Movies of Games: Why are they always so bad?

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Umm...what? Did you REALLY just say that games like Final Fantasy don't have a plot?

OK, poorly worded. "Games" (generic) do not have plots. D&D does not have a plot. "Final Fantasy" (the world/genre/whatever) does not have a plot.

Now, a particular adventuring party exploring "The Sunless Citadel" -- that's a plot. Or the story events of "FFIV" -- that's a plot.

One of the reasons, IMO, that these movies fail is that the producers/wriers/directors don't say "Hey, that game FFIV had a great story. What if we translate it to film?" THAT might succeed. Instead, they go do something silly like "Let's make a Final Fantasy movie!" without any idea of a viable story, and end up with a piece of dung.

I present FF and the D&D movie as evidence -- if you take the time to watch the interviews with the producer director on the D&D DVD (which I'm embarrased to admit I did), you'll find they basically took the second approach I described above, and the resulting film tarnishes the D&D name.

At least the FF film had good CGI to recommend it, even if the whole story was

 

[KnowTheToe]

You know its complete dung when they give it a name like Dungeons & Dragons, the movie. I mean, if they lack so much creativity in the naming, what is the chance they have any in the story.

 

[Sixchan]

OK, poorly worded. "Games" (generic) do not have plots. D&D does not have a plot. "Final Fantasy" (the world/genre/whatever) does not have a plot.

Now, a particular adventuring party exploring "The Sunless Citadel" -- that's a plot. Or the story events of "FFIV" -- that's a plot.

One of the reasons, IMO, that these movies fail is that the producers/wriers/directors don't say "Hey, that game FFIV had a great story. What if we translate it to film?" THAT might succeed. Instead, they go do something silly like "Let's make a Final Fantasy movie!" without any idea of a viable story, and end up with a piece of dung.

I present FF and the D&D movie as evidence -- if you take the time to watch the interviews with the producer director on the D&D DVD (which I'm embarrased to admit I did), you'll find they basically took the second approach I described above, and the resulting film tarnishes the D&D name.

At least the FF film had good CGI to recommend it, even if the whole story was

Phew. You had me worried for a second. Yes, I agree that they should be going more along the lines of "Let's make a film of Final Fantasy VII!" or "Wouldn't Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil make a GREAT film?" It's a pity they don't, and that is what I see as the problem. They could have made a new Final Fantasy, but before approaching it as a film, they should have approached it as a game. Once they had an idea that resembled the feel of the other games, then they could have taken the story to film.

 

[mooby]

I'm going to put aside my shame, and say that I actually kinda liked the D&D movie. It wasn't great, but it was ok.

Anyway, since the directors commentary has already been brought up, I wonder if they'll actually make a sequel, as they say they will in the commentary.

 

[Ranger REG]

This has always been a thing for me. I've never seen a GOOD adaptation of a game into a film. Now, I enjoyed Final Fantasy, but only because I was able to get it out of my head that this had the name "Final Fantasy" attached. It was an OK Sci-Fi film, and an AMAZING CG film, but it was in no way "Final Fantasy". Tomb Raider was pretty boring, and Mario Bros was terrible!

And what I ask is: WHY?

It depends on your definition of adaptation. IMHO, adaptation DOES NOT always mean 100% translation and conversion from one media to another. If that is the case the two LOTR films would have been at least 5 hours long ... EACH.

Now, while continuity and familiar elements should be carried over to film, what makes a successful film is a good storyline. So, it's a matter of two things: adapting the adventure modules that is included in the game to become a good storyline OR an entirely different storyline that can be appeal toward the mainstream audience, which dwarfs the tiny genre audience by a thousandfold.

So my second question is: In a Movie based on a game, would you rather they based it on the game itself?

It should be based on the familiar elements of the game, but should have the creative license to make the story more appealing toward the mainstream.

Something like Tomb Raider, which is now in production for a sequel.

 

[Tonguez]

I kinda liked the Tekken Movie and the Pokemon movie too.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

I'm not saying it was even an average overall movie but Mortal Kombat did a pretty good job of capturing the game.

 

[MulhorandSage]

I think Rule One of any game adaptation has to be:

If anyone in the production team or on the set says "it's only based on a game", they're fired.

Scott Bennie

 

[Tyrion]

I agree that Mortal Kombat was pretty decent for what it tried to do. That is, be a reasonably entertaining action movie with good production values. The sequel, MK: Annihilation, sucked however.

Game movies should stick to the general plot of the source material, or if that's unfeasible at least to the general themes/visuals of the game. I actually think plot-intensive games such as Final Fantasy 6 and Planescape: Torment would suffer on the silver screen, while games with a distinctive style but relatively simple plots (eg. Grand Theft Auto) would adapt well.

I'm hoping for good things from the upcoming films based on Max Payne and American McGee's Alice.

 

[Corinth]

Most of the FF franchise and other games like them make horrible movies for one big reason: they can't fit into a two-hour time slot and still be good movies. Were I to take a FF game to another medium, it would become a series- preferably an OVA series so I could get the (usually) higher production budget and not need to make room for commercials. For most FF games, they'd fit into a 25 episode series (1 hour/episode); for a few, 50 episodes will do the trick.

For most of the publishers, it just means turning their cinematics into full-fledged serial production departments because they are that close to doing this in-house as it is.