Video games have come a long way. While still constantly defending themselves from claims that they are the cause of the problems of today’s youth, they have established themselves as not only a form of basic entertainment but as art. From archaic, 8-bit games with soundtracks of bleeps and bloops, they have evolved into cinematic masterpieces with soundtracks comparable to most film. It only made sense that video games would start to integrate themselves into their main competition for audiences: the film industry.
For anyone who loves gaming, nothing should sound sweeter than hearing that your favorite game is going to be made into a full length cinematic feature. On the contrary, this concept is now something that fills the average gamer with groans of “Oh please don’t ruin it”. To date, there has never been a film based on a video game that has truly done it justice. They may have come close but the films almost always seem to lose something in translation. Prime example : The Resident Evil movies. I am fairly certain that I am not the only gamer who wanted the mansion the way it was in the game, wanting to see a member of STARS walk around the corner to see the first zombie bite someone’s neck off, wanting to hear “I hope this isn’t Chris’ blood”, but no… What we got was techno music, an underground office building with a hive and any excuse to see Milla Jovovich wearing a strategically placed shower curtain. 
We wanted to be scared – we wanted Resident Evil. Other offenders such as the films versions of BloodRayne, Mario Bros, Mortal Kombat and Dead or Alive just added insult to injury. I would however like to say that the Silent Hill movie is probably the best video game-to-film translation to date despite the fact that it should’ve been the father looking for his daughter, not the mother.
On the other side of the coin, we have the film to video game translation. Ironically, they seem to suffer the same plague as the video game to movie translations. While a few may be decent, the majority are mediocre and plagued with bad camera angles and other major glitches. It has reached the point where most movie based video games are released even before the film, perhaps to allowing the player a better chance of enjoying it since they are unaware of how bad of a translation it is. The ultimate example being E.T the Extra-Terrestrial the Game. While attempting to cash in on the fame of one of the most popular movies at that time (and all time), they created a game so bad that it was not only viewed as one of the biggest commercial failures in video game history, it also spelled the beginning of the end for Atari.
So why does this happen? Why do two forms of entertainment that can only benefit from each other’s full out co-operation create such below standard homages to each other? Despite the fact that both film and games contain interesting stories, relatable characters and gripping music, sadly it seems that neither industry has total respect for the other. So much the same and yet still contented to churn out mediocrity for any easily marketable product that has half the promotional work done already.
So what can the average gamer do about all of this? As long as we show either industry that we are willing to see or play anything just because of a film or game license, these games and movies will continue to be made. So do your research on your video game movies; watch for bad directors who are poison to anything they touch ( you know who you are!), bad actors, and involvement of the game studio. Tough it out the extra day and wait for the review before going to the theatre. The same can be said for movie video games. If it doesn’t look up to snuff and the reviews are bad, rent it if you have to before you buy it. Whether you’re more into movies or video games, we all deserve better quality than what we’ve been getting and until we demand it, it’ll just be the same sad story.
April 6th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Whoa whoa, how can you list Mortal Kombat as an offender? The sequel may be horrible, but the first movie was amazing. It stayed true to the game and told the story well enough that someone who never heard of MK could still find it enjoyable.
As for your gripe about the Resident Evil films, what’s the point in having a movie that exactly follows what you have already experienced by playing the game?
April 6th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
I actually stay away from video game to film and vice versa just because I assume they will be bad.
April 6th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
I agree that Silent Hill was the first film to do justice to the type of game it was. I really enjoyed the little things like the woman finding a knife and taking it with her, searching through drawers and finding a flashlight, a room behind a wall, etc. That’s what I had hoped for from the first RE movie.
April 6th, 2009 at 8:25 pm
I’ve gotta disagree Suff0cat, Mortal Kombat is a terrible movie. Like Jurassic Park, once the novelty wears off, which it does if you’ve watched them both as many times as I have, you see them for the horrible films that they really are.
Fighting games are especially difficult to transfer to film because there is so much to cover in such a short amount of time. MK2 was a perfect example as they tried to include EVERY MK character ever made, giving some of them (like Baraka) no more than two minutes before getting iced.
If a Hollywood suit wants to make “their” version of Resident Evil, they should just name it something else. What if they took the same kind of liberties with Watchmen that they have with all the video game movies? The comic nerds would riot in their moms’ basements, yet Zack Snyder and Robert Rodriguez’s panel-by-panel replicas still make for excellent experiences.
April 6th, 2009 at 10:13 pm
I LOVE jurassic park. It might just be because I have an unhealthy fascination with all things jeff goldblum, but still.
And I liked the first mortal kombat as well. But much agreed, most of the video games to movies are a complete joke. Bloodrayne is a blasphemy of it’s own. And they made two to boot! However, I did kind of like mario even though it’s super off; its a neat quirky little film. I actually watched it a couple weeks ago too.
April 7th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
I still love watching Jurassic Park on a thunderstorm day.
April 8th, 2009 at 10:00 am
On the MK movie discussion, I don’t find it as offender as the Street Fighter ones (I really want to see someone buried for *that*). That said, the MK movie is “Enter The Dragon” with Mortal Kombat characters and scenarios
Now back to the main topic. My opinion is that these translations are bad because they’re not translations: they’re merchandising. A way to take advantage of an existing fanbase and universe to reach a wider market (non-gamers) as well as the pockets of the fans (the actual gamers). The reason SH worked “fine” as a translation is because it was meant to be a tribute, unlike other movies that just wanted to jump aboard the ship of a certain game success.
Same with the opposite. Most movie games look after the idea of “letting the player become the main character of the movie, and relive epic moments”. Games and movies, while similar, use very different mechanics. I don’t want a movie of someone running around a town through the mist, trying to open every door and locker he finds, as well as I don’t want a linear game with no other choice than what attack to use to beat down the minion in turn.
Movies are to tell stories from a dramatic and/or epic point of view. Games are to immerse the player in a universe and unveil their own stories through their choices. Any translation will, unfortunately, suffer from that.
April 8th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
@William *laughs*
Sometimes things just don’t translate from one medium to another, that’s all. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. People need to sit down and study what video game movie adaptations failed and which have done well, and figure out why. Until then, we’ll keep getting crappy VG adaptations.
April 9th, 2009 at 5:43 am
I agree with most of the article. I’m thinking of Final Fantasy movies in particular (sorry to fall back on FF again. I seem to do that in every comment I make on the site). FF: Spirits Within was widely hailed as… awful. Terrible. And also a huge mistake for Square.
But on the flip side you have Advent Children, which is actually a pretty watchable movie. Of course, it’s really not much more than pretty graphics and Sephiroth, but it still does the job. I think the approach on this movie was wiser. It never went to theatres and it catered to fans. Sephiroth having clones who are as pretty as him really is kind of a stupid story line, but we like Sephiroth, so we’ll bite.
On a side note - I heard a rumor about a Shadow of the Collosus movie. My gut reaction was “Oh god no.” If they butcher that, I will literally cry.
April 9th, 2009 at 7:46 am
Well, not completely impossible, of course. Silent Hill did well translating some of the town’s lore to the big screen, and Max Payne succeeded as well (IMHO) as the game’s best part is its noir storyline (that makes an almost 1:1 translation possible). You’ll never get the full game experience watching the movie, but can be good enough to satisfy fans
April 12th, 2009 at 4:26 am
dude postal rocked my sox…!!
April 13th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
@tusense How can they not butcher it? The game has, like, no story.