Portal movie - How would that work?

[BarryMcCociner]

A portal movie could work easy.

You go to the Portal theater, walk out the Half Life theater.

Jokes aside, isn't JJ Abrams directing the Portal film? Most of his forays into existing IP's have been tolerable, if not good. So i suppose there's reason to be optimistic about what he's going to try.

 

[happyninja42]

Just do Portal like 2001. That movie is about a human being trapped in an environment, controlled by a homicidal AI. It could easily be done as a movie. Unless people demand that Chell not speak, which I think would just be silly to require that. But yeah, use the model for drama of 2001, the enterplay of Dave/Hal, but make it Chell/Glados, and boom, you've got a movie.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

SNIP

It wasn't vague, it was emphatic. Can a Portal movie work? No, no it can not.
Silent Protagonist aside, which is a very big aside, its an FPS puzzle game. Meaning the puzzles were meant to be seen from the first person, and the joy of the game was figuring out the puzzles, mistiming a jump and dying.

A literal trial and error gameplay, with quirky dark comedy from GLaDOS. Almost none of which can translate into movie. Can't do a first person movie, check out Doom and that sickening, lurching attempt at POV. Can't really have puzzles, because we're not the ones solving it, Cel is. Can't do stakes or tension, because there's only the one character and they're not about to kill her off in the first puzzle. Or even the second. Third. Fourth. Fifth.

So you'll lose the tension, the satisfaction of solving a puzzle, and the POV perspective to see what's Cel's doing. The only thing they could possible do is GLaDOS's dark comedy, and that's not enough.

So no. Portal is doomed from the start. And that's not cynicism, that's just thinking. Think it through and you would know 3/4th of the elements of the game can't be in the movie.

 

[Igor-Rowan]

Oh well, I tried to remain optmistic, but yoy guys brought me to reality, I guess it's not meant to be.

Snip

Well, translating the story IS going to be an obstacle, but you can't deny on the videos shown in this thread demonstrate that Portals can work with a different POV. Even if it's not meant to be those videos alone show that something impressive to the eyes can be done.

 

[Saelune]

SNIP

It wasn't vague, it was emphatic. Can a Portal movie work? No, no it can not.
Silent Protagonist aside, which is a very big aside, its an FPS puzzle game. Meaning the puzzles were meant to be seen from the first person, and the joy of the game was figuring out the puzzles, mistiming a jump and dying.

A literal trial and error gameplay, with quirky dark comedy from GLaDOS. Almost none of which can translate into movie. Can't do a first person movie, check out Doom and that sickening, lurching attempt at POV. Can't really have puzzles, because we're not the ones solving it, Cel is. Can't do stakes or tension, because there's only the one character and they're not about to kill her off in the first puzzle. Or even the second. Third. Fourth. Fifth.

So you'll lose the tension, the satisfaction of solving a puzzle, and the POV perspective to see what's Cel's doing. The only thing they could possible do is GLaDOS's dark comedy, and that's not enough.

So no. Portal is doomed from the start. And that's not cynicism, that's just thinking. Think it through and you would know 3/4th of the elements of the game can't be in the movie.

I think a Portal movie -can- work, but it would be a far harder endeavor than most games. The thing is, games far easier to adapt to film have been utter garbage, that how can we expect -anyone- to do Portal justice? Especially Michael Bay the nerdy Sequel, aka J.J. Abrams.

Plus the movie would have to be very unconventional probably, and no major studio is ever excited to take such risks.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Oh well, I tried to remain optmistic, but yoy guys brought me to reality, I guess it's not meant to be.

Snip

Well, translating the story IS going to be an obstacle, but you can't deny on the videos shown in this thread demonstrate that Portals can work with a different POV. Even if it's not meant to be those videos alone show that something impressive to the eyes can be done.

Well no, not really. Those videos are terrible. Or at least, if they're meant to be Portal, they're terrible. No puzzles, no GLaDOS, no POV, no comedy. Its just a skinny girl fighting dudes(which I don't remember from the game) and running in a straight line, which seems more like Mirror's Edge than anything else.
I think those videos prove without a doubt that Portal can't work, because adaptations lose everything that makes Portal Portal, and a straight movie-port won't work because no Studio would greenlight it, and even then, POV movies are horrible to watch.

 

[CaitSeith]

Oh well, I tried to remain optmistic, but yoy guys brought me to reality, I guess it's not meant to be.

Snip

Well, translating the story IS going to be an obstacle, but you can't deny on the videos shown in this thread demonstrate that Portals can work with a different POV. Even if it's not meant to be those videos alone show that something impressive to the eyes can be done.

Well no, not really. Those videos are terrible. Or at least, if they're meant to be Portal, they're terrible. No puzzles, no GLaDOS, no POV, no comedy. Its just a skinny girl fighting dudes(which I don't remember from the game) and running in a straight line, which seems more like Mirror's Edge than anything else.
I think those videos prove without a doubt that Portal can't work, because adaptations lose everything that makes Portal Portal, and a straight movie-port won't work because no Studio would greenlight it, and even then, POV movies are horrible to watch.

What's up with that obsession with POV? That's part of the mechanics, but not of the theme (unlike the portal gun). And puzzles in movies won't work? Jigsaw would like to play a game with you. Portal is a escape story. Escape stories have been done into movies successfully in the past.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

SNIP

Because POV is the whole point of the puzzles! We would never be able to solve the puzzles if we don't see what she's seeing, and just doing a few quick pan shots of turrets and lasers while she smirks in realization isn't the same. Might as well watch a Lets Play of Portal and call it a movie.

Also Jigsaw doesn't do puzzles, he does poetically brutal moral traps. He almost always tells you exactly how to solve it or get out, its just brutal and he own version of justice. Cutting my leg off or stabbing my dick with a needle filled with AIDS blood isn't a puzzle.

Portal is not an escape story, its a trial/error puzzle story. You only escape at the very end of the 2nd game, and even then its up in the air if you really did escape or not.

 

[Tony2077]

well they made a "movie" out of battleship so who knows this may be possible

 

[FalloutJack]

well they made a movie out of battleship so who knows this may be possible

Actually, I liked it, and since "You're never the only one...". Well, let's give it some credit, although the one REAL disappointment is that nobody uttered "You sunk my battleship!".

OT: I like Sweetshark's idea, bur in the sense of making the fan-made Portal Prelude into a movie. It's a beginning, it has people in it with dialogue, it leads up to a situation of Glados going frigging nuts that needs to be resolved, and it has the use of Portals. Perfect.

 

[Tony2077]

well they made a movie out of battleship so who knows this may be possible

Actually, I liked it, and since "You're never the only one...". Well, let's give it some credit, although the one REAL disappointment is that nobody uttered "You sunk my battleship!".

OT: I like Sweetshark's idea, bur in the sense of making the fan-made Portal Prelude into a movie. It's a beginning, it has people in it with dialogue, it leads up to a situation of Glados going frigging nuts that needs to be resolved, and it has the use of Portals. Perfect.

OK i liked it as-well i just said it that way because it is subjective

 

[CaitSeith]

SNIP

Because POV is the whole point of the puzzles! We would never be able to solve the puzzles if we don't see what she's seeing, and just doing a few quick pan shots of turrets and lasers while she smirks in realization isn't the same. Might as well watch a Lets Play of Portal and call it a movie.

Also Jigsaw doesn't do puzzles, he does poetically brutal moral traps. He almost always tells you exactly how to solve it or get out, its just brutal and he own version of justice. Cutting my leg off or stabbing my dick with a needle filled with AIDS blood isn't a puzzle.

Portal is not an escape story, its a trial/error puzzle story. You only escape at the very end of the 2nd game, and even then its up in the air if you really did escape or not.

That really made me laugh. The movie being in POV would actually make it more like a LP video than anything else. Ironically that's pretty much what you're asking for by making the movie so strictly close to the game in terms of execution: a Portal LP video.

And Portal is a trial/error puzzle game, but the story is about trying to escape from the research center. Specially after the part where you discover that...

Spoiler

The cake is a lie!

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Well, I say "It'll be shit" and just leave it at that instead. I don't even think I'm being particularly negative, just realistic.
Theoretically, there is a possibility of a good Portal movie, yes.
But there's a problem with it: Tarkovsky is a bit busy being dead.
And he never played the games anyway.

Yes, because only 1 director who ever lived could direct a Portal movie!!!

I feel you my friend...
Everywhere you look here is a judgment of something without even be out yet or worst, be put and judge without even see it or play it from themselves...
For sure I pretent that there isn't a possibilty of a Pprtal movie suck HARD, but at least wait see for ourselves.

Yeah, it's pretty bad here. I remember just a bit ago a thread with the TC was exclaiming how great The Last Guardian looked. Basically every post but mine was it looks "generic" or "it looks its age". I think a creator is at least allowed a trilogy before his/her style becomes generic, and The Last Guardian will be only the 3rd Team ICO game made. Yet the Souls games are have already totaled 5 games with barely any change and those games aren't considered "generic". Who cares how the game looks; again, the Souls games don't look like anything great either (graphically, not aesthetically). Not to mention if you make a thread about graphics here, everyone comes into say fidelity isn't that important.

Because POV is the whole point of the puzzles! We would never be able to solve the puzzles if we don't see what she's seeing, and just doing a few quick pan shots of turrets and lasers while she smirks in realization isn't the same. Might as well watch a Lets Play of Portal and call it a movie.

Most games that use 1st-person camera just use it because it's far easier than a 3rd-person camera. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case for Portal considering it was a very low budget and experimental game that wasn't even a standalone game when released. Anything done in 1st-person can be done in 3rd-person but not the other way around. You totally can't do a puzzle game in 3rd-person, that has never been done before!!!

 

[ultrabiome]

It can work. But it would have to be like Cube and a comedy. Instead of having just one test subject you'd have a team and they'd die one by one in funny ways until only one of them remains.

The idea of a team was essentially my thought imaging a Portal movie as well. Might work totally PG without death (elaborate fails that could have killed) to the ultra gory where few or one survive. And maybe end like the game on a ??

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

If you ask me 10 Cloverfield Lane (which Abrams produced) already had the makings of a Portal movie.

 

[DoPo]

Ever heard the sound of a hype train crashing? I did.

As for me...I can't understand how this is so much of a thing, really. Can a Portal move work? Yes. Can a Portal movie suck? Yes. Why does it matter to place our bets now and moreover why should we shout down who people who've put their chips an opposite choice? ...

I'm drawing a blank here.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

So, mister videogame movie enthusiast, remind me on which side you were in the Warcraft movie thread?

Want to find me a quote to indicate why that question is at all relevant?

Either way. I'm generally always on the side that isn't whining about absofuckinglutely everything.

You're whining. Right now. You really are.
Accept that people can have opinions different from yours and move on. This pretense that you're somehow better because you're "positive" and the like is cheap and looks silly because, guess what, you're not on both occasions.

You can't have an opinion on a work of art that doesn't exist yet. You said, "It won't work. Like at all." That is objectively wrong because a good Portal movie can exist. Will the Portal movie probably be bad? Yeah, but that's the case for just about every movie ever made, you've really enlightened the rest of us with your uniquely different opinion that no one else could have ever thought of, congratulations!!!

The thread is about how would a Portal movie work so you input has been completely inconsequential.