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Why Can't Hollywood Make a Good Video Game Movie?

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Re: Why Can't Hollywood Make a Good Video Game Movie?

#181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mortal Kombat wasn't amazing but it's definitely watchable. The sequel, on the other hand...

Agreed. MK Annihilation is amazingly bad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA5nDyJ8sA0

WOW. This brings back memories. This movie should be watched, while stoned!

I recall watching this a few times while stoned, was insane.

Re: Why Can't Hollywood Make a Good Video Game Movie?

#182

Max Payne was pretty good. They had something there with the norse mythology stuff that was interesting.

Couldn't sit through the whole thing. I just don't buy Mark Wahlberg as Max Payne. He's a little too clean-shaven in that movie. Was he at least using pain killers to fight past his injuries?

Re: Why Can't Hollywood Make a Good Video Game Movie?

#183
post #25

The 2016 Warcraft movie doesn't count? It got a 77% audience score, and a 27% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, grossed almost half a billion, and is the highest grossing video game movie of all time[1]. I watched it out of a sheer morbid curiosity, and haven't played any Warcraft title newer than II: Tides of Darkness. I thought the movie was crap. But maybe I and critics just aren't the audience for these movies. Se…

Another interesting thing about the Warcraft movie is how well it did in China compared to the US ($24m opening weekend in the US vs. $156m first five days in China).

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jul/02/warcraft-fi...

Re: Why Can't Hollywood Make a Good Video Game Movie?

#185
post #58
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never played the game or seen the movie, but the trailer looks pretty bad to me. If I were making a movie about that subject (and maybe this will make it clear why I'm not a producer), I'd go for more of an "Adaptation" style film. Viewers can't control time? Play it up, by (visually) admitting that the game powers like "rewind" are done on film through multiple takes, and stunt men, and editing. That's how you…

Exposing the deus ex machina as a mundane studio recording effort is an interesting idea, but detracts from the immersiveness and suspension-of-disbelief. Great humor potential, though it'd get stale and instead become the story.

I suppose it depends on what you're looking for in a film.

For example, I can't stand musicals, because I think characters breaking out into song and dance every 5 minutes destroys any attempt at immersiveness or believability. But lots of people love them, and don't find this incongruity problematic. So I don't think breaking from the flow of the main story necessarily breaks the story.

Did the structure of "Adaptation" detract from its 'immersiveness'? I'd say it's the wrong question to ask.

My purpose was not humor, but to pull back the curtain and show the absurdity inherent in all action movies, and the work involved. Satire can be humorous, but that's not really the goal. I'd still love watching Jackie Chan outtakes even if his movies weren't comedic.

I have no use for yet another (whitewashed) action movie. Then again, as I said, there's probably a reason I'm not a Hollywood filmmaker.

Re: Why Can't Hollywood Make a Good Video Game Movie?

#186
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are ~~absolutely~~ fantastic stories in video games. There are plenty of games that you play for the story and the gameplay is just meh.

Such as? Besides adventures games Infocom or Sierra style and their descendants...

Knights of the Old Republic

Re: Why Can't Hollywood Make a Good Video Game Movie?

#187
I always figured it was an issue with turning an inherently interactive form of media into a form that's taken passively. That seems like a rather difficult transition to make, hence movies about video games in general doing better than movies based on a specific game.

Re: Why Can't Hollywood Make a Good Video Game Movie?

#189

So many video game movie projects are missing the simple question, "why?" So many of these games are inspired by movies in the first place, and their stories are mostly just cliches based on their source material. It's fine in the context of the game, because the player is doing something, but when you put that into a non-interactive medium, the flaws become obvious. If you take Indiana Jones, turn it into a game wit…

Many of those premises sound fine though. Jean Claude Va Damme mad three different movies with the plot of Bloodsport, which in the first place wasn't much different from Enter the Dragon. Plenty of people enjoyed them. On the other hand, Rampage seems like something that's hard to work into a movie.

Rampage's plot: "Three people are turned into giant monsters and start destroying cities." That's a pretty good B-movie plot. Do a good job making the rubber monster suits and that's half the film right there.

Re: Why Can't Hollywood Make a Good Video Game Movie?

#190
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The video games that do have a decent plot often have a plot that just can't be squeezed into a movie. I've seen some decent anime conversions of some video games, which were arguably interactive anime anyhow (i.e., Persona 4), but at roughly 8 hours (call it 24 20 minute episodes by the time you're done with commercials, opening, and closing) and still feeling a bit squeezed at times, that's not going to be a movie…

Maybe they should make TV shows instead.

Random people all over the internet have already done that. It's called "let's play".
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