Geeks logo

To Transfer Media

Game to movie or not game to movie?

By Jameson SmithPublished 6 years ago 5 min read
Like

For years Hollywood has attempted to dip their wallets into the large market that is the Video Game industry. For the most part it would seem to be a smart idea for a director to attempt to appease fans of a game series by translating it into a cinema event. The only real reason for it to happen is just because of the size of the fan base. To be honest though, the fan base of these games, for the most part, actually want to see a successfully translated film.

Some success was seen early on with some films like Mortal Kombat, even though it was seen as lesser to the games and brought us one of the worst written sequels ever made. Other attempts of translation failed to catch audiences and gamers because of all the changes made from the source material.

So the question of it all is, how do you successfully translate a game to a movie? Let's take clues from some of the more successful film franchises that have had their origins based on movies.

To start out it seemed that Hollywood had an easier and more successful time translating Fighting games into a feature film. The likes of Mortal Kombat, and Street Fighter pulling in a bit more money and fans then other attempts at the time. What worked here to make it more of a success?

We could say that it's because there is no singularly focused character. The story has to balance a large roster of characters. This forces the directors to be a bit more simple with their backstories if they want to use the larger list. Ken and Ryu are just traveling fighters, guile was a soldier leading the fight against the singular villain M. Bison. The other characters are made a bit more of a sideline and fit more into the leads back ground. The sumo wrestler, E. Honda, is made into a helper to Chun Li's Journalism.

No one takes the forefront of focus, and the action pieces flip from cheesy to momentarily great. Of course using Jean-Claude Van Damme would bring some good action to any film. If we look at Mortal Kombat we see a similar style of filming where multiple characters with simple back stories only help to carry the main story along. Years later films would attempt to dip back into fighting games by singling out specific characters for a focused film. Chun Li's solo film was met with failure and major criticism for poor writing and action.

Let's mark this down as balancing characters with simple backgrounds. Trusting that the audience understands these characters and giving them something new to see their favorites do on screen.

Next we find the famous and most successful franchises to be the Female led films, Tomb Raider and Resident Evil. What did each of these do to garner fame and fortune?

Tomb Raider brought Angelina Jolie to be every gamer's thought of perfect casting. The film was capable of creating a unique story not quite used in the games and focused more on the drama faced by the character and less on trying to introduce a complicated back story to a character that is already familiar to the target audience. The sequel was equally successful with another unique story and faith to the source character types.

Resident Evil was the most surprising success from video game translations on the list because it takes the most liberties in story and character. This movie franchise not only does it's own thing by creating an original lead character and making her the focus of the entire story. This allowed for creativity to be brought to a well trodden franchise. Some fans were turned off because of the large disconnect from its horror roots, but it garnered its own fan base because of its loyalty to not only its own characters, but showing different sides to some existing characters. When existing characters were introduced into the films they weren't shown by any origin stories and trusted that people would understand what was shown.

What tends to fail in other attempts is the fact they want to show complete exactness to the source material. Where this shows that they want to make sure that the fans are given exactly what they expect to see. However when focus is brought to a character that, within the source material, is fleshed out by the perspective of each individual controlling their actions, they will find a continual disconnect. The games do have scripts that give the character some unique qualities of their own, but the person holding the controller will always want to translate their own thoughts and choices being that of the character they're playing.

What I would propose to try next to anyone attempting to make a video game based movie would be to be creative, take some liberties, and be brave. Create an original character that would exist within the story and could be given something unique to themselves. Use the characters of the games as plot pushers, don't try to completely explain them, but leave them to have a past that each person could translate into their own familiarity with the franchise. Stay faithful to the source material but show us more of the world that we've come to love through new eyes. Show us our characters as what they are, legends and impossibilities. Just don't make these new characters be annoying or it will turn off anyone willing to give it a chance.

It truly is difficult to know what would be what would pull in money in the box office, this is only a theory made by observing the past. What do you think would be successful, only we can show the world what we expect from our entertainment and help them make what we want most.

entertainment
Like

About the Creator

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.