Movie Adapations of Games...

5 or 6 years ago, I was bored and channel surfing the TV till I stumbled onto a movie which reminded me of Super Mario Bros... The characters were wearing the trademark red (Mario) and green (Luigi) costumes, the plot followed that they happened to be plumbers  and were warped to another world or something similar. There was a lady with blond hair with the name Peach who had to be saved…. It turned out it WAS a film adaptation of the game Super Mario Bros. (1993)! Here’s a trailer:

That was my first experience with games that had been adapted into a movie, so at that time I thought the movie was really cool.

Like the majority of the film adaptations which do not live up to the expectation of the book narratives, game adaptations of films have also been more or less successful. According to RottenTomatoes, the top 5 game adaptations are Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001), Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (2010), Resident Evil (2002), Silent Hill (2006) and Lara Craft Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life (2003).

What they all have in common? Bad ass butt kicking protagonists.

The difficult thing about turning videogames into a movie is the story. It is hard to remake the plot as game players having played the movie, won’t want a movie narrative that strictly follows the game, while at the same time the plot needs to be relatable for non-fans of the game alike.  Other problems include some games which feature a plot that is too shallow to remake, the main character would probably need to feel real, have some character development, than remain the same person throughout the movie. The film would also probably need a big budget to imitate the sequences of the game as well (i.e. CGI graphics), either overdo these effects with CGI or a cheap imitation of this.

I know game fans are dying for a movie adaptation of their favourite game, but there’s a huge gap between a movie and a game.  When people play a game they define the character and you experience that person, in a movie you only watch the main character observe the character development and take in the entire experience… Sometimes it’s better to opt for a no-movie adaptation, rather than a bad movie made.