Flaw in Mass Effect Movie

[Altorin]

I remember reading somewhere that any Mass Effect movie will be about Commander Shephard and that there is an official "canon" to the Mass Effect universe that Bioware have come up with, despite the variable nature of the content.

So far, the non-game material has been very careful about not stepping on the game's toes. Even the comic, which involves shepard doesn't make any reference to his/her gender or deeds.

The second novel mentions shepard merely as a passing reference and only references the destruction of the citadel, and doesn't even make a statement about the nature of the council - it's referenced, but the council is reformed even if you destroy it in ME1, so that's even in the air.

The only thing that seems CLOSE to establishing cannon is the non-imported Mass Effect 2 game's choices, but most of those choices involve omissions. Only people who have played through Mass Effect will understand what's missing in ME2 that shows any sort of cannon.

I don't think they'd go through so much trouble of keeping cannon regarding the game to just stomp all over that major selling point of the game for a movie that will probably fail anyway.

 

[Good morning blues]

I suspect that the Mass Effect movie will either exist in a continuity separate from that of the video game, or it will focus on events and characters that do not appear in the game. Either way, this sort of nerdy nitpickery about canon isn't something that will effect the movie's success in any substantial way.

 

[Ickorus]

Simple solution:

They set it before the games.

If they don't do that then they're stupid for the reasons you have stated.

 

[Snarky Username]

I vote we install little knobs in all the theaters and have the audience vote on what Shepard does!

Either that or make it like a "Choose your own adventure" story and have the audience move to another theater every time a decision arises.

 

[MarsProbe]

I agree with Irridium :O


I'll make and continue my own story with Sheppard if you don't mind, but I wouldn't hate a prequel of some sort! First contact, or maybe even the uhm... The thing where humans learned how to use Bio powers A movie about those would be cool.

The latter would be cool. Even if they only take us there long enough to see Kaiden snap his Turian instructors neck with a Biotic-powered kick to the jaw... I've always wondered how that would look on screen.

 

[ultrachicken]

I doubt they'd make it about shepard.

 

[Korolev]

It will probably not involve the main story line from the games. But even so, yes, there's no way you can fit the Mass Effect "universe" into a film. A TV show, maybe. A film? No way, unless it's 5 hours long.

Even with BioWare writers and designers collaborating on this film, I have very little hope that it would be good. How much effort are they putting into this film? Does the director really care about it, or is he just doing it for cash and connections? Does BioWare REALLY have creative control, or are they just wheeled in for a few chats every now and then, while execs and suits make all the decisions behind the screen?

Will it be CGI or live action? Will it have B-grade actors (hint: yes it will)? Will it try to fit in too much fan service and, as a result, have a scatterbrained plot with bizarre dialogue? Will it be constantly full of explosions because that's what suits think video-game audiences want?

I don't have hope for this film. No one can predict the future, but the track record indicates that it will just be another money making exercise, dreamed up by business people who have no love or care for the series at all.

The guy producing it, the one driving this whole project, is none other than Avi Arad, the man behind such "stellar hits" as "The punisher", "Fantastic 4", "Daredevil", "Elektra" and everyone's FAVOURITE FILM - "Ghost Rider" with Nicolas Cage, I kid you not.

Arad is a man who specializes in obtaining franchises and then shoddily producing the laziest cash grab tie-ins possible. This is the man who has the rights to the ME movie. Do you think he really cares about ME? Of course he doesn't, he probably hasn't even played the damn games. He's a suit who recognizes a cash opportunity, and he's going to put as much care and effort into it as he has put into his other films - in other words, not much.

Granted, Legendary Pictures is the studio, and they're great. And there's no word on a director yet. If they get someone good, maybe it will turn out to be decent. But given Arad's track record of making the laziest movies to cash in on a franchise, don't hold your breath waiting for this film. It will almost certainly turn out to be trash.

Which is a damn, damn, damn shame.

 

[gabe12301]

They could just use the heavy rain method and just make it an extremely slow game thats dragged out over the course of several days with little player interaction and call it an "Interactive storytelling experience."

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

Yeah, that's very true, but I don't think it will hurt the movie in the slightest, which is also a problem. I don't think many fans of the game wouldn't see this movie, either at the cinema or later on DVD (or of course the ever popular pirated download) so execs will think this is popular.

I think Bioware Word of God has said that male Shepard full Paragon is canon, but beyond that nothing, so that's what the movie will reflect. Which is a shame, given how many praise Hale's VAing over Meer's.

The other problem is that people who don't know Mass Effect will criticise it for being shallow (there won't be much time for character development for eight people in three hours and still containing six main missions after all), and a rip-off of space operas.

Basically, Mass Effect is almost automatically doomed to being one of the worst movies in history critically, because the fans will hate it for the reasons of their own canon, and the non-gamers will hate it for it being stereotypical and having shallow characters.

 

[zfactor]

They don't have to make a movie based on the games. The Mass Effect universe is large and has deep lore. They're probably going to do a film about First Contact. That has space battles, land battles, and other battles. I'd say they would be able to make a movie out of that.

Hopefully they will anyways. Otherwise I'll just ignore it.

Yeah, a movie about past (technically future, but past for the game series) eventswould be sweet. The First Contact War or Krogan Rebellions (but that didn't have any people...) or Batarian pirate battles would be cool. And add backstory that is sketchy in-game.

 

[Yarpie]

If you ask me, the most sensible thing to do is to what they did in the books; use a side story which is compatible with every possible "canon" without completely ignoring events from the game. The books have several instances of events from the game being mentioned, however they are written in such a way that the reader can fill in the 'blanks' for themselves. I think it worked pretty well in the books, so I see no reason why it wouldn't work in the movie.

Better yet, continue a plot line from the books (with some back story as well, obviously). For example:

Spoiler: From Ascension

Gillian, Hendel, and Lem's adventures on the quarian exploration ship

 

[DustyDrB]

They don't have to make the movie based on the games. It can just take place in the universe the same way the books do.

As long as Matthew Fox doesn't play Shepard I wont be raging over it any time soon

he is the confirmed shepard. you can now rage.

Source? I haven't seen that anywhere. This [http://www.imdb.com/news/ni1941704/] is the best I can find, which doesn't sound 100% (maybe 90%, that "latter stages" doesn't mean finalized. But that article is many months old now).

Of course, if you're right then I don't want to see that movie for obvious reasons. It's hard enough for me to watch videos of the version of Shepard used in ads. That's an impostor!

Nothing against Matthew Fox as an actor. He had some great moments in Lost, though I haven't seen him in anything else. Nothing really against Avi Arad either. I can't say I like many of the movies he's been a part of, but so many of those are dime-a-dozen comic book movies anyway that I care little about. The story of Commander Shepard is one that is crafted by the gamer, not a studio.

 

[Flying-Emu]

No way this movie is gonna be about Shepard. He probably won't even appear there.

*She.

But yeah, I'm hoping they go with the Skyllian Blitz or FCW over the shenanigans with the reapers.

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

I don't think Matthew Fox is officially confirmed. I know he's interested, I know the director is interested in him, but I don't think he's signed on any dotted lines.

As a Lost fan I'd be happy with him as Shephard. He does look the part too (that is if you go by default Shephard's appearance).

 

[Cain_Zeros]

They don't have to make a movie based on the games. The Mass Effect universe is large and has deep lore. They're probably going to do a film about First Contact. That has space battles, land battles, and other battles. I'd say they would be able to make a movie out of that.

Hopefully they will anyways. Otherwise I'll just ignore it.

A First Contact War movie would be awesome. And avoid the whole "20+ hours of gameplay condensed into at most 4 hourse of movie" issue.

 

[Tahmoh]

They'll probably do something similar to the books and create an original story that has links to the main game series but isnt really needed to further the overall setting.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Mass Effect, like TES, is so far up its own ass in boring lore that I can't stand the backdrop to the series at all, and so although the gameplay is pretty fun, and some of the characters are quite well done (but fuck off with cheesy lesbians please), I really don't want to see a film of this.

You're mad at a game because it tries to be scientifically accurate with it's lore?

 

[Ir0n Squid]

I think Bioware Word of God has said that male Shepard full Paragon is canon, but beyond that nothing, so that's what the movie will reflect.

Just so happens that that is my canon view of Shepard, or how my main play through had him play out. Anyway:

Thats the root of the problem: Players have their own Shepards, their own stories that they have played through. Picking and choosing which Shepard will make it to the big screen will conflict with many player's idea of how the ME universe shapes up. Its perfectly possible that Bioware will impose their Voice of Bob to dictate a canon on how the movie- and therefore the ME universe- will play out. It might work, but it will be hard for those that imagine John Shepard, soldier, Bad Ass Renegade of the Year to accept the movie.

The other option is to do a prequel. Something like the First Contact War would be awesome (it would be fun to watch a Human and Turian fleet duke it out in orbit) full of special effects and big booms. But then it falls into the niche that Movies based on games fill up. Without an established main character (possibly some random Alliance grunt) it would be hard to connect with the story. It turns into merely a visual stroll thought the Codex, watching all the nifty future gadgets and how they work.

The final option (or at least the last one I can think up of) will be a prequel following one of ME1's or ME2's other characters. What I mean is: The ME prequel universe, like around the First Contact War, but from, say, the Illusive Man's perspective. Or following Kaiden's training out at Jump Zero. Or, my personal favorite, following Garrus and is transformation into Archangel, taking place after the first game, but before the events of the second.

Honestly, I don't know how the movie will turn out. I have hope, and will be there opening day to see it.

 

[Sinspiration]

Hi everyone.

As you may be aware at this point there is a Mass Effect movie in the works. Now video game adaptations are nothing new, nor is the feeling that most of them are not faithful or even very good. However, if this movie is trying hard to emulate the main story of the MassEffect franchise then I have a very specific worry regarding the film.

The biggest and most important aspect of the Mass Effect games is tha ability to shape the story and characters through a combination of dialogue choices and moral decisions. This leads to many branching story paths and outcomes for the characters. This, I think is whre the idea of a Mass Effect movie falls apart. There is just no way that an adaptation of the game can implement this aspect onto the big screen.

As such we will have a film where only one set of choices is made, one type of character path. The biggest problem of this is that now, evrry choice players have made regarding the story and characters will be rendered invalid.

There will be a canon gender for Shephard, a canon relationship (if any), a canon morality and a canon ending. Whenever gamers choose otherwise, it will now be out of continuity with the path the filmakers have for the adapation.

This could be one of the biggest differences between games and films, the ability to make choices. It will also be, I think, the biggest contributing factor to this film's likely failure.

Its at this point we demand Bioware makes a whole new kind of 'Game Movie', insert the disk, import your character data and the movie would change based on your imported data. Now wouldn't that prove to have some interesting results? XD

Basically an ME sequel where you just watch instead of playing *snort*

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I think this is why Bioware is publicly displaying all the info they're gathered from Mass Effect 2. I can see them sharing this info with whomever is writing the script so that person/ those people can make the most popular choices with the plot and whatnot. Not the best method to make a movie but what are you gonna do.