Is a Good Video Game Movie Possible?
Wednesday, May 24, 2017 at 7:00PM Robert here. There has been a flurry of video game movie news this week. On Monday it was announced that new Spider-Man (or Spider-Boy, as it were) Tom Holland had been cast as a young Nathan Drake in the long gestating Uncharted movie.
We also got news that the Resident Evil film series which ended just this spring already on the reboot track. Not just a reboot but they're threatening an entire second hexalogy. (Does Resident Evil need 12 films?) Meanwhile, the latest Tomb Raider reboot staring Oscar winner Alicia Vikander is trucking right along towards its March 2018 bow.
Movies based on video games have long been a profitable cash grab for studios, but they have a reputation for being bad to abysmal quality wise. Does this latest trio of features have any hope...
The problem with video game movies has always been translating what makes playing the games thrilling onto the big screen. Video games, for all of their strong characters and compelling missions, tend to focus more on environmental storytelling than actual plot. The original Tomb Raider and Resident Evil games, both released in the OG Playstation days, had narratives that were uncovered only after hours of walking down hallways and corridors, gunning down enemies, and finding the occasional diary entry or mystical item to add texture to the world. This makes for a compelling hands on experience, but watching an actor do the same on screen for two hours does not a great film make.
To work around that the movie version of those franchises added more plot and in doing so lost the atmosphere that made the games they were based off of special. It turned Resident Evil into an overly complicated amnesia drama and Tomb Raider into a lukewarm techno-update of Indian Jones, and left both fans and critics disappointed.
Storytelling in video games has made huge leaps forward in the more recent gaming eras, in part thanks to technological advances and the rising of their image as actual art rather than mindless distraction. FMV cutscenes now merge seamlessly with gameplay and world class actors provide voice over and motion capture performances. Games like Uncharted and the recent Tomb Raider reboot (which the new movie will be based on) are driven by rich plots supported by compelling gameplay. Characters fill the levels, there are twists and story heavy sections. The latest Resident Evil entry plays like an interactive hybrid of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Night of the Living Dead. I may be naïve, but I believe that will help produce movies that are more faithful to what makes the games they are based on compelling while actually being, you know, good.
Do you have faith in this new crop of video game movies? How could a video game movie break the mold?
Reader Comments (13)
Wreck it Ralph was a video game themed animation and it was lovely. It should have won the Oscar, but bias lead to a win by Brave, which is mediocre at best and one of Pixar's worst pictures.
I was a big fan of the first Mortal Kombat movie as a lil kid, I'm sure it's actually a horrible turd of a movie, but I'll always like it (plus the soundtrack is great for working out).
That Tom Cruise/Emily Blunt movie "Edge of Tomorrow" has a great videogame feel to it and it's a pretty terrific action flick, and it gives me hope that one day someone will manage to deliver a great satisfying film out of a game.
Of the new crop, Tomb Raider is the one I'm looking forward the most (but not very much, really)
Robert -- that's an interesting point that they are actually very story driven but not in a conventional "story" way that is delivered fairly linearly in simple act structure which is what 2 hours generally needs. This is why video games really maybe ought to be thinking of themselves as TV series if they're going to go liveaction/filmed... because then people would have patience for no story for long stretches of atmosphere.
They're not even a cash grab. Most of them flop in the US
No
These won't be masterpieces but will one or two be good? You bet; at least one I hope!
Holland as Nathan Drake has me a bit worried so I'd bet on Tomb Raider or Resident Evil. Zombie films (though overdone) can be very watchable with the right crew making it (see Danny boyle's zombie film series for instance).
Mediocre screenplayers, producers and directors can't make good movies even from Shakespeare stories anymore! And Shakespeare simply wrote scripts to be taken to screen. To ask to make videogames into good/great conventional movies is to ask for a miracle. And not to have stars able to bring audience to these movies doesn't make it any easier. And the guys who make these movies don't take them seriously.
I'll give quick thoughts on
Tomb Raider: I'm waiting on an MPAA rating to confirm what I suspect, but the Tomb Raider movie might be doomed. (If it's PG-13, abandon all hope, ye who enter here. Because, yeah, Tomb Raider 2013 was a nasty, mean, hard R-rated movie kind of thing. And the sequel was a snooze, that mostly suppressed its mean treatment of the central character, but didn't replace that rampant cruelty with anything.)
Tom Holland Uncharted: At least it's not Brett "Grant Ward" Dalton as Nathan Drake. With other good talent around him, that might be the first decent one, even if it's not The Dark Knight up in here.
Rampage: In Name Only garbage (the original game, Rampage, is about people turned into animals by radiation, high level steroids and food additives, while this is...not...that) directed by Brad Peyton with MALIN AKERMAN (with the right director, I'd maybe buy it, but...sigh...San Andreas guy isn't that director) as the villain.
Sonic Film: Probably getting delayed again, since I THINK they'll have to throw the script out completely (the writers were behind that critical disappointment Fist Fight back in February) and start from scratch. Shame, because Sonic has the most on-paper potential for a film series and not a long form TV show of any game series.
Minecraft: It's being written by the guy who wrote Pan. I don't need to say ANYTHING else, do I?
The Angry Birds Movie 2: DIE.
Pokemon's Detective Pikachu: All right.
Dragon's Lair: Probably going to be at least good. Probably also not going to theatres.
REBoot: Well, considering that the original series bordered on In Name Only and I'm sure Capcom was, by the second or third movie, KICKING THEMSELVES for allowing Paul W.S. Anderson to adapt their games? I wouldn't be opposed to another six. But if they're doing live-action movies? I want the pure unadulterated cheese moments to appear on screen. I want a live-action version of "You Were Almost a Jill Sandwich." I want "It might be handy if you, the Master of Unlocking, take it with you." I want Ramon Salazar in all his, ridiculous, glory. Again, Resident Evil has A LOT of Silly to go along with the Scary.
I'm a giant Mortal Kombat fan and I'll say that I still love the first movie, mostly for nostalgic reasons. It hasn't aged the best (how many action movies have since the 90s that didn't feature giant Oscar caliber stars, etc), but it is still a very coherent story with characters you definitely root for. ... I won't bring up the sequel.
I think it is possible for a great video game movie... IMO the action needs to move the plot/character development forward, rather than be a giant 'set piece.'
Anyway, fun article. Can't believe theyre already making a RE reboot. Was never a Tomb Raider fan, as I sucked at the game, but high hopes for Vikander. ;-)
There are several videogames that would make GREAT, OUTSTANDING FILMS...
Heavy Rain
Maniac Mansion and specially its sequel, Day of the Tentacle
Full Throttle
The Secret of Monkey Island (Pirates of the Caribbean owes it BIG TIME)
The Resident Evil franchise overall is one of my fave guilty pleasures. I'm all for a reboot, in better hands, as the inherent themes deserve to be handled more maturely.
... and there's a fun PS3 videogame, "Naughty Bear" that could be developed easily into a film, and probably would be extremely fun to watch... it's basically a revenge story of a psycho Teddy Bear on a murder spree - "Friday the 13th" style - of his teddy bears friends... lots of creative killings with cottom instead of blood and guts. It's a fun, if a bit disturbing game, in which you're asked to be a teddy bear version of Jason Voorhes. Irresistible
Jesus Alonso: Naughty Bear could make a good movie, even if I'd disagree somewhat on it as a game.
If I were to toss out a top 10 list of games I think would work as movies, and not shows?
10. Murdered: Soul Suspect (Projected length: 130-150 minutes. Rating: Mid R.)
9. Bayonetta (Projected length: 115-130 minutes. Rating: Mid R.)
8. Monkey Island (Projected length: 90-110 minutes. Rating: PG.)
7. Gears of War (Projected length: 150-180 minutes. Rating: Hard R.)
6. Portal (adapting Portal 2) (projected length: 80-100 minutes. Rating: PG.)
5. Sonic (projected length: 90-110 minutes. Rating: PG or PG-13.)
4. Metroid (projected length: 100-120 minutes. Rating: PG-13)
3. Legend of Zelda (Projected length: Anywhere from 120-230 minutes, depending on WHICH Zelda game (Wind Waker or Breath of the Wild on the low end, Ocarina of Time on the high end) Hollywood decides to use as the framework. Rating: PG (Wind Waker) or PG-13 (any other game).)
2. BioShock (Projected length: If one movie, 208-247 minutes, with credits. If 2, each around 148-158 minutes, with credits. (The first and last ninety minutes are very "on-rails" and plot heavy, so I can't imagine a film version that is shorter than pushing 3.5 hours, but a two part four and a half to five hour adaptation wouldn't be THAT far out of line. (Certainly less out of line than 2 part versions of Mockingjay or The Deathly Hallows.) But as far as a TV show? Even Resident Evil has "more" there to justify a TV show adaptation.) Rating: Hard R.)
Honourable Mentions:
Mario Re-Do (Projected length: 90-100 minutes. Rating: G or PG.)
Mortal Kombat (Projected length: 100-110 minutes. Rating: Hard R. Which it should have been in the first place. It's freaking MORRTAL KOMBAT!)
Silent Hill (Projected length: 130-150 minutes. Rating: Hard R.)
1. Deus Ex (Projected length: 140-180 minutes. Rating: Mid R.)
For Shows?
10. Resident Evil
9. Final Fantasy 4
8. Tales of Symphonia
7. Grand Theft Auto
6. Watch_Dogs (but with primary influence from Watch_Dogs 2, not the original)
5. Mass Effect
4. Metal Gear Solid
3. Saints Row
2. Final Fantasy 6
Honourable Mentions:
Heavy Rain
Prey 2017
Star Fox
1. Persona 5 (This one IS going to happen at some point. But, yeah, that's probably going to make a great anime when it happens.)
I considered myself a Final Fantasy VII fan. I was so excited for the Advent Children movie and when I watched it, I didn't understand any of it!
I second the Heavy Rain love. The game itself was so cinematic that I just watched the whole thing on YouTube (lucky for me, I think I got the best ending available).
ok
Do people still play video games? In my opinion, this is the ultimate waste of time. I don't understand why no one has figured this out yet.