Upcoming Movies based on Video Games

First off, lets take a look at the history of Movies based on Video Games:

The Good:

• Lara Croft: Tomb Raider


• Mortal Kombat


• Resident Evil

The Bad:

• Tomb Raider II: Cradle of Life


• Street Fighter (live action)

The Ugly:

• Mortal Kombat: Annihalation


• Super Mario Brothers *shudder*

And by "good", I mean somewhat keeping to the premise/storyline of the original game, and also watchable.

Except for Mortal Kombat. That movie just fscking rocked!

Anyway, more attempts at a good video game Movie are being made. Several more.

And some of them might actually be good...

First off, the main reason why the video game -> movie conversions suck so badly is because the original movie did not have a plot worthy of Hollywood. They managed to pull it off in MK by making the individual stories behind each of the characters the focal point of the plot, but even then you watch it primarily for the action. Tomb Raider pulled it off by making a new plot in the spirit of the games.

Now this is a major problem. Many games take at least 24 hours to finish in SP/storyline mode. Of course, that often includes side-quests, slightly minor plot points, and, of course, many, many hours of fighting. So it can probably be cut down to 3-4 hours of actual main plot line development. If not that, then less. Just guestimating here. So that's 2-3 movies if you also add in some battle scenes.

Uh huh.

*cough*

This is why I've always believed that if some studio finally decided to make a Starcraft movie, they'd have to stick to one campaign. Or do three movies, one for each campaign.

Even so, it should be possible to cut down the plot to a point where it is still true to the original source, but also intresting and fun to watch. The other problem is that the director/producer tends to hijack the movie to make it more intresting according to him/her. This isn't a major problem, but it is apparant in all movie conversions, such as Ang Lee's Hulk.

Now here's the point of this:

More movie conversions are on their way. I found this out, in particular, from this article on the site GamEntropy. It does a good job of outlining the previous movie conversions as well as list out the new ones to come.

Here are the ones I found intresting, as well as possibly being very good.

Max Payne:

I love this game. Not only is it a great game, in terms of gameplay, but it also has an excelent Film Noir style storyline.

I feel it has a chance simply because the actual story for it is rather short. Its possible to tell the story in its entirety in a slightly longer-than-average movie. And I will know 5 seconds into the movie if they have screwed it up, because they have to start with the opening line of the game:

"They were all dead. The final gunshot was an exclamation mark on everything that had led to this point. I released my finger from the trigger, and it was over."

Check out IMDB's quote database for more good Max Payne quotes.

Still, this is a game that could be a very good movie. Good plot, action that can easily be done on the silver screen, and a style Hollywood is known for. What could possibly go wrong?

Silent Hill:

I haven't played this game. This is primarily because I don't like horror in general, and Silent Hill is the premier Horror video game series. I could explain the plot, but I don't know it well enough, and you'd find a better description via google.

The intresting thing about this movie is that Konami, those wonderful guys behind the game, ARE IN ACTIVE CONTROL OVER THE MOVIE! They are in charge of many of the key elements of the movie, including casting, script supervision, and music. Silent Hill will probably be an excelent Horror film, simply because of the immense artistic style the games possess will almost undoubtedly be transfered to the movie.

GTA: Vice City

Say what you will, but this movie has an excelent chance of doing well, simply for two reasons:

1: Its going to be a ganster movie, something filmmakers can do quite well.

2: Ya know how there's no such thing as bad press? Any idea how much press GTA has gotten?

I don't even want to THINK about the press the movie will get...

Still, one thing of note is that apparantly the actor who did the voice of Tommy Vercetti (the main character in GTA VC), Ray Liotta, will be Tommy Vercetti in the movie. That should be intresting, to say the least.

Given how the movie companies are finally picking logical choices for the games to transfer, and the game companies are figuring out how to ensure the movie will be decent, we may actually see some really good video game Movies.

Scary...