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Why are so many video game film adaptations so awful?


sporty_chin8

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17 minutes ago, Stan Lee said:

Because they're most often cynical attempts to court the gamer crowd but not with any of the love, respect and care their source material is made with. Original creators got very little creative input if ever; it's the suits at the top dictating the crew, scripts and casting and they are usually unfamiliar with the source material and therefore have no real clue as to how to make a faithful adaptation.

 

This. Always comes across as a total cash grab tbh

 

I've always thought a video game adaptation would better suit the slow burn of a TV series so I'm genuinely hopeful for how The Last of Us will turn out

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Well, "every single one of them you've seen" is likely a small pool, because a lot of them AREN'T.

 

Sure, they aren't exactly the most polished or groundbreaking. They don't so a whole lot to push innovation, but I'm pretty sure that for every legit bad movie game you can name, it can be argued against or counterbalanced with one that is legit fun.

 

 

Edited by RedRodriguez87
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2 hours ago, Cleggworth said:

 

This. Always comes across as a total cash grab tbh

 

I've always thought a video game adaptation would better suit the slow burn of a TV series so I'm genuinely hopeful for how The Last of Us will turn out

Pretty much this. Games are usually 10 to 12 hours of story but hollywood has to condense that in 90 minutes as well as add in bullshit like forced love interest, whacky side kick etc. A 6 hour HBO miniseries could actually tell a story properly.

 

As for good videogame adaptations...i would say Street Fighter the Movie, the Bloodrayne trilogy and the In the Name of the King trilogy because they are hilarious

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The people creating these adaptations have probably never even played the games they're adapting. Look at the Hitman films for example. Agent 47 is supposed to infiltrate locations and execute his targets with precision while remaining undetected. Instead the films give us some crazy bald guy in a suit doing things like creating explosions and killing multiple non-targets. Whoever created those movies is a complete moron who has no knowledge of the series at all.

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9 minutes ago, Lordidude said:

Because it is hard to translate an interactive medium into a medium you absorb passively.

Disagree

 

The main points of the game's story dont change.  The problem is, if you stay too close to the source material, you risk alienating the broader non-gamer audience and if you stray too far from it, you alienate the target gamer audience.

 

Hollywood usually goes too far away from the source material and adds in their own things to attract a wider audience to make more money.

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Video games are an art medium that, if the game is good, utilizes it's gameplay and other features to fully tell its story and give an experience. It's kind of hopeless from the start unless the game is already a movie wannabe, like The Last of Us. This is the same reason I tend to not like a few book movies. I think a lot of them lose something key when being adapted. Biggest example of this I can think of right now is The Hunger Games. The same also applies to live action remakes of animated series/movies. Think Ghost in the Shell. Basically, it's rare for an adaptation of anything to even be comparable to its source, and it's never an improvement. 

 

Then there's the lack of respect for video game audiences. And the general issue all screenwriters and directors have when adapting ANYTHING, which is, "I know better than the original :) " They, for some reason, don't seem to have a lot of love for the source. Which is like... why are you even doing this to begin with? 

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4 hours ago, sporty_chin8 said:

Every single one of them that I have seen has been terrible. What makes them flop so hard? 

 

Has there ever been a film adaptation of a video game that was actually good? I can’t seem to find any that are even mediocre at best. Feel free to recommend one if there are. 

 

Look into the Witcher and Castlevania netflix series.  I haven't seen them yet, but I've read they've both gotten very high marks.

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6 minutes ago, AJ_-_808 said:

 

Look into the Witcher and Castlevania netflix series.  I haven't seen them yet, but I've read they've both gotten very high marks.

 

The Witcher series on netflix is based on the books. It takes some inspiration from the CDPR games but it isn't "adapting" the game. Only the original book series. 

 

Castlevania animated show on netflix is good but I've only seen the first season.

Edited by Fizzgiglatte
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53 minutes ago, AJ_-_808 said:

Disagree

 

The main points of the game's story dont change.  The problem is, if you stay too close to the source material, you risk alienating the broader non-gamer audience and if you stray too far from it, you alienate the target gamer audience.

 

Hollywood usually goes too far away from the source material and adds in their own things to attract a wider audience to make more money.

 

With your comment you accidentally agreed with me.

You only focus on the story which was my argument to begin with.

 

Every game is much more than the plot - it is mainly interactivity. The main part is the gameplay and I would even say the core of video games are mechanics.

If you strip away all of that then all that's left is the story which is only one part of the game.

Edited by Lordidude
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3 hours ago, Fizzgiglatte said:

 

The Witcher series on netflix is based on the books. It takes some inspiration from the CDPR games but it isn't "adapting" the game. Only the original book series. 

 

Castlevania animated show on netflix is good but I've only seen the first season.

 

Yeah, the witcher could be a bit grey area - origin is in book form, but the witcher 3 game is what blew up it's popularity.

 

What do you think about Doom? It tried something new with the FPS scenes 

2 hours ago, Lordidude said:

 

With your comment you accidentally agreed with me.

You only focus on the story which was my argument to begin with.

 

Every game is much more than the plot - it is mainly interactivity. The main part is the gameplay and I would even say the core of video games are mechanics.

If you strip away all of that then all that's left is the story which is only one part of the game.

 

They arent going to make a game of say.. assassin's creed with the bulk of it being climbing towers and finding collectibles.  The idea is an adaptation - still follows the main plot points and throws in /some/ mechanics - ie leap of faith happening in assassin's creed movie.  At least that's how I interpret it

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I'm hoping there is going to be a shift towards some better quality stuff now though, I actually thought Sonic The Hedgehog and the Alicia Vikander Tomb Raider movie were pretty good. The Dwayne Johnson Doom movie was terrible, but I can't stop watching that one for some reason.

 

Edit: I loved the Witcher TV series, but I think it needs one or two more seasons to really hit a good pace. The Castlevania animated TV series is really really good. I'm not too sure about the Dragon's Dogma animation though, it looked a bit janky from the trailer.

Edited by Crispy_Oglop
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8 hours ago, sporty_chin8 said:

Has there ever been a film adaptation of a video game that was actually good?

 

I liked Silent Hill.  Do these stats qualify as mediocre?  https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/silent_hill

 

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mfnhu8sO5k

 

Edited by pogo_loco
Added link to trailer.
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