by Haven Tso
In my last blog I talked about the trend of adapting video games into feature films. Some were successful some were not. I have been to quite a number of movies that were based on video games over the years. My experience through out has usually been going from excitement to disappointment. As a gamer and an actor, I always think about what will make or break a “video-game-come-movie” production?
If you are an RPG (role playing game) player, you will still remember how Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within turned Squaresoft’s (now Square Enix) fortune around in all the wrong ways. The company was in such financial turmoil after the flop that Sony Corporation had to come into rescue. So what went wrong? As a person who followed the series for years, I personally think the first grave misstep was Squaresoft’s decision to take the fantasy part out of the “Final Fantasy” equation. As a fan of the series, while in some games, machines and mechanics were part of the game “Final Fantasy” is always about magic, spells and super abilities. So going into a “Final Fantasy” movie to watch normal human characters painfully running away from alien onslaughts and just tried to fight back with useless guns was a huge turn off. Also none of the iconic mascots such as the chocobos and moogles showed up in the movie didn’t really help any of is fans to relate the movie with “Final Fantasy”. Coupling these with an extremely bad story from a company that produced some of the most engaging RPG stories didn’t help either. So all in all, Squaresoft applied all the wrong ingredients into the movie that neither pleased its fans nor opened up new audience.
Personally, I think that if someone wants to adapt a video game into a movie, the person responsible for the project must be familiar with the video game genre, or most importantly have played the video game in question to understand thoroughly why it was popular. Take the recent “Prince of Persia” movie as an example; although the movie did not follow the original story closely, there are elements in the movie that fans of the video game would appreciate. The “Prince of Persia” is well known for its acrobatic gameplay and sequences such as wall running and pole vaulting. The movie remake made sure that all these elements were included, and replicated in a similar manner as in the game so fans can experience their gaming moments again in the movie. Character designs also followed the game as much as possible to reflect that this is by product of the game.
While “Prince of Persia” was a one off movie at this point, the “Resident Evil” series is now it in its fifth instalment. The “Resident Evil” series has its hits and misses. The first movie provided a new touch to the “Resident Evil” world on its own. The only settings that were translated over were the Umbrella Corporation and the viral outbreak. It created the new heroine Alice but the movie itself was hardly a “Resident Evil” movie. Reception was positive but not all favourable because of minimal references to the games. So in the second movie “Apocalypse”, iconic characters such as Jill Valentine and Carlos were included. These characters were styled according to the origin designs in the game. That proved to be successful and gave birth to the third movie “Extinction”. Under the helm of a different director, it nearly completely destroyed movie franchise – Carlos was (spoiler alert) killed off unnecessarily and the new Claire Redfield (from Resident Evil 2 and Code Veronica X fame) has nothing to do with games at all. This kind of lip service angered fans and fans panned it across the board. The franchise redeemed itself in “After Life” but didn’t quite make it in “Retribution”.
For me for a movie adapted from a video game to be successful, the people involved must understand the success of the games themselves. These elements should be translated onto the screen as much as possible to keep fans happy. While the story can be creative it should not stray too far from the premises of the games.
One might not want to admit “video-games-come-movies” are fan services but the true fact is they are. Without the basic support of the fans new audience cannot be created. And this is what needs to be remembered at all times.
Haven Tso is an actor, writer, graphic designer and blogger.
