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Topic: Question: in your opinion, why do video game to movie translations suck?
Kennatsu
hu�mor 1. That which is intended to induce laughter or amusement: a writer skilled at crafting humor.
posted 11-21-2003 12:02:32 AM
I find that most of the time it's because the studio hired people who have never even heard of the game to make a movie about it.
OtakuPenguin
Peels like a tangerine, but is juicy like an orange.
posted 11-21-2003 12:03:22 AM
Because they have to make a movie for the masses as opposed to the players of the game.
..:: This Is The Sound Of Settling ::..
Black
The Outlaw Torn
posted 11-21-2003 12:08:15 AM
For the same reason that any story transaction from one form of media to the other is doomed to fail.

Whatever that is.



Time was never on my side.
So on I wait my whole lifetime.

Sean
posted 11-21-2003 12:12:15 AM
Something is always lost in a translation. It's inevitable.

Especially if it's from a book or game into a movie, because then you've got to find an actor who can play the character and the part well.

A Kansas City Shuffle is when everybody looks right, you go left.

It's not something people hear about.

Steven Steve
posted 11-21-2003 12:13:31 AM
You see, when movie adaptations are made, they take what story there already is and pump it up with Hollywoodisms. When they get to games, though, there's no story there, so it's just a grand shitfest through and through with no story and way too many retarded mannerisms
"Absolutely NOTHING [will stop me from buying Diablo III]. I will buy it regardless of what they do."
- Grawbad, Battle.net forums

"Don't want to sound like a fanboy, but I am with you. I'll buy it for sure, it's just a matter of for how long I will be playing it..."
- Silvast, Battle.net forums

Maradon!
posted 11-21-2003 12:16:42 AM
quote:
Black had this to say about Matthew Broderick:
For the same reason that any story transaction from one form of media to the other is doomed to fail.

Not true. The movie adaptation of The Green Mile was flawless.

I don't know a lot about making movies, but I don't think it's the mere fact that it's a game-to-movie translation that brings about the downfall of most of these movies, but rather the motivation behind them.

Someone notices that a certain game is popular and hopes to exploit the popularity by making a movie. They buy up movie rights, hire a director, etc. Creation is basically forced instead of inspired. As a result, the movie feels trite and contrived.

I'm of the mind that these movies tend to suck, because thier creation tends to be rooted in a desire to exploit a market tendency, rather than in a desire to make a worthwhile movie.

Black
The Outlaw Torn
posted 11-21-2003 12:17:12 AM
quote:
It's Sean Season!
Something is always lost in a translation.
Yeah, yeah.

That. ¬_¬



Time was never on my side.
So on I wait my whole lifetime.

Sean
posted 11-21-2003 12:20:48 AM
quote:
Maradon! thought this was the Ricky Martin Fan Club Forum and wrote:
Not true. The movie adaptation of The Green Mile was flawless.

Well, that's really the exception to the rule.

Although, lately, it does seem as though the rule may be changing. At least for Steven King. Dreamcatcher and Green Mile were both fantastic.

A Kansas City Shuffle is when everybody looks right, you go left.

It's not something people hear about.

Maradon!
posted 11-21-2003 12:23:42 AM
quote:
The logic train ran off the tracks when Sean said:
Although, lately, it does seem as though the rule may be changing. At least for Steven King. Dreamcatcher and Green Mile were both fantastic.

King personally oversees all of his movie adaptations. He cameos in nearly all of them (I think maybe even all of them...though I can't remember seeing him in Green Mile).

TaLourin
Pancake
posted 11-21-2003 12:26:59 AM
quote:
Maradon! attempted to be funny by writing:
King personally oversees all of his movie adaptations. He cameos in nearly all of them (I think maybe even all of them...though I can't remember seeing him in Green Mile).

Witness during execution.

Peter
Pancake
posted 11-21-2003 12:33:20 AM
Most games lack alot of substance to be made strait into movies. And Square and Chris Robert's showed even with the orginal creativity behind the games makeing the movies they still flop.
Snugglits
I LIKE TO ABUSE THE ALERT MOD BUTTON AND I ENJOY THE FLAVOR OF SWEET SWEET COCK.
posted 11-21-2003 12:41:31 AM
Few genres support being made into a movie, anyway. You wouldn't want to sit through 4 hours of random encounters, so a RPG and especially a MMORPG is out. A first person shooter is nearly plotless and would have just a lot of running around, which is good for edge of the seat, but it eventually becomes too much. Sports and racing genres have been done... A platformer would just suck, really. Fighting can kinda be done. Action (metal gear solid) could probably be done well, but it would be like every other action movie.

Though you could just show the cutscenes from an RPG and make that a movie, what would the point be to that?

The point of a game is the interactiveness. You can't interact with a movie sans throwing food at the screen and using a baseball bat on the projector.

[b].sig removed by Mr. Parcelan[/b]
Peter
Pancake
posted 11-21-2003 12:47:02 AM
quote:
Oscar 3/Xray 1 had this to say about the Spice Girls:
.... Action (metal gear solid) could probably be done well, but it would be like every other action movie.

I thought Resident Evil was fairly good, but they kept with the action formula, Plot is second to SFX and Fights.


Some of the fluff from games are good enough to hash out a decent movie or story from. I could see the Blizzard guys being able to pull off a decent movie based of the stuff in Warcraft, Starcraft or even Diablo games with pulling the blunder of trying to make them follow the games.

Tarquinn
Personally responsible for the decline of the American Dollar
posted 11-21-2003 02:18:56 AM
Because they usually change everything that reminds one of the game.

For example at the Mario Bros movie. Was it anything like the games? Some Plumber saving a fantasy kingdom? No.

Wing Commander. They changed too much, characters, ships, storyline, etc. I still cannot believe that Chris Roberts was actually responsible for this.

Two game movies that were rather successful are the Tomb Raider conversions and of course Resident Evil. Why? Because they were relative faithful adaptions of the games.

Note: I'm not talking about actual gameplay here, but about the background story, feeling and atmosphere.

~Never underestimate the power of a Dark Clown.
Inferno-Spirit
Sports Advocate
posted 11-21-2003 05:57:20 AM
quote:
Tarquinn had this to say about Optimus Prime:
Because they usually change everything that reminds one of the game.

For example at the Mario Bros movie. Was it anything like the games? Some Plumber saving a fantasy kingdom? No.

Wing Commander. They changed too much, characters, ships, storyline, etc. I still cannot believe that Chris Roberts was actually responsible for this.

Two game movies that were rather successful are the Tomb Raider conversions and of course Resident Evil. Why? Because they were relative faithful adaptions of the games.

Note: I'm not talking about actual gameplay here, but about the background story, feeling and atmosphere.


Are you even suggesting that a Mario Brothers game that kept to the storyline would be good?

"He lets the last Hungarian go, and he goes running. He waits until his wife and kids are in the ground and he goes after the rest of the mob. He kills their kids, he kills their wives, he kills their parents and their parents' friends. He burns down the houses they grew up in and the stores they work in, he kills people that owe them money. And like that he was gone. Underground. No one has ever seen him again. He becomes a myth, a spook story that criminals tell their kids at night. 'If you rat on your pop, Keyser Soze will get you.' And nobody really ever believes." - Roger 'Verbal' Kint, The Usual Suspects
LeMiere
posted 11-21-2003 06:13:57 AM
Because when making a movie, the video game company will generally determine that, to be succesful, the movie must appeal to the masses, and what the masses find appealing in a movie, socially. When a game is translated into the socially appealing ideas of an action/adventure/whatever film, the elements of the game get dummied down in replace of elements unfamiliar to the fan.

Such as Final Fantasy. I remember specifically hearing the directors developing Grey with features that average American girls find attractive. This is in opposition to having a femme boy running around saving the day.

(This really irked me, because all I ever get games for is because there's some femme boy running around.)

[ 11-21-2003: Message edited by: LeMiere ]

Tarquinn
Personally responsible for the decline of the American Dollar
posted 11-21-2003 10:27:29 AM
quote:
The logic train ran off the tracks when Inferno-Spirit said:
Are you even suggesting that a Mario Brothers game that kept to the storyline would be good?
Cartoon, yes.
Real actors, no.
~Never underestimate the power of a Dark Clown.
Ja'Deth Issar Ka'bael
I posted in a title changing thread.
posted 11-21-2003 12:31:28 PM
Well it depends on the game. A game like Resident Evil or Tomb Raider can be translated over because they don't require too much complexity. Resident Evil is a variant of the classic zombie survival movie, and Tomb Raider was practically written for action.

On the other hand, there's no way humanly possible to collect all of the story elements of, say, a 40-50 hour RPG and condense it into an hour and a half of movie. FF7 could have easily been turned into two or three very full, very thick movies, and even then you're probably cutting a lot out. Same thing if you tried to convert something like Xenogears over.

You MIGHT be able to convert something like one of the Legend of Zelda games or the Starfox Gamecube game over, but these days even those are stretching out into full fledged "epic" class stories rather than quickies with gameplay.

Of all the games I've played lately, I'd love to see Prince of Persia and Castlevania adapted for the big screen. I feel it's pretty doable, all said.

Lyinar's sweetie and don't you forget it!*
"All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die. -Roy Batty
*Also Lyinar's attack panda

sigpic courtesy of This Guy, original modified by me

Katrinity
Cookie Goddess!
posted 11-21-2003 12:32:53 PM
I'd like to see a Metroid Movie myself..
Cookie Goddess Supreme
Furry Kitsune of Power!
Pouncer of the 12th degree!
"Cxularath ftombn gonoragh pv'iornw hqxoxon targh!"
Translated: "Sell your soul for a cookie?"
Zair
The Imp
posted 11-21-2003 12:59:31 PM
I want a Warcraft 3 movie. A movie about the war with the Burning Legion.

Unfortunately, there would be way too much backstory that is essential to the plot that would be almost impossible to seamlessly add in (without boring narration at the begining)

OtakuPenguin
Peels like a tangerine, but is juicy like an orange.
posted 11-21-2003 04:44:41 PM
Blizzard just needs to make their own movies.

And a Castlevania movie would be a badass medieval Bullet/Whip Time zombie killing dark movie.

..:: This Is The Sound Of Settling ::..
Broadzilla
Pancake
posted 11-22-2003 09:34:30 AM
All your base are belong to us!!!

[ 11-22-2003: Message edited by: Broadzilla ]

"I like lesbians with a giddy delight. If I had my own pair, I'd jack off every night."
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Zeke
I am a vampire and
posted 11-22-2003 12:30:43 PM
quote:
Tarquinn stumbled drunkenly to the keyboard and typed:

game movies that were rather successful are Resident Evil. Why? Because they were relative faithful adaptions of the game.

Note: I'm not talking about actual gameplay here, but about the background story, feeling and atmosphere.


The Resident Evil movie had absolutely nothing in common with the game's story other than a mansion and the city is named Racoon. The mansion existing being the similarity. There was no hive, no fake couple living inside as a coverup, nothing of that. The people that went in were not Umbrella employees (Well, actually S.T.A.R.S. was funded by Umbrella but they didn't know that...except Wesker.)they were like a special division of cops and that's all.

"Death most resembles a prophet who is without honor in his own land or a poet who is a stranger among his people."
"Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once."
Hime, eien-ni, anata-wo ai-shimasu.
Ja'Deth Issar Ka'bael
I posted in a title changing thread.
posted 11-22-2003 05:35:46 PM
quote:
Zeke the Final Fencer's account was hax0red to write:
The Resident Evil movie had absolutely nothing in common with the game's story other than a mansion and the city is named Racoon. The mansion existing being the similarity. There was no hive, no fake couple living inside as a coverup, nothing of that. The people that went in were not Umbrella employees (Well, actually S.T.A.R.S. was funded by Umbrella but they didn't know that...except Wesker.)they were like a special division of cops and that's all.

RE movie was supposed to be a loose prequel to the first film. Second one will incorporate Jill Valentine from the first game, and will take place sometime after the first game. That's why, in my opinion, the whole thing worked. They tried to make the movie be somewhat storyline-compatible with the games, without retelling anything.


But yeah, a Castlevania game would rock. I love modern zombie movies, but a medieval one would be tasty. And while Warcraft 3 would be a badass game, it'd need to be animated or wholly CGI. Otherwise it's just too expensive. Of course, in the "Art of Warcraft 3" book, the broad comment was made that, given all the effort Blizzard's put into the CGI's and such for WC3 (designing an engine for them, working and reworking all the movie cut scenes, etc), they've considered doing a movie on more than one occasion.

Lyinar's sweetie and don't you forget it!*
"All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die. -Roy Batty
*Also Lyinar's attack panda

sigpic courtesy of This Guy, original modified by me

Zeke
I am a vampire and
posted 11-22-2003 05:47:51 PM
Ah I didn't know it was a prequel, I thought it was supposed to be part 1 now it makes more sense.
"Death most resembles a prophet who is without honor in his own land or a poet who is a stranger among his people."
"Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once."
Hime, eien-ni, anata-wo ai-shimasu.
Tarquinn
Personally responsible for the decline of the American Dollar
posted 11-23-2003 02:21:39 PM
quote:
Nobody really understood why Zeke the Final Fencer wrote:
The Resident Evil movie had absolutely nothing in common with the game's story other than a mansion and the city is named Racoon. The mansion existing being the similarity. There was no hive, no fake couple living inside as a coverup, nothing of that. The people that went in were not Umbrella employees (Well, actually S.T.A.R.S. was funded by Umbrella but they didn't know that...except Wesker.)they were like a special division of cops and that's all.


quote:
Tarquinn had this to say about (_|_):
Note: I'm not talking about actual gameplay here, but about the background story, feeling and atmosphere.
~Never underestimate the power of a Dark Clown.
BetaTested
Not gay, but loves the cock!
posted 11-23-2003 03:14:17 PM
Umm actually in the RE movie, the main character chick and that one dude that survived until the end WERE the fake couple living inside. It's more hinted at in the flash backs than actually told to the audience. I watched it a few times over, I'm fairly certain that's what was going on.

But I've never played the games, so, eh. That's all I have to say.


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Ja'Deth Issar Ka'bael
I posted in a title changing thread.
posted 11-23-2003 04:45:34 PM
Yep. The mansion Wesker's STAR team entered in the first game was supposed to be the grand mansion you see in the movie, except that you see it AFTER the events in the movie happened. Loose timeline is RE Movie, RE1, RE2, RE3, except that the end (when Milla Jovovich's character wakes up) takes place like just after the end of RE1, before RE2. So the events of the movie right up to Milla getting knocked out by the Umbrella guys are prequel, then you go see what happens in RE1, then Milla wakes up in town. I gather that RE Movie 2 takes place either just before or just after RE Game 2
Lyinar's sweetie and don't you forget it!*
"All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die. -Roy Batty
*Also Lyinar's attack panda

sigpic courtesy of This Guy, original modified by me

Zeke
I am a vampire and
posted 11-23-2003 07:36:06 PM
quote:
BetaTested attempted to be funny by writing:
Umm actually in the RE movie, the main character chick and that one dude that survived until the end WERE the fake couple living inside. It's more hinted at in the flash backs than actually told to the audience. I watched it a few times over, I'm fairly certain that's what was going on.

But I've never played the games, so, eh. That's all I have to say.


Yes, that's what happens in the movie but never existed in the game which ws my point but apparently it's a prequel.

"Death most resembles a prophet who is without honor in his own land or a poet who is a stranger among his people."
"Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once."
Hime, eien-ni, anata-wo ai-shimasu.
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