The video game that you like is getting a movie port and your anticipation for the reveal is ecstatic. Being able to watch your favorite video game get a Hollywood treatment production has been one of your many dreams. The months go by with small reveals of information based on the progress of the filming and pretty soon the release date opens. With a great sense of anticipation, you grab the popcorn and let the silver screen take you away for a couple of hours.
However, as the movie progresses, something is not sitting well with you. Everything about the video game that you loved is being altered and changed drastically. Parts of the film’s screen writing is way off from the video game’s story. As you continue to watch, the movie begins to spiral deeper and deeper into a mess. Your experience with the video game was what made you excited to see this film in the first place, and yet the movie ends up becoming a roller coaster nightmare to watch.
The finale wraps the film up and the credits begin to roll across the screen, leaving you motionless and upset. What was this film? Your experience with the movie was awful from start to finish and was completely off point from the video game story content. Billions of unremarkable comments fill your head about the film and you leave feeling utterly disgusted.
The biggest question comes into your mind: why was the movie so different from the video game? According to Why Do (Most) Video Game Movies Suck? by Ted Nivison, film adaptations from video games suffer because the movie production team knows little to nothing about the story for the game itself. In other words, they do not take the time to grasp, understand, and review the video game content thoroughly.
Instead, they only realize that the video game itself is inherently the key to a money making opportunity. The fan-base for the video game has a giant audience to exploit. Making money is one reason for video games to get an adaptation. History has proven that the greed of money is a powerful inhibitor for passionate work.
However, there is another reason as Ted Nivison quotes a director from a video game adaptation film. They explain that the director wanted to give an “actual depiction” of the movie they were adapting from a video game. Yet, the film was a complete disaster and had nothing that the fans knew from the video game source material.
Ultimately, what we can take away from this information is that people in a position of power warrant their control over a franchise. Bending the story to their will with the intent to make something of themselves. They do not make something the fans will love, but something that will bolster their career.
Can the reason really be as shallow as someone forsaking the video game source material and bending the story to their will? The best answer comes from the YouTube video Why Video Game Movies Are Bad by The Warp Zone, the spokesman states that video games take many more hours to complete than a movie. They continue to explain that the original video game story gets reduced significantly to construct a two or three hour movie.
Even if we know that video game content can take hours compared to the difference of a feature film, the reasons above are not enough. With all of the source material, creative talent, and time people have to make a video game adaptation, there should at least be some quality.
According to the YouTube video Video Game Movies – Why They Suck by The Cosmonaut Variety Hour, video game movie adaptations should be television series because video games themselves are built as episodic experiences. This makes sense because of how long some video games take to actually complete.
In addition to making a television video game adaptation, The Cosmonaut Variety Hour spokesman continues to explain that skillful people need to be hired. These skilled people need to know the story and be able to even create more content for the story if necessary.
The problem remains that video game adaptations to the silver screen may remain a disaster, however, there is hope that the television adaptations can help remedy the issue. At the moment, film adaptations for video games are still a mess and fans continue to wait for a truly fantastic movie to appear.
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