Game movie adaptations: What goes so wrong?
 

(Besides the obvious answer Uwe Boll.)
I was watching the Gears of War 3 trailer, and think what an amazing job they did. The music the art and the scenery, it all just seems so hopeless. Movies seldom IMO reach that level of emotion. Then take a look at the Halo Diorama commercial it was brilliant. When making a modern game into a movie Directors are handed an amazing story with great dialogue (some exceptions I know) and they manage to destroy it. Take the Doom movie, how do you screw that up so bad, then game set the best environment you could hope for and a great story. Why the hell they modified it to be some human genome project is beyond me.

You actually thought Doom had a good story, or a story at all for that matter? http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ies/wacko1.gif

Sorry, but usually games dont have good stories, but stupid ones, especially shooters. With a few exceptions of course. It seems like the direction that a good story is an integral part of a PC game died with the 90s.

I disagree with that, I thought Mass Effect 1 and 2, Half-life, Doom (yes simple but fun) KOTOR (better than any star wars movie release IMO and I love star wars) Dragon Age all had amazing stories. Mass Effect would be a great movie, very good characters you can relate to and like with a great story. While some of the ones I mentioned have a simple or generic story they are every bit as good as any movie plot.

The same way they mess up book to movie adaptations, they change the source material. Doom the movie was not Doom, Max payne was not Max Payne, etc.

They just throw them with **** directors, crap actors, poor scripts, and terrible production teams and you get these turds.

Same with the Wing Commander movie. Why not keep the amazing cast you had in the video games and use that in a feature film. (Mark Hamill, John Rhys-Davies, Malcolm McDowell, Tom Wilson. Though I have to admit David Warner made an excellent Admiral Tolwyn as well) Don't change the way your bad guys look: from cats to gorillas. Don't change the way the ships and fighters look. Don't give us a movie that looks like it could be part of a trilogy but never make the other two movies.

Basically don't have such a massive difference between the games and the movies, why can't the movie just be like the cheesy cutscenes from the games just not cheesy through the refining and directing process?

That movie was supposed to revive the games and bring out new ones instead the Wing Commander universe is nearly completely dead today.

Another example that comes to mind is the upcoming Warcraft movie. Instead of the beautiful well crafted CGI cutscenes we have known to come and love from Blizzard Entertainment, we'll probably get special effects worse than the games, bad acting, and a movie more about World of Warcraft instead of the excellent Warcraft 1-3.

Yeah Max Payne was shockingly toned down compared to the game. It is very annoying when material gets diluted down just to be able to appeal to a wider audience. I mean the original story is very dark and violent, there was none of that in the movie. [thumbdown]

This is exactly why there is no Half Life movie, Valve doesnt want their masterpiece tarnished.

This may be true, but you HAVE to figure there's got to be at least one director out there that is willing and more than capable of creating a movie of a game that's whole, exciting and just generally doesn't suck! Right? http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ies/wacko1.gif

The comic book movies have gotten somewhat better I think, albeit after a lot of trial and fail, you figure games have the same potential movie wise.

Were the pokemon movies bad?

In all the games you listed the reaction to events are down to the player, in Half Life and Doom there's no real reaction while in Masseffect, Dragonage and KOTOR the player chooses the reaction. The other characters are simpler so you can understand their motivations with less effort, and your manipulation of their will is insultingly basic.

The reason these adaptations fail is simple, there isn't enough there for interesting 'passive' entertainment. The story in those games work because they are interactive, they draw the player into that world and the player doesn't spend time trying to pick holes in the plot. The events carry much more weight because it's happening to you.

Also games can be either too light on plot or too heavy by carrying too many plot threads. The ones closest to movies, have four hours of playtime...

This film looks good.

Prince of Persia - The Sands of Time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8EA7EbFX4k

Yeah it doesn't. Anything with Jerry Bruckheimer's name on it is turd city. Not to mention, Jake Gylynenanahall as the prince. Yeah. Terrible choice

That movie looks like an abysmal fx orgy with no substance.

It looks on the threshold of okay excluding the annoying selection of actors IMO.