Which usually turns out worse? A movie based on a video game or a video game based on a movie?
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Movies made from games are at best decent entertainment (Silent Hill, Doom, Tomb Raider come to mind), usually really bad.
On the movie to game side, we have not only good games, but great and groundbreaking games. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. X-Wing. GoldenEye. AvP. Lego Star Wars. Riddick.
No contest. When multiple videogame-based movies are well over IMDB 8.5 rating, this question is worth digging out again.
On the movie to game side, we have not only good games, but great and groundbreaking games. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. X-Wing. GoldenEye. AvP. Lego Star Wars. Riddick.
No contest. When multiple videogame-based movies are well over IMDB 8.5 rating, this question is worth digging out again.
Without a doubt, movies based on games are FAR worse than games based on movies. There actually are some decent to good games based off of movies, though the average movie game is pretty terrible. As for movies based on games...My mind has YET to recall one that was actually any good.
There are a number of reasons why. Firstly, most movies based on games are lower budget money-makers that Hollywood decides to make every now and then when they want to make a decent profit with little effort. They are banking on the fact that fans will come see it no matter how batshit awful it is. They get no-talent directors to make them, give them a rather pitiful budget, hire some two-bit actors that no one has ever heard of, and usually try to make up a bunch of random changes to make them less true to the source material. Basically, Hollywood doesn't take game movies SERIOUSLY most of the time, and they are typically designed solely to make a quick buck off a pre-established franchise with a lot of fans, not make a good movie.
Secondly...Most games just aren't fit for any other media anyway because...Well...The gameplay is the only thing that makes them fun to play as video games. I'll be painfully blunt: Most video games are poorly written. Most video games have TERRIBLE, cliche-ridden plots with terribly developed, poorly written characters and fucking RETARDED dialog. There is a reason why "video game plot" is a major insult used by novel and movie critics. Even games that are praised for having very strong plots aren't all that amazing when compared to similar movies or novels. There certainly are exceptions, but the overwhelmingly vast majority of games have bad plots.
Case in point, Resident Evil. Honestly, who here plays those because of the characters and plot? When you transition a game to a movie, you lose all that interactivity, meaning that the movie must ride on its plot and characters...And frankly, most games fall flat on their face in that regard. So, all you have to look forward to is the action really...And because most game movies are pretty low budget, the action scenes just aren't as good as many other higher budget action movies. Really, you are better off just sticking to the game, or going to see a better movie with similar themes.
My point being, when you take the interactivity out of a video game, most of the time you aren't left with anything particularly worth spending two hours of your life watching.
I'd also like to mention that novels based on games are equally awful for the same reasons.
There are a number of reasons why. Firstly, most movies based on games are lower budget money-makers that Hollywood decides to make every now and then when they want to make a decent profit with little effort. They are banking on the fact that fans will come see it no matter how batshit awful it is. They get no-talent directors to make them, give them a rather pitiful budget, hire some two-bit actors that no one has ever heard of, and usually try to make up a bunch of random changes to make them less true to the source material. Basically, Hollywood doesn't take game movies SERIOUSLY most of the time, and they are typically designed solely to make a quick buck off a pre-established franchise with a lot of fans, not make a good movie.
Secondly...Most games just aren't fit for any other media anyway because...Well...The gameplay is the only thing that makes them fun to play as video games. I'll be painfully blunt: Most video games are poorly written. Most video games have TERRIBLE, cliche-ridden plots with terribly developed, poorly written characters and fucking RETARDED dialog. There is a reason why "video game plot" is a major insult used by novel and movie critics. Even games that are praised for having very strong plots aren't all that amazing when compared to similar movies or novels. There certainly are exceptions, but the overwhelmingly vast majority of games have bad plots.
Case in point, Resident Evil. Honestly, who here plays those because of the characters and plot? When you transition a game to a movie, you lose all that interactivity, meaning that the movie must ride on its plot and characters...And frankly, most games fall flat on their face in that regard. So, all you have to look forward to is the action really...And because most game movies are pretty low budget, the action scenes just aren't as good as many other higher budget action movies. Really, you are better off just sticking to the game, or going to see a better movie with similar themes.
My point being, when you take the interactivity out of a video game, most of the time you aren't left with anything particularly worth spending two hours of your life watching.
I'd also like to mention that novels based on games are equally awful for the same reasons.
good idea, but then any film would be good then, even (ugh) The covenant. Man that film chewed balls. >_>Vlane said:
I say a movie based on a game. Both a bad, but game based movies can do more PR damage to gaming then a movie based we. We already know movie based games are bad. That does not hurt our judges on movies. However, many, if not most, movie goers are not gamers. they see a game based movie, and they assure video games are retarded.
James Bond Goldeneye.Rankao said:
I find movies based on games worse, but they are rare and therefore need to make up for lost ground.
How about both? I think games and movies should remain seperate. Movies based on games suck just as much as games based on movies.
not really as long as its done right which is extreamly rare E.G. Goldeneye,sonicmaster1989 said:
now however for movies based off games i have hope but it has yet to be proven that a good movie can come out of a videogame
Movies based on video games. As many have said, there have been quite a few good movie-to-game adaptations. (Anyone remember the King Kong games from '06? I heard those were good. The lego series was mostly good, Spider man 1+2 were decent, 3 was atrocious. The ones I'm talking about were based on movies, by the way)
Let's talk about Max Payne shalt we? We shalt. That should have stayed on the video game format, and should never have even been thought about going into Hollywood. The movie was really bad, and the whole "hey let's put some demon and devil stuff in here to make it not as boring" was stupid.
I'd have to say the games that go into movies. But having movies go into games, it sort of expands on what the movie had to offer. Sometimes not as good, but way better than the games to movies.
I'd have to say the games that go into movies. But having movies go into games, it sort of expands on what the movie had to offer. Sometimes not as good, but way better than the games to movies.
I think the level of suck is about equal. Only with movies, the question is just HOW Uwe Boll will fuck up the your favorite games. And how many layers of DRM laden shit is EA/Ubisoft/etc.. going to drown this watered down, buggy, and boring movie based game.
I kind of wonder why that is. Writers aren't expensive, so you'd expect to be able to afford a decent one. And why would the writer make changes that both make the movie less true to the source material *and* makes for a worse movie?Raven28256 said:
If it's gonna suck no matter what, they might as well try to serve the fans with some faithful content (at least in the parts that don't cost money to make). What's there to lose?
Doom, for instance, had a lot of CGI effects as is and they were decent quality if I recall correctly. It wasn't low budget. They could easily have stuck with the hellspawn and related plot instead of infestation/zombie crap.
No objection there.
I really think its hard to compare, on one hand we have games from movies, ok the games from spiderman movies are pretty fun, and goldeneye for N64 is one of the best games ever, but thats 2 out of thousands of attempts at making games from movies.
There hasn't been quite as many movies from games, the ones that are made into games usually only turn out good if the storyline is completely altered, resident evil 1 was good (the second and third sucked) dont care what people say, doom is still a boring movie.
On the whole about 5% of game movies are actually watchable and about 5% movie games are playable. So yeah they suck all the same. Gears of war movie should be interesting but the game itself would be better if it wasn't so jam packed with patriotic testosterone, i have a feeling the movie will be the same, a huge hit for those who want to grow up join the army and kill people, a bit lacking on the storyline for anyone else (like 300).
There hasn't been quite as many movies from games, the ones that are made into games usually only turn out good if the storyline is completely altered, resident evil 1 was good (the second and third sucked) dont care what people say, doom is still a boring movie.
On the whole about 5% of game movies are actually watchable and about 5% movie games are playable. So yeah they suck all the same. Gears of war movie should be interesting but the game itself would be better if it wasn't so jam packed with patriotic testosterone, i have a feeling the movie will be the same, a huge hit for those who want to grow up join the army and kill people, a bit lacking on the storyline for anyone else (like 300).