On another blog (linked to from my last post) we discussed the idea of video game movies, and whether they follow the story or not.
It got me thinking about why movies based on video-games (as opposed to other media, like tv-shows, books, or comics, which are seemingly easier to adapt) tend to turn out badly. Plenty of people have made lists of the “Top 10 Video-Game Movies”, but usually with fairly heavy caveats; they’re not good movies, just good video-game movies. So why is it proving so difficult? I have some thoughts on different reasons:
- “Video-game movies are just bad movies relying on name-recognition to make money.” — While certainly true of some, there have been “bad” movies made by competent people who love and respect the source material. Just the same as any other adaptation (*cough*Hobbit*cough*).
- “This will only make sense/be of interest to fans of the game.” — There might be some particularly egregious examples, but again, this applies to any other adaptation as well. A lot of moments in Avengers: Endgame wouldn’t have had quite the same impact if the audience weren’t familiar with (several) previous MCU movies.
- “Video games don’t have stories.” — Most, if not all, games have a story (even if it’s a simple one not in keeping with real-world logic, like, I don’t know, “a dragon turtle has kidnapped the mushroom princess and only a plumber can save her”). Even purely mechanical puzzle-games like Tetris can be used as a story prompt: e.g. “A wall must be built (the Kremlin decreed it), but something (gremlins?) disrupts the building process”.
The most successful video-game movies seem to be either ones where the game has a simple premise (e.g. “Mortal Kombat” – evil dimension hosts a fighting tournament), or are based around a protagonist character rather than a specific plot (e.g. “Tomb Raider” – what if Indiana Jones but badass english heiress). Again, not to say they have been especially great movies, but successful at entertaining their audience without deviating too far from the source material. A lot of games have a good high-concept hook to base a film on, but it can be difficult to provide something else to make them stand out: for example, “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” had nothing obviously wrong with it, but came across as a generic middle-eastern swashbuckler.
On that basis (being brave and making a prediction), out of the allegedly upcoming films, “Uncharted” ought to do well (buoyed on the charisma of the characters), whereas “Just Cause” will probably recieve a resounding meh (the game’s popularity more to do with the freedom to mess about in an open world).
Thought Attempts 