We love video games, they're fun as hell and sometimes are good learning material. If not for games such as NFS, Gran Turismo etc I wouldn't know how a car works. If not for Call of Duty, Killzone, Battlefield etc I wouldn't know how guns work and what it feels like to be a soldier. That being said, playing games like Resident evil, Max Payne, Doom etc we all think to ourselves "Man, this would make a badass movie" Well, at least I did, many times. And what do we get? Resident Evil: Afterlife, Doom with a "24th" Chromosome, Max Payne with lefty Midget Marky Mark and Mila kunis as Mona sax...WTF? Well sure, the first 2 Resident Evil movies had some elements that were true to the source material and the movies weren't cheesy. But how can they fuck up Max Payne? The game had good plot, epic characters, lotta action that would look good on the big screen. Watching these shitty movie adaptations (which were agonizing) I thought to myself "How can these be rectified for future projects?" Hence,besides general essentials for movie making, I lay down few tips on how to make an epic movie whether loosely or strictly based on a video game (but hey I am no director... so it would seem a li'l narrow minded to professionals)
Casting the right actors for the characters
"The first impression is the best impression" We've all heard of that. The actors that play the characters in from the game are the first thing we look for in a trailer.When people saw Mark Wahlberg as Max Payne and Mila Kunis(WTF) as Mona, many got skeptical and jumped to conclusions. Now that is NOT good when it comes to film making. If it's loosely based on the games like the first Resident Evil, where there's no Jill, Leon, Chris or Claire and just fresh character Alice & the T-virus' effects on humans, this doesn't matter. However, an over the top 26 year old playing Wesker in RE:Afterlife, Pretty boy with acting talent at par with a pornstar playing Leon Kennedy...my god, talk about butchering one of the coolest characters in the RE universe. Good thing they didn't mess up Jill, Sienna Guillory was perfect as Jill Valentine. Moreover they must have the voice that suits the game character, need not sound exactly alike. Mark Wahlberg's out-of-breath voice isn't even remotely similar to James McAffrey's cool,deep narrative voice. If you ask me, I would've chosen Bradd Pitt any day. Check out the trailer for "Killing them softly" he still looks like he'd fit the role [In my opinion, of course.]
"The first impression is the best impression" We've all heard of that. The actors that play the characters in from the game are the first thing we look for in a trailer.When people saw Mark Wahlberg as Max Payne and Mila Kunis(WTF) as Mona, many got skeptical and jumped to conclusions. Now that is NOT good when it comes to film making. If it's loosely based on the games like the first Resident Evil, where there's no Jill, Leon, Chris or Claire and just fresh character Alice & the T-virus' effects on humans, this doesn't matter. However, an over the top 26 year old playing Wesker in RE:Afterlife, Pretty boy with acting talent at par with a pornstar playing Leon Kennedy...my god, talk about butchering one of the coolest characters in the RE universe. Good thing they didn't mess up Jill, Sienna Guillory was perfect as Jill Valentine. Moreover they must have the voice that suits the game character, need not sound exactly alike. Mark Wahlberg's out-of-breath voice isn't even remotely similar to James McAffrey's cool,deep narrative voice. If you ask me, I would've chosen Bradd Pitt any day. Check out the trailer for "Killing them softly" he still looks like he'd fit the role [In my opinion, of course.]
Do NOT ruin the game storyline
They are called games for a reason, the writing is not gonna be an Oscar worthy masterpiece. If a game's plot is cheesy, over the top then they're just meant to be mindless badass entertainment, like Gears of War, Doom for example..
Either don't make a movie and let them remain as epic games or make few reasonable changes
Either don't make a movie and let them remain as epic games or make few reasonable changes
to the story line and execute it well. Doom's story is pretty cheesy and it's all about mindless fun shooting hell demons that invade mars through a portal!! What were the makers of Doom thinkin? Probably "Alright the recent game Doom 3 seems to be kickin ass in the video game market, Hell let's make a Doom movie with an even cheesier plot, how about a 24th chromosome?" I'm not a big fan of the tomb raider games but judging by the reception of the movies by critics/gamers.... they must have fucked up the game's story line too, i don't know. That being said about games with more action than plot, there are games with intriguing plot such as Resident evil 4, Max payne trilogy, Hitman series, Elder scrolls series etc Hitman movie had good casting but the movie, mehh it's ok and don't get me started on Max Payne and resident evil post 1&2
Make sure to include game elements
Make sure to include game elements
As we play a game, we find certain distinct elements that define it. For eg: Sand demons, rewinding time & puzzles from prince of persia games, Bullet time, shoot dodge & Flashback narration from max payne, Multiple ways in mission completion, disguises from Hitman etc Without these key elements POP wouldn't be POP, Max Payne wouldn't be Max Payne and Hitman wouldn't obviously be Hitman, if made into a movie. And voila... prince of persia had just the dagger of time and NOTHING else, Hitman was a bourne movie with Agent47 instead of Jason Bourne and Max payne,well.....it had reverse shootdodge (diving back in slomo n shootin a person behind him) enough said.
Movie makers/lead actors MUST play the games
After I watched that god awful Resident Evil: Retribution, I bet Paul W.S Anderson never played any of the RE games. In fact, i think he must have just watched IGN/Gamespot walk-through videos on YouTube and then made these movies. Mark Wahlberg clearly mentioned he's never played any of the Max Payne games, good job promoting a video game movie, Mark. Directors, screenplay writers etc of movies based on comics/ novels read the source material before starting the film project hence, no shit....the same thing applies to video game movies as well. I really hope the makers of the Metal gear movie know what they're doing.
CGI or no CGI, Visual appeal must win
We've all been through Mortal Kombat: Annihilation AKA The unwanted MK sequel with the shittiest CGI & fights. I mean, when the Computer Generated Imagery IS the source material... you can't have shitty CGI or other visual FX in the movie adaptation. You're probably tired of me mentioning resident evil like 50 times already, but the 4th & 5th movie in the RE film series had really shitty wire works and pointless Slo-mo!! Hey Paul W.S Anderson, We get it, You're a big Matrix fan... stop using slo-mo everywhere you prick (Sorry got a lil nerd rage there).
And so taking a movie based on a game is not easy, games mean much more to us gamers than just some graphics and objects on a screen, its a second life, a virtual reality and when we don't find those elements in the same movie that took us to places in the game, that's the ultimate crime these directors do... killing the soul of the game they were actually meant to immortalize. This being considered I would comment on my favorite movie that came at par with the game, The batman series! Although some that irritated me was the Harry Potter franchise, i couldn't consider them games, more of another portal to cash in on the actual Harry Potter concept.
Lets hope they make more content rich games and movies that go hand in hand to give us the experience we yearn so much. Games from Tom Clancy have such amazing story lines, I can visualize almost all of them as a movie. Again, its something that rests in the directors hands...
Bav out! Do post your comments!
And so taking a movie based on a game is not easy, games mean much more to us gamers than just some graphics and objects on a screen, its a second life, a virtual reality and when we don't find those elements in the same movie that took us to places in the game, that's the ultimate crime these directors do... killing the soul of the game they were actually meant to immortalize. This being considered I would comment on my favorite movie that came at par with the game, The batman series! Although some that irritated me was the Harry Potter franchise, i couldn't consider them games, more of another portal to cash in on the actual Harry Potter concept.
Lets hope they make more content rich games and movies that go hand in hand to give us the experience we yearn so much. Games from Tom Clancy have such amazing story lines, I can visualize almost all of them as a movie. Again, its something that rests in the directors hands...
Bav out! Do post your comments!
7 comments:
I have to disagree with your opinion about hitman movie. They made minor changes to story line like Agent 47 being a trained to kill orphan rather than a clone created from 5 master criminals, without which it will be a senseless to the majority movie goers who never played the game. Apart from that the movie included almost all aspects of the game. There are even shots imitating in game camera. Timothy Olyphant imitates the character animation of agent 47 in several scenes. In my opinion the movie did justice to Hitman series fans.
If you are not still convinced check this out : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z9EyP38SIM
I never said it sucked, read it again.... it had a perfect actors.. i mentioned that before... few game elements.. but it was like a chase movie, Have u seen the movie "Blade runner" Now that kinda screenplay woulda been perfect for a Hitman movie!!!
Hitman maybe as a movie never really impressed us as much as the game, Maybe it is meant to stay as the coolest game ever.. cant be compared to the game. What do you say bhavan?
Timothy Olyphant is one of my fav actors dude, he kicks ass in Justified series... He looks like 47, his voice doesn't sound anything like his though.. 47's voice is like that of Tom hanks..... As for comparison, only few elements were there man... as i said the movie's not dogshit, but my idea of blade runner'ish story woulda done the games justice!!!!
My friend, obviously you are more of a gamer than a movie buff. What you fantasize is an elaborate, realistic full walkthrough of games. Unfortunately movies aren't mere documentation of a flawless gameplay.
If you are not still convinced there are numerous forums and blogs arguing on the topic Hitman game v/s movie. Check them out before making negative criticism.
"In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read..." -Anton Ego, Ratatouille (2007)
My friend you are mistaken, I'm a HUGE movie buff as well as a hardcore gamer since the early 90s. Have u seen the animated Resident Evil movies: Degeneration & Damnation? If those were live action movies... They would be the best movies that remained true to the source material.....
yea lets move away from Hitman and talk about this in general.... Directors shouldn't get down into the movie business with a good game in their hands and then screw it up... ends up killing the game, you see... That what is happening nowadays, when the actual game-play is too vast to be shown in that 120 minutes of movie time.
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