pretty sure you can make a movie or show about franchises like King of Fighters or Prince of Persia.

[StoneGold]

Except the KoF cartoon pretty much blew. Seriously, the only way you're going to make a one on one fighter plot workable is to do what Mortal Kombat did, and steal liberally from Enter the Dragon (which stole from One Armed Boxer II, so whatever. Wait, come to think of it, several of the characters from Street Fighter were stolen directly from One Armed Boxer II. So whatever)

And Doom was not a bad movie because it used genetic monsters. Doom was a bad movie because it was a bad movie. Seriously, do you really think the difference between genetic monsters and demons would have made a lick of difference?

Halo might actually be an exception, but that’s because it had just enough story to adapt, without giving too much of it away. That, and the first game is basically Ringworld starring Robocop.

[Tobias March]

Christ y'know I hate people who go on about how computer games are an art form in their own right.

Thing is though - they are. And like any legitimate medium they should be adapted on their own terms.

A good comic book movie respects both audiences and advances the original story by utilising the advantages offered by film. So the dynamics of Spider-Man wipping through New York, Hellboy smashing through brick walls with his right hand of doom, hell the characters in Ghostworld playing the music they like to us the audience, as opposed to a reference made by the art or dialogue.

Dracula when brought to the stage became a story about psychology, with the characters discussing Mina's health in drawing rooms sipping tea. The stage couldn't visualize Stoker's prose, but it could convey the ideas in a way the theatre-going audience would understand.

There's no reason why more successful game adaptations can't be made. The tokenism of Doom, with it's 'first person shooter', camera scenes were just insulting. Throwing a bone to the gamer audience there. Wolfenstein looks like it could be something (Ellis?). Halo was very promising, but here's the deal -

By all accounts the script and direction for Halo was shaping up to be something good. However, game movies are made to a profit, acquire the licence for a film franchise and spit out as many as possible. A wider audience could be found, higher profit margins (money you lumpheads - MONEY!!) if producers and studios would see past the 'niche audience appeal', of game adaptations and make a decent film.

It is possible. It's just going to take a while. Yeah, here's a prophecy - game films will outdistance comic book movies. There y'are now :)

[G. Wayne]

I haven't played the games much, but I love the Silent Hill movie, so :p

Doom is a crowning example of What-the-hell-happened? from the start of production to the final product. A space age demonic Land of the Dead movie would have worked wonders, instead of whatever Doom was supposed to be.

Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat are also interesting examples. SF never had a cohesive storyline. A bunch of flashy characters got together and fought. When they tried to tie it all together the first umpteen times, (A short-lived US cartoon, 3 comics I can think of, the live-action abomination, the anime's) it showed the lack of depth in horrifically painful ways. Udon has the best adaption EVER currently with it's series. Adapting their comic could make a great Storm Warrior's style kung fu flick.

MK actually /had/ a storyline, but pretty much every adaption beyond the first movie has sucked.

I'd still love to see a new trilogy made for the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games. There's a canon plot to it now that would make it even eaiser.

[Sanagi]

It's impossible for a movie to convey the same experience as a game, or to portray a character without going against the players' feelings about that character. Which is why I really hope there will be no Zelda movie, no Metroid movie, and no more Mario movies...

My advice to people who are awaiting the Castlevania movie is to just watch Van Helsing now, because honestly, is it really going to be any better than that?

With Metal Gear Solid, I feel that there's no reason to do a movie unless Hideo Kojima is closely involved. The only thing that makes MGS stand out in terms of story is Kojima's bizarre sense of humor.

[IamtheRock3]

Think you got to do the same thing when you make a Game base on a movie, that you do a movie base on a game

take the story and EXPAND it to fit the medium your doing

kind of Like that riddick game
And the Tomb raider movies


find what makes it cool

silent Hill the best example. Didnt play it word for word. Just took the cool parts, some charcter and general idea and feeling. With some easter eggs for dans

Actully LIKED doom. Think it got the idea down

Bloodrayne could of been awesome- Hot babe killing Nazies, what not to love. But they took it in an odd direction

Resiten Evil movie were goofy. But SO WERE THE GAMES. Rember the games were base on old B zombie movies. Resident Evil was pure pop cord


Due think most games work better as Anime. People really to accept more off the wall stuff

got to adapt stuff to the medium


put a comic book example

Blade the movie, stayed from the comic in Several way. Comic book Blade doesnt actully have any big powers. He just a black dude with a sword. Movie blade a STRAIGH BEAST!!!

and it cool. Cause they figure lets go crazy with the visual and take advantage of having snipes and this cool imagintive director


stuff that could make a good game but taking the premise and addapting it a bit

Dead Rising
Lost Planet
Red ninja- nice revenge tale
Lesiur suit Larry- R rated comedy
Resitence fall of man

[P-Man]

Converting Super Mario Bros., for example, should never have been attempted


It could work. I think a straight, 100% adaptation would be a wonderful work of art. I mean a head jumping, brick breaking, walking mushroom, raccoon suit accurate adaptation. Set up Mario as acting like there's nothing wrong with anything and Luigi as the straight man. Every pothead in the country would go see it.

[Mike Pothier]

The best videogame movies aren't based on actual videogames (at the time). Like Tron and The Last Starfighter.

The problem is that people who make VG movies are trying to stay too close to the source material, instead of simply using it as inspiration and making a good movie.

God, I miss The Last Starfighter.

[Karl H]

God, I miss The Last Starfighter.

Watched it last X-mas... Lovely.

The Halo movie actually sounded like a good idea... What a shame that it looks like it's going down the pan.

[JDogindy]

It could work. I think a straight, 100% adaptation would be a wonderful work of art. I mean a head jumping, brick breaking, walking mushroom, raccoon suit accurate adaptation. Set up Mario as acting like there's nothing wrong with anything and Luigi as the straight man. Every pothead in the country would go see it.

Add those, and eliminate the stupid "Humans evolving from dinosaurs" plot, Goombas NOT looking like warped mushrooms, and Bowser being more of a turtle than a T-Rex (I was thinking that when I saw the movie. Every gamer knows that King Koopa clearly has a shell to begin with), and you got a fixed film that every pothead SHOULD see.

[cactusmaac]

Games tend about the action, gameplay and eye candy so developing strong plots and characters isn't really something that has much money spent on it.

For something like R-Type, "Strike out against the evil Bydo empire" was all the plot you needed.

I wouldn't say video game adaptations all suck. The anime\CGI versions of Street Fighter and Final Fantasy were quite decent although obviously only really of interest to people who already knew the characters.

Still, it is disappointing that a movie industry built on high concepts doesn't craft good entertainment out of the material videogames have to offer. Surely things like "Marines fight demons from Hell on Mars", "Sexy quasi-achaeologist battles criminals and jestsets around globe", and "Two brothers use martial arts and multiple boxes\knives\oil barrels to wreak havoc against an urban gang" offers a starting-point for making at least good popcorn movies.

[Shellhead]

I didn't play the games, but I enjoyed the movie versions of Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Tomb Raider and Mortal Kombat. I disliked Resident Evil: Apocalypse, and I didn't bother with the Mortal Kombat sequels. I have completely avoided anything directed by Uwe Boll.

[Stranger With Candy]

I think the Hitman movie is going to be pretty good. I was relly happe when i found out Vin Diesel wasent going to play 47.

[K.O.V.G]

Here's the thing

Comic + moves= Suck

Video games + Moves= Mega Suck

and so on and so forth.

[BoosterBronze]

Here's the thing

Comic + moves= Suck

Video games + Moves= Mega Suck

and so on and so forth.

Thank you for your astute and insightful analysis.

How much of the "Video Games=Bad Movie" issue has to do with Uwe Boll? A handful of the worst movies ever made are his, which happen to be based on video games, but I dont blame the source material, just Boll... the worst director ever.

[Black Atom]

They make some...odd descisions converting games to movies, I think. For example, in the trailer for the Dead or Alive movie the words "KO" and "Christie WINS!" flash on the screen when one of the girls takes down a guy, reminding me that I'm watching a movie based on a video game. I don't know if that's in the actual movie, but really, why would anyone want to see that? Why not throw some life bars up there, too and some combo counters. Really, I'm not 5.

[Stranger With Candy]

They make some...odd descisions converting games to movies, I think. For example, in the trailer for the Dead or Alive movie the words "KO" and "Christie WINS!" flash on the screen when one of the girls takes down a guy, reminding me that I'm watching a movie based on a video game. I don't know if that's in the actual movie, but really, why would anyone want to see that?

Its in the movie. And oh my GOD that movie is awful! Worse than the Street Fighter movie.

[StoneGold]

Thank you for your astute and insightful analysis.

How much of the "Video Games=Bad Movie" issue has to do with Uwe Boll? A handful of the worst movies ever made are his, which happen to be based on video games, but I dont blame the source material, just Boll... the worst director ever.

Never seen a Boll movie. But the only one I can think of that I saw that didn't suck, and that includes most anime, is Mortal Kombat. And even that doesn't hold up too well with age.

[Gargus]

Actually there is no reason why they should suck. Want to know why they do? Its our fault, thats why.

Movie stuiod looks at them as easy cash. So they treat them as such and we pay to go see them knowing they will suck, they make money with them so they make more using the same formula.

Why spend money on good writers, good directors and good actors when they are making money using cheap crap with cheap franchises and cheap rights to buy? When we give them our money now and they make more.

Then you have nincompoops like uwe bole that just outright butcher a entire concept, turn it into something barely resembling the original material aside from its title and then argue with the movie goers that his movies arent bad and they should be thanking him for making them. That just gives games to movies another black eye we dont need.

So until studios start taking them serious and we stop paying for crappy ones they will stay bad.

[kalorama]

I'm not a gamer and have no real interest in them at all. That being said, I think there's a pretty clear reason why most video game to movie conversions turn out so horribly. It's because the process basically hinges on turning something that doesn't really follow the rules of logical linear storytelling into something that (at least ostensibly) does. It's like trying to put a three-pronged plug into a two pronged socket without an adapter. The one doesn't connect with the other.

Gamers go into those movies expecting some experience of the games, but that seems difficult to do because the two experiences are (as near as I can tell from observation) almost totally different. And the few elements of the game experience the filmmakers can emulate generally make no sense to the nongaming filmgoers, leaving them scratching their heads.

Also, the aggressively commercial, profit-driven, generally artless raison d'etre of videogame films means that they tend to be made by low ranking hack filmmakers who aren't exactly rife with creative vision.

[StoneGold]

Actually there is no reason why they should suck. Want to know why they do? Its our fault, thats why.

Movie stuiod looks at them as easy cash. So they treat them as such and we pay to go see them knowing they will suck, they make money with them so they make more using the same formula.

Why spend money on good writers, good directors and good actors when they are making money using cheap crap with cheap franchises and cheap rights to buy? When we give them our money now and they make more.

Then you have nincompoops like uwe bole that just outright butcher a entire concept, turn it into something barely resembling the original material aside from its title and then argue with the movie goers that his movies arent bad and they should be thanking him for making them. That just gives games to movies another black eye we dont need.

So until studios start taking them serious and we stop paying for crappy ones they will stay bad.

Yeah, but if studios were going to make a good movie, do you think they would make it based on a video game? Would Dr. Strangelove have been better if it had a Q*Bert license?

[Donald M.]

I think video game movies suck for much the same reason movies based on television shows usually do, or movies based on books while often good lack something in comparison to the original work.

We think (or used to think, this is becoming less and less true) as big events, somehow larger and more momentous and more special than any mere book or tv show or video game.

The truth is though, the process of adaptation must always involve taking something away. Not matter how big the budget, how special the effects, how famous the stars, the film version, while certainly larger and glossier, will always be somehow less than the work it is derived from.

There are a few exceptions of course, but these are exceedingly rare. Even with book-to-movie adaptations where the margin of success is considerably higher, most efforts are at best serviceable.

[Erebus]

Does anyone know how much creative control the video-game creators actually gets over their movies?

[StoneGold]

Does anyone know how much creative control the video-game creators actually gets over their movies?

Video game creators don't generally have that much creative control over their video games, let alone the movies they are based on.

[Kid Kamikaze10]

Yeah, but if studios were going to make a good movie, do you think they would make it based on a video game? Would Dr. Strangelove have been better if it had a Q*Bert license?

See, but you are looking at the wrong games to make movies out of. Nobody would ever make a Q*Bert kids show, never mind a movie. It is possible to make good movies out of video games, just like it's possible to make a good comic book movie. It takes a whole lot of effort (like any movie), someone who truly understands the video game industry and video games in general, and taking the source material into the movie screen.

Sure, some changes can be made, like comic book movies, but not to the point where the storyline, setting, characters, mood, or style of the source material has been completely screwed up (see Super Mario Bros.)


Although it wasn't the best movie in the world, FFVII: AC, IMO, was one of the best video game based movies because it remained true to the source material and delivered at least a little bit of what the fans wanted.

[Kid Kamikaze10]

Video game creators don't generally have that much creative control over their video games, let alone the movies they are based on.

I'm hoping he meant the head writer or executive producer of the games (or something around that range, he definitely wasn't talking about the programmers or practically anyone in the IT end of video game creation), or something around that range.

[Donald M.]

See, but you are looking at the wrong games to make movies out of. Nobody would ever make a Q*Bert kids show, never mind a movie.

How very, unfortunately wrong you are . . .


http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b322/donmilliken/9.jpg


http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b322/donmilliken/10.jpg


http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b322/donmilliken/11.jpg

[Jared]

How much of the "Video Games=Bad Movie" issue has to do with Uwe Boll? A handful of the worst movies ever made are his, which happen to be based on video games, but I dont blame the source material, just Boll... the worst director ever.

Super Mario Brothers, Street Fighter, Double Dragon, and Mortal Kombat: Abomination stunk up the theaters long before anybody had heard of Uwe Boll. But it's just that since he came along, it seems like videogame movies have been getting churned out much more rapidly. Aside from those listed, the only other pre-2000 game-based move I can think of is the (not too shabby) first Mortal Kombat. But nowadays, there seems to be a few released every year, with more and more on the way. And now it isn't just the mega-popular franchises that are getting adapted. I mean, who is actually eager to see Kameo brought to the big screen?

[TheLazy]

I'm not a gamer and have no real interest in them at all. That being said, I think there's a pretty clear reason why most video game to movie conversions turn out so horribly. It's because the process basically hinges on turning something that doesn't really follow the rules of logical linear storytelling into something that (at least ostensibly) does. It's like trying to put a three-pronged plug into a two pronged socket without an adapter. The one doesn't connect with the other.

Gamers go into those movies expecting some experience of the games, but that seems difficult to do because the two experiences are (as near as I can tell from observation) almost totally different. And the few elements of the game experience the filmmakers can emulate generally make no sense to the nongaming filmgoers, leaving them scratching their heads.

Also, the aggressively commercial, profit-driven, generally artless raison d'etre of videogame films means that they tend to be made by low ranking hack filmmakers who aren't exactly rife with creative vision.


But most games are based on a linear narrative. Sure there's the Deus Ex's of the world, but The story beinh MGS is fairly straight fowards, same for Resident Evil and Halo. I think that the movie studios are in the frame of mind that a Movie adaption of a game should be a novelty, one that reminds viewers of its roots, like the FPS shots in Doom. But I for one dont want to see a video-game movie, I want to see a movie based on the characters and/or world from the video game. Its just a medium like another.

We didnt get "Spider sense tingling" captions whilst watching Spiderman.

:)

[xnef1025]

I loved that Q-Bert show when I was a kid. Much like the Pac-Man show, the creators took a videogame(actually a number of them since there were 7 different arcade themed series that aired concurrently with Q-Bert)with no story and built up a fabricated but somehow faithfull adaptation. They were at least on or above the level of the average Uew Boll movie.

That being said, those that haven't seen his movies really should. They are more fun than a bowl of monkeys... eating your nutsack... while using thier prehensile tails to gouge out your eyes... almost.

[Donald M.]

I loved that Q-Bert show when I was a kid. Much like the Pac-Man show, the creators took a videogame(actually a number of them since there were 7 different arcade themed series that aired concurrently with Q-Bert)with no story and built up a fabricated but somehow faithfull adaptation. They were at least on or above the level of the average Uew Boll movie.


Yeah they were good when I was seven. Now? Probably not so much.

Saturday Supercade was the show you're thinking of. In addition to Q*Bert there was Frogger, Pitfall, Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr., Kangaroo and Space Ace.

There was also a Dragon's Lair cartoon.

There were also cartoons based on non-video games Dungeons & Dragons and Rubik's Cube.

Thinking back, I'd like to have seen a Saturday Supercade type show featuring cartoons based on board games.

Clue, Monopoly, Candy Land, Barrel of Monkeys, Battleship and the Game of Life. It could've been awesome . . .

When I was seven years old.

[StoneGold]

I'm hoping he meant the head writer or executive producer of the games (or something around that range, he definitely wasn't talking about the programmers or practically anyone in the IT end of video game creation), or something around that range.

Yeah, I'm not talking about programmers though. If you want fun, try figuring out how many games were basically developed by marketing.

[Tages]

For instance, Metal Gear Solid. Probably the first, best example of a cinematic game, and one of the games that gets brought up most often for conversion into a movie. But no movie could ever be as good as the game. You would have actors whose bodies and voices wouldn’t be as perfect as the character models matched with the voice actors in the game, the story would have to be shredded, all so that you could see some dude run around in Snake’s clothes.

This is exactly why I am opposed to making an MGS movie, even if it has a completely separate storyline from the games. In order to make a movie adaptation that had all the depth and story of the games the film version would need to be four hours long.

Plus, those stories don't even work without the element of interactivity (can you imagine a movie version of "Sons of Liberty" that wouldn't be awful, considering what the story's really about?), and the neato Fourth Wall breakage that in a theater would just come off as awkward and forced.

[StoneGold]

This is exactly why I am opposed to making an MGS movie, even if it has a completely separate storyline from the games. In order to make a movie adaptation that had all the depth and story of the games the film version would need to be four hours long.

Plus, those stories don't even work without the element of interactivity (can you imagine a movie version of "Sons of Liberty" that wouldn't be awful, considering what the story's really about?), and the neato Fourth Wall breakage that in a theater would just come off as awkward and forced.

The only way I can think to do a Metal Gear movie is to do the original game, to bring it in line with the MGS series. And that would probably suck as well. But it has a slightly better chance of being good, simply because it has more to go on.

[Kid Kamikaze10]

Dang, I knew about the Pac-Man show (pretty good for what it was), but Q-Bert? Wow.....

[Valmore]

It's not really possible to make a good movie out of a video game, as most games tend to involve hours upon end of play that would get lost in translating to a 2-hour movie. While this might fly with the casual observer who never played the game, the core audience - those who played it - would shred it for omissions and changes.

For instance, one of my favorite games, Deus Ex, on the surface would make a great movie. But since the game was fairly non-linear in its options on how to solve quests, I'd ultimately get mad at it when the producers of the film decided JC Denton should go in guns blaring when he should have been crawling through tunnels. Or when they cut out parts of the plot. Etc.

[Darth Joker]

There are five principle entertainment forms for kids/teens today... Movies, Cartoons (anime can fit here), Comic Books (manga can fit here), classic books (for lack of a better term), and video games

Of the five, movies, by necessity, are the *least* other-worldly typically. This is because they involve actual 'real life' human beings playing roles for the entire content of the movie. At the very least, a movie has to have a sensible feeling to it, and should come off as 'theoretically real'.

Of the five, video games are the *most* other-worldy typically. This is partly due to the limitations of the old 8-bit sprite system combined with nostalgia. Instead of detailed proportional human sprites... you had weird things like goombas, flying turtles, various animals and rodents, and all sorts of strange, wondrous critters and creatures.

In retrospect, it's no wonder that Super Mario Bros stunk so much - how could you possibly take an incredibly 'other-worldly' world like the one Mario's in, and adapt it to being 'theoretically real' with out losing what the kids love about the game? I hated the fact that Bowser was basically a scaley human... but if they had went with something truer to the game, it would have looked so cartoony as to make it seem a touch cheesy perhaps.

Tomb Raider made for a good movie partly because it's characters/sprites/world is easily adaptable into a 'theoretically real' movie.

Games like Tomb Raider are the ones that would most easily translate into movies.

In that vein, I think that the GDI/Brotherhood of Nod continuity of Command & Conquer could easily be made into a great movie. You could build a very dramatic military story around it, while Kain makes for a superb antagonist.

Most games, however, just don't translate well into movies.

[SAMAS]

Except the KoF cartoon pretty much blew. Seriously, the only way you're going to make a one on one fighter plot workable is to do what Mortal Kombat did, and steal liberally from Enter the Dragon (which stole from One Armed Boxer II, so whatever. Wait, come to think of it, several of the characters from Street Fighter were stolen directly from One Armed Boxer II. So whatever)

That actually proves Black Adam's point, though.

The first Mortal Kombat was a rip-off of Enter the Dragon, with an evil wizard rather than a crime lord.

[Nikita]

I've enjoyed a few movies that were made from video games. Silent Hill and Resident Evil turned out to be pretty decent movie versions. (I enjoyed them quite a bit actually)

I guess it depends on the game somtimes. Some games have really good stories and that might translate well to a good movie story. But since games are so long, I guess it can be hard to compact all of that into only two hours in a theater.

If they keep making movies like Resident Evil and Silent Hill, I'll keep watching movies made from games.

[cactusmaac]

I think something else that needs to be considered is the generation gap. Comic book movies really sucked until recently because directors, producers, studio people etc. treated them as if the material was meant to be throwaway trash for kids. Once younger creative types like Murphy, DeSanto, Goyer, Raimi, Burton, Nolan etc. started getting involved, people who thought the material merited serious treatment, then quality shot upwards.

Videogames are in a similar position.

[Sheldon]

I believe one of the problems is that as an artform, videogames are interactive, that is the draw, and thus in many ways they can get away with have less than stellar plots/storylines that are meant to string you along for 10-20 hours. The player enjoys control over their destiny, that's why they play. I don't think anyone would want to just sit and watch cutscenes for 10 hours.

Creating a workable film that will last 90min to 2 hrs is difficult. Either there is way too much plot to make it workable (Metal Gear Solid), or too little plot to justify that much screen time (Super Mario Brothers, Street Fighter). Without the interaction between the player and the game there isn't enough worthwhile to justify it.

And to top it off, fans of video games are as rabid as comic books fans (well admitably the two groups aren't mutually exclusive) and demand too much faithfulness to a storyline for the films own good. When I think we need to realize that more often than not there isn't enough to the storyline to translate into a film that is more than a mess.

[Kid Kamikaze10]

I think something else that needs to be considered is the generation gap. Comic book movies really sucked until recently because directors, producers, studio people etc. treated them as if the material was meant to be throwaway trash for kids. Once younger creative types like Murphy, DeSanto, Goyer, Raimi, Burton, Nolan etc. started getting involved, people who thought the material merited serious treatment, then quality shot upwards.

Videogames are in a similar position.

Quoted for truth, because that's what I've been trying to say.