The Consistent Failure Video Game Film Adaptations
Originally Published March 16th, 2019
No matter how huge the gaming community has gotten over the years, it seems like gamers agree on one thing: Hollywood movie adaptations of games are hilariously bad. It took 25 years after the release of Super Mario Bros., the first film based on a video game, for the genre to break a critic score of fifty percent on Rotten Tomatoes. It seems like every few years, hype and optimism builds for the next film adaptation of our favorite video games. But then those hopes and dreams are squashed by poor marketing, bad writing, and just a dissatisfying experience overall. So why do Hollywood movies based on video games put such a sour taste in our mouths? Well, the answer is simple: no one has figured out how to make the transition from an interactive experience to one you sit down and watch.
There are plenty of types of movie adaptations. Ones based on books, old fairy tales, and sometimes existing television series. These media are all centric on storytelling, and when crews are able to get a hold of the original visionary for a story to make a film of it, they turn out pretty good. The same should be done for video game movie adaptations, because they’re a medium for storytelling too. Game companies have their own writers, directors, and producers, and that’s what video game filmmakers often misunderstand. Often times, the creative minds behind a movie will send their material to the publisher of the game for approval, instead of the individuals who came up with and built the world of the game. Capcom, Sega, Nintendo, and the other big names for games play a similar role to the Weinstein Company or 20th Century Fox within the film industry. Sometimes they just aren’t fit to approve a concept unless the game being made into a movie is its main IP. Everyone within both industries has roles to ensure a quality production in their medium, so they should respect each other’s positions.
In addition to conflicts in creative vision, the entire point of a video game is often lost when made into a film. Good video games nowadays are not JUST vessels for storytelling, they are interactive, immersive experiences Players of the games lose that sense of control and connection to that character once they’re on the big screen. Even the most cinematic of games still have portions where you control the character, and it’s that personal touch and impact that draws players to be so attached to who they play. With film, this is almost impossible to portray, and its part of the reason why ratings for these movies are so low. For fans of the game, it’s half the experience that can be felt at home, albeit at a higher price tag and a longer time commitment.
Which leads into the next point: video games are long-winded adventures. Many popular 60 dollar titles offer a 25 hour campaign or longer, equivalent to 13 movies worth of content, at least. Movie adaptations of games, simply because of the medium, have to trim essential scenes or details within the story. This is a big part of what makes video game films so disappointing. The world and story, as the game developers intended it to be, are meant to be explored and discovered as players pour more time into the game. With movies, the production crew compresses all of that information into a bite-sized feature, usually because there’s not enough time or money to follow up on video game worlds with movie sequels or spin-offs.
Perhaps even more than the plot, the characters get butchered from their video game versions, for the same reason that plot suffers: there’s just not enough time. Consumers of the game spend time with or play as a character that grows as the game progresses, at a pace that’s natural and satisfying, because video games can take their time. With a movie adaptation, sometimes characters are incredibly simplified or even just removed outright to centralize the plot around the main character. Just look at Angelina Jolie in Simon West’s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. As entertaining and successful as that movie might have been, Lara Croft’s connection to the viewer was often severed by her dry approach to important scenes in the narrative.
Will there ever be a movie adaptation of a video game that’s loved by fans AND takes itself seriously? Who knows. Will production crews ever learn how to successfully represent a game in film? Maybe not, since we haven’t seen what a great movie adaptation looks like for more than 25 years. However, there’s still hope. With Pokemon: Detective Pikachu practically around the corner, maybe video game movies are making a comeback. Just try not to think about Paramount’s realistic Sonic the Hedgehog design.