Will there ever be a great video game movie?

[phry]

Howdy all.

I see that a movie based on Bloodrayne has just come out in the US to a critical mauling. I read somewhere that Uwe Boll, the director of this, Alone in the Dark and House of the Dead has been voted in a poll as the worst movie director ever.

However, he's got more videogame franchises on the go and is apparantly (according to IMDB) working on movies based on Fear Effect, Postal, far Cry and Hunter: The Reckoning thoughout the next few years. oh dear.

Also, as already mentioned in another thread, Impact Pictures (Paul WS Anderson's company) is working on the next Resident Evil movie and a film based on Dead or Alive, both out in the summer.

So we've got all of the above which is probably unlikely to buck the trend of poor videogame movies. I'd probably watch them out of curiousity with the hope that i'll be pleasantly surprised. (DoA does look like a giggle in a fun, cheesy kinda way) ;D.

The saviour may come in the hope of the Peter Jackson produced Halo, which the kiwi director talked about in a recent issue of total film magazine. (Guillermo del Toro to direct and Alex Garland to write)

Will there ever be a truly great videogame movie? What game would make a good movie? Does anyone want to see any of the above?

What does everyone think?

[Raiken]

I always thought the first mortal kombat movie was actually watchable. That's about it though ;D

[werD]

Street Fighter with Van Damme!
Acutally that wasn't very good at all. It was so bad it was decent but... that's about it. (Maybe becuase I ama fan of the series)
Street Fighter 2: The Animated movie was pretty good, maybe again, my enjoyment is due to me being a fan of the series.

The Mortal Kombat movie was watchable because of one thing. The theme.

Yeah, I'd say that the best bet would be Halo. Because it's Peter Jackson, production qualities should be phenomenal. As long as the acting is passable it should be alright.

Enough with my fragmented thoughts!

-Drew

[Raiken]

werd said:

Street Fighter with Van Damme!
Acutally that wasn't very good at all. It was so bad it was decent but... that's about it. (Maybe becuase I ama fan of the series)

Haha that scene with Zangief:

"Quick, change the channel!"

;D

[phry]

I agree, the Street Fighter Van Damme movie was entertaining but for the wrong reasons. I saw it for the first time on TV a few weeks back and it was so bad that I actualy enjoyed it a little. Kylie Minogue as Cammy = Inspired! The spin off sega saturn game was terrible though.

As for the original MK movie, you would have thought that Goro would've put up more of a fight, rather than Linden Ashby (Johnny Cage and veteran of many a terrible b-movie) punching him in the crotch. I guess every game movie has to have a little fan-service, in this case the 'package check' move.

It was a re-hash of Enter the Dragon though, with Johnny Cage as Roper, and Goro as Bolo! ;D Better than the cgi-heavy sequel though.

[Throwen]

The Street Fighter Movie was more funny than action, the first mortal kombat was pretty good, but the second.....BRING BACK LAMBERT AS RAIDEN!! He was the best in that movie. A KoF Movie would be funny.

[son_jason]

Alone in the dark wasn't even worth the cheap pirate dvd it was printed on.

[/big mouth]

[flan_man]

raiken said:

Haha that scene with Zangief:

"Quick, change the channel!"

;D

"What? You got paid?!"

I enjoyed that movie a lot, although it wasn't what I was expecting at all. And I must be one of the few who liked both RE movies. More recently, Doom wasn't really to my liking because the sarge character got cocked up, but at least it had a great first person bit.

The DOA trailer makes the movie look like a stupid chick flick, solely targeted towards horny teens. It made my skin creep, since the DOA games are so much more than that.

I don't think there will ever be a perfect game to movie transition. Each video game fan has his own preferences, and it also makes a big difference whether you're a diehard fan who wants every bit of detail, or a casual player who is more than pleased with a couple of quick references and key characters.

[phry]

Each video game fan has his own preferences, and it also makes a big difference whether you're a diehard fan who wants every bit of detail, or a casual player who is more than pleased with a couple of quick references and key characters.

I agree Flan Man. Trying to gauge the audience must be a tricky issue for the film makers. However many movies seem feature piss-poors plots with some fan-service thrown in to 'please' the gamers (and this normally fails).

Another issue is that many financers / producers still think that most video games are played solely by teenagers (whilst the average age of a PS2 owner is actually in the late twenties), with many games that were originally 18-certificate being made into 15-certificate films. Doom being a prime example of this. Many video game films do seem as if they've been made soley for teenagers.

BTW, hopefully this may be trend may be bucked by the upcoming Silent Hill Movie. At least the plot of these games are cinimatic or more like a book / movie in the first place than say, a fighting game. A good game to movie translation will be one that is still appreciated by those that have never even heard of the game in the first place.

www.imdb.com/title/tt0384537/

[Kazuya_UK]

phry said:

It was a re-hash of Enter the Dragon though, with Johnny Cash as Roper, and Goro as Bolo! ;D Better than the cgi-heavy sequel though.

I've always thought that too, it was a very blatant rip of it really! I think the MK movie was pretty good fun too, but the sequel absolutely blew. Wasn't a 3rd supposed to be on the way at one point? And yeah... BRING BACK LAMBERT DAMMIT!!!

As for the DOA movie... ugh god I didn't know a trailer was out, so I checked it just a second ago. It does look like it will be mildly entertaining, but it also looks like it has got sweet FA in common with the game. For some reason I get the feeling it should have been called "Charlies Angels 3".

edit: just noticed that the guy who is directing the SH movie is the one who did the Crying Freeman live action film. That wasn't TOO bad (nothing like the anime though), so perhaps there is some hope that the movie will be decent?

Kaz

[phry]

edit: just noticed that the guy who is directing the SH movie is the one who did the Crying Freeman live action film.

I guess that Brotherhood of the Wolf wasn't too bad either. At least Radha Mitchell and Sean Bean should lend the film a bit more credibility. Let's hope their talents aren't wasted.

I had a hunch that the DOA movie would feature a volleyball sequence! ;D
(for anyone who hasn't seen it, here's the link to the DOA flick again)

www.ropeofsilicon.com/media/player.php?id=2288

[Kazuya_UK]

Not actually seen BOTW... maybe I should?

Did some IMDBing, Lambert is back as Raiden, and Linden Ashby is back as Cage? Let's hope the film turns out at least better than 2...

www.imdb.com/title/tt0293429/

Kaz

[Kazuya_UK]

By the way:

www.crystal-sky.com/films.htm#tekken

If they fuck this up I will be pissed... and I wonder who will be cast as Kaz?

Kaz

[phry]

It's the Pac Man movie I'm curious about now!

Apparantly it's an animation and is due out in 2007 according to IMDB.

I guess who stars in the Tekken movie will probably be down to how much money the studio makes with the Nic Cage Ghost Rider movie. However I haven't heard of any of the films that Charles Stone III, Tekken's director and writer, has made. Let's hope it isn't a straight to video flick.

Did some IMDBing, Lambert is back as Raiden, and Linden Ashby is back as Cage? Let's hope the film turns out at least better than 2...

It's good to see Christopher Lambert back in something! I'm sure it'll be better than MK2, but that's not going to be too difficult. Since the MK hype's gone down since the original movies and games, maybe this will enable a little more creative freedom on part of the filmakers.

Not actually seen BOTW... maybe I should?

Not bad for a horror/action flick, hopefully they might show it on TV again soon. Mark Decascos should get some more decent roles. He's very underrated.

[werD]

phry said:

BTW, hopefully this may be trend may be bucked by the upcoming Silent Hill Movie.

Coincidentally, the building across from the office where my dad works is where they were shooting that. I didn't see anything but my dad said they had it done up like a post-apocalyptic kind of thing. Never played the games, so I wouldn't no if this is good or not.

-Drew