Badmovies.org Forum

Ah video games.  Nothing like them.  I gotta admit I've been playing them for 32 years.  But I wonder, why does Hollywood make movies of them?  Are they scraping the bottom of the barrel for ideas?  I've seen 2 of these, Super Mario Bros and Double Dragon.  Both are cheesier than the biggest dairy farm in the world.  I've also seen Final Fantasy the Spirits Within which was mildly interesting.

Okay; now just who the f.u.c.k is that impersonating WW0?

One paragraph? Not even slightly annoying?

Like we're going to fall for that one.  :tongueout:

We need more movies like Double Dragon and Super Mario Brothers: Mid nineties movies like those are incredibly brilliant!

Built-in audience, little downside risk.

I don't care what anybody says, those were extremely fun movies and much more imaginative than people tend to give them credit for. 

On the other hand, videogame movies involving Uwe Bolle are much less imaginative and not very fun. 

If you played the game, no need to see a movie about the game. 

I'm one of the people who remembers Sega CD's absolutely horrible series of movie-games like Cliffhanger and Congo to name a few and thus such may be influencing my veto of video game movies.

I like my games to be games and my movies to be movies.  At this point, games are an art form, and just real-looking enough. 

To continue to color them with more realistic graphics and near-life-like art is going to eventually ruin what a game stands for. Hope that makes sense.

Money dear boy.  Simply money.  You are making a film based on a video game that already has a built in audience like Rev. Powell said.  Plus, if the movie sucks hard, the audience will still come out to see it or check it out on DVD for morbid curiousity.  The company will still turn a profit over time even if the film doesn't do well in theathers.  That's pretty much how Uwe Boll is making money since most people are watching his movies just to see the crap factor in them.

The thing is though, some games have great stories, like Silent Hill and Bioshock.  It would be rather interesting to see how a movie adaption of one would turn out.  It's just the filmmakers do not seem to care that much for what they are making most of the time.  Mortal Kombat, Prince of Perisa, and Silent Hill seem to be the best video game films since MK & PoP seem be so bad they're good and Silent Hill capturing atmosphere and visual style of the games incredibly well.

Yep, Unfortunately, it's either that or Remakes. Comedies today just suck, action films/slasher films are cliched beyond the point that it is funny, and basically, Hollywood only cares about $$$, not about story/plot development.

Of course if your really lazy you can simply name a movie after a video game and then throw some random mish-mash of crap together a publish it.  Yeah, I'm looking at you "House of the Dead" which the movie (more accurately dubbed by Andrew Borntregger-"Zombie Island Rave Massacre") had a weaker plot line than the video game.  Remember, even if people walk out of the theaters, they already bought the ticket.  Hiring an awesome writer to come up with a new idea is expensive, hawking on some already existing video game is cheap.

I think you have an exaggerated idea of what writers get paid.  :wink:  Actually I think the opposite is true: it's much cheaper to commission an original story than to pay licensing fees to an existing game franchise, and pay a screenwriter to do an adaptation as well.  But even though its more expensive, there's much less risk involved because of the existing fanbase.

Yes.

Zombie Island Rave Massacre is a much better title anyway.

Rev. Powell; true enough getting gigged for a royalty fee would be much more expensive than a writer but this begs the question: why not have better writing? I get the "slap a game title on the movie and everyone who was a fan of the game will be a fan of your movie", but if writers are so inexpensive why do we still have the same lame rehashed storylines over and over again? (just so we're clear, that's more of a rhetorical lament, don't feel like you have to answer it) Even if the production costs are high, bad writing makes a movie feel cheap.

For example, when was the last good original monster created? We are still seeing films about werewolves and vampires that are centuries old creations.  If you watch Twilight (1) absolutely cold with no knowledge of it at all it is initially a decent (I won't say great but, decent) movie up until they reveal he's a vampire then it's kind of a letdown.  With all that secrecy and vague implications your almost expecting something new/interesting but no, he's a vampire and she's a moron.  The storyline goes down from there over the next 5 or so (I lost track) movies.  Doesn't matter how many big name actors/SFX you slap on, it's a vampire love story, you pretty much know how its going to go.

Opposite end of the spectrum: Zombies Anonymous - premise is people who die simply get back up and go about their average lives despite the fact that they are zombies. The whole movie revolves around the social implications of this really original premise and how it leads to ethnic clashes between zombies/non-zombies and really original dialogue like "when were you planning to tell your parents you are dead? - I was thinkimg maybe this Christmas".  Despite the fact that it was done on a shoe-string budget the good premise and good writing bring the movie up as a whole.

One of my favorite horror films is based on a video game . . . SILENT HILL. 
Never played the game, but really loved the movie.  Very atmospheric and creepy.

I don't know if you are much of a gamer but if you get a chance download from the Playstation store.  It is a very creepy and unsettling game.  (The school freaked me out when I was 18, I refused to play with the lights off.)  However, the problem is that originality has not been with the series in sometime.  The conventions are known and this is what limits it.  There needs to be deeper exploration on themes and expansion of plot.  Speaking of which, I hope the next movie can do that with some gusto.

Getting back, it is one of the better.  I admit plot is not the same but it does well with the material.  I don't want to see the game on screen but something that does well with the material presented. 

Whilst Uwe Boll is almost constant in making shoddy video game rip offs, Paul W.S. Anderson is a far worse, big budget version of the same thing.

Mortal Kombat series, Resident Evil series (without a doubt the furthest you can get from the original game) and the AVP series (which whilst based on comics, did have a most excellent video game about 6 or 7 year ago).

With stories as good as those in "Bioshock" and "Red Dead Redemption", converting into movies is pointless beyond financial reasons. Same as making movie video games, they almost all suck aswell. Except for the Die Hard Trilogy on the Playstation. That was the bomb.

Then there's the video games based on movies. Somehow I've just never been driven to play video games based on movies.

I'd have to disagree, while it wasn't an exact adaption of the game, it felt very much like a part of the series and hit all the marks.  Creepy house, underground zombie labs, hero that doesn't know what's going on, professionals caught in a zombie uprising, it's all there. 

I don't have to answer because you answered your own question!  How much money did ZOMBIES ANONYMOUS make?  Those of us who prefer original stories to familiar, predictable stories are a niche market, and we have to get used to it.  Creativity doesn't make money, so Hollywood's never going to cater to us.   

Video game movie plot problems...

Follows the plot too close: "Why am I watching this when I can play the game?"

Too far from the plot: "What the hell?! This has nothing to do with the game! They think they can just slap [Insert game title here]'s name on it and it'd be a hit?!"

Yes.

Nice post.  You bring up some good stuff, and I know a good bit is rhetorical but I still want to talk about it, so hey.

It's a very good question on why some huge budget Hollywood films have such bad scripts.  I suspect a lot of it has to do with the ridiculous numbers of writers working and the huge numbers of drafts, with lots of committees and other people making demands about what they want - scripts need to be focused, and when you have 4+ writers and a team of twelve execs constantly making demands for changes to appeal to X demographic or what not, it leads to bad writing.

Personally, I've seen a number of films that I feel if they just gave it to any serious film fan they could point out the gaping flaws and easily fix them, but that's not what they want to do.  For example, Tron: Legacy has several plot concepts that could have been ENTIRELY REMOVED and serve no purpose at all.  It wouldn't have been hard to restructure the script either - end result would have been a film 20-30 minutes shorter that would have cost significantly less (millions and millions of dollars) and been better.

As far as original monsters...  There have been a handful, they just aren't as iconic or long lasting.  Mythological creatures stuck around in folklore as they appeal to something very base in the human mind.  I don't think it's a coincidence that almost all major cultures have something akin to a dragon, for example.  Vampires are similar, and quite a few cultures have something like werewolves.  That base appeal of those creatures will never go away. 

One of the best original monsters I can recall recently was the one in Splinter.  A little similar to the alien from The Thing, but it was very creepy and effective.  Not a perfect film, but a great monster.

Whilst it had the right ingredients, it didn't have the same scariness as the original game. As a stand alone zombie film it would have been entertaining enough, but it was all stupid and flashy which misses the entire creepy fear basis of the game.

Silent Hill got closer to it, and that wasn't great either.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2HGoR8pSps

There are 2 video game-based movies I'm actually looking forward to seeing.  The reason for this is the games they are based on had good stories in them.  They are the Legend of Zelda and Castlevania.  Castlevania was a better horror game than Resident Evil because it was more gothic.

I will have to agree with you there.  Resident Evil had a few jump moments but Castlevania was much more of an immersion into the gothic horror of your choice.  The characters and story were rather well developed and I like how especially in Symphony of the Night there was some identification with Dracula.  Almost giving him a human quality.  Castlevania is one of my favorite series in the whole of video games.  Also, The Legend of Zelda would almost lend itself to a movie.  The stories are enjoyable and engage you.  The characters and places are noteworthy.  In addition, most Zelda games are not exactly a continuity.  It would be harder to make something terrible as each almost seems a different telling of a similar story.  Thus taking elements and making it into a movie you are capable of taking the main themes tweeking to your needs. 

I currently own 3 games in the Castlevania series, Symphony of the Night, Lament of Innocence and Dracula X Chronicles.  I'm looking forward to getting Lords of Shadow.  My favorite site is www.castlevaniadungeon.net.  My favorite Belmont is Richter.  My favorite Castlvania is Symphony of the Night.  What's yours?

On favorite Castlevania, it is Symphony of the Night.  I find it more compelling.  It brings much to the table not just in story but in game play mechanics. 

On Belmont that is a bit tougher, I think I would have to go with Simon.  Simon's Quest being the first Castlevania I played.  I still have a soft spot for it and Simon as my introduction to the series. 

I have played most of the recent releases and quite a few I know are not favorable of Lament of Innocence.  However, I found Lament of Innocence one of the most enjoyable of the recent incarnations.  It had a certain story arc that was nice to look at being done.  I like to know origins and so on.  Plus, I really like the characters and design. 

I think part of the originality problem is two fold. Yes, there is little market for it.  Whenever they crank out this years "blockbuster" it is never anything really unique.  This is where Hollywood falls a little too deep into "purpose driven" movie making.  Another good example is when a movie is made for pretty much the explicit purpose of getting some oscars/emmy awards.  Just dump several big star actors into roles that require lots of drama and passion and your destined to pick up "award for best...".

I think you also have a point with the team of writers being told what to do by committees looking at demographics.  For example they want to make sure to lock up the tween-aged girl market so they dump some Justin Bieber reference in the movie (do the kids still like him? I don't know, just insert whatever flavor of the month popstar in here).  This never makes good writing.

Chainsaw midget, you are right, SciFi has come up with a couple decent and original monsters.  Unfortunately the rest of the movie outside of the monster is a pretty standard formula.  Monster attacks humans, a "special forces" group is formed to fight it which includes the best diver, the best sniper, the best comander, and at least one random hotchick each of which is introduced with a one sentence description and they all work together to learn how to pretend skating helmets are "military equipment" and then become monster fodder. Oh, wait, this sounds familiar  :smile:

You didn't ask for good monster movies, just good movie monsters.     :twirl:

The Castlevania series are on my TOP favorite games list.
Symphony of the Night, Super Caslevania 4, Castlevania 1 and Lament of Innocence. Some of the best games I've ever played. Hollywood needs to make a movie soon, lots of material! Don't mess it up.

I'm not getting into Super Mario Bros the movie...
I'd rather rip my skin off with a fork then to watch or talk about that pile of crap.

ALSO! WE NEED A METAL GEAR MOVIE and a REAL Resident Evil movie. Thank you.

I thought they were supposed to be developing a Metal Gear movie?  I wonder if it is stuck in limbo like the idea of a God of War movie.  Yes, if they make it, it will suck.  (God of War movie sucking I mean.  Not really good for a story you are not interacting in, too likely to be another CGI Clash of the Titans.)

I have yet to see VG movie that was good. They're gonna keep making em' as long as we go to see them, which always happens in the end, kind of like watching car crash you know is gonna happen.