tv series or film based on a video game?
- Thread starter atlantalliance
- Start date
You need a first, it will take one big one to win and one massive game to break through it all and push out those tv shows and blockbuster movies. Another issue might be video games themselves are often not very serious, sure they are serious about playing and keeping their gamer addicts hooked on the games but at the roots they don't really have a story. They are hammy, silly and tacky inspired by other silly movies, TombRaider is a feminine sexy Indiana Jones and Resident Evil is just George A. Romero mixed with an 80s action flick...I have seen video game movies but I can't really any impressive moments or any fantastic speeches in these movies, Some day video games will take their own medium serious, maybe now they are slowly starting to be serious but they are not there yet. One day maybe soon, they won't just be about sales and cost production and selling more consoles and keeping kids addicted to Mario jumping around the video game screen, the video game will become a real artform.
You're not a gamer are you? These days most games have just as deep a story as any movie or TV. I'd put the stories in the Mass Effect, Uncharted, Assassin's Creed, and Batman Arkham games up there with some of the best stories in movies and TV. It's part of why I have mixed feelings about some of those games getting adaptations, they are already so cinematic that movie adaptations almost feels unnecessary. I think the approach they are taking with the Assassin's Creed movie is the best way to go about it. They're doing an original story with new characters set in the same universe as the games. I'm kind of hoping they go in a similar direction with the Uncharted movie. There's quite a bit of time between each of the games, so they could easily set a movie with a new story in between two of them. I can't remember the timeline exactly to know for sure who was together when, but my ideal would be one set between 2 & 3, so they can have Nate, Sully, Elena, and Chloe. The games feature some of the motion capture footage as special rewards, and pretty much all of the actors could easily play the characters on screen, so if I had my way they'd just bring them all over into the movie(s) too.
Last edited:
If you don't think video games can be approached as an artform I recommend you play Braid.
The storytelling of some video games have reached at least the level of mainstream movies, which JD listed. Also there's some older RPGs which weren't cinematic but had very layered, complex stories like Final Fantasy Tactics and Xenogears. not to mention the graphic style of some games (Okami, Limbo, etc) and artistic approaches to gameplay.
I would agree that some of the very cinematic games don't need anything further added. But there are also cases where the video games create such a big detailed universe that you could tell any number of great stories in that universe. You don't need to use Mass Effect characters to tell a Mass Effect story. The universe is as big and three dimensional as any TV scifi franchise. I like Arkham's concept of Batman better than any Batman movie.
The storytelling of some video games have reached at least the level of mainstream movies, which JD listed. Also there's some older RPGs which weren't cinematic but had very layered, complex stories like Final Fantasy Tactics and Xenogears. not to mention the graphic style of some games (Okami, Limbo, etc) and artistic approaches to gameplay.
I would agree that some of the very cinematic games don't need anything further added. But there are also cases where the video games create such a big detailed universe that you could tell any number of great stories in that universe. You don't need to use Mass Effect characters to tell a Mass Effect story. The universe is as big and three dimensional as any TV scifi franchise. I like Arkham's concept of Batman better than any Batman movie.
Yeah, and actually videogames have more than ever become an artform today, especially indie games; games like To The Moon and Brothers and Flower to name a few.
And the big budget games have become as expensive as a movie or tv show.
And the big budget games have become as expensive as a movie or tv show.
They did. In fact, I'd argue Kreuk film was the closest any videogame-based film got to being "good." There just something about it that was off, in a "close but no cigar" kind of way.
Same for that Ryu/Ken fan film from a couple of years ago. That was really well done. With the right professional polish, it could have been really something.
I also think fighting games will be what finally breaks the ice, despite Hollywood's past instance of going back to that well.
I think the problem is the filmmakers either try it pigeonhole the game into a film, or divert so far away from the game, that it's ends up being the same in name only. I think the trick is to go for a happy balance, with a heavy focus on the characters while adapting the stories only enough to fit them into a "real world" setting.
I think the MK web series from a few years back is the perfect blue-print (with some tweaking, of course). Hopefully, those in charge of doing the new MK film will try to emulate it.
I wonder if the ship has sailed to some extent. The games now look good enough and often have an entertaining enough story that I don't really need a movie. I can't imagine The Last of Us being any more affecting on the silver screen. Watching Kevin Spacey in a commercial on TV my young nephew said "Hey, it's the guy from Call of Duty".
I'll agree that cinematic type games like Uncharted or The Last Of Us have little reason to be adapted into movies, but gameplay-focused games could be quite interesting to see adapted into a storytelling medium. The Legend of Zelda is the obvious choice what with fantasy being super popular these days, but other franchises like Metroid or Castlevania could also work very well.
The writer and creative director of The Last of Us game is writing the screenplay, so we'll see how that'll turn out.
They're making a 'The Last of Us' movie? That's the first time I hear of it.
My idea of a good video game movie isn't one that just tells the story of the video game, it's one that tells a new story in the world built by the video game that adds to it.
I thought of an idea that seems so obvious now that I'm wondering why Nintendo hasn't thought of it. A children's cartoon based on Mario Kart. It'd be an updated franchised Wacky Races.
I thought of an idea that seems so obvious now that I'm wondering why Nintendo hasn't thought of it. A children's cartoon based on Mario Kart. It'd be an updated franchised Wacky Races.
Yeah, that's news to me too.
The game was good for what it was, as a way of storytelling, but I'm not so sure about a movie, without it being so much like every other thing like it. It would have to be a really good story set in the same universe, with different characters maybe, with some cameos maybe from Ellen Page, I mean Ellie.
I wouldn't be against a movie set between the prolouge and the main body of the game. It would be a good way to tell a new story with characters from the game, but not be so reliant on the events of the game that people who haven't played it would be lost. If they wanted to include Ellie they could always have it be a story Joel is telling after the game, and do cut out from the story to them occaisionally, kind of like The Princess Bride.
Yeah, true enough. I think that could work. They could even potentially do a prequel before it all happened, but still have it be a story with new characters.
wow almost a 50/50 split in votes, some people like these movies some really don't
Similar threads
