Nathan O'Brien Video Game Films

http://www.ranker.com/list/video-game-movie-problems/jordan-love 

Why I chose this article? 

I chose this article because it explains why video game movies fail, giving many reasons and good explanation of why they fail. 

Who the article was written by and an overview of what it's about? 

This article is written by Jordan Love in which he states thirteen reasons why they video game films fail, as a video game player, or the audience, he shows what he believes which makes them fail. 

The main points of this article – including some quotations 

Films based of video games end up failing straight away, "they've earned a reputation as being hugely disappointing for a number of different reasons". One of the first reasons is because "The Audience Doesn't Take Video Game Movies Seriously", in the past there has been "many shabby adaptations" of video games such as The Mario Bros films and Hitman, these adaptations make people "expect all of them to be bad from now until the end of time". Until a streak of great video game movies are released, this may not change, and audiences won't take them seriously. Another reason is because "The Wrong Games Are Adapted", mainstream video game films aren't being made, movies such as resident evil are still being made, even after their fame isn't as good as it used to be. Perhaps the video game industry feel threatened as their reputation may be ruined by a horrible adaptation and won't sell the rights "Need For Speed and Dead or Alive have both been adapted, yet BioShock sits on the shelf". And when you choose the wrong game such as street fighter, there may not be enough source material, and even though this may allow the film makers to change the story however, "the stories are often flimsy excuses for action that's inherently less rewarding because the viewer is simply viewing". Even sometimes the story can "stay too true to the source material" and things that work in games most of the time don’t work in films. In the movie Ratchet & Clank, the directors try to replicate the game into the film media, in the game "the roundabout action and adventure is great, but the movie is repetitive and dull for the same reasons the game is so popular". On the other-hand, video game films "Don't Stay True to the Games" this is because the director wants to appeal to a wider range of audiences, however doing this "alienates games", but this occurs if you do stick to the game, "alienate the rest of the audience" this problem happened in both Far Cry and Alone in the Dark. In live action films, "The Acting Is Often Horrible", most of the time, the actor picked doesn't fit with the character in the game, and also can bring out the worst in acting, this is evident in the movie 'Super Mario Bros' in which "Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo contributed two of the worst performances of their careers to the movie". One of the main points why video game films fail is that "Movies Aren't Interactive", and the interactivity of the game is the main part of why you play a game. Games allow the player to do anything they can do, or want to do, however movies are linear and so can't be manipulated, this is why "games simply don't translate to movies as well as things like books and comics". Another reason why video game films fail is that they makers focus too much on the looks of the film. This may be a vital thing to have in a film as this appeals to the audience, but the makers should focus more on the script or put in as much effort on the script than the looks. The film "Warcraft looks great. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie is only okay. If the same care and precision were given to the script, the movie would likely have been much better". Film makers also dont see the true point of the game, for example "we never see Croft solving puzzles like she does in the game. If the Tomb Raider movie found a better balance like The Da Vinci Code or Indiana Jones, it would have been much better.