Popculture AHC: Video Game Movie Boom

[Jcoggins]

The challenge is to replace the second Superhero Movie boom with a boom of video game movies. the POD cannot be before the release of the NES in america

[Whanztastic]

Originally Posted by Jcoggins

The challenge is to replace the second Superhero Movie boom with a boom of video game movies. the POD cannot be before the release of the NES in america

As a start, stop Uwe Boll.

Beyond that it is a logistical problem.

Comic books convert really well into film because they're basically already a storyboard to be used.

Video games convert really poorly because they are interactive and so you have to trim off a lot of features to make them into movies, which in part make them fall flat.

[M. Adolphe Thiers]

Originally Posted by Whanztastic

Video games convert really poorly because they are interactive and so you have to trim off a lot of features to make them into movies, which in part make them fall flat.

I agree. Early video games weren't that great for storyboards. It didn't help that movie producers probably didn't have much if any experience in playing them. Street Fighter is the perfect example of a failed adaption early on, I mean Guile was the main character when he's not really that popular, and Ryu has hardly any screen time. Not to mention that Street Fighter II isn't that big on plot to begin with. So there's very little to work with, and Hollywood wasn't that concerned about being faithful to source material, which angers fans.

Later video games have more developed cut scenes and cinematics, and so they are much easier to work with. That's why Resident Evil still has movies being made, and Super Mario Bros. probably won't ever go anywhere.

Plus, around the mid to late 2000s, you now have a generation of adults who grew up with video games and are part of the subculture, and are willing to treat the source material seriously, instead of something to exploit for profit.

[Whanztastic]

Originally Posted by M. Adolphe Thiers

I agree. Early video games weren't that great for storyboards. It didn't help that movie producers probably didn't have much if any experience in playing them. Street Fighter is the perfect example of a failed adaption early on, I mean Guile was the main character when he's not really that popular, and Ryu has hardly any screen time. Not to mention that Street Fighter II isn't that big on plot to begin with. So there's very little to work with, and Hollywood wasn't that concerned about being faithful to source material, which angers fans.

Later video games have more developed cut scenes and cinematics, and so they are much easier to work with. That's why Resident Evil still has movies being made, and Super Mario Bros. probably won't ever go anywhere.

Plus, around the mid to late 2000s, you now have a generation of adults who grew up with video games and are part of the subculture, and are willing to treat the source material seriously, instead of something to exploit for profit.

This is an extreme example but here is a picture of the script for GTA IV on the right (GTA III on the left):




Aguably one of the most 'cinematic' and well-rounded video games ever. How could you successfully condense that into a film?

[M. Adolphe Thiers]

Originally Posted by Whanztastic

This is an extreme example but here is a picture of the script for GTA IV on the right (GTA III on the left):




Aguably one of the most 'cinematic' and well-rounded video games ever. How could you successfully condense that into a film?

Well, that's one of the major issues that has to be addressed whenever an adaption is made. I mean, games like Mass Effect are perfect for movies (and even jokingly referred to as 30 hour movies by people), although it would probably take 4-5 movies just to cover the plot of the first game.

I'd say that recent video game movies have done a better job than the late 80s and 90s films, but it's an art, not a science. Even when Transformers was adapted by Hollywood, plenty of fans still got upset that it wasn't a direct lift from the tv series and dumbed down thanks to Michael Bay, but it still managed to be profitable and marketable to the general public.

[mikegold]

Honestly, I think the Mario Bros. movie could have started this. It's actually not a bad film, but it's not a Mario film, and that's what the fans were expecting. We forget just how BIG Mario was in the early 90's.

[Whanztastic]

Originally Posted by M. Adolphe Thiers

Well, that's one of the major issues that has to be addressed whenever an adaption is made. I mean, games like Mass Effect are perfect for movies (and even jokingly referred to as 30 hour movies by people), although it would probably take 4-5 movies just to cover the plot of the first game.

I'd say that recent video game movies have done a better job than the late 80s and 90s films, but it's an art, not a science. Even when Transformers was adapted by Hollywood, plenty of fans still got upset that it wasn't a direct lift from the tv series and dumbed down thanks to Michael Bay, but it still managed to be profitable and marketable to the general public.

I totally agree. With computer enhancements certain aspects have gotten better such as the 'video game interface' of Scott Pilgrim, but that was lifted from comic books so...

Crank was supposedly another video game inspired movie, but doing it directly is difficult.

I believe the movie Doom tried to use FPS style camera shots, not that anyone saw it.

Edit: A friend suggested Silent Hill as an above average adaptation. I believe the horror genre may be an undertapped adaptation. Hollywood churns out so many of these, I'm surprised they haven't used more VG ideas. Alan Wake seems ripe for it.

[M. Adolphe Thiers]

Originally Posted by Whanztastic

A friend suggested Silent Hill as an above average adaptation. I believe the horror genre may be an undertapped adaptation. Hollywood churns out so many of these, I'm surprised they haven't used more VG ideas. Alan Wake seems ripe for it.

It makes sense to me. Resident Evil has had what...5-6 movies made at this point? I knew a lot of people who saw Silent Hill when it came out and didn't even realize it was based off of a video game. A lot of what works in Horror video games is the same as in movies. Plus a lot of the themes are now popular in the mainstream, like Zombies for Resident Evil. I think you can persuasively argue that Resident Evil had a lot in shaping the modern Zombie genre as it is viewed today.

[unclepatrick]

The big problem with Video Game movies are the Directors. Most of the Directors are first timers who don't know how to do a film yet. Or else they are second rate director like the guy who does the resident evil films. The first thing we would need to get a video game movie boom is a good director like Jame Cameron or Sam Raimi to do one of the early films and have it be a hit.

[MaskedPickle]

Best thing would be to advert the Mario movie bomb, then to have George Romero direct Resident Evil in 2000, in order to show that great directors could have a hand on video game adaptations. The Tomb Raider adaptation would also count.

The Broken Sword series is, in my sense, an example of a video game adaptation that could work.

[T_S_Kimball]

Agreed about the Mario movie; If it tried to tie better into the game without being as hokey, it would have worked better.

Movies based on more story-based games, like the Myst series (overall) or one of the Sierra series at the time, would have been better starts. Would have loved a movie based on Manhunter: New York or even Space Quest (Galaxy Quest don't count ). Also, Half-Life please.

Other amazing bombs in this space that need to be averted:

Final Fantasy: Gah. If it actually had a tie to one of the games, they should have chosen an older one. As it stood, old-timers like me (who have not seen the last 5-6 recent games) were in a constant state of .

Wing Commander: This probably should not have been done at the time, simply because the Kilrathi could not be depicted as well as today. Also, please stop adding odd powers in people that wasn't mainline in the series. /rant

[Blue Max]

My shot at this would be something like a Tron II in 1990 receiving the Terminator II treatment, and working out roughly the same: A big blockbuster about video games; and like Tron itself, videogames deliberately designed around it to be fun and interesting.

This happens early enough that video games consider possible movies as a "different direction" during creation. Other Video Game franchises that never considered incorporating a movie into their world might well move in that direction: Imagine a Warcraft Movie or a Mega Man movie.

Getting rid of Uwe Boll is definitely a plus, but what I'm thinking of is weakening the separation between movies and games. If one looks at Pokemon, they'd see a whole pile of movies and games. Shifting franchises to move in that direction probably leads to a boom.

[vultan]

Originally Posted by Blue Max

Getting rid of Uwe Boll is definitely a plus, but what I'm thinking of is weakening the separation between movies and games. If one looks at Pokemon, they'd see a whole pile of movies and games. Shifting franchises to move in that direction probably leads to a boom.

Really, Star Wars is far more of a video game franchise than a movie franchise by this point...

[Blue Max]

Originally Posted by vultan

Really, Star Wars is far more of a video game franchise than a movie franchise by this point...

Sure. Now get the Prequel Trilogy to migrate into this category, and you're on the road to meeting the challenge.

[thekingsguard]

Step One - Uwe Boll dies in a mysterious accident.

Step Two - Have some of the early video game movies succeed more - Super Mario Bros is a good example.

Step Three - have anybody other than Funimation handle the first few US PokeMon movies - the Japanese originals are actuallt better, especially the early ones. Had the US gotten the original PokeMon movie, it well could have sparked an animated movie boom for video games.

Also, try to keep PokeMon as big as it was for a while longer,

Step Four - George Lucas expressed interest at making a Metal Gear movie. Instead, we got the prequels. He makes this instead.

[T_S_Kimball]

Originally Posted by Whanztastic

As a start, stop Uwe Boll.

OK, so I pulled up this guy's Wikipedia page, since I wanted to know why there's so much vitrol.

And now I only have one response: AGREED. Get him involved in some other subgenre, quickly.

[Jcoggins]

Originally Posted by thekingsguard

Step Three - have anybody other than Funimation handle the first few US PokeMon movies - the Japanese originals are actuallt better, especially the early ones. Had the US gotten the original PokeMon movie, it well could have sparked an animated movie boom for video games.

Also, try to keep PokeMon as big as it was for a while longer,

they dubbed that? wasn't aware of that, they're usually very respectful of the source material

[Thande]

Interesting idea, but I think one major problem is that "videogame films" is not as immediately recognisable a genre as "comic book films" because the latter are basically synonymous with "superhero films". The boom in the latter can be explained as "people went to see one superhero film and liked it, they can immediately recognise other upcoming films as superhero films, so they go and see those". Videogame films doesn't work as well as a genre because there would be a much broader range of material adapted and the general public wouldn't necessarily recognise them as part of a whole and that 'I liked X so I'll like Y' factor wouldn't come in.

[Stolengood]

Originally Posted by T_S_Kimball

And now I only have one response: AGREED. Get him involved in some other subgenre, quickly.

Uwe Boll, art-film director?

[thekingsguard]

Originally Posted by Jcoggins

they dubbed that? wasn't aware of that, they're usually very respectful of the source material

Yeah, they dubbed it and cut out maybe 15 minutes of the movie. Have someone show the whole thing and leave the dialog as is, or even improve it, and you have a movie that will be better than the OTL one.