Mass Effect: Now with Popcorn

[shatnershaman]

Avi Arad (film producer) has optioned the Mass Effect Movie Rights.

http://weblogs.variety.com/the_cut_scene/2008/09/mass-effect-mov.html

Will it be a success? Who would you cast? How can I possibly ask a third question?

 

[Raven28256]

Ugh, more proof that our entertainment in general is becoming completely unoriginal. Hollywood now is all "Blah...too lazy to make an original idea...Go find a superhero, video game, TV show, novel, or indeed another movie and we'll just make a movie out of it."

Honestly, I don't see the appeal of game movies. Most suck horribly because the crew working on it rapes the source material and doesn't even care enough to try and make something worth watching. Often times, it is best to just go play the game. Everything by Uwe Boll is bad enough to warrant negative ratings. Hitman was bad. The Resident Evil movies are bad. Doom was down there with Uwe Boll in terms of crappyness. The Tomb Raider movies were bad. The Super Mario Bros. film just makes me say "What the HELL were they THINKING?!"

My point is, honestly, why does anyone have ANY hope for movie adaptations of games to be anything worth watching? They are just what Hollywood goes to when multi-billion dollar megacorporations decide they suddenly need more money, but don't want to work for it.

 

[the monopoly guy]

Avi Arad (film producer) has optioned the Mass Effect Movie Rights.

http://weblogs.variety.com/the_cut_scene/2008/09/mass-effect-mov.html

Will it be a success? Who would you cast? Would you watch it?

That's how.

 

[TaboriHK]

Name one video game movie that lived up to the game.

 

[Asparagus Brown]

The game was almost a movie as it was.

I can't see how removing the interactivity would improve things.

 

[DeleteMe1112311]

In order: No. Doesn't matter; no actor will make it good, and NO. I wouldn't watch this if I was paid.

But to avoid sounding like a troll I suppose I'll back up my statements...Never has a movie based on a game been good. Its much like movie based on a book, all the elements and characters will be boiled into one 90 minute soup of hell. It won't work and though it may have been a good idea if there was no game, basing it on mass effect will kill it.

 

[ekimski]

anyone remember wing commander?
im not supprised if you do i surely wish i had

not only did they try to make a space submarine movie but they shaved the kilrathi

even the FMV cut scenes in the last few games were better in every aspect they even had mark Hamill, Maclom Mcdowell and John Rhys-Davies
the movie had......ummmmmmmmmmmm no one?

 

[lumenadducere]

I enjoyed the game (shallow RPG but fun for what it was), but definitely wouldn't be seeing a movie version of it. Remove the playing and the choice in dialog and it's a completely worthless experience.

 

[Pigeon_Grenade]

Any time they try, they Allways screw something up, theres potential to Do something, but there to bust doing drugs to really study said focus Material to actualy pull it off with any accuracy

Doom could have been good if they went with the super-natural vibe, they decided to go with science, and ruined it all

Resident evil could have pulled it off, instead they focus on super Powering Alice through the course of the 3 movies, a character created for the Sole purpose of getting super powered through the 3, and since they are done in movie form they are left with a open end because mostly they aren't sure if it will be worth a sequel. anything the movie did is not much of anything the game ever did, and where are the T virus slugs?

Hitman strayed from the subject matter a lot as well, mostly because the subject matter(and more or less the game) is completely based Around how the player gets into said location, and kill selected Targets, and or retrieve things after said persons dead., how can you get a movie out of That and not screw it up

Mass effect is also completly based around what the player does, Attempting to make a movie already butchers the subject matter

(they were on magic mushrooms when they made the Mario brothers Movie)

 

[PurpleRain]

Why keep making game to movie adaptions? Unless you're god, then it will probably suck.

 

[Fire Daemon]

Spoiler

I want to know who Shepard will save. Ashely (sp?) will probably live but it's still up in the air. And what gender will Shepard be? Shepard is as much a female character as a male character. Interesting.

 

[Yassen]

No it won't live up to the game and I'm surprised EA would ever think it could. The reason i enjoyed Mass Effect is 'because' i could decide how to do things. Take KOTOR and force unleashed for example. I loved KOTOR because i got to know my character intimately because essentially i was him, but with force unleashed I'm just running this guy from fight to fight and letting him do anything that actually advances the plot.

The same thing goes with Mass Effect, i really loved shephard because i could decide what he could do and i turned him into someone i respected and liked. If they just choose how to do things and let us watch it will be a massive failure because they've taken away the very thing people liked about the game.

Not everything needs to be a movie Hollywood, i wish you could understand that.

 

[magicmonkeybars]

At this point I'd rather see Bollywood make a mass effect movie then Hollywood.
atleast that would be an new swing on video games based movies.

the more I think about it the more I can see myself watching it.

 

[Theo Samaritan]

While its obvious it won't live up to the game, bare in mind the company in question is headed by the guy that produced the Iron Man film, along with many other movies that *shock* didn't suck!

Ofcourse there are bad apples but every Producer gets it wrong sometimes. Unless you are Jackson.

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

Am I the only one who found the characters in that game totally cliched and boring? Listening to all the dialog was like ticking off a back-story checklist, and much of the story in that game didn't have anything to do with the game's story.

Unless you are Jackson.

Wasn't he responsible for King Kong?

 

[Theo Samaritan]

Unless you are Jackson.

Wasn't he responsible for King Kong?

It wasnt a total fuckup.

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

It wasnt a total fuckup.

Granted.

 

[Amnestic]

I can almost guarantee they'll fudge up making all the party character seem interesting/getting their back story out. There simply won't be enough time to go visit Dr. Saleon with Garrus, talk to Wrex about his family issues, chat with Tali about the Quarian flotilla and the Geth, Ashley about her family/religion (And because it's hollywood and I predict a male shepherd, romance), Kaiden about his implants and Liara about...well I can't honestly remember.

Either way, you won't be getting the characters out of it. Though I undoubtedly will go see Mass Effect in cinemas, I'm apprehensive already, which isn't a terribly good sign.

Resident evil could have pulled it off, instead they focus on super Powering Alice through the course of the 3 movies, a character created for the Sole purpose of getting super powered through the 3, and since they are done in movie form they are left with a open end because mostly they aren't sure if it will be worth a sequel. anything the movie did is not much of anything the game ever did, and where are the T virus slugs?

That's why I thought the first Resi film was the best. It got steadily more ridiculous as it went on. I don't know why they couldn't have the films based closer around the games. Admittedly cut out the boring fetch puzzle solving and whatnot (You mean to open this one door I need to fetch three distinct emblems from throughout the house? Can't I just kick it down? No? *Sigh*), but there was no real reason to *not* have the films based quite closely on the games. 1 in the mansion with Chris, Barry, Jill and Wesker, 2 with Claire, Leon and Sherry, 3 with Jill, Carlos and assorted extras. What's wrong with that idea

Heck, they even bothered to include Jill, Carlos and Claire in the films they actually made. Admittedly the connection for Claire in the third was a tad tenuous and unnecessary and seemed more like a mention for the fans of the games than something of actual importance, but still ;/ They fudged up what could have been a fairly decent series of films.

 

[Hey Joe]

I think Mass Effect could be made into a movie quite well as it always had that cinematic feel to it in both its action sequences and its plot points. It had some great writing, and there's definitely a solid base to work from here. Take the last level for instance. Pure. Cinematic. Gold.

I personally think it could be an awesome sci-fi movie, but is it going to be anything that hasn't been seen before by the movie going public?

The biggest hurdle is going to be choosing what to cut out of the games to include in the film. Because Mass Effect is a game about choice, presenting a linear narrative is just not going to cut it with fans of the game who have had a much more personal relationship with the game.

 

[Taerdin]

Maybe I'm just an idiot, but I always thought the Silent Hill movie really captured the 'feel' of the games. I'm not saying it was a work of cinematic art, but there were a few times where I really just said to myself, wow... that is soo 'silent hill'.

Basically what I mean is like... the way the 'monsters' moved, the way the world changes, the story which initially seems to not make much sense being revealed to us all at once by a character towards the end, even the map in the hospital reminded me of playing silent hill and having to bring up the map to count how many hospital doors down my objective was or some such.

Feel free to flame the movie to hell, but I really believe it worked rather well in that sense at least.