Why Computer games don't make good movies

[Fatcat]

I saw this while looking on Fark. It's an interesting read. They even mention the WC movie.

http://www.bergen.com/page.php?qstr...lRUV5eTY3OTE5NTMmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk3

 

[Dahan]

It brought out a few good points.
The problem is that with movie producers and company is that they always tinkering with the original story of the game and change it to their liking making many viewers unhappy.
Although there are few movies which they made from games/books they have did a fair job withouth breaking any consistency or may have tampered with very little

Lord of the Rings - The only tampering I recall at the moment was the battle of helms deep: there were not elves in that fight, but peter jackson did a pretty good job adding them in

War of the Worlds - Have not seen it but I was told there were a few bits and pieces that were added/changed but was told it was mediorce

Resident Evil - Complete change. I did not understand why they have to change it completely.

Street Fighter - Undecided

Mortal Kombat - Undecided

Tomb Raider - Reasonable

Wing Commander - Expected to following the game story line, disappointed at first but then accepted and later enjoyed for what they tried to do. Although would have been more happier if they made according to the game story line it would have been a better movie, but then I am not one for talk

 

[Nomad Terror]

But the WC movie *does* follow the game story line.

Unless you mean taking place within the time period of one of the games, in which case never mind.

 

[Dahan]

the movie yes does follow the timeline, with blair and manic joining the tigers claw but the characters well im not so sure
for example paladin as a frenchy!?!?!? come on?!
I still sometime think about the whole pilgrim plot and blairs history especially in teh wing commander carton series it is a bit different as well
i am still undecided about it thou

 

[AD]

Wing Commander ... would have been more happier if they made according to the game story line it would have been a better movie...

I disagree. Yes the movie had some flaws that, for some viewers detracted from their enjoying the film. However, WC1 didn't have a huge elaborite plot that was greatly fleshed out untill SM2 which was developed with wc2 in mind. While grounbreaking at the time, yes we did get to know some of the characters, but most of the conversations were tactical tips up until sm2. So suggesting that somehow the movie makers did wrong by not following the "plot" of wc1 is an absurd argument. And to flesh out the vega campaign into an entertaining and interesting (beyond 20 different dogfight sequences) movie would mean.... OMG.... adding fleshed out backgrounds to some of the characters and events and conversations and exchanges that... GASP... werent seen in the game.

 

[Iceyl86]

But the WC movie *does* follow the game story line.

Unless you mean taking place within the time period of one of the games, in which case never mind.

From what I saw It didnt follow the WC storyline at all. It more seems like the storyline was MODIFIED to include the movie...

 

[Dahan]

From what I saw It didnt follow the WC storyline at all. It more seems like the storyline was MODIFIED to include the movie...

It was modified to a certain extend.

I always thought that the beginning of WC1 did have a plot and did have a story to follow

 

[Sarty]

Here we go again.

the movie yes does follow the timeline, with blair and manic joining the tigers claw but the characters well im not so sure
for example paladin as a frenchy!?!?!? come on?!

Just because the actor is french doesn't mean that the character becomes french, why don't people understand this?

 

[Death]

Besides which, he was actually born in Istanbul (anyone making TMBG references will be given a boot to the head), Turkey, he just grew up in Paris.

And I echo the "here we go again." bit.

 

[Quarto]

Lord of the Rings - The only tampering I recall at the moment was the battle of helms deep: there were not elves in that fight, but peter jackson did a pretty good job adding them in

I could name dozens of irritating changes made in this movie, the elves at Helm's Deep just being one of the most horrible, drastic examples. That's missing the point, though - I may not like the particular changes that Peter Jackson made, but I agree that changes were needed (and I deeply regret that he didn't change that multiple endings thing).

That's the thing about adaptations, you see. A film takes on average two hours. The average book, once you cut out the descriptions (which in a movie are, of course, visualised)... still takes at least four to six hours. So how can you turn it into a movie without making changes? The same goes for games, except that here changes are needed even more. Let's forget Wing Commander (which was actually a fairly easy game to convert) for a second. Let's talk about, say... <draws a name out of a hat> Super Mario Brothers.

So... the game has no story whatsoever. It's about a guy that walks sideways through dozens of screens, jumping on top of turtles to kill them. Convert that into a movie without making any changes... and you get a movie about a guy that walks sideways through dozens of screens, jumping on top of turtles to kill them. Oscar-winning material, that's for sure . And not only will it suck as a movie, it won't even appeal to the people who played the game, because what appeals in the game is that you control the guy walking sideways. You really can't do that in a movie, so you're left with very little indeed...

 

[Bandit LOAF]

for example paladin as a frenchy!?!?!? come on?!

Of course, hard core fans know that Paladin is neither French nor Scottish -- he's from a space station.

I still sometime think about the whole pilgrim plot and blairs history especially in teh wing commander carton series it is a bit different as well

Well, the problem is that Blair in the games has absolutely no backstory at all. Heck, he went have his life without even having a real name. To make a movie you need a character with history and conflict and such rather than a blank slate in which the player can imagine himself.

Up until Wing Commander Academy and the movie, there was no talk of Blair's parents or Blair's religion or Blair's childhood... it just didn't exist in the fiction.

 

[Nomad Terror]

I think these people may as well argue that the storyline has been altered twice by blair looking like Freddie Prinze, Jr, then looking like an animated character, then looking like an older Luke Skywalker (in-game chronologically speaking).

 

[Jacob]

How much did Wing Commander make over all, with box office gross, VHS/DVD, rental, etc.?

 

[Spien]

I think these people may as well argue that the storyline has been altered twice by blair looking like Freddie Prinze, Jr, then looking like an animated character, then looking like an older Luke Skywalker (in-game chronologically speaking).

Add another alteration if you count Academy. So then in the timeline he went from an animated character, to Freddie Prinze Jr, to a much different animated character and finally to Mark Hamill.

 

[Wulf]

Add another alteration if you count Academy. So then in the timeline he went from an animated character, to Freddie Prinze Jr, to a much different animated character and finally to Mark Hamill.

It just goes to show that Blair has an identity crisis. Can you blame the guy for not wanting to talk about it?

 

[Dahan]

I am not fuss with who played Blair just a little bit miff or disappointed sometimes how they played out the characters, I thought in the WC3 novel they mention briefly of his background, I am not sure but I have to check on that

 

[Delance]

Game movies are stupid because movies are stupid. There are games with great storylines.

 

[Aplha 1-1]

The problem with "games movies" is that they try to cram the story line from a 4-7 hours long game into a 1 1/2, possibly 2 hour movie. Anybody seen (or forcibly made to see as was in my case ) the old WB cartoon of LOTR? Remember it as utter crap for cramming 3 large novels into 2 hours? Now watch steve jackson's LOTR trilogy and spot the difference.
The first ResEvil movie in my opinion was good and notice how it used the story of the games but didnt try to 'be' the game? Shame they broke it with Apocalypse.

While it can be said that many movies based on games don't have much of an existing plot to work from, that certainly can't be said for Wing Commander.

This is true but a pity that Mr. Roberts never used any of them and fell for the 'cram it all in' trap. No story for the WC1 era you say? Read the timeline of the Kilrathi war. We have McAuliffe ambush, Custer's Carnival, The Sivar-Eshrad fiasco just to name a few off the top of my head.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

This is true but a pity that Mr. Roberts never used any of them and fell for the 'cram it all in' trap. No story for the WC1 era you say? Read the timeline of the Kilrathi war. We have McAuliffe ambush, Custer's Carnival, The Sivar-Eshrad fiasco just to name a few off the top of my head.

What you've done here is added the word 'era' and pretended that we're not talking about Wing Commander the game.

Even in spite of that, it's still a dubious point.

No one pays $40 million to finally develop the movie version of three or for sentences of text from Claw Marks. (No characters, nothing familiar to anyone but a few hard core weirdos on the internet...)

Secret Missions 2, too, isn't much of a story. It's a very specifically written prologue for Wing Commander II -- it introduces characters and ideas and such that will be followed up later... but as a stand alone episode it's sort of disappointing (and, again, has nothing to do with characters).

 

[Spien]

It just goes to show that Blair has an identity crisis. Can you blame the guy for not wanting to talk about it?

Maybe he'll return from his apparent grave in the next game calling himself "The Pilot Formerly Known as Blair."