23 ms·

So many video game movie projects are missing the simple question, "why?" So many of these games are inspired by movies in the first place, and their stories ar

So many video game movie projects are missing the simple question, "why?" So many of these games are inspired by movies in the first place, and their stories are mostly just cliches based on their source material. It's fine in the context of the game, because the player is doing something, but when you put that into a non-interactive medium, the flaws become obvious. If you take Indiana Jones, turn it into a game with a sexy woman as the main character[1], and then try to make a movie out of it, then of course the critical reaction is going to be "Indiana Jones but not as good." Mortal Kombat is basically Enter the Dragon with a simpler storyline, so why would you decide to turn it into a movie? It's an issue that comes up in most adaptation, whether it be a book, or a comic, or even a song. There needs to be some reason to do it. Some idea that the source material does that hasn't already been done to death in film. "This game/movie/book is popular" isn't a good enough reason. It might get a movie greenlit, and it might even make money. Heck, it might even make a TON of money, but it won't make the movie good. [1] Later iterations of Tomb Raider have been much more feminist, but the original concept was entirely based on sex appeal

craftyguy 9y ago
This is a great point. The real question is "Why is Hollywood trying to make video game movies?"
- krapp 9y ago
  They think it's easy money.
  - otterley 9y ago
    And the numbers prove it.
    - craftyguy 9y ago
      In which case, the article here doesn't really have a point. Why try to make good video game movies in the first place?
      - emodendroket 9y ago
        Surely a video game movie getting rave reviews would sell even more tickets. And you have to imagine the people making a movie hope viewers like it.
        krapp 9y ago
        You'd think so, but Michael Bay's Transformers franchise is widely despised by critics and fans (and rightly so), and also makes hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars worldwide. When you have audacity, nostalgia and guaranteed merchandising potential you don't need the movie to be good, unfortunately.
        emodendroket 9y ago
        I have to think the people who keep coming back for one installment after another don't despise the movies. And in fact I remember being dragged to Transformers II by an ex who really wanted to see it because she enjoyed the first one.
      - throwaway2048 9y ago
        quite a few in the filmsphere and in decision making positions in holywood itself still care significantly about the art of film, independantly from the money thats brought in.
  - imglorp 9y ago
    Yes, because someone else already paid to get all the branding and name recognition. They're just drafting off it, via higher reward with lower risk than an un-branded new thing.
- d0lph 9y ago
  Because the world and characters some games develop is occasionally interesting and compelling?
  - ant512 9y ago
    Like the rumored Tetris movie?
    - Izkata 9y ago
      I can't seem to find anything more recent than June 2016 on the so-called Tetris Trilogy (though I admit to not looking very hard), but this fake Tetris movie trailer from 2012 is something that I think could actually be interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhwGEa7507g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhwGEa7507g
ssambros 9y ago
Mortal Kombat was not a bad movie if you ask me.
- MrMember 9y ago
  Mortal Kombat wasn't amazing but it's definitely watchable. The sequel, on the other hand...
  - badlucklottery 9y ago
    Agreed. MK Annihilation is amazingly bad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA5nDyJ8sA0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA5nDyJ8sA0
    - lostgame 9y ago
      Oh, wow, thank you for sharing this. I have some kind of kink for shitty movies, and this truly, really fulfills that for me. Holy crap, this is bad. 3% on Rotten Tomatoes...
      - badloginagain 9y ago
        You might enjoy the podcast 'How did this get made'. Three comedians rip on the best of the worst. They have great chemistry and Jason Manzoukous is probably the funniest person on the planet.
      - joshmarlow 9y ago
        If you haven't yet, you probably need to see "The Room". My expectations... could not live up to the reality.
    - throwaway456889 9y ago
      WOW. This brings back memories. This movie should be watched, while stoned! I recall watching this a few times while stoned, was insane.
    - abledon 9y ago
xnaas 9y ago
>So many of these games are inspired by movies in the first place, and their stories are mostly just cliches based on their source material. Just Cause 2 was the best "shitty action movie" video game I've ever played!
wtetzner 9y ago
> So many video game movie projects are missing the simple question, "why?" I'm pretty sure it's just because they want to tap into the large existing fanbase of those games.
C7H8N4O2 9y ago
> There needs to be some reason to do it. Some idea that the source material does that hasn't already been done to death in film. Or some capability of the new format. Pulling standalone creative works forward into modernity is interesting. Some of my favorite movies are adapted from plays written before film. The timeline is shorter with video games <> movies, but AAA games are already cinematic and VR is basically here (needs lower hardware cost). How would your favorite composer have used a synthesizer?
emodendroket 9y ago
Many of those premises sound fine though. Jean Claude Va Damme mad three different movies with the plot of Bloodsport, which in the first place wasn't much different from Enter the Dragon. Plenty of people enjoyed them. On the other hand, Rampage seems like something that's hard to work into a movie.
- egypturnash 9y ago
  Rampage's plot: "Three people are turned into giant monsters and start destroying cities." That's a pretty good B-movie plot. Do a good job making the rubber monster suits and that's half the film right there.
  - ansible 9y ago
    Are you both aware that Rampage is now an actual movie? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rampage_(2018_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rampage_(2018_film)
    - emodendroket 9y ago
      Yes, I intentionally chose it for that reason. I had the same reaction to that as I did to Battleship.
    - egypturnash 9y ago
      Yes, I know.
  - dmix 9y ago
    >That's a pretty good B-movie plot. It can be good... in the right hands. We're all debating various complex semantics when the only thing that ultimately really matters is talent... who ultimately is in control of these building blocks. Talent with the director, talent with the screenplay, talent with the acting, etc. There has been plenty of dumb plots, stories, concepts, etc that have been turned into great movies by talented people. Reservoir Dogs, Clerks 1, Napoleon Dynamite, The Abyss, etc would all sound dumb, boring, or cliche on paper, but were made highly watchable by talented film makers working in their prime. Just like startups, the only thing that matters is people, not how clever your original idea is. You could have the perfect movie idea, which many big budget have had (which translate well into trailers and per-release marketing), but turn out to be awful once it's turned into the 1.5hr+ long final product.
CyberDildonics 9y ago
The reason why doesn't have to do with quality, it has to do with built in marketing. There is a reason that you see your childhood sold back to you 25 years later when you can be full of nostalgia and introduce your own kids to it fresh.
- sidlls 9y ago
  Supporting evidence: the Rampage movie, "Toys of the 80s" (or whatever that Netflix series" is, etc. I'm not ashamed that my 6 year old knows who Orko is and that five kids can drive a sword weilding group of mechanical lions to defend the universe.
  - CyberDildonics 9y ago
    Also GI Joe, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Scooby Doo, Transformers, Garfield, The Cat in the Hat, Smurfs, Star Wars, Terminator, Star Trek, Karate Kid, Spiderman, X-Men, Battleship, Speed Racer...
cptskippy 9y ago
> So many video game movie projects are missing the simple question, "why?" So many of these games are inspired by movies in the first place, and their stories are mostly just cliches based on their source material. I agree. > It's fine in the context of the game, because the player is doing something, but when you put that into a non-interactive medium, the flaws become obvious. All forms of art are inspired by other forms of art, this is no basis to write them off. Would you dismiss Michelangelo's work because he was influenced by Giovanni? Or Giovanni because he worked under Donatello? Should we just write off all fantasy novels post Tolkien? What about D&D? Or Warhammer? The Matrix was obviously inspired by the cyberpunk universes created by authors like William Gibson, do we just dismiss it? There's nothing wrong with taking inspiration from other works and you can successfully create something new and wonderful when doing so. > If you take Indiana Jones, turn it into a game with a sexy woman as the main character[1], and then try to make a movie out of it, then of course the critical reaction is going to be "Indiana Jones but not as good." The Nation Treasure movies were pretty well received despite being "Indiana Jones without a whip or Nazis". Apart from Indiana Jones being an archeologist tomb raider, the similarities with the Tomb Raider franchise are minimal. The reason the first Tomb Raider movies were so poorly received is because they just bad 90s action movies skinned with Tomb Raider IP, lipstick on a pig. Looking at the new Tomb Raider movie's trailer, I'm betting it's going to fail as well. It might actually be a decent movie but fans of the game will hate it for rebooting the story and people who don't play video games will avoid it for being a video game movie. In my opinion, successful adaptations work when they're loyal to the source material and improve upon it. The Island of Doctor Moreau is a great example. The book itself is a bit dated with 19th century science about vivisection that is preposterous to even the layman today. The premise though is sound and 1996 movie adaptation remains true to it while updating the science and as a result it is a wonderful adaptation. The the Marvel Cinematic universe has been so successful despite plots that beat a dead horse, you could even argue that they repeat their own plots in subsequent movies. Despite that they're a resounding success because they're loyal to the source material and improve upon it by bringing the action to life in a way that's impossible in comics. There are plenty of video games that have interesting characters, stories, or even premises that could be adapted into films, I think the main problem is that Hollywood is uninterested in making a good movie, they just looking to cache in on the IP. > It's an issue that comes up in most adaptation, whether it be a book, or a comic, or even a song. There needs to be some reason to do it. Some idea that the source material does that hasn't already been done to death in film. I agree with your sentiment but disagree with your assertion that the innovation must come from the source. The play Romeo and Juliet inspired West Side Story in 1961 and was adapted into at least 10 films since yet the 1996 movie Romeo + Juliet received critical acclaim despite retaining almost all of the dialog from the original play. > "This game/movie/book is popular" isn't a good enough reason. Why not? The Harry Potter series seems to have done pretty well for itself despite not really bringing anything really new to the table in terms of story telling or worlds. What makes the series so beloved? I think there are plenty of video games that could inspire a decent movie. The universe that the Portal and Half-life games exists in has so much potential. I could see a compelling film being made about Barney, Alyx Vance and the City 17 resistance fighters prior to the events of Half-Life 2. Or maybe a story about some aspect of Aperture Science Laboratories as alluded to in Portal 2's various levels.
dapreja 9y ago
Maybe holidwood should hire they creator of emoji movie. That peice of shit stood out.
baddox 9y ago
I think you overlook the importance of execution in filmmaking. Especially for genre films (which most video game movies would probably be), the premise (the “why?”) isn’t really that important, and even the thinnest premise is possible to execute well.
jitix 9y ago
I think Mass Effect trilogy is fairly original and does away with a lot of the space sci-fi cliches like humans being the ruling class of the galaxy, or all species having a united voice, etc. I’d love to see it made into a movie.
- bananarepdev 9y ago
  When i think about Mass Effect, what comes to mind are these long sequences in the Citadel where you do nothing more than talk, learning about the biology, technology qnd geopolitics of the game's universe. I don't think this kind of content would fit a blockbuster movie, and without it what remains is a bunch of space marines shooting aliens.
  - jitix 9y ago
    Actually the looong cutscenes where you cannot do anything, is one of the reasons I think it’d be a good movie. If you think about it it’s a very interactive story. Yes, you have choices like most RPGs but they don’t really matter at the end. The learning about background stuff is one thing that the movie makers would have to smooth out. I think the new tomb raider does a good job at balancing backstory and the plot. Assasins creed, not so much.
    - lagadu 9y ago
      Specifically about Mass Effect: I think the difficulty here is that the ME universe is pretty vanilla by scifi standards. The good part about the games is how they present a big universe and fill it up with lore and characters for you to explore and because of it (at least for me) the game's immersion goes very smoothly from "I'm playing a video game" to "I'm commander fucking Shepard and I'm saving this galaxy whether it wants to or not". I think that'd be pretty hard to bring to a non-interactive medium. Sure good novels can be written but again, a film lacks the time to give so much exposition.
  - skocznymroczny 9y ago
    I view Mass Effect as KOTOR without a Star Wars license. It has always felt to me like Bioware wanted a parallel universe to a popular universe, one they could have creative control over. Kind of like Warcraft was basically Warhammer without license and Starcraft feels in many ways similar to WH40k.
Bluestrike2 9y ago
What's really interesting is that there are a number of video game franchises with nuanced backstories that have spawned successful and surprisingly well-written novels. So it's definitely possible to take a video game and turn it into a book. And there are plenty of books that get turned into excellent movies or TV shows (of course, there are plenty that get turned into bad ones, FWIW). Books like Eric Nylund's Halo: The Fall of Reach, Greg Bear's Forerunner Saga (Halo again), or Brandon Sanderson's Infinity Blade: Awakening are all pretty well-respected and did well in terms of sales. Probably because they manage to avoid falling into the temptation to simply recreate the game experience as a book. They use the game's plot as a starting point to influence the story without dictating it. Of course, by deviating away from "the game" as fans experienced it, you risk alienating them because the final product doesn't match up with what they expect. And because the same fans are probably the reason why the studio is willing to finance the movie in the first place, I can sort of understand why Hollywood repeatedly tries to hew closely to the source game even though that approach has repeatedly screwed them. The peculiar thing is that they face a somewhat similar situation when they turn a book into a movie. And yet, Hollywood is more than willing to take risks and deviate away from the source material when necessary. So what about video games in particular scares the studios away from doing the same?
- andrewflnr 9y ago
  It may be the similarity of the medium that hamstrings Hollywood. Going from prose to a movie tends to absolutely force a lot of compromises. You no longer really have the option of extensive narration, seeing into characters' thoughts, etc, and the whole thing has to fit into 200 minutes at the outside. A video game already operates under similar constraints as a movie, so it's possible to create a movie that's very similar. You just take a recording of a well-done play-through as your outline. It could be that without the excuse provided by the drastic change in medium, Hollywood types lose the nerve to do what's necessary.
  - ehnto 9y ago
    I would argue that the medium of video games is more free to explore a rich story than either books or movies, video games benefit from the ability to explore story and lore asynchronously from the main plot, with unique branching, and at the players leisure, so appealing to a wide audience with every detail isn't necessary. Some games can even continue story telling for hundreds of hours, meandering through dozens of different storylines, arcs, characters, minute details, (Skyrim, Fallout,..). Some games even have their own books inside the games that the character player can read! The medium really is quite a bit more flexible than a movie. Where I think some comments are suggesting that games are not story rich enough to translate into movies and that's certainly true in some cases, I would argue that the types of story telling are simply not always directly compatible with a linear movie story line.
verinus 9y ago
I often have the impression that the reason why for some movies is: "to make money". that in itself is always a bad reason for doing things imho.

craftyguy 9y ago

This is a great point. The real question is "Why is Hollywood trying to make video game movies?"

krapp 9y ago
They think it's easy money.
- otterley 9y ago
  And the numbers prove it.
  - craftyguy 9y ago
    In which case, the article here doesn't really have a point. Why try to make good video game movies in the first place?
    - emodendroket 9y ago
      Surely a video game movie getting rave reviews would sell even more tickets. And you have to imagine the people making a movie hope viewers like it.
      - krapp 9y ago
        You'd think so, but Michael Bay's Transformers franchise is widely despised by critics and fans (and rightly so), and also makes hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars worldwide. When you have audacity, nostalgia and guaranteed merchandising potential you don't need the movie to be good, unfortunately.
        emodendroket 9y ago
        I have to think the people who keep coming back for one installment after another don't despise the movies. And in fact I remember being dragged to Transformers II by an ex who really wanted to see it because she enjoyed the first one.
    - throwaway2048 9y ago
      quite a few in the filmsphere and in decision making positions in holywood itself still care significantly about the art of film, independantly from the money thats brought in.
- imglorp 9y ago
  Yes, because someone else already paid to get all the branding and name recognition. They're just drafting off it, via higher reward with lower risk than an un-branded new thing.
d0lph 9y ago
Because the world and characters some games develop is occasionally interesting and compelling?
- ant512 9y ago
  Like the rumored Tetris movie?
  - Izkata 9y ago
    I can't seem to find anything more recent than June 2016 on the so-called Tetris Trilogy (though I admit to not looking very hard), but this fake Tetris movie trailer from 2012 is something that I think could actually be interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhwGEa7507g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhwGEa7507g

ssambros 9y ago

Mortal Kombat was not a bad movie if you ask me.

MrMember 9y ago
Mortal Kombat wasn't amazing but it's definitely watchable. The sequel, on the other hand...
- badlucklottery 9y ago
  Agreed. MK Annihilation is amazingly bad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA5nDyJ8sA0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA5nDyJ8sA0
  - lostgame 9y ago
    Oh, wow, thank you for sharing this. I have some kind of kink for shitty movies, and this truly, really fulfills that for me. Holy crap, this is bad. 3% on Rotten Tomatoes...
    - badloginagain 9y ago
      You might enjoy the podcast 'How did this get made'. Three comedians rip on the best of the worst. They have great chemistry and Jason Manzoukous is probably the funniest person on the planet.
    - joshmarlow 9y ago
      If you haven't yet, you probably need to see "The Room". My expectations... could not live up to the reality.
  - throwaway456889 9y ago
    WOW. This brings back memories. This movie should be watched, while stoned! I recall watching this a few times while stoned, was insane.
  - abledon 9y ago

xnaas 9y ago

>So many of these games are inspired by movies in the first place, and their stories are mostly just cliches based on their source material. Just Cause 2 was the best "shitty action movie" video game I've ever played!

wtetzner 9y ago

> So many video game movie projects are missing the simple question, "why?" I'm pretty sure it's just because they want to tap into the large existing fanbase of those games.

C7H8N4O2 9y ago

> There needs to be some reason to do it. Some idea that the source material does that hasn't already been done to death in film. Or some capability of the new format. Pulling standalone creative works forward into modernity is interesting. Some of my favorite movies are adapted from plays written before film. The timeline is shorter with video games <> movies, but AAA games are already cinematic and VR is basically here (needs lower hardware cost). How would your favorite composer have used a synthesizer?

emodendroket 9y ago

Many of those premises sound fine though. Jean Claude Va Damme mad three different movies with the plot of Bloodsport, which in the first place wasn't much different from Enter the Dragon. Plenty of people enjoyed them. On the other hand, Rampage seems like something that's hard to work into a movie.

egypturnash 9y ago
Rampage's plot: "Three people are turned into giant monsters and start destroying cities." That's a pretty good B-movie plot. Do a good job making the rubber monster suits and that's half the film right there.
- ansible 9y ago
  Are you both aware that Rampage is now an actual movie? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rampage_(2018_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rampage_(2018_film)
  - emodendroket 9y ago
    Yes, I intentionally chose it for that reason. I had the same reaction to that as I did to Battleship.
  - egypturnash 9y ago
    Yes, I know.
- dmix 9y ago
  >That's a pretty good B-movie plot. It can be good... in the right hands. We're all debating various complex semantics when the only thing that ultimately really matters is talent... who ultimately is in control of these building blocks. Talent with the director, talent with the screenplay, talent with the acting, etc. There has been plenty of dumb plots, stories, concepts, etc that have been turned into great movies by talented people. Reservoir Dogs, Clerks 1, Napoleon Dynamite, The Abyss, etc would all sound dumb, boring, or cliche on paper, but were made highly watchable by talented film makers working in their prime. Just like startups, the only thing that matters is people, not how clever your original idea is. You could have the perfect movie idea, which many big budget have had (which translate well into trailers and per-release marketing), but turn out to be awful once it's turned into the 1.5hr+ long final product.

CyberDildonics 9y ago

The reason why doesn't have to do with quality, it has to do with built in marketing. There is a reason that you see your childhood sold back to you 25 years later when you can be full of nostalgia and introduce your own kids to it fresh.

sidlls 9y ago
Supporting evidence: the Rampage movie, "Toys of the 80s" (or whatever that Netflix series" is, etc. I'm not ashamed that my 6 year old knows who Orko is and that five kids can drive a sword weilding group of mechanical lions to defend the universe.
- CyberDildonics 9y ago
  Also GI Joe, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Scooby Doo, Transformers, Garfield, The Cat in the Hat, Smurfs, Star Wars, Terminator, Star Trek, Karate Kid, Spiderman, X-Men, Battleship, Speed Racer...

cptskippy 9y ago

> So many video game movie projects are missing the simple question, "why?" So many of these games are inspired by movies in the first place, and their stories are mostly just cliches based on their source material. I agree. > It's fine in the context of the game, because the player is doing something, but when you put that into a non-interactive medium, the flaws become obvious. All forms of art are inspired by other forms of art, this is no basis to write them off. Would you dismiss Michelangelo's work because he was influenced by Giovanni? Or Giovanni because he worked under Donatello? Should we just write off all fantasy novels post Tolkien? What about D&D? Or Warhammer? The Matrix was obviously inspired by the cyberpunk universes created by authors like William Gibson, do we just dismiss it? There's nothing wrong with taking inspiration from other works and you can successfully create something new and wonderful when doing so. > If you take Indiana Jones, turn it into a game with a sexy woman as the main character[1], and then try to make a movie out of it, then of course the critical reaction is going to be "Indiana Jones but not as good." The Nation Treasure movies were pretty well received despite being "Indiana Jones without a whip or Nazis". Apart from Indiana Jones being an archeologist tomb raider, the similarities with the Tomb Raider franchise are minimal. The reason the first Tomb Raider movies were so poorly received is because they just bad 90s action movies skinned with Tomb Raider IP, lipstick on a pig. Looking at the new Tomb Raider movie's trailer, I'm betting it's going to fail as well. It might actually be a decent movie but fans of the game will hate it for rebooting the story and people who don't play video games will avoid it for being a video game movie. In my opinion, successful adaptations work when they're loyal to the source material and improve upon it. The Island of Doctor Moreau is a great example. The book itself is a bit dated with 19th century science about vivisection that is preposterous to even the layman today. The premise though is sound and 1996 movie adaptation remains true to it while updating the science and as a result it is a wonderful adaptation. The the Marvel Cinematic universe has been so successful despite plots that beat a dead horse, you could even argue that they repeat their own plots in subsequent movies. Despite that they're a resounding success because they're loyal to the source material and improve upon it by bringing the action to life in a way that's impossible in comics. There are plenty of video games that have interesting characters, stories, or even premises that could be adapted into films, I think the main problem is that Hollywood is uninterested in making a good movie, they just looking to cache in on the IP. > It's an issue that comes up in most adaptation, whether it be a book, or a comic, or even a song. There needs to be some reason to do it. Some idea that the source material does that hasn't already been done to death in film. I agree with your sentiment but disagree with your assertion that the innovation must come from the source. The play Romeo and Juliet inspired West Side Story in 1961 and was adapted into at least 10 films since yet the 1996 movie Romeo + Juliet received critical acclaim despite retaining almost all of the dialog from the original play. > "This game/movie/book is popular" isn't a good enough reason. Why not? The Harry Potter series seems to have done pretty well for itself despite not really bringing anything really new to the table in terms of story telling or worlds. What makes the series so beloved? I think there are plenty of video games that could inspire a decent movie. The universe that the Portal and Half-life games exists in has so much potential. I could see a compelling film being made about Barney, Alyx Vance and the City 17 resistance fighters prior to the events of Half-Life 2. Or maybe a story about some aspect of Aperture Science Laboratories as alluded to in Portal 2's various levels.

dapreja 9y ago

Maybe holidwood should hire they creator of emoji movie. That peice of shit stood out.

baddox 9y ago

I think you overlook the importance of execution in filmmaking. Especially for genre films (which most video game movies would probably be), the premise (the “why?”) isn’t really that important, and even the thinnest premise is possible to execute well.

jitix 9y ago

I think Mass Effect trilogy is fairly original and does away with a lot of the space sci-fi cliches like humans being the ruling class of the galaxy, or all species having a united voice, etc. I’d love to see it made into a movie.

bananarepdev 9y ago
When i think about Mass Effect, what comes to mind are these long sequences in the Citadel where you do nothing more than talk, learning about the biology, technology qnd geopolitics of the game's universe. I don't think this kind of content would fit a blockbuster movie, and without it what remains is a bunch of space marines shooting aliens.
- jitix 9y ago
  Actually the looong cutscenes where you cannot do anything, is one of the reasons I think it’d be a good movie. If you think about it it’s a very interactive story. Yes, you have choices like most RPGs but they don’t really matter at the end. The learning about background stuff is one thing that the movie makers would have to smooth out. I think the new tomb raider does a good job at balancing backstory and the plot. Assasins creed, not so much.
  - lagadu 9y ago
    Specifically about Mass Effect: I think the difficulty here is that the ME universe is pretty vanilla by scifi standards. The good part about the games is how they present a big universe and fill it up with lore and characters for you to explore and because of it (at least for me) the game's immersion goes very smoothly from "I'm playing a video game" to "I'm commander fucking Shepard and I'm saving this galaxy whether it wants to or not". I think that'd be pretty hard to bring to a non-interactive medium. Sure good novels can be written but again, a film lacks the time to give so much exposition.
- skocznymroczny 9y ago
  I view Mass Effect as KOTOR without a Star Wars license. It has always felt to me like Bioware wanted a parallel universe to a popular universe, one they could have creative control over. Kind of like Warcraft was basically Warhammer without license and Starcraft feels in many ways similar to WH40k.

Bluestrike2 9y ago

What's really interesting is that there are a number of video game franchises with nuanced backstories that have spawned successful and surprisingly well-written novels. So it's definitely possible to take a video game and turn it into a book. And there are plenty of books that get turned into excellent movies or TV shows (of course, there are plenty that get turned into bad ones, FWIW). Books like Eric Nylund's Halo: The Fall of Reach, Greg Bear's Forerunner Saga (Halo again), or Brandon Sanderson's Infinity Blade: Awakening are all pretty well-respected and did well in terms of sales. Probably because they manage to avoid falling into the temptation to simply recreate the game experience as a book. They use the game's plot as a starting point to influence the story without dictating it. Of course, by deviating away from "the game" as fans experienced it, you risk alienating them because the final product doesn't match up with what they expect. And because the same fans are probably the reason why the studio is willing to finance the movie in the first place, I can sort of understand why Hollywood repeatedly tries to hew closely to the source game even though that approach has repeatedly screwed them. The peculiar thing is that they face a somewhat similar situation when they turn a book into a movie. And yet, Hollywood is more than willing to take risks and deviate away from the source material when necessary. So what about video games in particular scares the studios away from doing the same?

andrewflnr 9y ago
It may be the similarity of the medium that hamstrings Hollywood. Going from prose to a movie tends to absolutely force a lot of compromises. You no longer really have the option of extensive narration, seeing into characters' thoughts, etc, and the whole thing has to fit into 200 minutes at the outside. A video game already operates under similar constraints as a movie, so it's possible to create a movie that's very similar. You just take a recording of a well-done play-through as your outline. It could be that without the excuse provided by the drastic change in medium, Hollywood types lose the nerve to do what's necessary.
- ehnto 9y ago
  I would argue that the medium of video games is more free to explore a rich story than either books or movies, video games benefit from the ability to explore story and lore asynchronously from the main plot, with unique branching, and at the players leisure, so appealing to a wide audience with every detail isn't necessary. Some games can even continue story telling for hundreds of hours, meandering through dozens of different storylines, arcs, characters, minute details, (Skyrim, Fallout,..). Some games even have their own books inside the games that the character player can read! The medium really is quite a bit more flexible than a movie. Where I think some comments are suggesting that games are not story rich enough to translate into movies and that's certainly true in some cases, I would argue that the types of story telling are simply not always directly compatible with a linear movie story line.

verinus 9y ago

I often have the impression that the reason why for some movies is: "to make money". that in itself is always a bad reason for doing things imho.