Unlockable Content 10.18.06: The Dos and Don'ts of Video Game Films
Posted by Will Scott on 10.18.2006
A few common sense tips for the film industry, if they ever get interested in making a GOOD video game film.
Welcome back to Unlockable Content, the column that almost didn't make it this week. Yes, gentle readers, I'm one of the lucky folks that were affected by the lovely snow storm that hit Western New York over the weekend. I'm currently holed up in the University Library, for it's the only place I can leech heat, electricity, AND internet access without being accused of loitering.
The last few weeks, I've gone over the history of a few genres. Oddly enough, the platformer and FPS genres actually have simple, easily defined histories. The others that I wish to cover? Not so much. And since I'm not able to do my usual research (consisting of a lot of hours with my own collection, Wikipedia, and a number of other websites and whatnot), I've decided to throw out something inspired by what I've just watched on my laptop.
Yes, indeed, I made the mistake of watching Mortal Kombat: Annhilation. For a movie, it's actually god-awful and an affront to all things fun and enjoyable. For a video game movie, it's even kind of bad. So I got to thinking…what makes a video game movie good? What makes it bad? Well, here's the end-result of that thinking: a list of the Dos and Don'ts of making a video game movie.
1: DO hire a good cast
You know, this is kind of a given for ANY film, but bear with me. A decent cast can make or break any film, but video game films more so. A group of actors that can go beyond just "collecting a paycheck" can actually bring in a good film despite the preconceived notions. A bad cast, however, can drag down any good script.
The obvious exception to this rule is Super Mario Brothers. It had a STELLAR cast…but the script was just so weird and the plot so convoluted that they couldn't save it.
2: DON'T use special effects for the sake of special effects
I'm looking at you, Armageddon. The first Mortal Kombat movie's beauty, in many way, lay with its simplicity. The fight scenes were fairly straight martial arts, with a bit of high-tech gimmickry thrown in. Annhilation relied on silly tricks and bad special effects. This was the down fall of a number of other movies, including Resident Evil.
Quite simply…good special effects can be notable but they should be part of the overall tapestry of a film. Bad special effects are always glaringly noticeable – and it's hard to get beyond them.
3: DON'T hire Uwe Boll
Cheap shot? Yes. Almost entirely necessary? Also, yes. This man is, in a lot of ways, the equivalent many of the directors that you see in many film schools these days – vaguely competent, but feeling it necessary to throw some of their own "personal touch" to completely ruin the picture.
Luckily, Uwe has (thus far) ruined only crappy franchises. If Dungeon Seige ends up being that awful, however, I'll have a major problem.
4: DO hire a competent director
The addendum to Uwe. Hiring a first time director for a video game movie is, in all honesty, a recognizable desire. The studio gets to give a new guy a shot, and any poor reviews or performance can be blamed on the director. Hell, it's even easy for the guy to get out from under it, since fans tend to be notoriously scatterbrained about who directs what.
HOWEVER…a good director can make all the difference. It's tough to put this in a video game context – there haven't been any truly great video game movies to date. The related genre of comic books, however, does provide a pretty good example. Look at Spiderman – Sam Raimi had a solid career with excellent technical work before helming Spiderman. While the movie wasn't particularly riding on his directorial abilities (Toby Maguire was probably under more pressure in the leading role), Raimi's skills allowed the movie to become something better than it had any right to be.
5: DON'T forget the fans
Silly little note, I guess, but it's easy to do. Video game films tend to want to hit the "mass market", and ignore their fans. Movies like "Double Dragons" and "Super Mario Brothers" went this route – ignoring most of the plot and characters of the video games, and instead trying to craft a new product with old names.
Let's face it…if video game fans don't care for your video game movie, you're screwed.
6: DO ignore the fans…sometimes
Hey, guess what? It's entirely necessary to throw out big chunks of the video game plot, minor characters, and interweave new material to make a good flick. Movies that try to follow to slavishly to the plot of a video game are simply going to blow, because it's very hard to translate the experience. And it's even worse when a movie is made simply to throw in scenes for video games fans, ignoring the plot and fun that made the game worthwhile.
Yeah, I'm looking at you Advent Children. For shame. For shame.
7: Don't be afraid to experiment
So, I watched Doom last night. Pretty lackluster…but damn, that first person view segment was awesome! It's really simple camera trickery, but it was a great homage and something I don't see in movies nearly often enough. This is the stuff that can push a film beyond simple a two hour popcorn fest and in to the territory of something people legitimately want to see.
And no, I don't mean Doom is great. But it's vaguely solid.
Also…I made it a point to look up the history of crates in First Person Shooters…but alas, my power went out. While I'm sure you're all upset about the lack of this historic update, I'll be sure to try to squeeze it in next week, when we try to unearth the monstrous history of dungeon crawlers.
