Why Video Game Movies Go Horribly Wrong - #JustSayin

First, it should be established that it is very common for successful properties in any medium is often transplanted into another medium. This includes movie adaptations of books, video game versions of movies and comic books, plays and musicals made into movies, book series based on movies, comics based on video games and the list goes on and on.

Second, it should be noted that this process does not produce either consistently good or consistently bad projects; for example the movie “the birdcage” is an excellent remake of a Franco Italian film, which itself is based on the play of the same name by Jean Poiret (a movie based on a play, being remade into another movie)- on the other hand, almost everyone agrees that the film adaptations of the Chronicles of Narnia (a book series) were terrible both as adaptions of the books as well as being movies regardless of their source material. It should also not be said that taking an IP from one medium into another is not an inherently bad idea.

That being said, one transition that consistently falters is taking video games and making them into movies. This falls over a wide spectrum, from the boring and hollow movies like Prince of Persia, world of warcraft, tomb raider and Assassin’s Creeds, which are all just bad movies- bad plots, bad character development, over emphasis on arbitrary action and special effects, in fact nothing remarkable at all happening at all. Then there are the films on the opposite side of the spectrum which are complete insults to both their source material, the movie industry, the human species, living organisms in general, and me personally. I’m talking the heavy hitters. Super Mario Brothers, Mortal Kombat, and Street Fighter.

But why do we keep trying? The simple answer is money- transferring the success of the brand of something like super Mario brothers and convincing the fans of an already established series to spend more of their cash on a new iteration of a product they already like. . . but it doesn’t work with video game movies.

The main reason for this is the inherent difference between what makes a great movie and a great video game. For example, Zelda: Ocarina of Time is often lauded as one of the greatest video games of all time and for good reason- don’t take my work for it, there are tons of videos on the YouTubes that go into excruciating detail about what makes this game so engaging and endearing. So, let’s say a movie studio decides to cash in on the love for such a popular game- what would this movie look like?

Well first, a lot of content would need to be cut- a movie is generally between 1.5-2.15, maybe 3 hours. The average play time for Zelda is 25-30 hours and there is enough content in the game to keep you occupied for up to 40 (and that’s only if the player doesn’t do like I did, which was spend extra hours just riding Epona through Hyrule Field and obnoxiously singing with the Zelda theme [on an even separate side note, the music is amazing and would totally work I film, Epona’s Theme is my jam baby!!!!]) So, if a Zelda movie was made into a movie it would most likely not include many characters and moments that made the game so amazing and special.

The next thing you would notice in this film is the protagonist has as much depth and character development as Tony the Tiger from Frosted Flakes. Like, literally every other character you meet and interact with is more interesting than Link- this is not such a problem in the video game format, because it emphasizes the world and NPC’s you can interact with; however, in a movie this would be an absolutely boring character to follow through a film

Also, even though the game does include a lot of exploration and character interactions, it’s bread and butter is the combat, in all of its sword slashing, arrow shooting, boomerang throwing, bomb dropping glory (side note- the combat gets turned right up to 11 in breath of the wild, there seems to be an endless way of killing your enemies in that game.. . . seriously, masterpiece). This combat works great for a game but would quickly become tedious and pedantic in a film.

And this gets to the core problem of making games into movies- what makes OOT special just can’t be translated onto the big screen. Who would want to watch Link wonder around a dungeon for an hour? trying to figure out where the next item is supposed to be, which wall you’re supposed to bomb to show the secret entrance and where the hell is the STUPID KEY! This is what makes Zelda dungeons special, but you can’t experience that in a movie. Also, hitting one of the cuccos (chickens) will ironically get you killed by other chickens; however, what makes it so special is not merely the fact that the event occurs- it is when the player discovers it for themselves, it is always optional, it may be found, it may not. Maybe you hear about it from a friend, however you find it, it is special because it is an extra element of the game you can interact with that enriches the world and makes the game of more entertaining experience.

In conclusion, we should all agree to stop trying to make cash grabs by taking great (or terrible) IP’s from video games and making them into movies; especially since there are so many talented writers and creators trying to get there projects made for the big screen, and there work will actually be successful on the big screen and keep people like me(who is a fan of both movies and games) happy. This has been Asher, and I’m #JustSayin.

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