Why do movie adaptations of games often fail?

The fact that game franchises are adapted into movies is always good news for many gamers. However, creating a quality product is not easy.

When a game series becomes popular, Hollywood movie producers will try to negotiate the rights to be able to make movies based on the brand. These works are often not appreciated by the gaming community. What is the cause?

1. Can’t put the whole story and characters into the movie

Unlike movies, video games are mediums designed to provide entertainment for long periods of time. A relatively short game with only cutscenes can last 3-4 hours, while longer titles can go up to 8-10.

With a story that is as long as a season of a TV series, it is difficult for filmmakers to narrow it down to 90 to 120 minutes. If summed up, it will make the rhythm of the film rushed and the ending unsatisfactory.

Because of this they choose to come up with a story with a new cast of characters (Paul WS Anderson’s Resident Evil series, Doom: Annihilation) or change the characters so much that they have nothing in common with the original except for the name ( King of Fighters 2010).

The only thing that this movie has in common with the game series is the title.

This is disappointing because when gamers want their favorite game to be turned into a movie, what they really want to see is to see their favorite characters roam the screen, not a movie. Poor quality copy or director’s fanfic character.

2. No room for gameplay

Although plot is an important factor, especially with the current game industry, no one can argue that gameplay is the factor that makes players return to the game despite “breaking the island” many times.

In 2007, director Zack Snyder said in an interview, “Many people want video games to be adapted into movies, but the process of turning video games into movies is like turning porn videos into movies. .

Suppose there is this erotic film consisting of two characters, the boy who cleans the pool and the housewife. You will create a movie of them talking to each other and cutting out the sex scenes. That is the result of adapting video games to movies.”

The Justice League director believes he can’t make a good game movie either.

The point of Zack Snyder is that no matter how important the plot is, if there is no room for gameplay, the movie cannot be complete.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is an example. Although this game has a simple plot, the gameplay is so attractive and diverse that it can make many players spend dozens of hours in the game.

Hitman is another example. The Hitman franchise (and especially the World of Assassination series) has always been famous for giving players the freedom to think and execute assassinations. This leads to many very creative assassinations. When it came to the movie, Agent 47 was nothing more than a gunman.

3. The director is not a gamer

Due to the nature of their work, directors often do not have much time to experience video games. Because of this, it is difficult for them to show the soul of the game on the screen.

Instead, some directors will try to recreate the most prominent scenes in the game on the big screen, and the context leading up to this moment does not receive the attention.

For example, in the movie Resident Evil: Afterlife, the scene where Wesker confronts Chris and Claire was taken from the Resident Evil 5 game, including the dialogue. The problem here is that in the game series, Chris and Wesker have had a long-standing feud, while in the movie this is Wesker’s first time meeting Chris, so the character’s lines make no sense at all.

Recreating famous scenes is not enough, context is equally important.

Moreover, some directors still believe that the story the game wants to convey is not enough to make a movie, but must cram more elements they like. More specifically, director Mike Newell (Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time 2010) said, “You can’t make a movie without an element of drama between the characters. Video games can’t do that. Video games can only express simple elements like: ‘I’m a bad guy, I have an evil jagged sword,’ it can’t do more than that.”

And the result of Mike Newell was a set with only 37% Rotten Tomato and made Jake Gyllenhaal consider choosing a future role. It can be seen that the director did not succeed.

End

In general, movie makers have also begun to recognize the reasons why game-based movies fail and try to overcome them. HBO’s The Last of Us project will be in the form of a TV series to give enough time to tell the whole story.

Meanwhile, Sony’s upcoming Uncharted movie will still take place in the game’s universe, set before the first part. This helps ensure that the Nathan Drake we’re about to see on screen is the same Nathan Drake we’ve been controlling.

It is worth noting that there are some movies that are not based on the game, but offer an experience exactly like what gamers feel while playing.

The movie that feels most like a video game is actually not based on a video game.

The best example is Edge of Tomorrow, based on the novel All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. In this movie, every time the character William Cage dies, he will be reset to that day and like that, Cage learns from experience and can go further. Even after many consecutive deaths, and decided to change the method for faster results, just like the “speedrun” gamers. These must be things that many gamers have experienced.

Overall, video game movies can thrive just as much as comic book movies. All it takes is a producer and director who care about the original work and understand what fans want. Hopefully Johannes Roberts’ Resident Evil reboot, Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ Metal Gear Solid and future projects can do this.