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

washingtonpost.com

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

#271

Post by ken »

r00fus wrote: post #193
ken wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 "Adaptat…

Honestly I really liked Adaptation, but then again I liked Stranger than Fiction, and many other existentialist flicks (Run Lola Run? hell yes). I know a bunch of folks who walked out feeling cheated or confused. I think most of the issue is that people want a) a story b) to be entertained and c) to forget about the outside world for a bit. Anything that fills these boxes is good for mass consumption (from Hollywood…

That's believable. Also, my idea is a single movie. It doesn't easily generate other movies. Hollywood today wants franchises, i.e., mass production, too.

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

#273

Post by SuperNinKenDo »

I have to say that reading this was great fun. I normally loathe attempts to get fancy like this, but the experience was purely positive and actually served the content of the article, although it got a little tiresome toward the end. Really cool reading experience.

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

#274

Post by sshumaker »

Tistel wrote: post #265

They are different things with only a very superficial overlap. Yes they all may have: writing, 2D/3D art, acting and audio etc. But, only games have an interactive mechanic . You can tell if a game will be fun without any of the aesthetics. Just a controller, the code and simple geometry (debug/collision boxes) for the avatars and the map. Once you have found a fun mechanic all the art merely enhances a bit. Don't g…

It’s more nuanced than you might think. All of the other elements do contribute to the fun factor. As a former game developer, there were times where adding particle effects or even sound suddenly made a sequence fun, as if suddenly a threshold had been crossed.

Human beings do respond to rewards and payoffs; it can be the satisfying sound of a coin being collected or animation of your character wall-jumping and grabbing onto a ledge. These things DO matter.

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

#275

Post by krapp »

emodendroket wrote: post #169
craftyguy wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In which case, the article here doesn't really have a point. Why try to make good video game movies in the first place?

Surely a video game movie getting rave reviews would sell even more tickets. And you have to imagine the people making a movie hope viewers like it.

You'd think so, but Michael Bay's Transformers franchise is widely despised by critics and fans (and rightly so), and also makes hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars worldwide.

When you have audacity, nostalgia and guaranteed merchandising potential you don't need the movie to be good, unfortunately.

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

#278

Post by toomanybeersies »

distantsounds wrote: post #126
coldtea wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Firewatch has an amazing story.

Firewatch isn't really a game so much as an interactive story. It's basically a movie to start with.

You can't actually lose Firewatch can you?

I did really enjoy playing it, although I thought it was rather expensive for a game that I finished in about 3 hours.

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

#279

Post by sengork »

strictnein wrote: post #15

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

A big Max Payne 1 & 2 video game fan here and I completely disliked the movie. For me it's a prime example of what the article debates.

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

#280

Post by mistersquid »

In 1982, Hollywood did make a good video game movie. The title of that movie is Tron. [0]

It's just that it was about a video game that didn't exist at the time the film was made; the Tron video game

> is based on an early draft of the film's script [1]

[0] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084827/

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tron_(video_game)#Differences_...

EDIT: convert HTML tags to markdown-compatible glyphs.

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