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[Yautja_Warrior]

Nope, the issue is not changing enough from the source material. Video games have drawn out padded out stories and static characters and dense lore filled worlds that have no business being in a 2 hour movie unless some coke-binged executive is really feeling themselves with their planned out 4-part Tetris quadrology

Ex. 1) all the nonsense in Warcraft instead of doing a simple Orcs vs Humans story.

Silent Hill stuck to the main idea of the game and it was pretty decent, Resident Evil changed a lot and was average.

Its not the changes that are always the key issue though, its the writing more than anything. A change can be made to work if its written well, but most of these movies have horrible or average scripts.

 

[Caddywompus]

There's no Marvel Comic Universe trying to maintain a level of quality in video games. So you have to hope the director and screen writers are big enough fans to do it justice. One day there will be a Ryan Reynolds for video games and their love for a franchise will become a passion project that will give rise to the onslaught of good to decent Video Game Blockbusters

 

[redmetal86]

Maybe it would just be better if they made video game shows. Just think, a Resident Evil show where they spend a season or two trying to get out of the Spencer Mansion.

 

[Tosyn_88]

Isn't it strange how people talk about story and miss what actually makes a story -- The characters! No one gives a crap about a story, the story is just a premise to show how the characters behave, the characters essentially tells the story which is why you remember Steve Rogers, Tony Stark and not this dumb Accords thingy.

The reason we enjoy stories is to see how characters develop over the course of events so please stop this nonesense good story bad story nonesense I keep hearing. I mean are we supposed to say that a story like Titanic is a good story? What is even the story of titanic? Is it the disaster or the puppy love?

 

[LordKasual]

Videogame scripts just don't translate well into movies.

There's alot of information you can feed to the player through 10-40 hours of gameplay that you simply cannot do without specifically tailored scenes in a picture that definitely has to start and end within 2 hours.

Which is why most videogame movies just assume you know most of what everything is, glaze completely over the deeper intricacies, and deliver what just feels like a broken sequence of action scenes.

 

[JonnyDBrit]

...Funny thing since the OP brings up the directorial talent, I think most often unfortunately games tend to get people who are much more affordable behind the scenes, even while paying top dollar for stars in front of the camera. Like, the directors on Angry Birds were previously a story board artist and animator, and it was their debut. Andrzej Bartkowiak, who did both Doom and Legend of Chun-Li, has done far more good work as a cinematographer than as a director. Uwe Boll is... well, Uwe Boll.

Mike Newell is the highest profile guy I can think of, and while he's done some legit great work, he's also got more than a few stinkers as well.

Obviously, not everything in making a movie rests solely with a director, but I do wonder if perhaps it's indicative of a wider problem - the difficulty in attracting outright good talent on the production side, both due to and fostering a willingness by creators to settle for what they can get. Sure, you'll find exceptions - again, Mike Newell - but it's not exactly going to be Star Wars where people will fall over themselves for the chance to be involved.

 

[Yautja_Warrior]

Maybe it would just be better if they made video game shows. Just think, a Resident Evil show where they spend a season or two trying to get out of the Spencer Mansion.

To be fair they could have copied the plot of the first game with the RE movie and just written a better script, that would have been much better, instead of adding Alice, a crazy computer and loads of very poor portrayals of the classic game characters.

 

[NipplesAndToes23]

I don't know why. They can make movies based on things with no source material and they can turn out well, so games should work too. Maybe it's lack of interest from those involved or we just happen to have big mistakes in production for the past 30 years.

 

[HStallion]

I actually think many games would translate wonderfully well to film if they had a director, cast, and crew that had a vision and followed through on it. A Soulsborne by Nicolas Winding Refn would be great if he made it similar to Valhalla Rising. A mysterious protagonist going through constant trials and tribulations in a nightmare world full of all manner of monsters, mad men and even worse things. Make the other characters few and far between but make them colorful and weird in a very Souls like style. Even incorporate the game mechanic into the game similar to Edge of Tomorrow with the protag constantly dying and being forced to repeat things but slowly gaining the knowledge and skills to overcome the increasingly towering odds.

 

[Phobophile]

I actually enjoyed the Postal movie. Well, at least more than both video games.

 

[Platy]

To answer the OP's question : because they take something with a shitty story that takes 30 hours to tell and focus not on story and try to turn it into a story.
Assasin's Creed ? SUPER MARIO ??? STREET FUCKING FIGHTER ??????
And people ask why these movies are shit ?

Take smaller games and/or narrative driven games.

Grim Fandango, Full Throttle, Journey, Brothers, This War of Mine ... the most popular game that would make a non shitty movie would be like the fist CD of FF7.

Or take the "Scarface -> Vice City" route and invert with another GTA to make a generic action blockbuster movie

edit : portal ! How could I forgot that. 2 would probably give a better movie since it has more conflict

 

[thebknbear]

I think that video game movies are going to have renaissance in the next decade or two. I think everyone in this thread are off base in saying that video games don't translate to film because they would lose the interactive part of what makes games unique. While that is true to an extent, every medium has its unique aspects that do not translate to film, especially books. everything has it's own language. I'll concede that comic books are an easier fit for film, because they are basically storyboards, but there are still things that are lost when being translated to a moving image. If Pirates of the Caribbean can be a successful film franchise there is no reason video games can't.

Games are now where comic book movies were in the 80s and 90s. Which is why I say video game films are due for a renaissance. As the audience for video games grow older, or rather the demographic that grew up with video games grows older, the more apt they will be to start inducting and translating them to film. Much like how the generation before us are now running the film industry grew up with comics. And if you remember, comic book movies used to be looked at the same way video game movies are looked at today.

 

[The Hamburglar]

The street fighter movie is legit as fuck. Also one of the funniest films ever created.

Quick change the channel.

 

[Oersted]

Isn't it strange how people talk about story and miss what actually makes a story -- The characters! No one gives a crap about a story, the story is just a premise to show how the characters behave, the characters essentially tells the story which is why you remember Steve Rogers, Tony Stark and not this dumb Accords thingy.

The reason we enjoy stories is to see how characters develop over the course of events so please stop this nonesense good story bad story nonesense I keep hearing. I mean are we supposed to say that a story like Titanic is a good story? What is even the story of titanic? Is it the disaster or the puppy love?

Titanic is a Romeo and Juliet story, with the feuding families being exchanged with the struggle of the classes.

Not that hard to get.

 

[Robdraggoo]

Titanic is a Romeo and Juliet story, with the feuding families being exchanged with the struggle of the classes.

Not that hard to get.

But they both die in romeo and Juliet. SPOILERS

And in titanic juliet murders romeo to save her own ass

 

[Cepheus]

Well, the Street Fighter 2 anime film was pretty decent. Maybe if the game companies themselves worked closely with the film studio more decent films would happen, instead of just saying 'yes' to a studio's proposal and not getting involved past that.

I'm still intrigued as to how the Portal/Half-Life films will turn out.

 

[Platy]

Well, the Street Fighter 2 anime film was pretty decent. Maybe if the game companies themselves worked closely with the film studio more decent films would happen, instead of just saying 'yes' to a studio's proposal and not getting involved past that.

I'm still intrigued as to how the Portal/Half-Life films will turn out.

That is what happened to Warcraft =P

 

[Fou-Lu]

Silent Hill is definitely the best we've gotten. I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo eventually tries to go for the "Smash Bros. cinematic universe".

 

[Shaanyboi]

Videogames aren't generally a strong basis for adaptation. The characters, nine out of ten times, are either shallow husks or are derivative as all hell. As such, film makers have very little to pull from, so they focus on the spectacle rather on story. And even so, the lead character's story generally ends up being a flimsy excuse to contextualize the following 5-25 hours of killing dudes.

Even when taken seriously, they end up extremely poorly.

Comic book adaptations succeeded when they acknowledged the time spent outside of the costume matters as much, if not more, than when they're trading blows with a villain. And the better ones have plenty of such material to draw from and form a character with.

Mortal Kombat works shockingly well because it has memorable characters (if cliche and fairly shallow), and you enjoy seeing them play off one another. What is the strong memorable lovable character in Assassin's Creed? Desmond? Ha... Ezio was maybe one of the few with a personality, and every successful lead afterward has been just a riff on him.

 

[Glass Rebel]

Blade Runner 2049 looks like a great movie inspired by Snatcher.

 

[More_Badass]

Videogames aren't generally a strong basis for adaptation. The characters, nine out of ten times, are either shallow husks or are derivative as all hell. As such, film makers have very little to pull from, so they focus on the spectacle rather on story. And even so, the lead character's story generally ends up being a flimsy excuse to contextualize the following 5-25 hours of killing dudes.

Even when taken seriously, they end up extremely poorly.

Comic book adaptations succeeded when they acknowledged the time spent outside of the costume matters as much, if not more, than when they're trading blows with a villain. And the better ones have plenty of such material to draw from and form a character with.

Mortal Kombat works shockingly well because it has memorable characters (if cliche and fairly shallow), and you enjoy seeing them play off one another. What is the strong memorable lovable character in Assassin's Creed? Desmond? Ha... Ezio was maybe one of the few with a personality, and every successful lead afterward has been just a riff on him.

Which is why Assassins Creed is probably the best video game adaptation so far (while also being a shit movie)

It does what an ideal movie like this should do. Don't adapt the game. Treat it like an introduction to the world. Change and alter stuff so it works better for film. And so on

AC being a bad movie doesn't mean its approach to doing a video game adaptation is bad.

 

[harriet the spy]

I liked Silent Hill too. It's not great but it has its moments

Spoiler

am I the only person that really loved the ending ? Crazy violent and unusual for modern horror

 

[Dark Ninja]

Just like older comic book movies. They are ashamed to be associated with the source material.

 

[Kathian]

They generally have shit stories and characters. Where a game is built around a story it's long form improves it and the allowance to put a lot of attention to one scene actually gives it the edge over a film version .

 

[FallingEdge]

They are basing a movie off a video game. So right off the bat you can't take it seriously.

 

[Shaanyboi]

Which is why Assassins Creed is probably the best video game adaptation so far (while also being a shit movie)

It does what an ideal movie like this should do. Don't adapt the game. Treat it like an introduction to the world. Change and alter stuff so it works better for film. And so on

AC being a bad movie doesn't mean its approach to doing a video game adaptation is bad.

I mean it's an accurate adaptation, if nothing else. But then what's the draw? "Hooded guys do parkeur in middle ages." That's about it... It ends there.

 

[Kusagari]

Ace Attorney is the only good live action adaptation.

Though it isn't surprising that someone like Miike was the guy able to pull it off.

 

[squidyj]

I think you can make a pretty decent Uncharted movie but perhaps not a great one. It's narrative and it's presentation are in a style that hollywood is familiar with, something they can draw from, but at the same time it hews so closely to existing film material that it'd be tough for them to turn out anything that would surprise.

Ace Attorney is the only good live action adaptation.

Though it isn't surprising that someone like Miike was the guy able to pull it off.

Wait. Takashi Miike made an Ace Attorney movie?

 

[Karsha]

I thought the PoP movie was cool? Not sure whats the consensus is about that one, I remember liking it. And Silent Hill is good too, so is MK especially for early 90s standard.

 

[More_Badass]

They are basing a movie off a video game. So right off the bat you can't take it seriously.

Couldn't you say the same thing about comic book movies until Superman and Batman, and later Blade and X-Men?

 

[GamerJM]

I think it's just kind of a coincidence that happens due to an odds game, sort of like the Madden curse thing. I don't think video game movies are inherently bad by nature but a lot of Hollywood movies aren't very good and video games can be more difficult and less straight forward to adapt than, say, a book, so that leads to an even lower chance of success. I think eventually a few are going to come along that are good just by sheer odds though.

 

[Az987]

Probably because games that have storylines that can match a good film or book are very rare.

Games can be lighter on story because you're participating in the progression of the story.

 

[NipplesAndToes23]

Couldn't you say the same thing about comic book movies until Superman and Batman, and later Blade and X-Men?

Also Pirates.

 

[Kusagari]

I
Wait. Takashi Miike made an Ace Attorney movie?

Yep. It's never been officially released in America in any capacity. Check it out if you can.

 

[Penguin]

I think it's just kind of a coincidence that happens due to an odds game, sort of like the Madden curse thing. I don't think video game movies are inherently bad by nature but a lot of Hollywood movies aren't very good and video games can be more difficult and less straight forward to adapt than, say, a book, so that leads to an even lower chance of success. I think eventually a few are going to come along that are good just by sheer odds though.

35 movies... those are some terrible odds

There's nothing inherently special about video games that make em tough to adapt. Like we can turn comic books, cartoons, kids toys and board games into movies. So the material doesn't need to be deep or anything.

It's just no one cracked it, and not sure why.

I don't think there's been a "good" video game movie, but quite a few I've been entertained by Doom, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Tekken and some others.

 

[Haly]

Various.

1. The people who direct/produce the movies don't really love the games or understand their appeal.

2. The games that would easily translate to the cinema don't have the associated fanbases to attract investors. Life is Strange is pretty much made for film, who would ever fund a Life is Strange movie?

3. The games that are financially attractive, AC, Warcraft, with their multi-million dollar launch weeks, all tends toward large setpieces and scale. There aren't actually any particularly "intimate" AAA games. Which means any proper adaptation would necessitate a budget that quickly balloons out of control unless strictly controlled, which instantly dampens the potential of the adaptation.

4. Video games stories are just not very good.

5. Stigma. Few video games will ever have the mass market appeal of Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter, themselves decade or near decade long projects that, despite their success, are still flawed or imperfect adaptations of their source material.

 

[NipplesAndToes23]

35 movies... those are some terrible odds

There's nothing inherently special about video games that make em tough to adapt. Like we can turn comic books, cartoons, kids toys and board games into movies. So the material doesn't need to be deep or anything.

It's just no one cracked it, and not sure why.

I don't think there's been a "good" video game movie.

That's what I was saying.

 

[Ogodei]

I think it's Hollywood's fault, in the sense that there's no-one in Hollywood willing to treat a video game-based script with the respect it deserves (or even further down the chain, none of the great scriptwriters are willing to adapt a video game).

Like Superhero movies, one day someone will be bold enough to really bet the farm on a video game movie and bring in folks with the right talent, and then (like superhero movies) we'll go through a period where the mix is great and terrible, then where the ratio starts tilting towards greatness.

 

[zeemumu]

Don't insert random references for the fans unless it makes sense. People who haven't played the game won't care and those who have will be annoyed because it doesn't make sense.

Don't assume that your audience has played the game. You'll confuse people who are new to the series and end up having to infodump to get them up to speed.

Don't attempt to cram the entire story into a single film. Most games' stories are longer than the average film. You're gonna end up with a Batman v. Superman situation. Pick something that's manageable.

Don't veer so far off from the game's story that it resembles the original in name only. Looking at you, House of the Dead and every Resident Evil character except for Jill and Wesker.

Don't pick a game that's almost all action and no story (like a fighting game). You're gonna end up with all fight scenes and no character development.

 

[Messofanego]

I actually think many games would translate wonderfully well to film if they had a director, cast, and crew that had a vision and followed through on it. A Soulsborne by Nicolas Winding Refn would be great if he made it similar to Valhalla Rising. A mysterious protagonist going through constant trials and tribulations in a nightmare world full of all manner of monsters, mad men and even worse things. Make the other characters few and far between but make them colorful and weird in a very Souls like style. Even incorporate the game mechanic into the game similar to Edge of Tomorrow with the protag constantly dying and being forced to repeat things but slowly gaining the knowledge and skills to overcome the increasingly towering odds.

Hell yeah, and it'd have to be surreal.

 

[Penguin]

Don't insert random references for the fans unless it makes sense. People who haven't played the game won't care and those who have will be annoyed because it doesn't make sense.

Don't assume that your audience has played the game. You'll confuse people who are new to the series and end up having to infodump to get them up to speed.

Don't attempt to cram the entire story into a single film. Most games' stories are longer than the average film. You're gonna end up with a Batman v. Superman situation. Pick something that's manageable.

Don't veer so far off from the game's story that it resembles the original in name only. Looking at you, House of the Dead and every Resident Evil character except for Jill and Wesker.

Don't pick a game that's almost all action and no story (like a fighting game). You're gonna end up with all fight scenes and no character development.

The first two aren't a problem.
Most video game movies I've seen don't even attempt to adapt a single game's story. If anything may borrow elements from various games or just use the idea of the franchise.

 

[Wag]

That didn't help Pixels

Adam Sandler.

 

[littlebigman]

1. The people who direct/produce the movies don't really love the games or understand their appeal.

Lots of people say this every time this topic comes up, but look at Warcraft. Duncan Jones is a huge fan of the games, and that movie was his passion project. It sucked. Zack Snyder is a fan of comic books, and his superhero movies are awful. Being a fan of something does not correlate to making a good movie about it. Actually, I'd rather have a talented filmmaker who is totally unfamiliar with the property because they'll probably make something new and interesting out of it instead of just making sure it references all the things from the game that fans will expect to be there.

 

[zeemumu]

The first two aren't a problem.
Most video game movies I've seen don't even attempt to adapt a single game's story. If anything may borrow elements from various games or just use the idea of the franchise.

I think the first two were part of Warcraft's problem. It wasn't that accessible of a movie for people who weren't familiar with it to some degree so for them it mostly came off as not Lord of the Rings.

 

[Haly]

Lots of people say this every time this topic comes up, but look at Warcraft. Duncan Jones is a huge fan of the games, and that movie was his passion project. It sucked. Zack Snyder is a fan of comic books, and his superhero movies are awful. Being a fan of something does not correlate to making a good movie about it. Actually, I'd rather have a talented filmmaker who is totally unfamiliar with the property because they'll probably make something new and interesting out of it instead of just making sure it references all the things from the game that fans will expect to be there.

I agree with what you said, but my list wasn't meant to be universal. It was just a list of things that "tend to go wrong" with video game adaptations.

 

[TyrantII]

Same way marvel did it. You get Capcom to go to Disney and marvel and say how do I do this?

MVC: the movie

Done. 850 million

Back it up.

Without Christopher Nolan and Batman Begins, Disney doesn't bat an eye at Marvel.

The truth is, to get great game adaptations first you need a great, critically acclaimed adaptation.

Hollywood builds success off success. Someone has to prove it can be done first, and can bring in the bacon.

Otherwise the string of cheap to make, low quality but profitable game based movies will continue. Because you suckers keep going to see them.

 

[vern]

Video games don't even have good stories, so it shouldn't be a shock that the movies based on them suck.

 

[Abilidebob]

Warcraft was pretty damn enjoyable, all my friends, fans or not, liked it. But I didn't meet even one American that enjoyed it, for some reason. Same thing for Pacific Rim.

 

[Shaanyboi]

Thinking on it now, I want Edgar Wright to direct a Hitman movie. Only he can perfectly capture the tone needed and successfully stage Agent 47 eliminating his threats with a completely straight face while throwing a fire extinquisher at their face, playing a drum solo while in disguise, or continually baiting people into a corner so that he has a stairwell full of about 20 individuals, all rendered unconscious with spaghetti cans.

 

[TyrantII]

Duncan Jones is a huge fan of the games, and that movie was his passion project. It sucked. Zack Snyder is a fan of comic books, and his superhero movies are awful.

Props to Jones for Moon, but as far as directing goes he's a little green, so not sure we can blame him there.

Snyder is a terrible filmmaker though. He's awesome at moments and montages, but a movie can't be a string of those with some filler. Unfortunately that's all we've ever seen from him. He literally hasn't made a movie yet.