Why Can't Hollywood Make a Good Video Game Movie? • Hacker News Board

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

#211

Post by prewett » Wed, Apr 11, 2018, 10:12 PM UTC

CodeMage wrote: post #90

dfxm12 wrote: post #26

Mostly because videogame plot lines aren't as good as we give them credit for. Videogames are great at being interactive diversions, but their stories leave a lot to be desired and are really just thin background dressing for the real reason we play videogames: for the gameplay. The most successful videogame movies tend towards genre films like Mortal Kombat (the film) and Resident Evil (the series). Of course, let's…

I think that's close to the mark, but not quite there. To quote Sid Meier, "A game is a series of interesting choices." It's hard to make a good game with a great plot: the better the plot, the more you restrict the player's choices. It's not impossible, but it's hard. Plenty of games have great characters and excellent world-building. Quite a few pose interesting questions, make you face hard dilemmas and leave you…

Maybe the solution is to have a video game movie that highlights the choices taken by the character. Make the decision points important to the movie, rather than remaking the overall storyline.

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

#212

Post by swagasaurus-rex » Wed, Apr 11, 2018, 10:14 PM UTC

tnecniv wrote: post #196

omg_ketchup wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Starship Troopers was an A+ movie masquerading as a B movie.

Starship Troopers is great on multiple levels, ranging from a fun action movie I was sad to see and to a commentary on Nazi Germany.

If you read the novel, you get the impression Heinlein actually supports strong barriers to citizenship and other governmental ideals seen in the movie. It praises meritocracy but doesn't really touch on how to avoid corruption, besides being in an existential war against bugs (and skinnies, not seen in the movie).

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

#213

Post by ansible » Wed, Apr 11, 2018, 10:16 PM UTC

egypturnash wrote: post #189

emodendroket wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Are you both aware that Rampage is now an actual movie?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rampage_(2018_film)

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

#214

Post by badminton1 » Wed, Apr 11, 2018, 10:17 PM UTC

I would say the west has failed to make good video game movies, or proper adaptations of an anime.

e.g: street fighter? mario bros? dragonball evolution? death note? ghost in the shell?

You need to be extremely creative to ruin those.

The reverse has also been true: bad game adaptations from good movies. e.g: ET, back to the future, etc.

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

#215

Post by vvillena » Wed, Apr 11, 2018, 10:18 PM UTC

peatmoss wrote: post #168

Merad wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Witcher 3. Part of the problem is that often your story-heavy games are really telling dozens of different stories. In TW3 for example, the main story is good but not amazing, yet several of its "secondary" stories are fantastic.

Oof. Which ones? After the ten thousandth person recommended the game to me, I recently played through it and never found a plot that I didn't find pretty flat. Plus, I couldn't tell if the terrible dialog and gratuitous cringe-worthy softcore CGI porn sequences were supposed to be a self-aware in-joke.

There are lots of great side quests in The Witcher 3. The wolfman one, the one with the ghost and the oven, the one that takes part in a tower in an island in a lake, the one where you finish tracking down some witches...

Not to mention, part of the appeal of the game is not knowing if those quests are going to end well or not. Some quests don't have good endings, while others depend on your choices, making you responsible for what happens.

And regarding "softcore porn", it's only simple bed scenes, like in any movie. It's totally normal, and given that there is a huge romance plot with 3 different endings, not counting the expansions, it would be silly to tell such a story without mention to sex. In any case, it tells a lot that people are so scandalized by sex, but not by the continous gore, violence, inequality and misery that The Witcher 3 portrays continously.

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

#216

Post by swagasaurus-rex » Wed, Apr 11, 2018, 10:19 PM UTC

Reedx wrote: post #173

RulingWalnut wrote: post #50

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.

> There are ~~absolutely~~ fantastic stories in video games. Not really, not compared to books and movies. If you're in the mood for a good story, you would not look to games. But it stands to reason, the medium is not well suited for it. Books and movies are excellent vehicles to tell a story. You have full and precise control over timing, pacing, what the end user is experiencing at all times, etc. Plus they've bee…

The old Goosebump novels were great at this. Every chapter, some sort of cliffhanger. Most of the time it was the character overreacting or mis-seeing something.

But eventually one of them leads into the heart of the story.

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

#217

Post by dapreja » Wed, Apr 11, 2018, 10:22 PM UTC

sirmarksalot wrote: post #44

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…

Maybe holidwood should hire they creator of emoji movie. That peice of shit stood out.

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

#218

Post by ZeroGravitas » Wed, Apr 11, 2018, 10:24 PM UTC

emodendroket wrote: post #167

mozumder wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of Paul W.S. Anderson video-game movies are entertaining AF. Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil, Alien vs Predator. ALL well crafted & inspired movies. They're not going to win Cannes Palm d'Or, but they will hit the spot.

Aliens vs. Predator was one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

I think that was based on a comic book, so it may not be relevant except to point out that Holywood doesn't automatically make great films even when not adapting games.

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

#219

Post by 1337biz » Wed, Apr 11, 2018, 10:26 PM UTC

jakebasile wrote: post #13

There have been good video game movies, but the number is vanishingly small. Many are "so bad it's good" such as anything Uwe Boll makes, but there are a couple that seem to be created by directors who genuinely love the source material and take it in interesting directions (e.g. the first Silent Hill film, the first Resident Evil film, arguably Final Fantasy: The Sprits Within). Also, Mortal Kombat (1995) is a good…

I just came here to read the Uwe Boll comments. In person he is really entertaining - once went to a screening where he did a q&a. Definitly worth it. He really likes talking about his 'admiration' for Michael Bay...

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

#220

Post by null000 » Wed, Apr 11, 2018, 10:28 PM UTC

goostavos wrote: post #72

shwetank wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. You have games like The Last of Us, The Uncharted Series, Yakuza 0, and even the latest Wolfenstein game having very well made and engaging stories which I think can translate well on film.

I'd go back to GP's "why" question. I thought that The Last of Us was an absolutely fantastic game. Honestly, its one of the few games I've managed to stay engaged with all the way to the end. It works as a game. It's wonderful within its medium. A movie can't give you moral choices (did you guys kill the doctors at the end??), nor the time required to really get aquainted with the characters. The narrative works bes…

There are definitely games that I wish I could get the "cliff notes" experience. GTA comes to mind - 4 had an interesting enough (if generic) story, but just took forever to finish because of its million mostly copy-paste go-here-shoot-things quests. Same goes for Final Fantasy & most other JRPGs - there are some interesting themes and story in there, but it's padded out so much by turn based combat that I usually burn out half way through.

I can imagine something similar for games like The Last Of Us, although I haven't played it personally. Sometimes you just can't be bothered to deal with the not-plot parts of the game for 25 out of 40 hours.