The Ugly Truth About Videogame Movies

[phatduece]

movies based on games will never be any good, although for some reason i am holding out hope that warcraft will be different because of how anal blizzaed is when it comes to their franchises, because studio execs are just business people. they dont get the average video game fan, they think hmmm this game sold a gabillion copies so lets just make a movie as cheap as we can and throw it into the marketplace and let the masses eat it up. it that kind of inane thinking that has watered down hollywood and it is stupid for us to think otherwise. until the studios are willing to throw down some serious cash and make a serious big budget movie that is based on a video game using the best directors, writers, actors etc then movies based on games will simply continue to suck sweaty donkey ass....the worst movie ever made that was based on a video game in my opinion was bloodrayne. i would rather have had an 18in unlubed dildo continually shoved in my ass then watch that god awful piece of shit.....alas being the video game dork that i am i will continue to watch movies based on games i'll just dl them instead of blowing my money to go see them.

 

[incal11]

Was Silent hill (the movie) mentioned ?
It wasn't half bad either, at least it was a step in the good direction.

 

[Zer_]

Video Game movies are crap because the movie editors have to go through people like Warner Brothers and Paramount before their movie is finalized. You have assholes who have never touched a video game in their life tainting the storyline and making changes so "the movie has mass appeal."

I had some good expectations for Max Payne, and this [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/86911-3D-Realms-Bewildered-By-Max-Payne-Movie] article sums up my opinion well enough. Max Payne and PG-13 do NOT go well together. The editors, director and actors usually have a passion for the movies they make, but the people funding their movies do not. In the end it's the people who provide the funding that decide how a movie ends up and they are the assholes who ruin them for us.

A movie's first draft is almost always the best. It's when you have people who really shouldn't have any say in a movie get their hands on the script that shit goes downhill. Sure there are bad editors and directors but most of the time it's corporate dickheads that fuck up our movies.

 

[gamegod25]

No, I don't think our expectations are too high. As you pointed out the movies have only been "crappy" at best. And while I don't expect them do follow the gams story word for word, if you are going to make a Doom movie then I at least expect it to A) take place at some point in Hell B) fight actual demons instead of generic mutated monsters and C) actually hit something other than menacing walls with the BFG at least once. What they did wasn't some minor changes to the story, it was the removal of what makes Doom, Doom. It would be like making (for example) a Zelda movie without Link, replaced the triforce with generic magic stones or something, and not take place in hyrule.

 

[jimduckie]

i have one movie for movie based games that suck , it's ET ever since then all movie based games suck

 

[Ghost8585]

I don't want to start up a new thread, and since I just finished watching the Max Payne movie, I wanted to go on a little rant. So here it goes:

Max Payne is a 90-ish minuet checklist of why games should NEVER, NEVER EVER be subject matter for a movie. The key here is shouldn't. It?s not that it cannot be done. It most certainly could, since video games are a visual and auditory medium, and even as far back as Metal Gear Solid on the original playstation, characters have been able to convey actual emotion, coming off as real life actors (hell sometimes even better then real life actors.)

If Hollywood were to actually make a good movie based off a game, it' so simple. Keep the story in its entirety alone, the breakdown the gameplay segments into bite-sized chunks to keep the movie a watchable length without an intermission. That's it, that is all you have to do, why is that so hard? Why do writers and directors feel the need to add more to an already complete story? It's like when you ask for a drink at a bar, and the bartender makes it 'off', and your face makes weird contortions trying to come to terms with what you are actually drinking. "Artistic license" they?ll say when you question it. "It's my own style, do you like it?" FUCK NO I DON'T LIKE IT! WHISKEY SOURS ARE NOT ART, BARTENDING IS NOT STYLE. JUST PUT IT IN A TUMBLER, AND THROW IT AT MY HEAD.

Sorry lost my train of thought. If the story was lacking in any discernable area, it wouldn't be the driving point for why people would play the damn game (and more importantly pay $60 for the fucking privilege of doing so.) Take for example Silent Hill (another movie based off a game in case you?re retarded). It kept the needless changes to a minimum, maintaining the same pacing, camera angles, music & sound effects, ect. everything that made the actual game as good as it was. It even kept 90% of the characters intact. I saw the Silent Hill movie opening day and while I was still somewhat disappointed I begrudgingly felt that that was the best these types of movies are ever going to get, and box office sales numbers agree with me.

Part of me feels that writers do this not because of the "Uppity Bartender" theory but because they feel they need to make a compromise. While few gamers are still stupid enough to be excited when a new movie is announced, their excitement is because that particular story meant a lot to them and they want non-gamers to enjoy it too. The writer and director in turn feel the need to make a compromise to gamers and non-gamers alike, effectively sticking their cock in a once tasty salad that in turn satisfies no one. In Max Payne (the movie), John Moore and Beau Thorne couldn?t have missed the point more if they were holding the gun backward, and the point was in another country all together. I'm just glad I didn't pay for it.

Yes, I'm proud saying it. I think Hollywood doesn't understand why people download movies. It?s not because we?re lazy, or cheap. It?s because you don't respect you. You don't DESERVE our money. We worked for it, we earned it. When you shovel shit like this in our faces time and again (like X-Men origins), we shove right back. If you don't like it, earn our respect back.