Weekend Open Forum: Best and worst video game to movie adaptation

[cliffordcooley]

I guess I'm a special case as I watch movies for what they are. I try to enjoy all of them simply because they are different from the last one I watched.

• If you want to read a book then by all means read a book.
• If you want to play a game then by all means play a game.
• If you want to watch a movie then by all means watch a movie.

It can't be easy transforming one to another and keeping everyones interest in mind.

 

[Guest]

Same opinion here.By the way, when the movie was released, I was 12. What about you?
And of course, at that time, I couldn't care less about the acting. All I wanted to see was the fight scenes. And IMO, they were great. The speed and precision of Scorpion kicks are still etched in my brain.

10 years but we were often the youngsters of the lot .

I've never had an issue with the acting in that film. It was as convincing and entertaining as it needed to be.

Those fight scenes are still awesome with clean visuals of believable martial arts. That raw impact power and speed demonstrated during combat is still rare in western film.

Though for me the fight scenes aren't all there is to the film. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire package. The mystique that was so natural to the MK lore. The characters presentation to their situation left us (the prime audience) in wonderment just as if we were experiencing it with the characters.

That nod to friendship after the fight was just icing on the cake! We've really got to give P. W. S. Anderson credit for this film he really seems to have comprehensively understood the lore and the expectations of the fan base. Probably was a fan himself.

My personal favorite scene is the Liu Kang versus Reptile in Outworld . That fight was brutal. Can you imagine the state of a 10 year old mind after seeing such an epic combo-filled fight unfold to the tune of in-sync techno only to end with a climactic bicycle maneuver? My jaw was on the floor...

 

[Modeazy]

10 years but we were often the youngsters of the lot .

I've never had an issue with the acting in that film. It was as convincing and entertaining as it needed to be.

Those fight scenes are still awesome with clean visuals of believable martial arts. That raw impact power and speed demonstrated during combat is still rare in western film.

Though for me the fight scenes aren't all there is to the film. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire package. The mystique that was so natural to the MK lore. The characters presentation to their situation left us (the prime audience) in wonderment just as if we were experiencing it with the characters.

That nod to friendship after the fight was just icing on the cake! We've really got to give P. W. S. Anderson credit for this film he really seems to have comprehensively understood the lore and the expectations of the fan base. Probably was a fan himself.

My personal favorite scene is the Liu Kang versus Reptile in Outworld . That fight was brutal. Can you imagine the state of a 10 year old mind after seeing such an epic combo-filled fight unfold to the tune of in-sync techno only to end with a climactic bicycle maneuver? My jaw was on the floor...

Yh ur right,was about that age too,it was quite impressive at the time,but TMNT does it for me,better than MK I guess. Really liked the Legacy preview, with Jax reading about the fighters as their fights were shown,but the shorts didnt meet my expectations unfortunately. But with current tech, I guess they could make an even badder *** movie,even the games are getting better!

 

[Modeazy]

I guess I'm a special case as I watch movies for what they are. I try to enjoy all of them simply because they are different from the last one I watched.

• If you want to read a book then by all means read a book.
• If you want to play a game then by all means play a game.
• If you want to watch a movie then by all means watch a movie.

It can't be easy transforming one to another and keeping everyones interest in mind.

Theres always a way to impress the majority bro, look what Whedon did with Avengers,I'm a Justice Leaguer myself but I had to give the man his props,he pulled it off with existing fans and new fans,as well as casual moviegoers too. Anyways I'm an Editor so I tend to be a bit critical with my views so please forgive me If my views get a tad enthusiastic..

 

[captaincranky]

I guess I'm a special case as I watch movies for what they are. I try to enjoy all of them simply because they are different from the last one I watched..

I'm not a special,viewer per se, but instead rather oblivious to a film's gaming roots. I don't game, and normally have to be told a movie has been adapted from a game. So for me, a movie is a movie, and succeeds or fails on that merit.

If I'm going to lose interest in a movie, it usually happens at about the 40-45 minute mark. I presume this is because all the action and plot that are going to happen, are completed in this actual amount of time, during a 1 hour TV scripted drama.

Maybe 10 years ago was what I call, "the era of blonds with round faces". (Kirsten Dunst, & Julia Stiles to name just two). Now, if you can watch more than, (at most), 30 minutes of a movie with Julia Stiles(*) in the starring role, you needn't ever worry of dying from a gunshot wound to the head...

(*) However, Julia was great in the "Bourne" films.

Now the punchline: The making of any feature film, good or bad, is an accomplishment in and of itself, no mean feat indeed.

Point being: Many here shouldn't be such tough critics, (quoted poster excepted, of course), on something as complex an undertaking.

Financing is the first and biggest hurdle. Consider James Cameron's two huge hits; "Titanic", (everybody knows the boat sinks and has done so on film before), and "Avatar", (the biggest grossing film of all time (still?)), with a plot lifted from, (or parallel to) a teeny, tiny animated film, "Fern Gully".

"Avatar's" production costs have been estimated as high as a half billion dollars! And nobody can put up a plausible denial as to its visual excellence! A producer has to have established maximun "street cred", to garner funding like that. Or, as in the case of George Lukas with the "Starwars" franchise, put up the money yourself.

That said, films from comic books seen to fare much better in translation! "Thor", "Batman", "The Avengers", "X-Men" all make great movies. This has to force one to question whether a video game actually has the "literary credentials", to be adapted into a movie. The short answer is, it's possible that games don't even measure up to comic books as literary achievements.

I still think it's practically impossible to thoroughly please as gamer with a film which he or she plays, because it doesn't star them, whereas the game does.

 

[captaincranky]

Theres always a way to impress the majority bro, look what Whedon did with Avengers....[ ]...

Indeed! "Local boy makes good", in the case of Joss Whedon and "The Avengers" movie!

I'm still mourning the loss of Whedon's, "Dollhouse', (and of course Eliza Dushku).

 

[Guest]

I agree that Forward Onto Dawn was very good. What seems bad to me though is the strange mario movie(s). They seem creepy.

 

[treetops]

I was around 12 when mortal kombat came out and I loved it. We had very limited if any CGI at that time. That movie kicked ***. I also liked silent hill, most other game to movie adaption movies are pretty terrible.

 

[aspleme]

It hasn't been made yet, but what about a movie based on System Shock? Or better yet, System Shock 2? It would be a great thriller/horror movie.

P.S. No one else has commented about Wing Commander yet...

 

[theruck]

My top would be max payne, resident evil, mortal kombat and doom
the worst is surely far cry

 

[theruck]

It hasn't been made yet, but what about a movie based on System Shock? Or better yet, System Shock 2? It would be a great thriller/horror movie.

P.S. No one else has commented about Wing Commander yet...

you can watch these kind of things on youtube - the complete walktrhough movies of system shock and also bioforge are great and you won't need to go to cinema on a highly advertised wreck like Prometheus etc.

 

[Modeazy]

You know I never saw it that way,me in the starring role as opposed to someone else...thanks for the insight,makes sense from that angle. You're not a Techspot addict for nothing!(y)

Maybe 10 years ago was what I call, "the era of blonds with round faces".

I totally agree with you there,Stiles' performance in the Bourne movies was my fav of hers too, but the the only time Dunst ever got to me was in Interview With The Vampire,I think she was just stunning there,young as she was. Let me add here that Silent Hill was also a good game movie in my opinion.

As to comic book movies,I think any Director that manages to to screw one up didn't have a connection to the source material he's translating because in a comic half of the work is already done, your storyboard and script are already there! So all that needs to be done is a little polish here and there,mostly for the sake of the uninitiated. I don't mean to say some creativity should not be encouraged,but a degree of faithfulness to source material is a fundamental key. And for me that is where Sam Raimi's Spider Man and Snyders 300 stand out; each had either a signature pose,scene or line of dialog almost straight from the comic,and many might disagree,but thats what makes a comic movie great,well...mostly to comic readers anyway, because that's when you make a connection with your audience,and that's what makes them want to see it over and over again,and ultimately,what makes it sell I think. So If the game movie directors figure out how to do that, then we'll begin to see better game movies. That's my own humble opinion anyway.

 

[psycros]

Well, if it helps you picture it, it was a two-story movie theater. I was in the upper balcony and the balloon landed down there in the crowd. They never knew what hit them. I bet some of them still think it was actually Subzero.

"So what you're saying is, only the very stoned, very naive, very brave, or very desperate, should cross the threshold of a theater you're planning on attending"

Yeah, I think that's what he's saying. In all likelihood it was a college theater..assuming he's not making the whole thing up, which is likely.

 

[gamefun]

Don't know of any Game to movie I like, but Movie to Game as Star Trek was fun.