Here’s a challenge for you: give yourself about a minute and try to think of any good live- action video game films.
Couldn’t think of any? That’s not really surprising. Even if there are some video game films that are enjoyable to watch, like the so-bad-it’s-good “Super Mario Bros.,” the industry has never managed to come out with a single film that can really be called good.
But why not? When it comes to translating pretty much any other form of entertainment, even among a glut of bad movies, there’s been at least one good one to come out, be it books (“Precious”), television (“Serenity”), comics (“The Dark Knight”), musicals (“Fiddler on the Roof”) or even amusement park rides (“Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl”). So what’s the problem with video games?
Unlike the rest of the categories I mentioned, video games are relatively new. The first commercially sold video game, Computer Space, only appeared in 1971. The video game industry also suffered two major crashes in its beginning, first in 1977 and second in 1983. The crash of 1983 lasted for two years before the NES saved the industry. So we’re talking about a form of entertainment that’s been around for 40 years at most. Compare that to the next most recent entertainments, musicals and comic books, which both found their niche 70 years ago.
That’s only one problem the industry faces. Its newness adds to a second problem: the nerd stigma. For many years, even while video games were reaching the height of their soaring popularity in the 90s, they were by and large shunned by the public. There was a thought that people who played video games were “nerds” and socially ill-equipped.
That’s not to say people who thought that still didn’t play video games. The industry reached out to that (predominantly male) market of thought through games like Street Fighter and Area 51. But the older generations in particular still shunned the video gaming industry by and large. It’s only with the current generation of video games, and the Nintendo Wii in particular, that we find the generational gap starting to be crossed, and with the PS3 and Xbox 360 coming out with games that look nice, even those in the video game generation that shunned them are being pulled in.
Video games are only recently reaching the potential movie makers like to risk money on. If you think about it, there weren’t really any video game movies with big names attached before Tomb Raider and the recent Prince of Persia, though it was arguably Tomb Raider that made Angelina’s name well known.
So, what do video game movie makers need to do to make a quality film? I went to see Prince of Persia this past week, and I have a few suggestions based on my experience with that film and the other video game films I’ve seen.
First, stay in the world of the video games. I enjoy Alfred Molina (Doc Oc in “Spiderman 2”) as an actor very much, but his character in “Prince of Persia” seemed to serve little more than to fill in any lack of plot with humor directly related to problems in the world today. Talk of taxes and the small business owner did nothing but distract. There was no such character in Pirates of the Caribbean or Lord of the Rings. They found their humor honestly within the world they were set in.
Second, get people who love the medium. I can’t say whether or not they were there for Prince of Persia, since one of the video game’s writers helped with the story’s creation, though director Mike Newell is quoted on RottenTomatoes.com as having said, “It’s not a video game movie. It’s a great story. If you had read the script, you would know that it wasn’t a video game.”
Such quotes don’t make me think “strong video game lover.” But with the video game movie industry being tainted by people like Uwe Boll, whose movies can’t be called much beyond disastrous, there’s a serious need for people that actually appreciate the source material to be in charge.
I can’t really give any more suggestions beyond the general “get good actors” and the like that apply to pretty much every film. But the industry does have one last problem, and if they don’t make a solid effort to create good video game movies they may find themselves struggling. The problem is video games.
As technology grows, graphics become better and better in video games, and video game makers like showing them off more and more. It’s nearing a point where video games will be like interactive films. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is a game known for its rather long cut scenes, an example of how games are moving more toward films. They’ll probably never reach the point of becoming simple films, but the movement is there. That makes making a film out of the game more difficult. How do you make a movie about a game when there’s already one in the game?
Prince of Persia made some steps in the right direction. It got a decent cast, a video game that had good story potential and some good money to back it. Despite it not being that great of a movie, it shows the industry has the potential. I have faith that, eventually, the industry will get one right. And, it had better be in my life time. Otherwise, I’ll have to go out there and do it myself.
