Over the past decade or so, there have been a tonne of movies based around some of the world’s most popular video games, with more video games announced to be turning into movies every year. But is there really any point to video game movies?
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They are, but the industry is too busy milking other adaptations at the moment to care. They have comic books making millions of dollars, and book adaptation for teens making the same numbers. When those die off Hollywood will scramble to find something else to rip off, which will be video games.
If movies such as Uncharted turn out to be succesful, expect it to come even sooner.
They absolutely are worth the money and effort that's required but what's been lacking is the proper money and effort to make something good. Games are a medium that tell so many incredible stories that get shitty Hollywood adaptations mainly because the wrong people are put in place.
I'd bet the farm that at least half the game to movie adaptations are penned by non gamers and people who know very little to nothing aside from what they're told or read about online about the story they're working on. David O Russel is a talented film maker but I worry terribly about the Uncharted movie that he's working on. Sure he's the guy who makes big $$$ with all the experience and we're just lowly gamers but he really should buck up and listen to what the fans are saying and want.
That's not to say that all games or even most of them could make a good movie. They can't. There's a small percentage that would actually become a solid franchise if they were given the proper respect and treatment they deserve. A few off the top of my head are: Killzone, Uncharted, Halo, Perfect Dark, Alan Wake and Gears of War.
I can see a few series' make for some damn fine television too. Call of Duty (remember the show Tour of Duty?), Castlevania, Metroid maybe even an expanded Alan Wake series could be awesome.
I actually like video games that turn into movies but when a movie turns into a video game it goes downhill.
The problem is that producers and studios treat game stories like a joke, and expect the audience to simply eat up the action scenes which were present in the game themselves. Imagine if some serious directors took on video game adaptations, such as if Nolan was to make an Assassin's Creed film (I pray for this every day), Peter jackson, Neill Blomkamp(?) or Del Toro were to adapt a video game.
Also, they need to use the source material as much as possible, and dont go off into unneeded and random tangents, which is what's happening with the Uncharted film and the inclusion of Drake's dad and uncle WTF