Don't Film These Games!

[RTR]

Hey Bob, here's what I think would be a goood idea for a future Intermission: what makes an action movie a good movie? AKA go into detail about what, in your opinion, separates something like The Losers or Michael Bay from The A Team or GI Joe and when is it OK to have something like District 9 where there's certainly action but no one's having the time of their lives and the action is not front and center in the movie.

 

[pigmy wurm]

Hardcore fans of the Halo story love the Arbiter, actually.

Oh thats good, maybe it was just the small subset that I have run into.

And read the books. John-117 is a much deeper character then what you see in the games, as previously stated in the thread.

1st, isn't most of his interesting character development set before the first game with his training. Also he has a problematic catch-22, he is his most impressive when he is solo, but a solo character gets boring so he would need other marines around him to actually develop, which would make him less impressive. But, my bigger issue is just how "awesome" he is. He is an incredibly powerful cyborg and like with superman, it is really hard to create enough tension when you don't feel your hero is truly in danger. Again, it is not impossible to make the movie, but the most likely solution would be to just make it into a starship troopers rip off, and no-one wants that.

here is a blog where I explain my thoughts more: http://screwattack.com/blogs/Mise-en-Pixel/Halo-the-Movie-why-it-wont-work

 

[Eldarion]

MovieBob, have you read the Halo books or researched the backstory at all?

If it isn't in the games why should it count?

 

[Namewithheld]

That Sim's idea actually sounds fucking hilarious.

Now, I know a game that would make a great movie...no...a great TV show: X-Com UFO Defense.

Think about it. a team of multi-national secret agents fighting a constant war against a fucking alien empire that is invading the planet Earth with mysterious UFOs. You have so many character choices: The general commanding it all, the smarmy politicians who X-Com has to deal with it keep their funding, the squad that goes on the missions and the scientists who try to study the alien technology that the team captures, to turn it against the alien menace.

There is betrayal, as some nations secretly sign treaties with the aliens!

There are scary scenes, when the team first runs into fucking crysilids and their fucking goddamn zombies.

And finally, there is the fucking awesome climax, with the team taking on the alien base on mars, fighting desperately through hordes of aliens to set blow up the reactor and zoom home in a spaceship made from alien materials and good old fashioned human know how.


BAM! Awesome. Lets shoot it and make money.

It's already been done, and done better :3
It's called THE X FILES

No.

No.

And no.

The x-files and X-com are completely different. One is a conspiracy based horror show, the other is an action/sci-fi mix.

its like trying to compare...I don't know, Dan Brown and Heinlein.

 

[Larsirius]

Being a major Halo fanboy and know-it-all, I'm going to say that I'd rather destroy every piece of Halo related material on Earth than seeing a Halo movie be made.

There are several reasons. Firstly: movies based on games will never be good, because of the very different narrative standpoints of the media. Secondly, a Halo movie couldn't have Master Chief as a protogonist, because he doesn't show any emotions through that half of ton MJOLNIR of his, and the movie would have to star some other character, and would have MC as a big supporting character. Thirdly, making a Halo movie would require actors; actors who doesn't look anything like the characters the fans have grown to know and love. Finally: like Halo Legends, which was mostly crap(except for Homecoming, the Package and Origins), a Halo movie would be full of artistic licenses(read: canonical inaccuracies.), which is tearing hard on a fanbase that is trying to keep track of and maintain a canon much deeper than what meets the eye of the average Halo player. We don't want the franchise to turn into Star Wars Expanded Universe or Star Trek.

IF a Halo movie was to be made, and made into something other than a generic sci-fi shooter, it would have to dive into the mystical realms of the Forerunner aspect of the franchise, something which is so deep and complicated that it wouldn't fit in a 2 hour blockbuster.

 

[Larsirius]

@Eldarion: Because it's considered canon, and involve much richer stories, plotlines and character. The novels fill in between and around the games.

 

[lukemdizzle]

A halo movie would be amazing IF... it is more based on the arbiter. I don't know why he was never accepted amongst most halo fans his story and the story of the decay of the covenant is deep. It reflects upon religious fanaticism, cultural gullibility, racism, redemption and the morality of defiance. the arbiter kicks ass and if they through the chief and humanity in as parallel stories to highlight how the arbiter and the chief essentially play the same role in their individual cultures but are being forced to fight each other because of lies. O and I almost forgot huge space alien battles on an ancient space station, tell me that wouldn't be a kick ass movie

ps. the halo books aren't very good. Ive read all of them and they expand the universe but thats about all. The covenant story is by far the best in terms of plot

 

[Larsirius]

@lukemdizzle: The Arbiter has been praised by the majority of the Halo Community for those exact reasons.

 

[ultimasupersaiyan]

When it comes to some games making a movie out of tem is a piece of piss. COD4 and COD:MW2 are easily done since the story is a vague part of it, same with Halo and Gears. Other games like God of War, Uncharted to name a few have intricate storys that a movie adaptation just couldn't fullfill properly if at all. One of the biggest problem with games to film adaptation is the fact that the people behind it are not fans! Place a fan who's a director or just and fan I suppose and it will be reasonable or possibly great. Look at the Watchmen movie, Zack Snyder was apparently a fan of the original source material and that's one of the best movies anyone can see.

In short fans should make video games as movies, not Hollywood companies with no souls.

 

[TheXRatedDodo]

That Sim's idea actually sounds fucking hilarious.

Now, I know a game that would make a great movie...no...a great TV show: X-Com UFO Defense.

Think about it. a team of multi-national secret agents fighting a constant war against a fucking alien empire that is invading the planet Earth with mysterious UFOs. You have so many character choices: The general commanding it all, the smarmy politicians who X-Com has to deal with it keep their funding, the squad that goes on the missions and the scientists who try to study the alien technology that the team captures, to turn it against the alien menace.

There is betrayal, as some nations secretly sign treaties with the aliens!

There are scary scenes, when the team first runs into fucking crysilids and their fucking goddamn zombies.

And finally, there is the fucking awesome climax, with the team taking on the alien base on mars, fighting desperately through hordes of aliens to set blow up the reactor and zoom home in a spaceship made from alien materials and good old fashioned human know how.


BAM! Awesome. Lets shoot it and make money.

It's already been done, and done better :3
It's called THE X FILES

No.

No.

And no.

The x-files and X-com are completely different. One is a conspiracy based horror show, the other is an action/sci-fi mix.

its like trying to compare...I don't know, Dan Brown and Heinlein.

Let it be known that I was far from being serious :3

 

[Fordo]

YES! Someone else who agrees that MK trailer thing looks horrible. I swear to god! Where have we seen a fighting game where the crime fighting good guys go after the bad guys? That's right, Street Fighter...the worst movie ever.

So, I guess the rule of thumb is: don't make movies based on games that already have weak, derivative, or overdone stories to begin with?

Winner!

Why do we need to make movies of a video game anyway? Why can't we let them stay on the media we know they do best on? I guess I can't see the logic...I mean, I really like watching Kobe Bryant play basketball so I bet it'd be just as cool to watch him play soccer!

At the end of the day there are great movies, mediocre movies, and bad movies...I think video games can always feel confident to fall into one of the two last catagories. If that's good enough than fine. Go spend money and watch the halo/uncharted/tomb raider movie. As far as I'm concerned, a video game movie is two notches above a girls gone wild movie. Before you even buy your ticket you know what to expect, and how the story will end, and any theme the story may try to offer.

boring.

 

[duchaked]

it was pretty solid until the end
not saying that I would disagree with page 2, but his arguments there seem to be a bit weaker

one-note badasses and douche-bags do make it into movies as main characters unfortunately...

 

[solidstatemind]

Personally, I think the problem with VGs being translated to movies is not one necessarily a problem of content, but an issue with mentality. Video Games are an interactive experience, and, as such, the story is shaped to facilitate that.

Movies are a passive experience, so the story is much easier to set up, because you can drag the audience where you want to and they can't say 'boo' about it.

Think of it this way: the type of video game that would translate the most directly to movies? A rail-shooter. That's what a movie is: a rail shooter. The Tomb Raider video game as a rail shooter? YAWN.

So what we have is movie people attempting to apply a rail-shooter mentality to FPS or action games. It just doesn't work.

You know what we need? We've been repeatedly subjected to the people in the movie business adapting video games-- why not flip the script? Let's get a video game maker to make a movie?

A lot of them do pretty fucking well with their cutscenes...

OH, and I don't see why so many people think Nathan Drake is a tool. I found him to be highly entertaining, and I really have to agree with the poster on the first page who suggested that Nathan Fillon would be a fantastic Nathan Drake. That movie needs to get done.

 

[Danz D Man]

MovieBob, have you read the Halo books or researched the backstory at all?

If it isn't in the games why should it count?

Because it adds to the Halo story, which is what would be in the movie.

 

[rddj623]

If Christina Hendricks dons a Power Girl costume I can die happy!

Also I can agree with everything you said, save the PS about not liking the new Mortal Kombat. It could be pretty sweet to see it turned into a mano a mano pyscho killer Bloodsport redux. And I like the actors they have for Jax and Sonya.

 

[AgentBJ09]

P.S. Yes, I've seen that Mortal Kombat Rebirth thing, and I think it looks like ass. Yeah, the MK franchise could use some improvement. Y'know what improvement doesn't look like? A Saw knockoff.

Thank you, MovieBob. Glad to know people are seeing that trailer for what it was.

 

[goliath6711]

Didn't Ed Boon (Mortal Kombat co-creator) say that he wanted the next Mortal Kombat game have the same visual style as the Saw movies?

 

[ManInRed]

I think the over all theme to Movie Bob's list was: Don't make a movie based on a game that already exist.

My theory on the old notion that "No movie based on a game is good, no game based on a movie is good" is that good movies for games already exist, they just were never intended to be based on each other or advertised as such.

There would be too many examples if I listed out good horror movies being basically the same premise as a particular horror game, so let me pick a game series that is less obvious: Final Fantasy.

A good Final Fantasy movie does exist, it's called "The Fifth Element." Think about it, four magical stones of the elements assisting an ancient being and a team of heroes, which include an ex-soldier, a bard, a priest, and a young fool, to stop an evil being, taking on the form of a moon like asteroid and aided by a greedy villain, from destroying the world. Oh, and there's an opera scene. Sort of calling the head scientist Cid and naming the air ships after Chocobos or summons, the movie is probably the best union of elements form every Final Fantasy game one could hope to create.

Maybe if movie makers stopped trying to do tie-ins and just focus on doing the best creative work they could, they would incidentally create all of the movies based on games you like to see ...eventually. And if not, well at least they could pull off something that could stand on its own, without carrying all of the baggage that comes with trying to make a 2 hour film contain the plot and characters of a 60+ hour game.

 

[ThePants]

The "Shadow Of The Colossus" part is a good example that some games are perfectly fine as just being games.