Computer games being turned into movies

[Doom007]

Okay, I think a trend is picking up with computer games coming out as a movie. Ex: Res evil 1/2, Doom, and I just seen a preview for BloodRayne. Does anyone think that this is getting old, or could be a whole new era with pc games to movie? I'd personally like to see Prince of Persia as a movie, or even Wolfenstein.

But IMO if the story for the movie sticks pretty much to the game story then it shouldn't be that bad of a movie.

[Doom_Dude]

If they would only start making cool versions of game-to-movies.

Then theres always the rushed to release game based on a movie that is released near the same time.... ugh. Maybe they should just stop already.

[Ninja_of_DooM]

or even Wolfenstein.
Well I remember an olde movie from some time ago. It wasn't exactly like it but did feature a castle load of Nazis and a winch car all set on a winter backdrop. Forgot the name though. :p

[Boingo the Clown]

The only problem is that movies based on video games tend to suck. No matter how much money is thrown at them, they seem as if they as if they cheap Roger Corman flicks.

Very little attention is paid to the story, since they are usually action flicks, and they are rearely true to the original games either, which tands to put off the fans of the games. In many cases, the stories within the game are actually better than the stories in the films based on the games.

[doom$ter]

the Mortal Kombat movie was pretty badass though.

[Tchakkazulu]

Movies made from games suck, because:

Games are all about interactivity, choices. The player must be able to identify him/herself with the character. This is done by letting the player make the choices. It develops the character. There is often a story involved with the game, which might influence the way a character plays, but the most important choices are made by the player. The character is different for everyone and thus not build-in.
A movie is the same, no matter who looks at it. To make the viewers identify with the characters, they need lots of information about them. This is what games lack, because the player provides it. And most often, only the poorly developed build-in character makes its way into the movie. If one would base the movie around one specific gaming style, you'd lose the audience of all people who play differently. They don't get a "feeling" with them.

Games made from movies suck, because:
Movies have in-depth developed characters and a linear story. If this gets converted into a game, it would barely leave any space for choices to be made for the player, who might lose interest because of this.

And of course, there are always exceptions. I've heard they did a good job with Spiderman (imho one of the better developed superhero characters), but I haven't played it.

[Ninja_of_DooM]

To correct you Tchakkazulu. They did a good job with Spiderman on the PS2 and other consoles but when it came to the PC version it really flopped bigtime from the reveiws I read. For some reason the conole folks got a great game while PC gamers were left with a watered down and all-round very dull game.

[Aliotroph?]

Producer/publisher types always act is if gamers will think only the story presented as the main plot in the movie is worth telling. This doesn't make any sense. All the movies that have anything worthy of a game are usually set in a rich universe with all kinds of facets to explore, or they present something that would make a good game mechanic.

For example, a Harry Potter story would make a stupid game. It would just be another one of those games that drags you through a bunch of events that were in the movie/book without giving you any depth. However, a Quidditch match might make for an ok game. I think this has actually been done, but I don't know how it played. A Harry-Potter-themed wizard duel game could be fun too. These would all feel like kid games of course, because that's just the atmosphere Harry Potter presents.

Then you have things like Dune. Dune is arguably for anyone but kids. It has all kinds of things you can explore and potentially make games from. The only ones that have succeeded are RTS games, although there was a Dune adventure/strategy game that was kind of neat. It capitalized heavily on the excellent design in the David Lynch movie, added a good score and ran with it. If you're going to make a game from a movie, that's a better example to follow than any game that tries to be the movie.

It should be the same way when making movies from games. Most FPS games only lend themselves to zombie movies and ripoffs of Starship Troopers, but you could do a lot with the universe/atmosphere presented in some games. An easy example would be The Elder Scrolls. There's a big game universe that would be perfect for a few fantasy stories.

There must be a lot of movie people who think we play games just for the effects though and that we do it for lack of ability to grasp a deep story. So many game movies seem to just throw the story out and throw in excuses to have crappy one liners. :(

[Doom_Dude]

There must be a lot of movie people who think we play games just for the effects though and that we do it for lack of ability to grasp a deep story. Unfortunately thats also true of game developers. They tend to up the eye candy for each new game release and the gameplay doesn't seem to follow the same path and the storyline is usually pretty shallow with very few to no surprises along the way. Theres a lot of good games around but imagine how much better games would be if they would spend less time on shiny graphics and more on gameplay. Some of these games nowadays take up gigabytes of space and are short as hell. hah.


I didn't even bother to go see the Doom movie. The deletion of Hell just turns me off so much I can't even be arsed. I won't even buy it on DVD until I see it in the bargain bin for $9 or somethin. You can mix up all kinds of elements from the game and id rather a Doom movie took place on Pluto than Mars as long as they kept the 'demons from hell' theme. You can change stuff around and have diff characters and shit but deleting certain important story elements is just dumb.

Its mind boggling when it's the fans who have a better vision of what a movie or game series should be like than the people making the damned things.

[FATAL]

Unfortunately thats also true of game developers.
Ahh, but that's because the publishers tell them to.

[Aliotroph?]

Yeah, it turned into one of those cases where they needed to sell a movie to people who weren't the fans. Sadly, in this cause it leads them to think they need to dumb it down so it doesn't offend some obscure, Bible-hugging people who apparently would get worked up over Hell but won't be bothered about swearing and blood. WTF It was a fun movie, but in the same way that a cheesy B movie is fun, only this had shiny effects.

As for game devs, most of them are just towing the publisher line too. Those guys who made that True Crime: Life on the Streets of New York, or whatever, seem to think GTA was fun because you're a black dude who shoots people and swears. Man, were they ever wrong! (I'm not saying that didn't add to the game, but it wasn't the core part.)

[Nomad]

I remember seeing some movie a couple years ago, but I don't remember what it was called. It had some guy with some kind of disease, and a few special ops type folks chasing him around a mansion. Reminded me of Resident Evil, but wasn't shitty. Wish I could remember what it was, though.

[Kuwabara]

I saw Doom the movie on Christmas Eve at a dollar theater and untill it got to the first-person bit of the movie,it felt like Resident Evil in space.BTW it would be nice if there was a Half-Life movie.

[FATAL]

Half life 1 movie could include some devious conspiracy plot. It even could be a normal adventure/thriller movie without guns blazing all the time

[+Acyclitor+]

i still haven't seen Doom: the movie :)

[Kuwabara]

It's so-so.i would suggest either
A:See it in a dollar theater(or pound theater or yen theater etc,)

or B:Wait untill it's on DVD.

[Doom007]

Yea Half Life, Quake, or even Halo as a movie, the movie people would STILL screw most of it up I bet. And cause those are all FPS games, prolly half the movie would be FP.

[WinstonSmith6079]

I saw the Tomb Raider movie a few years ago only because a buddy of mine rented it. I didn't care to see any more games-to-movies thereafter: The game is much better (and I heard the movie sequel was even stupider than the first, and again didn't even show Angelina Jolie naked). Somehow I get the feeling that Hollywood's just never gonna get that right.

Neeyahh, see Tron. They made the movie first then the game. This formula still seems to work: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was an excellent film. Then the game (http://www.ea.com/official/lordoftherings/returnoftheking/us/home.jsp) was made. Likewise, the game is excellent. That's the way it should be done to produce good results all the way around, yep.

[Append:] A Half-Life movie? Well, if they could make it work I'd be as happy as anyone. FATAL has a good idea about it, I would say. But Hollywood would have to stop being stupid in their typical way long enough to actually do that or such-like. When playing Half-Life, I find it to be more immersive in a cinematic, story, and character way than the average game, to date. I've thought--as far as games go--that James Bond has nothin' on Gordon Freeman. But can they do that in a movie...? ??? I dunno....

[Aliotroph?]

Tomb Raider was crap. Never played the game though.

Man, your sig is way too long.

[WinstonSmith6079]

Tomb Raider was crap. Never played the game though.
Yea, the game's pretty good. I have the Gold Platnium Edition. I'm kinda playing it, 'coz I never reached the end before. (At least this WinME [with DOS] is good for something. :-P )
Man, your sig is way too long.
Yea. I was thinkin' of changin' it. But to what, I don't know....

[DarkWolf]

Zork the Movie. English subtitles, no audio... well no picture either...

[Kuwabara]

Yea Half Life, Quake, or even Halo as a movie, the movie people would STILL screw most of it up I bet. And cause those are all FPS games, prolly half the movie would be FP.
Well a Halo movie would make quite a lot of money because there are soooooo many fans of it. i personally would not see it simply because i dislike anything Halo due to all of the Gamer Sheep flocking to Halo and dishonering the name of gamers everyware.(Note:i do know that there are Halo fans that are real gamers but the majority of the Halo fans don't even play games but bought the game just to get popular...)

[Planky]

I wouldn't mind seeing a Mafia based movie...

[FATAL]

You mean Godfather? :)

[Rellik_jmd]

- The HALO movie is already screaming towards production, Peter Jackson is co-producing. They may actually pull this one off.

- the Return to Castle Wolfenstein movie has also been pushed out of the nest, not sure when we can expect it, just don't expect much. :-p

- I could have sworn I heard somewhere that they actually do want to do a Prince of Persia movie, if so it's still a loooong way off.

[MR_ROCKET]

Oh I'd love to see a Return to Castle Wolfenstein movie :)

[WinstonSmith6079]

You mean Godfather? :)
Hmm...the sublty there is lost on me, if there was any. :/ Are you referring to the film(s)?

I bring it up because there's The Godfather game in the works--http://www.ea.com/official/godfather/godfather/us/home.jsp.

I dunno if it's gonna be as good as the movie. (I've only seen the first film still yet. :( )

But it might make a great video-game. :) As I said earlier, EA did a very excellent job with The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. We'll see....

[Big_al]

Well I remember an olde movie from some time ago. It wasn't exactly like it but did feature a castle load of Nazis and a winch car all set on a winter backdrop. Forgot the name though. :p
It was called Where Eagles Dare, classic war flick http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065207/