Games that would make crappy movies

[Bocaj2000]

Any game with:
Complex backstory (Metal Gear franchise)
No context (Tetris)
Shallow context and world (Monster Hunter)
Customisable main character (Mass Effect)

So that's most games. Of course there are games outside of this that wouldn't work (Zelda), I've probably missed something, but oh well.

You just need good writers to fix these problems.

Complex back-story - introduce elements slowly. Star Wars is a good example of this.
No context - makes for a very good short film due to its infinite artistic freedom. Best described by this picture:

Spoiler

Shallow context and world - shallow world =/= shallow story
Customizable main character - Use default. If there is no default, use good judgment.

 

[Tollo]

Ok so, theoritically I think that any videogame franchise could be made into a decent movie.

BUT. It would have to be a different story to that depicted in the game or at least from a different point of view.

The problem that I have with movies based off games is that they are simply retelling the story from the game but as a movie. What is the point of that? We've already seen this story because we PLAYED THE GAME. The thinking behind this sort of thing just baffles me.

I'm alright with movies about stuff surrounding the events of a game though or even just set in that same universe with only tagential relations to the original story. That way they can explore more of the setting and that sort of thing.

Yeah, except if they did that the fans would throw one hell of a hissy fit.

Because the film is not a perfect captivation of the game and they could do a better job at it, and all the fan boy rage would build up in till WW3 happened with fanboy's from every corner of the world would fight to the death over the characterisation of a two bit action hero.

 

[Tollo]

And to be fair, who here thinks that a film studio would take all these steps over a mass effect film, no they just want to milk the series in till they can't make any more money off it. They are all ready beating the Resident Evil series with a bat and they would do the same to Mass Effect given the chance, and they are too lazy to go to so much trouble to achieve a perfect film and that is why Mass Effect would make a bad film, and in lamens terms

1) Cost too much to make a faithful version of the universe in film
2) Impossible to get an actor to play a perfect version of the player in the game
3) Too complex to fit in to one film and would cost a fortune in sequels
4) People would not go see it because they thought it was lame.
5) All the critics would review it negatively without looking at the fact it was based on a game

 

[Bocaj2000]

They said the same thing with comic books.

Any game CAN be a good movie. All that you have to do is be motivated to make a good product for the purpose of artistic pride. Yes, it is that easy.

Instead we are getting motivations based solely on greed and making quick easy money.

Yes most of the video game movie business is based on greed, the scripts are written by people who have not even played the game, in stead they opted for reading the wikipedia article and writing something hardly related to it with a few elements borrowed from the series and then slapping the brands name on it selling it to groups of fans expecting it to be the best thing ever but in stead leave feeling as if they got a dead puppy for Christmas.

Edit: Bocaj2000 you have to look on a lager scale, yes a Mass Effect film would translate easily in to a film script on paper and it would be good but their are other problems e.g faithfully recreating the world of mass effect along with characters and it would take a big budget that not many people would shell out for. Also seeing as Commander Shepard is the protagonist and to be honest a different person for each fan who played the game making a perfect balance of paragon and renegade Sheppard would have fans debating for years on how faithful to the game he was portrayed by the actor and so many more reasons that would make the film not work at all.

Part 1: Yes, that is the problem. Stop doing that and the problem is solved. I already said that. There are artists in the world who still have integrity.

Part 2: I have seen Avatar. I have seen Transfromers. I have seen The Thing. I am not worried about special effects or budget. As for the debate of what the protagonist will look/act like: First of all, you assume that a Mass Effect movie must be about Shepard. For the sake of argument, if it is about Shepard, he would be all default and neutral with paragon ending and renegade alt ending after the credits. If the "fan" doesn't like that it's no longer their story, tough shit; I don't complain that I can't choose the 'renegade' option at the end of Minority Report; I don't complain when Batman doesn't kill the Joker in Dark Knight; I wouldn't complain if Shepard doesn't kick a merc out a hundred story building.

 

[Bocaj2000]

And to be fair, who here thinks that a film studio would take all these steps over a mass effect film, no they just want to milk the series in till they can't make any more money off it. They are all ready beating the Resident Evil series with a bat and they would do the same to Mass Effect given the chance, and they are too lazy to go to so much trouble to achieve a perfect film and that is why Mass Effect would make a bad film, and in lamens terms

1) Cost too much to make a faithful version of the universe in film
2) Impossible to get an actor to play a perfect version of the player in the game
3) Too complex to fit in to one film and would cost a fortune in sequels
4) People would not go see it because they thought it was lame.
5) All the critics would review it negatively without looking at the fact it was based on a game

1) Lord of the Rings did a good job
2) Because real actors are too wooden?
3) Why does it have to be complex? Also, the same was said about the Avangers.
4) Dark Knight and Avengers beg to differ
5) Dark Knight and Avengers again

 

[end_boss]

One of my favourite games of all time is Shadow of the Colossus, and it must never be made into a movie. To do so would either destroy what made it great, or else make for a really bad movie. I doubt I even need to explain why.

 

[Tollo]

They said the same thing with comic books.

Any game CAN be a good movie. All that you have to do is be motivated to make a good product for the purpose of artistic pride. Yes, it is that easy.

Instead we are getting motivations based solely on greed and making quick easy money.

Yes most of the video game movie business is based on greed, the scripts are written by people who have not even played the game, in stead they opted for reading the wikipedia article and writing something hardly related to it with a few elements borrowed from the series and then slapping the brands name on it selling it to groups of fans expecting it to be the best thing ever but in stead leave feeling as if they got a dead puppy for Christmas.

Edit: Bocaj2000 you have to look on a lager scale, yes a Mass Effect film would translate easily in to a film script on paper and it would be good but their are other problems e.g faithfully recreating the world of mass effect along with characters and it would take a big budget that not many people would shell out for. Also seeing as Commander Shepard is the protagonist and to be honest a different person for each fan who played the game making a perfect balance of paragon and renegade Sheppard would have fans debating for years on how faithful to the game he was portrayed by the actor and so many more reasons that would make the film not work at all.

Part 1: Yes, that is the problem. Stop doing that and the problem is solved. I already said that. There are artists in the world who still have integrity.

Part 2: I have seen Avatar. I have seen Transfromers. I have seen The Thing. I am not worried about special effects or budget. As for the debate of what the protagonist will look/act like: First of all, you assume that a Mass Effect movie must be about Shepard. For the sake of argument, if it is about Shepard, he would be all default and neutral with paragon ending and renegade alt ending after the credits. If the "fan" doesn't like that it's no longer their story, tough shit; I don't complain that I can't choose the 'renegade' option at the end of Minority Report; I don't complain when Batman doesn't kill the Joker in Dark Knight; I wouldn't complain if Shepard doesn't kick a merc out a hundred story building.

Well yes I do assume that Sheppard is the lead protagonist seeing as the entire story revolves around him fighting the reapers and associated antagonists, also you may not complain but all I see here is a lot of people whining that Mass Effect would make a good film who are then one of the people who are first to complain when it looks like an episode of Thunderbirds, unless we want to start talking a bout a prequel film which would enrage every mass effect fan boy on the planet. Also it is impossible to transfer mass effect to a film it just would not work, you can't take a game that is a 3rd person Rpg shooter action adventure with at least 40 hours of gameplay a game and turn it in to a film, because they would end up missing key points and a script based on mass effect would be terrible. In every single way the acting wood be wooden the effects would be boring the dialogue would be terrible and I would be shoving pins in to my eyes before they even got to scaren.

 

[Tollo]

And to be fair, who here thinks that a film studio would take all these steps over a mass effect film, no they just want to milk the series in till they can't make any more money off it. They are all ready beating the Resident Evil series with a bat and they would do the same to Mass Effect given the chance, and they are too lazy to go to so much trouble to achieve a perfect film and that is why Mass Effect would make a bad film, and in lamens terms

1) Cost too much to make a faithful version of the universe in film
2) Impossible to get an actor to play a perfect version of the player in the game
3) Too complex to fit in to one film and would cost a fortune in sequels
4) People would not go see it because they thought it was lame.
5) All the critics would review it negatively without looking at the fact it was based on a game

1) Lord of the Rings did a good job
2) Because real actors are too wooden?
3) Why does it have to be complex? Also, the same was said about the Avangers.
4) Dark Knight and Avengers beg to differ
5) Dark Knight and Avengers again

1) LOTR is a series of books, and most of the games sucked. And yes they were made very well but for some reason Peter Jackson can rip as much money out of the company, might get him to direct it.

2) No it's just their characterisation would be weird stick with animation

3) Because a complex plot is what fans would want not "LETS ATTACK THE REAPERS GUNFIGHT EVERYONE DIES"

4) Both of them have been around longer than any of us and have millions of fans and little kids trying to buy out the toyline.

5) Both comics have 40-60 years of source material and characterisation to rely on, also these two superheroes were around when everyone who was ages 10+ read comic books and were around for what are considered the golden age of comics, Mass effect has been around 5-6 years with a few books 3 games, and let's be honest is a 13 year old kid going to play mass effect, or just go watch batman and play COD.

6) A cultural icon that has had so much money dumped in to it and well Christopher Nolan directing is bound to be good, Nearly every comic book fan has heard or has read batman, not every gamer in the world has played mass effect and most people don't really like it. At least people I know and I don't think a video game script based on a video game plot is going to be something aw inspiring.

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

SkiFree the Movie

An underdog amateur skier enters a tournament to win the affection of the girl of his dreams, but little does he know he has more to worry about than just his competition. Starring Adam Sandler as the Abdominal Snowman.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Any game with:
Complex backstory (Metal Gear franchise)
No context (Tetris)
Shallow context and world (Monster Hunter)
Customisable main character (Mass Effect)

So that's most games. Of course there are games outside of this that wouldn't work (Zelda), I've probably missed something, but oh well.

You just need good writers to fix these problems.

Complex back-story - introduce elements slowly. Star Wars is a good example of this.
No context - makes for a very good short film due to its infinite artistic freedom. Best described by this picture:

Spoiler

Shallow context and world - shallow world =/= shallow story
Customizable main character - Use default. If there is no default, use good judgment.

In short, yes, complex backstory can be good, but I'd say more often than not it is done poorly. No context, ok, maybe a short film, but I was thinking in terms of an hour or so, and I'm not considering distant removals from the source material either. You got me with the shallow one, shallow story should be there as well. As for the customisable character...maybe you would be happy with the default, I'm sure about half of all people would, but for me that would cheapen the experience greatly.

 

[Mirroga]

Shadow of the Colossus. A game heavily based in such a subtle and simple story along with most of the game's epicness wrapped around the player interaction would just make a very terrible movie.

 

[Angie7F]

angry birds.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Ok so, theoritically I think that any videogame franchise could be made into a decent movie.

BUT. It would have to be a different story to that depicted in the game or at least from a different point of view.

The problem that I have with movies based off games is that they are simply retelling the story from the game but as a movie. What is the point of that? We've already seen this story because we PLAYED THE GAME. The thinking behind this sort of thing just baffles me.

I'm alright with movies about stuff surrounding the events of a game though or even just set in that same universe with only tagential relations to the original story. That way they can explore more of the setting and that sort of thing.

Yeah, except if they did that the fans would throw one hell of a hissy fit.

Because the film is not a perfect captivation of the game and they could do a better job at it, and all the fan boy rage would build up in till WW3 happened with fanboy's from every corner of the world would fight to the death over the characterisation of a two bit action hero.

They think they could do a better job of it when chances are that they'd ruin it more than anything made by Uwe Boll ever could.

 

[Tollo]

Ok so, theoritically I think that any videogame franchise could be made into a decent movie.

BUT. It would have to be a different story to that depicted in the game or at least from a different point of view.

The problem that I have with movies based off games is that they are simply retelling the story from the game but as a movie. What is the point of that? We've already seen this story because we PLAYED THE GAME. The thinking behind this sort of thing just baffles me.

I'm alright with movies about stuff surrounding the events of a game though or even just set in that same universe with only tagential relations to the original story. That way they can explore more of the setting and that sort of thing.

Yeah, except if they did that the fans would throw one hell of a hissy fit.

Because the film is not a perfect captivation of the game and they could do a better job at it, and all the fan boy rage would build up in till WW3 happened with fanboy's from every corner of the world would fight to the death over the characterisation of a two bit action hero.

They think they could do a better job of it when chances are that they'd ruin it more than anything made by Uwe Boll ever could.

Yep I agree with that 100%

 

[MBurdock]

If you limit it to games that are story-driven (bye bye SMB, Angry Birds, Counterstrike, TF2, etc), and you stick with a 90-120 minute movie, most games would still make terrible movies.

I think there are two major problems: thin plots and lengthy stories.

Many "story-driven" plots still have incredibly flat characters or formulaic plots. Others are just too long. Mini-series, maybe (Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment would be perfect for this). Trilogy, maybe.

So, among the short and story-driven games, what would be a terrible movie? Uncharted. While the characters are robust as far as video games go , they're completely played out movie stereotypes.

I think that Half-life could be a great movie though. You'd have to condense some of the sewer crawling, and it would be largely a silent performance, but it's a solid action movie story.

 

[crazyrabbits]

Some game genres translate decently to film. Most fighting game movies, if nothing else, are often cheesy fun that gets the spirit of the games near-perfect (Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, etc.) There have been a few good movies based on shooters as well - Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was decent enough, and had several nods to the games and gameplay mechanics.

That said, some of my favorite games would not translate well to film.

Deus Ex: Half the fun of the games is discovering the additional/alternate conversations throughout the game, and making choices on how to handle any given situation. The other half is the engrossing story and the weapon modding. Those elements would be lost in a film adaptation.

Any board game - if Battlefield is anything to draw a conclusion from, it just doesn't work because you often have to invent a backstory or plot.

Any game where you have the choice of multiple pasts / classes / origins.

 

[Bocaj2000]

snip

You are quite the pessimist, aren't you. You honestly think that it s impossible to find good directors, producers, and actors? Good writers DO exist. It has the ability to work. Everything you are saying has been said about comic book adaptations. Yes, it took a while for studios to take them seriously, but once they did, we got serious Batman (who used to be a comedic hero).

Do we need Mass Effect movie? No, the series is so good, it doesn't need one. But it CAN work. If something as stupid of an idea as My Little Pony can be as popular as it is due to a dream team of good writers and animators, then anything can.

(Also, side note: the books aren't about Shepard. The movie doesn't have to be about Shepard either. It could be about the first contact war or even Archangel's squad)

 

[Tollo]

snip

You are quite the pessimist, aren't you. You honestly think that it s impossible to find good directors, producers, and actors? Good writers DO exist. It has the ability to work. Everything you are saying has been said about comic book adaptations. Yes, it took a while for studios to take them seriously, but once they did, we got serious Batman (who used to be a comedic hero).

Do we need Mass Effect movie? No, the series is so good, it doesn't need one. But it CAN work. If something as stupid of an idea as My Little Pony can be as popular as it is due to a dream team of good writers and animators, then anything can.

(Also, side note: the books aren't about Shepard. The movie doesn't have to be about Shepard either. It could be about the first contact war or even Archangel's squad)

Yes but getting the correct actors directors and a good script are hard to find and cost a lot, they honestly would not dump so much money in to something when there is a chance it will flop, when they made the avengers and batman let's both admit they are icons and people would love to go see them, but Mass Effect?

The studio would have to be sure, and please don't call me a pessimist I would love to have a Mass Effect film but sadly there are numerous factors that have to be looked at. I would like a film or expansion based on the Commanders early life. as a child.