All our favourite games are being turned into movies now lets just hope they don?t go the same way that ?Comic Movies? have gone. So far there?s been a few games turned into movies over time, Mario Bros, Wing Commander, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Double Dragon, Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy, Resident Evil?
But now that hollywoods comic phase is nearing an end (I hope) they?re buying up the rights to make movies based on games like Alien VS Predator, House of the Dead, Resident Evil 2, Crazy Taxi, Metroid, to name a few.
Basically it?s about trying to squeeze as much money as possible out of a good game, but in the process it destroys the game, I?m not sure if there?s any ?Game Movie? I?ve seen that I actually liked.
And in almost every case they get the cheapest B grade actors they can find to play our Game Heros, like Christopher Lambert in Mortal Kombat, Van Dam in Street Fighter, and I wouldn?t be surprised if they got Sarah Michelle Geller to play ?Samus Aran? in Metroid.
What does everyone think about this,
Do they want to see more Game Movies?
And are there any that anyone has thought were a tribute to the game?
Most movies that have made the transition from games have generally sucked. I can't believe I went along to see Mario Bros.. and Street Fighter, boy did that stink. Mortal Kombat 1 was mildly enjoyable, but the sequel should've went straight to video. Double Dragon - I think I watched that movie for about 20 minutes before I ejected the video cassette, jumped on it a hundred times with steel boots, then hammered the remains into little pieces before setting it alight..
Game movies seem to attract the low end writers and film producers of the industry, and are definately riding on the success of certain games for a quick buck.
From the top of my head, I don't think I'd like to see any movie adaption of a game out there at the moment.. Wasn't there a Doom movie announced about 3-4 years ago?
Oh. I do have *ONE* exception where a game -> movie which didn't suck. It's actually pretty damn good. Street Fighter 2, the animated movie..
I liked Resident Evil a whole bunch
Alien VS Predator well that wouldn't so much be a movie based on a game as, a Movie based on a Game based on a novel (series of) based on a Dark Horse Comic based on a mistake/joke made by a set design guy on a movie.
Oh and I like the Animated Street fighter movie.
Pantmonger
Hi this is my first post here (be warned..lol). I'm an independent/short filmmaker is Brisbane. I have a short film currently available for download from my site, so tell me what you thought. I was made over Christmas, mainly for fun. Souri was ever so kind enough to post a news item for me. Thanks Souri. www.boxheadfilms.com
I'm going to have to add my 2 cents here on this topic here. Game movies, comic book movies, I think have the potential to be fantastic. The groundwork is done for you. Character development is set; all they have to do is come up with a new way to tell the same story. By default most writers fall back on the method of writing and style of the comic book, relying on the popularity of the comic/game to carry the film. Throw in a couple of awesome action scenes so we get to see spiderman swinging thru the streets to forfill a childhood dream and whammo, they have a made a film. Most of the time is doesn't work, on those rare ocassions it does, we all silently thank the film gods.
Pantmonger - I agree with you. I love the street fighter animated series. It was dark, violent and nasty. Everything you expected from the characters. The movie with Van Damme was nothing more than a gigantic wheel of smelly cheese that had gone bad. But they made the film for the 'kiddy factor'. BAH! I say.. tell the story right!
Resident Evil, was a stroke of genius in its writing. They took the well-known game, but didn't tell the story from the angle of the characters we had played. It was completely new, from perspective of umbrella. I played these games on playstation years ago. In the dark. Alone. With headphones - I scared myself silly and loved it. (Besides Milla as the star - that girl rocks)
Now for Alien-VS-Predator... pantmonger, I am a big fan. I grew up on aliens and predator films.. And when I read the dark horse series. Ok, I needed mouth to mouth to calm myself. This film could be awesome. It's one of my pipe dreams to make this film. If only I had the money...
Ok sorry for the long rant, but you got me excited on a subject I really enjoy. All right I will go hide now.
- boxhead
Game movies made by Hollywood generally suck. I agree that Mortal Kombat was alright and the second one sucked enough for 100 game movies. Street Fighter and Double Dragon sucked almost as much as MK:Annihilation. Wing Commander would have to be the worst game to movie transition ever - there was so much wrong with that movie, I just stopped caring. Resident Evil, could have been better, but it is one of the better Hollywood attempts. Final Fantasy - not exactly Hollywood, I know - was alright until the awfully lame ending. And Tomb Raider, which my dad decided to buy me for my 21st birthday, has more plot cliches than Days of our Lives (or the third and fourth seasons of Star Trek: Voyager). As you might be able to tell, game movies don't particularly get me excited and wanting to see them because of the awful track history. Yes, there is potential, but as long as Hollywood's making the movies, they'll always be a "cash in on the success of the game" type movie.
And, um, Aliens -v- Predator movie idea has been around for something like 15 years, and AvP games only started emerging during the early to mid 90's.
See, what we need is some REAL directors and writers to grab hold of a game license, who actually care about the movie and not the fact it'll make money because it's a popular game. I mean, the same people making game flicks could easily be the same people making teen horror flicks, and that's concerning before belief.
And boxhead, bravo on Fragged. Enjoyed it muchly and look forward to more of your work. @:-)
I think we kill the movies for ourselves, sometimes, when we go to see them because of high expectation that it will make hollywood look like they've been doing things all wrong or something, and that games make awesome movies.
I thought Street Fighter was pretty average, nothing really special, Tomb Raider was a 'fun' movie, nothing brilliant but it wasn't "shite" either. Mortal Kombat 1 was also pretty "average".
Alot of games make very average movies because the writers don't fill in the blanks that the game player usually has to fill in, when playing a game, ie the motivation behind the main character. Also the player is directly involved in the 'fun' part of the interaction when playing a game, rather than watching a movie, where there is not a great deal of involvement - games carry themselves on this interation - iwhereas movies generally have to try other things to maintain interest which are often ignored in these game movie conversions.
yeah gooberman, i am aware of how long the idea's been around. Im saying I want to make it.
I think we have all hit the nail on the head, here. I think we should all write for the next game/comic movie.
if you where to make a film about your favourite game/comic book character what you would you do? For me.. comic book 'The Punisher' (we dont talk about the first one made) i grew up redy him as well.
game - haha, i just finished my delta force one.
-boxhead
boxhead: heh, oops, that was in response to lava_monkey saying that Alien -v- Predator is being snapped up as movie rights.
Writing a script based on someone else's IP is a tricky task. Do you try and do the same kind of stuff that's come before at the risk of being labeled cliche or old? Do you try to do new stuff and risk alienating fans? Do you force your own opinion of things on to the world when your opinion is different from the fan base's majority, or do you give in and work on something you think is totally wrong and consequently won't enjoy working on it much?
Yes, I'll sit here and complain that no one has made a really good Hollywood movie out of a game yet, but if I was asked to write a script for a game-movie crossover, I'd decline because I know I wouldn't do as good a job if I was given free reign to create something from scratch.
quote:Originally posted by inglis
i think there was a rumour of a game movie for an ID game, cant remember it is was Doom.
There have been plans to make a Doom movie before, but they've always fallen through.
Heh, remember how Interplay were going to set up a movie studio? I don't know if it ever eventuated, but I doubt it's around nowadays (considering Interplay are pretty much in the shitter).
Gooberman... you work at Krome studios?? dam it's a small world. I work around the cornor from you, at REEL IMAGE. I did the live action cut scene captures for your latest release 'TY', and just finished a job yesterday about Krome Studios for State Development about QLD exporters. Now that's funny.
Gotta love Bris-Vegas. 1 degree of separation.
when i studied film at qca a lecturer told me something that stuck in my head.
when you see a movie the real talent is to suspend your believe ability to fully experience the make believe world.
the more you can create the imaginaty world the better the experience the same can be said for books and computer games.
when you try to relate the movie to real life a book or game you are limiting that experience.
so when i see a movie i try not to think of it complementing or distracting from its source, its something totally different.
a movie is not a game or a book so it should be percieved in its own light.
nannoo nannoo
using the site inglis posted:
http://movies.go.com/movies/L/laracrofttombraider2thecradleoflife_2003/…
http://movies.go.com/movies/D/doom_2004/index.html
http://movies.go.com/movies/D/dukenukem_2002/index.html
I don't think we will be seeing the Duke Nukem one for a few years ;)
haha doom will be PG13- they should have sold the rights to whoever did the new final destination movie :) . people getting cut into parts by fences, getting squashed by large panes of glass, heads getting chopped off by elevator doors, the list is long :) what a crack up.
i wonder if they will drag out the duke nukem movie like dk forever. already looks like they have started.
"City of Lost Children" director (some french guy) gets my vote. But who would play Garrett? Probably Freddy Prinze Jr, making Theif the movie a teen sensation!
I think Blood would make a cool movie too, the only problem is they'd get sued for breach of copyright every time Caleb opened his mouth. :)
Scott.
I think they should make a leisure suit larry movie... with Sarah Michelle Gellar as a kickbutt empowering Larry.