Video games into movies..

[meka2003]

Do you ever wonder sometimes why they can't just stick to the original video game story and character designs? it would be so much better i think

[NinjaJedi007]

It's even worse when it's turned into a live-action movie with real actors and whatnot. When it comes to that then it's very likely it will be crap.

[James]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Er, I could be hallucinating, but I thought this may have been moved to the lounge. I put it here just because the focus is on something being turned into a film, so I thought it would be relevant here.

Anyway, my opinion is that it's difficult for directors to do these conversions in a sense. If they just replicate the game, word-for-word, on the screen...you might as well just play the game. So I think they probably feel that they have to beef up the story a little and make some changes.

Also, in many games, cut-scenes only take up 40 minutes or an hour or something. Translating that to a two hour (or more) film is not easy without adding things, I'd imagine.

But having said that, it's completely true that most game-related movies are awful. I think this is often because the film makers don't really appreciate or respect the source material. Perhaps they think of the game as being some kind of toy that they can easily convert with little effort. So I'm sure that the general attitude toward games needs to change, in order for these films to have any chance of being worth watching.[/font]

[TheShinje]

[size=1][color=Teal][quote name='James][/color][/size][font=franklin gothic medium][size=1][color=Teal'] Also, in many games, cut-scenes only take up 40 minutes or an hour or something. Translating that to a two hour (or more) film is not easy without adding things, I'd imagine.[/quote]
I thought this little quote hit the nail bang on the head.

When a game is converted to the big screen, the most obvious flaw is it's time, the cut-scenes aren't enough to fully establish a movie, because the focus of the game is the playable scene themselves. I draw parralels to doing the screenplay for the Grinch, a 4-5 page book. when dealing with such little material, directors need to put something else in/ add to the story for the movie to be able to keep it's audience for 2 hours.

The worst of these games-to-movies would ultimately be Mortal Kombat. The game, at least the early iterations the movie was based on had next to no story, and that worked for the kind of game it was because the action that the player directed is story enough. Basing a movie on a game where the only story is defeat a dude, move up etc, then vanquish the top dog, and throwing a mediocre story in there to keep the audience, was foolish, funnily enough, it earned a sequel, which also flopped.

Theres also sticking too true to the story. Uf the plot of Resident Evil had been identical to the one in the first game, how ,mamy would have complained about the total predictability of the movie?

I reckon that, in an alternate universe where Game-movies are sticking 100% true to the story, unoriginality is most certainly their sticking point.[/color][/size]
[/font]

[Guest Kaigaishii]

[quote name='meka2003']Do you ever wonder sometimes why they can't just stick to the original video game story and character designs? it would be so much better i think[/quote][SIZE=1]Yes indeed! ^^[/SIZE]


[color=navy]Please try to put more effort into your posts than two words. Thank You.
--Manic W.[/color]

[PWNED]

Not nesserceraly, People don't demand 100% closeness to the source, They want somewhere around 70 or 80% because too much makes it the story feel forced while too little will have people wondering which... Resident Evil or Final Fantasy it was based on.
I personally want it to be close to the material it is based on but with enough room to allow people to enjoy it without having to view or play the original source.

[Gavin]

[SIZE=1]Interesting, most interesting.

I think as James pointed out, the main problem lies often in the fact that the directors and producers involved in converting a game to a movie just don't respect the source materials. Often they just look at it as basic guidance for the project and do with it what they want afterwards, sometimes you end up with a quite-decent little piece of work and other times you end up with such a perversion that it just makes you want to weep.

When the director of the movie is actually a fan of the material it's taken from you often have to with different interpretations of characters, plot and events but often you end up with a superior piece of work, of course in this case I'm thinking about movies based on other sources like comics, as I've yet to see a decent Game/Movie conversion. As I said in the beginning it's all down to the people involved in the end and how willing they are to make a good piece of work as opposed to just a movie that will cover it's costs.[/SIZE]

[rainbowphoenix]

I hate games that come out from movies beacuse if you have seen the movie you already know what the game is gonna be like, there are a few good games from movires like star wars and lord of the rings but most of the other games are crap I mean look at charlie and the chocolate factory and chiken little I've never played those games but just by looking at the tv ad I can tell that the games sucks.