When will video game movies catch up to comic movies?

General Discussion
1

So with comic book movies being all the rage for the last few years, part of me is wondering why Hollywood is hesitant about bringing more video game movies to the big screen.
Many younger directors have grown up with video games and gaming is more mainstream these days than ever before. The stigma is considerably less now.

I can understand them being more difficult in the 80/90s because most games had minimal plots or developed characters, but with so many current games being high production in terms of voice acting, writing etc, I would think it would be easier nowadays to do so.

Is the stench of so many poor previous efforts the only reason Hollywood is skittish?

Are there more legal or rights difficulties involved than with comics?

Discuss.

2

When a decent director who actually plays games and has basic knowledge/experience on directing steps in and converts a game into a movie.

And there hesitant since, judging from previous attempts, have all failed.
There’s been directors who’ve actually put time into playing X game to get a “feel” for it, write the script, only to get turn down regardless of their name/credit.

SO FUCKIN’ NEVER, SCRUB!!!

3

When will comic movies be good

4

Might be awhile. Projects keep getting planned, then put on hold/cancelled.

Whenever the hell people start to get tired of comics, Hollywood can try their hand at adapting videogames again. But comic movies have been hot for 26 years now, and it’s never been more dominant.

5

Because if you have a background in visual story telling and scriptwriting it would be much more lucrative to make a game in this economy \

6

I could go for a Ninja Gaiden movie. The plot is the same in every game and only tweaked a little. Can be a big hit

7

1995

MORTALLLLLLLLL
KOMBATTTTTTTTTT

8

When video game companies pull a Marvel and start making these movies their damn selves instead of letting Hollywood fuck shit up with terrible casting and writing.

9

I think it depends on the game they are adapting. The Tomb Raider movies were aight but that’s because that’s something that can be transisitioned to Hollywood without having to add shit to make it function as a movie.

Same with the 1st MK movie, it was simple enough. But I feels some shit can’t work as a movie unless it’s CGI or animated. Not saying that live action by default is bad. But for example I feel if Advent Children was live action it’d be executed pretty bad.

That said for game movies to be good they gotta find shit that can be transitioned without having to add alot of “Hollywood” shit to it to the point where the only thing that’s related to the game series is little shit and a good example of this is the RE movies.

But if they wanna try game movies again I’d say go with something like Uncharted for live actions since it’s movie like anyway. And for cartoony shit keep it CG like they are doing with the Ratchet movie

10

You can’t make a movie game like Uncharted into a movie because anybody interested in the game will just play the game.

Most video game plots that get notice and critical praise are unfilmable. There are lots of comic book stories that have fans yelling “now THAT would make a good movie!” like Kingdom Come, that comic would be an instant easy transition with most changes being organic and obvious. There aren’t any video game stories like that, the closest you hear anyone say to the comic book fans is that they want to see Master Chief on screen or some shit. That doesn’t actually make a good movie.

11

I see what you’re saying. I see you brought up Halo stuff. Idk how the Halo story is as I don’t like the series. But with it being sci fi and etc if the plot is something that can be converted into a movie or series I think Halo could work.

But yeah I think with game movies it’s just messy. As I said cartoony stuff would be easier to do, which is why series like that have gotten tv shows. But it’s the realistic stuff that I think would have a harder time.

And you’re definitely right about cinematic games are best to just be played anyway. But yeah idk, I think game movies can be done it’s just they have to strike that balance of keeping fans of the actual games happy, while also making it something that’d catch peoples eye who don’t game if they saw a trailer for it for etc

12

I think it would be better to try to adapt some video games into TV. I liked Mortal Kombat: Conquest back in the day and the Legacy webseries.

13

Marvel movies are just comedies with a bit of action tho

Not saying i dont enjoy them, i just wouldnt hold any of them up as examples of what comic movies should be. Too corny and i feel like in 10 years they wont have age well. See: raimis spiderman

14

I do as Marvel’s movies embraces the comic roots of it’s material rather than try to bury as much of it as possible. I didn’t like how most comic book movies pre-Iron Man were all broody, having muddy colors, having everyone wearing black leather and taking itself too seriously. Raimi’s Spider-Man didn’t have the character’s trademark humor and focused too much on melodrama. Shit was theatrical soap opera with bits of action.

15

I suppose; im not a fan of movie tony stark

16

Halo movie would be epic, but I think the fucking time has passed. I still hold out hope a proper Halo gets done eventually.

17

If you ignore the Halo games but look at the Halo canon, yeah you could make a good movie. The Spartans holding some planet vs the Covenant for years while slowing losing their own could make a good action flick, especially if you try to make it fun at times. What I said was that that’s not what fans are looking for, they are just looking to see Master Chief on screen. That’s what they are going to tell the company producing the movie, because honestly that’s about as far as the fans have thought into it.

I guess I’m trying to say that, yes, while fans could end up appreciating a good video game movie, the fact is they are part of the problem because they’re presenting themselves as an audience in such an immature way. The manner they are presenting their wants to companies is just as much hand-wavy jibberish as what the writers are going for in their scripts. Fans give vague, dumb requests, producers set vague, dumb standards for the project, and then writers and directors take their non-gaming interpretation of the game. Fans need to mature up.

When you ask for a good movie, there’s a basic expectation that your request spells out a story that on some level people feel is fulfilling, even if only in a “it’s genuinely fun” way. Otherwise you are really just asking for shit. People wanting comic book movies are not ambiguous at all in what they want. The most ambiguous they get is “make this story arc into a movie”.

Disney got lucky with the way Marvel Studios was structured in their giant corporation, but the fans still played a role in telling Marvel Studios what is what.

18

Video games are hard because of the game in itself. Take a perfect example of a game hard to turn into a decent movie (streetfighter) the way Hollywood has messed this up in the past is to try and fit all the characters in. Making shit cameos and terrible introductions.

Whereas take an average marvel movie and it is about one hero and many times, one villain. Much easier to write since there is one story to write instead of 12.

Then you have the way to do it “right” such as the news streetfighter movie. Concentrating on only ken and ryu and gouken and Akuma.

But that formula pisses off this characters fans and that characters fans that weren’t in the movie… Creating possibilities of sequels, but still a formula that still leaves some people out in the cold.

And finally what about the games that have one protagonist? Most are kiddy heroes like sonic, or Mario, Rayman, crash bandicoot, etc. tomb raider “worked” because it is about one girl, not a huge assortment of people.

And the others that are one protagonist could definitely work, like dante, or bayonetta are perfect examples. Even kratos.

At the end of the day, what is needed is money and the ability to tell a “dark” story like the batman and superman reboots, or a “light” story like wizard of oz when it goes color after Dorothy lands, or like in Thor 2.

And finally besides the points already made the BIGGEST reason why it’s easier for comics to be introduced to movies than it is for video games is because comics are story driven whereas some games very much are not.

All that needs to happen is the proper money be thrown at the right project and the people in charge of the project knowing the key points of how to make a good actioner.

Transformers as an example keeps the number of robots that take center stage, to a minimum to keep the movie able to have some depth of character in getting to know individual robots rather than see a ton of them and know none.

19

Comics have decades upon decades of storylines and character development to work with. Apples to oranges.

The only way a video game movie works is with a game/series that has a strong, persistent atmosphere and/or theme, and building a movie that plays off the environment, rather than off the game’s established storyline/characters. You, however, CANNOT try and base a movie rigidly around the actual games’ stories or lore otherwise you’re looking at trying to condense way too much into a few hours. Mortal Kombat back in 199X worked not necessarily by having a strong story, but by capturing the martial arts action and goriness of the games.

A lot of the better/best/not actually awful movies, animated or not, basically were their own (usually meh) non-canon storylines that basically leaned on their respective IPs/characters but weren’t actually strong stories on their own. It worked out ok for the original RE movie (though they wound up becoming generic action flicks after the first one) and a lot of the various made-in-Japan animated movies.

The movies with the highest ceilings are the ones with, as mentioned, strong atmospheres and/or themes. Fallout, for example, could make a great movie because it has such a strong environment, and the story of the rise of a dystopian messiah is something that fits inside 2 hours. Silent Hill could be a great movie (though the ones they made missed the mark) because of the trippy, mind-bending eeriness and the grossness of everything you encounter. The modern Ninja Gaiden games could work as a slasher, cyberpunk ninja flick.

Mass Effect or Halo or Metal Gear however…I can’t think of a way movies built on those series wouldn’t suck.

20

Whats wrong with the street fighter movie :expressionless: :expressionless: :expressionless:

Haha, in all seriousness I agree. The only movie’s based off of a video game series that I think are good is the resident evil series. Considering the success rate of all other video game related movies I think they have done pretty well.

They have games nowadays which almost feel like movies within themselves like the last of us, heavy rain etc etc so I don’t think a good director who actually may enjoy playing games himself would find it to hard to make a movie out of.