What Video Game Adaptations Need to Work

 

What Video Game Adaptations Need to Work

This might be a weird pseudo spin off to my Batman Arkham write up because a similar point I made there is going to be the driving point of this one, if you haven't read it, I suggest you should because it will help understand what I am going to say here better.

Video game adaptations have been around for a long time in various shapes and forms. They still release from time to time and they still never really had a huge success story especially in the live action market. There have been many announced recently like God of War, Fallout, Disco Elysium and the recent Uncharted movie came out, also recently the Tekken anime, and they don't seem to be dying any time soon. But why has there never been a genuinely great live action video game movie? Animated ones have worked but not live action, and it has been discussed to hell and back on why game adaptations fail but a major reason why so many of them fail comes down to two things: innovation, market and surpassing what came before. 

I said in my Batman Arkham write up that the developers at Rocksteedy used the Batman Arkham license to stand out from other games that came before and at the time.

To use a movie example, I will be using two superhero movies that helped jump started the superhero craze in recent times: Iron Man and the Dark Knight.

First, Iron Man, what made Iron Man stand out from other superhero movies especially at the time was simple, Iron Man did things that other superheroes of yester year never did. It had a protagonist who was a genuinely terrible person become a superhero. Tony Stark was an arms dealer who profited off the death of millions but when Stark realized how horrific the weapons he made were, he decides to use his weapons for good and to help people. One aspect that made Tony Stark stand out from other superheroes was the fact because like I said, Tony was a terrible person. Compare that to Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, and Peter Parker where they were good people who want to use their powers to help others. Peter Parker in the Raimi movies only really did one terrible thing before becoming Spider-Man, where Tony's past deeds where much worse. Another aspect is that Tony Stark admits he is Iron Man and the public knows that where the other characters I mentioned all had secret identities. There were other superhero movies like the 00s Fantastic 4 where the public knows that they are heroes but Iron Man put it on the forefront. Many people at the release of Iron Man were surprised that you could be a superhero and not have a secret identity.

2nd example, the Dark Knight. The Dark Knight was a much more darker, gritter and grounded take on the Batman mythos, it had Batman not be the one to clean up Gotham City, it was Harvey Dent and had a Joker who didn't care much about trying to be funny or much of anything. It was, a crime drama that just so happened to feature Batman.

So what do these two examples have in common? Simple, they both provided an experience that you could not find with other superhero movies before and at the time. It provided an experience that couldn't be found elsewhere in the medium they were in.

This where video game adaptations succeed in animation.

The most obvious and well known example is the Castlevania Netflix series. That show succeeded mainly because of what it was: an adult animation show that was mainstream. Before Castlevania, the only adult animation show was Spawn the Animated Series so when Castlevania came out, it was new and fresh, and opened up a whole new market because it provided an experience that was not found in western animation especially. Castlevania opened a market that spawned shows like Seis Manos, Blood of Zeus, Trese, Liberator, Arcane, Invincible and so on. Before, seeing animations that had more mature content was reserved for Japanese animations so Castlevania broke new ground in that regard.

Speaking of Japanese animation, all though not nearly as popular, the Gungrave anime for one of many reasons why it stood out was because it was an anime about the mafia and showed themes where live action works like the Godfather movies covered but Gungrave stands out to many including myself is that it was a Japanese animation that dealt with all that. It's an experience that you have to look hard to find in anime and that is one major reason why it stands out. Shows like Cowboy Bebop and Black Lagoon dealt with this but it never had the characters Gungrave had.

So why doesn't live action game adaptations do not have a major success story? It generally comes down to one thing, most games borrow heavily from movies and a result when they get adapted even when faithful to the story, end up just being a bargain bin versions of the movies they are based on and they never surpass what inspire them either.

Silent Hill? You can watch a David Lynch movie or Jacob's Ladder.

Uncharted and Tomb Raider? Obviously Indiana Jones.

Max Payne? John Woo, the Matrix and Film Noir movies exist.

Mortal Kombat? Big Trouble in Little China and various martial arts movies.

Doom? Predator, Starship Troopers and Aliens.

Hitman? Lots of spy thrillers to choose from obvious example being James Bond.

Resident Evil? Just zombie movies by George Romero.

Assassin's Creed? The Matrix

Sonic the Hedgehog? Traditional Hero's Journey.

Warcraft? Lord of the Rings.

See where I am going with this? All of these movies are just discount dollar store versions of other movie franchises. So if a video game live action video game work is ever going to stand out, it's going to have to be an experience that can't be found elsewhere in the medium or if it is has to surpass what came before.

TV shows of the various game franchises might be a decent format to stand out but only time will tell.