So....a Duke Nukem movie, I did not expect this to happen in this day and age.

McElroy

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The people who usually say that either hate Duke, or don't care much for the franchise to begin with.
"Caring" is too strong of a word for it. Duke Nukem is a fun action figure and that's not enough for a movie. The franchise absolutely doesn't need a movie. I can imagine a tired and dull script in which Duke is a man out of time and fails to do anything until aliens actually attack and he gets to prove himself. **yawn** They don't have the guts or creativity to do a character study of sorts of Duke's gigachad attitude, and so I'm afraid they might easily go down the route of deciding Duke is too boring and make drama about other characters instead -- something that fans just love. If I could decide (and had to make a Duke Nukem movie), I'd make it over-the-top subversive but still about Duke himself.
 
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Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
In the modern world, can see Duke being like one misjudged social trigger away from ranting about "blue-haired feminists," the "great replacement" and sweatily asking how much you know about "adrenochrome" and "the Clinton body count."
At most, Sam might post an "all lives matter" hashtag before hastily taking it down once someone explains the context and connotations.
I don't know if Duke would go that far, but he is definitely the kind of obnoxious that only quotes movies and always wants to go to seedy strip clubs and thinks its cool that all the strippers know his name.

Heh, I can see Sam doing that.
 

BrawlMan

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Well... some of these games come from an age where computer game characters didn't really have characters. They're just really a sprite that goes places and does stuff. The creators never thought that far at the time. But then narrative arrives into games, and they need to create some sort of personality, significant backstory and so on. Firstly, this is going to ruin how some people imagined the character to be, because they'll have filled that initial void with their own imaginations in different ways. Secondly, many computer game designers aren't exactly narrative and character focused in their skillset, so they'll tend to mediocrity and cliche in these areas.
I know. I was there. Not for all of it, but for plenty of enough of it.

Duke Nukem is sort of awkward. Despite being 90s, he's more a throwback to the 80s and society has moved on. It's very unclear to me whether Duke Nukem can be produced in anything like the feel of the original, because it will invite absolutely tons of flak unless they leaven it in ways that destroy the authenticity. I just don't think anyone would want to take that on (with a significant backer/budget), so we're almost guaranteed to get a sort of bowdlerised Duke Nukem.
Yet Lo Wang exists just fine. They did retool Wang in the first reboot game. In the second game, he's acts more like his original self. That got some controversy , because it was love it or hate it territory. The writing of SW2 was not helping. SW3 brings back the right balance, and most people accepted fine. What's even weirder is that he reboot trilogy is supposed to be a prequel to the original game. So for whatever reason, Wild Hog is pulling a Ninja Gaiden. Why? You can honestly ignore that, and the series would work fine as a separate stand alone reboot trilogy. Back on point, if they can get an Asian minstrel character modernized appropriately for modern audiences, they can do the same for Duke.

If I could decide (and had to make a Duke Nukem movie), I'd make it over-the-top subversive but still about Duke himself.
Exactly. An idea like that can work for a movie or a game.
 

Piscian

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Mm This needed to be made in 1995 with Bruce campbell as a kind of semi-parody. Naw this is the usual "In development" crap with that Assassins' creed idiot at the helm. MIght as well have just given it to Uwe Boll.
 
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BrawlMan

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MIght as well have just given it to Uwe Boll.
The funny thing is, Boll is not allowed to make movies anymore in Hollywood, nor in Germany. Everyone in Hollywood hates him, and Boll exploited the German tax loophole so many times, he managed to piss off the government and that part of the film industry, because most of his movies are so shitty to begin with. Giving him Duke would not even help him much.
 
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SilentPony

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Mm This needed to be made in 1995 with Bruce campbell as a kind of semi-parody. Naw this is the usual "In development" crap with that Assassins' creed idiot at the helm. MIght as well have just given it to Uwe Boll.
Uwe Boll would at least have the right tone for a Duke Nukem movie - parody. I know he thinks he does game accurate game movies, but they're parodies. Unintentional comedies. That's exactly what Duke Nukem is. Duke thinks he's serious, he thinks he's the King, he thinks he the best. And he's throwing shit at giant pigs, playing football and eating at fast food joints.
He's not meant to be taken seriously, and at least Boll doesn't understand source material enough to take it seriously.
 

sXeth

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But even classic Duke Nukem 3d had women being violated to give birth to aliens and a big-titted alien queen. The sketchy nature of Duke Nukem goes back pretty far.
On the overall line of the series, 3d and Forever are only half of the games, possibly even less (depends whether you consider the first two trilogies episodic games or each episode being a full game).


That said, there's been so many deconstructions and parodies of that general 80s archetype hero (Last Action Hero comes to mind as having a character that was essentially OG Duke).


Doing the 3D version would just be Deadpool with less wit (and I already find Deadpool tiresome, so thats saying something)
 

SilentPony

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Doing the 3D version would just be Deadpool with less wit (and I already find Deadpool tiresome, so thats saying something)
See I would almost want a less wit Deadpool, because I already see Deadpool as witless and I would love moviegoers to have the same groaning, cringing stone-faced movie experience I do when a new Deadpool comes out.
 
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BrawlMan

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Deadpool with less wit (and I already find Deadpool tiresome, so thats saying something)
Ryan constantly doing these films where his characters are usually expies of himself, Deadpool, or both are not helping. I am delibrately avoiding most of them, so I don't get burned out by the time Deadpool 3 ever releases.
 

SilentPony

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Ryan constantly doing these films where his characters are usually expies of himself, Deadpool, or both are not helping. I am delibrately avoiding most of them, so I don't get burned out by the time Deadpool 3 ever releases.
See I think Ryan is a really good fit for Deadpool. His sense of humor is exactly in keeping with Deadpool, and as much as I don't like them, I must admit the Deadpool movies are good Deadpool movies. They capture Deadpool and his humor.
I just can't stand that type of humor. I can't stand self-referential, self-deprecating humor that doesn't have a punchline. Like I remember the first DP movie there's a joke about how they only had the budget for some of the cheap Xmen no one likes because the studio doesn't have faith in the franchise. And they then proceed to...only have cheap budget Xmen no one likes. The punchline would have been Patrick Stewart coming in because he felt sorry for Ryan Reynolds after the Green Lantern movie, or bringing in Hugh Jackman but he's only working "for scale" so he sits some fight scenes out.
Don't tell me you're shit and then proceed to be shit. Im paraphrazing Yahtzee here, but deliberately shit is still shit.
 

BrawlMan

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See I think Ryan is a really good fit for Deadpool. His sense of humor is exactly in keeping with Deadpool, and as much as I don't like them, I must admit the Deadpool movies are good Deadpool movies. They capture Deadpool and his humor.
I just can't stand that type of humor. I can't stand self-referential, self-deprecating humor that doesn't have a punchline. Like I remember the first DP movie there's a joke about how they only had the budget for some of the cheap Xmen no one likes because the studio doesn't have faith in the franchise. And they then proceed to...only have cheap budget Xmen no one likes. The punchline would have been Patrick Stewart coming in because he felt sorry for Ryan Reynolds after the Green Lantern movie, or bringing in Hugh Jackman but he's only working "for scale" so he sits some fight scenes out.
Don't tell me you're shit and then proceed to be shit. Im paraphrazing Yahtzee here, but deliberately shit is still shit.
I actually don't mind that type of humor when it's done with restraint. The first movie did this fine, but second movie when a little overboard with it. Besides, your reasons is why I dislike the later seasons of Family Guy so much, and Season 3 of Drawn Together. The DT movie is even worse, and is straight up vulgarity and disgusting shock "humor" for the sake of it. The creators of DT got pretentious and bugs up their asses. It costed them dearly as the movie bombed horribly, and they pretty much never got work again.

As for wisecrackers, characters like Dante, Bayonetta, and Viewtiful Joe are the best for me. Especially Dante.
 

Thaluikhain

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Don't tell me you're shit and then proceed to be shit. Im paraphrazing Yahtzee here, but deliberately shit is still shit.
Reminds me of X-Men: Apocalypse, the third of the prequel X-Men films, where Sophie Turner (who is apparently the third person to play Jean Grey, but Im only aware of Famke Jannsen before her) says "The third is always the worst". And it was, and she wasn't very good either. So they used her in a bigger role for the next film to make it even worse and that claim untrue, I guess.
 

SilentPony

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Reminds me of X-Men: Apocalypse, the third of the prequel X-Men films, where Sophie Turner (who is apparently the third person to play Jean Grey, but Im only aware of Famke Jannsen before her) says "The third is always the worst". And it was, and she wasn't very good either. So they used her in a bigger role for the next film to make it even worse and that claim untrue, I guess.
I think in the Xmen Wolverine origins movie there's a cameo scene with young teen Jean played by someone and she like unlocks Wolverine's memories before returning to the mansion.
 

Agema

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I can imagine a tired and dull script in which Duke is a man out of time and fails to do anything until aliens actually attack and he gets to prove himself.
Austin Powers.

This is the only route I see a Duke Nukem movie going. Austin Powers of course being a man brought forward from a less enlightened age who has to learn to be a better person, because he keeps getting his comeuppance when he tries to act like it's still the 60s/70s. He still gets away with a certain amount, but it's tempered just enough.
 

gorfias

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Heh, Duke Nukem the movie. They need a whole boomer video game universe!!!!! Duke must, if I am to love it, must!!! team up with Lo Wang!!!! Then, you got me!
 

Gyrobot

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Austin Powers.

This is the only route I see a Duke Nukem movie going. Austin Powers of course being a man brought forward from a less enlightened age who has to learn to be a better person, because he keeps getting his comeuppance when he tries to act like it's still the 60s/70s. He still gets away with a certain amount, but it's tempered just enough.
I mean there are some good qualities about him that would fit in a modern spy flick reboot

On review, Mr. Powers embodies the zeitgeist that brought us the Summer of Love. He is open, well meaning, almost unfailingly cheerful, polite - within the framework of the hip culture of his period - and he treats those around him, and those who might be seen as his inferiors (with the exception of Carnies) rather well. And he is loyal. All of these traits are perfectly acceptable to the culture of the Kingsman organisation and, in fact, speak well of Mr. Powers as a proto-gentleman. He has, in the parlance of his own period, "it".

The problem is how someone like Duke can fit in modern industry where he has a lot of misogyny to him
 

sXeth

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I'd figure more Demolition Man then Austin Powers, really.
 

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This is going to be fucking terrible.
 

Kyrian007

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I keep trying of a way to think of this in terms of "it just needs a good script" or "you can make something good out of anything with good enough writing." My initial thought was do a "Last Action Hero" with it. Sidekick character gets sucked into the video game world of Duke Nukem, classic videogame tropes and jokes, alien gets loose in the real world, Duke and sidekick have to return to the real world to finish it off, deconstructing video game trope jokes... resolution. But that obviously goes reeeaaallly wrong the second Duke gets into the real world. And that's kind of the problem with every other idea than just making it an 80's spoof. At some point his attitude toward women has to be addressed. And either you go with it and only appeal to the fringe crowd of "anti woke" people (but not all of them because the Bible thumpers wouldn't be on board with the rest of their brethren here) or you lampshade it, making it for... a group of people who aren't really interested in watching a "Duke Nukem" movie in the first place.

Plus, things like Duke Nukem were made specifically for pure dionysian excess. Such properties are generally pretty shallow. It is why there aren't big multimedia franchises around Time Killers or Splatterhouse. They work in terms of the games themselves, I can have a blast playing Time Killers. But a book or movie based on the property... It arguably barely works for things like Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat. Nobody has figured out how to do it well with Doom, or Wolfenstien, Alone in the Dark, Silent Hill. Although it think if SHOULD be able to work for AitD and Silent Hill, the fact that it hasn't points to how difficult it is even for a franchise where it should work.

Then again, they did make something halfway interesting out of Rampage. So I guess that's a way to go with it. Something that fits the most basic framework of Duke Nukem, but is basically just its own thing. A above average written boilerplate alien invasion movie... and the main character's name is Duke. And then in the wrap-up the "love interest" stock character asks him, "what's your last name." And he turns around after putting on sunglasses and lighting a cigar and says, "Nukem... Duke Nukem," in the Duke voice.

And then gets hit by a truck. Cause that would be about the level of wacky the rest of it would have been.