Nobody Respects Tomb Raider (February 16, 2007)

[Bandit LOAF]

The Firing Squad has taken on a tired-and-true topic -- the quality of video game movies. The article, "From CPU to Cinema: Why Unforgettable Games Make Unforgivable Films", hits... all the same bases. Here's the trick: this one is part of a contest to decide who the popular gaming site's next editor should be. What does it say about our favorite series?

Take for instance the cinematization of Wing Commander a series of games whose major strongpoint was the gripping storyline that played itself out in a series cut-scenes as you progressed through the games. You grew to care about the characters, brought to life in later installments by such wonderful actors as John Rhys- Davies and Mark Hamill, as they battled alongside you tooth and nail( or mass driver cannon, and heat-seeking, missile as the case may be) against the relentless Kilrathi, while each dealing with the harsh realities of war in their own ways. The story driven action is what made the Wing Commander games a hit, yet when Wing Commander the movie arrived in theaters the storyline followed in the games was completely discarded and replaced by a helter-skelter plot about a long lost tribe of discriminated space navigators and a one dimensional, evil alien, crew obsessed with getting their paws on a human navigational computer. None of the games’ actors were even present and those that reprised their roles came off as second rate at best.

None were present and those that reprised their roles? Regardless of your feelings about Wing Commander in particuler, we have...seen... this... before. Vote accordingly!




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Original update published on February 16, 2007

 

[Delance]

I agree with the author about the changes on the storyline between the games and the movie. The part about the actors demonstrates how well the roles were played on the games, but cleary it's not a fair way to critisize the movie, the only one that could do it was Mcdowell, and he had a conflicting role.

 

[Shipgate]

What I defintely agree with is the opinion on what made Wing Commander such a great game. Many new games these days are like new high-budget movies: they have all this money to make a dazzling special effects bonanza, but for all their efforts, they can never seem to get a decent writer to make a decent story and dialogue that doesn't make you cringe cause it's so terrible.

That's why I replay a lot of my older computer games a lot still. It doesn't matter to me that they lack incredible graphics (albeit, games like Wing Commander and Lands of Lore have held up pretty well to today's standards, I think), but that they have a well thought out plot, character development, effective dialogue, and compelling cutscenes that compliment the game.

I understand that the article is talking about games moving over to movies, but I couldn't help talking about this issue here. And maybe I'm out of the loop a bit with newer games, but a lot of the ones I have played recently have been disappointing. But I suppose it's reassuring that there is from time to time exceptional games that do have all those good attributes, cause obviously I couldn't afford to play as many anyway.