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Monday, May 30, 2011

Objection! Video Games should stay out of my movie, damn it!

*Presses start*

So, I've been moving recently and I hate life. We've bee......

HOLD IT!

There's been a recent announcement that the lawyer with a mission, Phoenix Wright, is getting adapted to the big screen. From the way it sounds, Phoenix, Maya, and Mia, and Edgeworth will all be represented in this long awaited movie.

So....why is it that I have a huge problem with that?

If you think about it and you've gotten past the first case in the first game, you'd know exactly why. I'm not going to spoil anything now, but in a later blog post, I will. Just know that the entire basis of this Phoenix movie lies in the first 30 minutes. I just don't think that they'll do it justice.

And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is what every gamers nightmare is.

Since 1994, Hollywood has been taking our video games and for the most part, killing the stories and the characters that have made them iconic. Super Mario Bros. Sucked. Double Dragon was terrible. Don't get me started on Street Fighter. Hollywood has a habit of taking well established stories and "ritzing" them up for people who aren't on the same gaming wavelength and getting them to understand the story and to care about their characters. The problem with that is by changing the story, you change a lot about the character, and when people like myself go to enjoy said movie, we end up shouting "THAT'S NOT WHAT HE/SHE/IT WOULD DO! LIES!" at the screen while the other people around us wonder what we've been smoking. They just don't understand that when we get in the theater, we already have a established connection with the lead character/villian and the movie being displayed is nothing like we've played on our game systems.

That's not to say that it's always 100% why VG movies fail, either. Sometimes, we as gamers want the exact same game, line by line, scene by scene, translated to awesome CG effects. Generally good movies get thrown down the tube because of what X director didn't do. I thought (and still do, to this day) that Mortal Kombat was the best video game movie that you could find. It didn't follow what was considered at the time to be canon, but it did a damn good job at getting as close as it could. Resident Evil was the same way. I thought it was a pretty good movie and could have succeeded as being it's own franchise, but I don't think it has a damn thing to do with the game series at all besides sharing a title. Hell, I even kinda enjoyed DOA, but for totally different reasons. :-D

At the time of this writing, David O. Russell just stepped down from the Uncharted movie. This movie was a prime example of taking a video game and changing everything about it. (From being a treasure hunter to a family of art dealers? Really?) Besides, Mark Walburg should never touch another video game movie again. Max Payne is still too fresh in my mind. *shudder*

I think for any director that wants to pick up a game needs to find that happy medium. Make a good movie that stays true to the series, and I'll be happy and you can take my money any day of the week.

I'll leave you with Ken Levine's comment on the BioShock film that was started but then cancelled. All directors, heed this warning. All gamers, listen closely. This is dedicated to you.

“I think we’re in the space now of building properties that are appealing to people, and there’s a version of BioShock that makes a great game and there’s probably a version of BioShock that makes a great movie.”

Continue?

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