"It can be said that this kind of secondary development of game IP is a gold mine for Hollywood filmmakers, how to expand this game with a single plot or even no main line into a movie, seemingly simple, in fact, also requires skilled skills and technical support."
With the popularity of "Dungeons & Dragons: Rogue Glory" and "Super Mario Bros. Movie", the movie theme of game adaptation movies, which is attached to the unique cultural IP of video games, has once again aroused heated discussions. It is not difficult to find that game adaptation movies have their own unique development process and characteristics, but also carry the change process of video games becoming pop culture carriers, which makes this type of film have an extra layer of era color, and what are the advantages of game IP when adapting movies, and why can it continue to set off adaptation fever, it is better to enter the world of game adaptation together to take a look!
Superior genre - leading the wave of game adaptations
In the field of popular culture, video games are obviously the "junior" of movies, video games that appeared only in the 50s of the last century rose in the 70s, prevailed in the 80s, swept in the 90s, and now have become an indispensable part of popular culture, its form and content not only witness the development of the world's digital technology, but also contain many creators' views on the world - and in the film industry that advocates the value of IP, game adaptation has also become an important way to obtain film materials under its gradual development.
In the 90s, because of the popularity of computer video games ushered in a turning point, a number of games with a complete story line and wonderful pictures and scenes appeared, video games entered the "old and new" period, but adapting games into movies seems to be "luxurious", even if it is like the emergence of the "Street Fighter" series of movies, but it has never been able to enter the classic film industry. This is not only because the game core with the majority of players at that time was still relatively thin, but also because the film technology could not restore the new audiovisual video game scene to a certain extent, until the birth of the adventure film "Tomb Raider" and the sci-fi thriller movie "Resident Evil".
Since its launch in 1996, the game "Tomb Raider" has gained popularity with its thrilling experience full of scenes, especially the brave, intelligent and fearless image of the protagonist Laura, which has become the dream goddess of many players. In 2001, the movie "Tomb Raider" starring Angelina Jolie was released and became a huge success and became another classic in the adventure series of films, which also achieved the screen image of Angelina Jolie's "female man". Compared with the game, the movie shows the world view presented by the game more delicately and figuratively, and also gives Laura deeper emotions.
A year later, the game Resident Evil, also released in '96, was also adapted into a movie. It is worth noting that this is also a female-based story, Alice played by Milla Jovovich passed all the way, fighting zombies infected by the virus, making the audience addicted at the same time, but also marking the birth of zombie movies.
It can be said that it was these two film series that opened the door to game adaptation movies, and after more than ten years, such as the "Silent Hill" series and the "Need for Speed" series are constantly consolidating the camp of game adapted movies, you can glimpse the choice of game IP at this stage is its genre advantages - adventure, thriller, action... However, with the high perfection of Hollywood commercial typology, the advantages of game adapted films in terms of genre have gradually been lost, which is why it is difficult for game adaptation films to break through in other aspects except genre during this period.
Vision is king – create spectacle scene immersion experiences
In the 21st century, video games have achieved panoramic development of industrialization, not only relying on genres to shine, but also relying on higher levels of computer special effects, making "visual" its prominent feature. Therefore, after the genre advantage of game film and television was weakened, he turned his attention to visual effects.
Among them, the series adapted from the game "Final Fantasy" has become a very iconic work, and its first work "Final Fantasy 7: The Arrival of the Holy Son" was originally intended to be made into a 10-minute CG short film, but because of the support of players, it was expanded into a movie, and it also opened a precedent for CG animated films. It is understood that "Final Fantasy 7: The Arrival of the Son" emphasized that each hair was modeled separately, which was a big project for the visual effects technology of that year.
If from the perspective of visual effects production, games and movies absolutely have a completely compatible topic, the two fields are constantly promoting each other, so while the game visual effects continue to upgrade, the movie special effects also have a leap forward, and after 2015, relying on mature visual effects, a new round of game adaptation movies appeared, of which "Warcraft" and "Assassin's Creed" have become typical representatives of excellent visual effects in game adaptation movies.
"Warcraft" is adapted from the game "Warcraft" with absolute mass players, and its spin-off online game "World of Warcraft" has created a record of "the world's largest number of online games", with a total of more than 100 million accounts and 500 million characters created worldwide. In fact, as early as 2009, players heard the news of the game's film and television, but neither the production company nor the audience had much confidence in its adaptation into a movie, and many players believed that it was difficult for the movie to restore the World of Warcraft in the game, especially the large number of "orcs", a large number of unconventional battles, and magnificent scenes that are difficult to replicate in the real world.
Therefore, when the film was released in 2016, in addition to the surging mood when returning to the game in the theater, players also wanted to immerse themselves in the magical world in the game in the theater - visual effects have become one of the important elements of the game adaptation movie, and whether it can truly restore the grand scene of the game is also one of the contents that players pay the most attention to. If "Warcraft" is still a game of the 90s, and the immersive experience is lacking, then "Assassin's Creed" is in time for the era of video game upgrades, with ultra-high immersive freedom and exquisite graphics as the biggest selling point, so the audience is also full of expectations for the picture of the movie version of "Assassin's Creed".
At the same time, the film adaptation of the game began to open up the landscape. Whether it is adapted from the popular single-player mini-game "Angry Birds" at the time, or the movie "Berserk Behemoth" adapted from the arcade game "Orangutan Demolition" in the 80s, it is a whimsical adaptation based on the original game setting without a storyline - which also indicates that game adaptation movies have entered the era of a hundred flowers.
Player Feelings - Use light and shadow to create stories that transcend the game
Nowadays, "Super Mario Bros. Movie" and "Dungeons & Dragons: Grand Theft of Glory" two game adaptation movies are being released, from its classic point of view, one is after 40 years, from two-dimensional popularity to three-dimensional, relying on cute characters and curious adventure treasure hunting, captured the world's players of the head IP of video games, the other is a table game that began in the 70s and has been popular for nearly 50 years through video games - so far most of the world's "group fighting" routine role-playing games are popular with " Dungeons & Dragons.
Although the two films are "fighting for supremacy" in theaters, they are actually "no casualties", because both the genre and the audience are very different, except that they are both game adaptations, which are almost not comparable. This is also one of the features presented in the new wave of game adaptation films since 2020.
After 20 years of precipitation, the film market's choice of video game IP has been able to play accurately: "Mortal Kombat" has the advantage of action genre, "Sonic the Hedgehog" is funny with cute pets, "Uncharted" relies on a complete adventure story and special effects scenes, "Monster Hunter" focuses on fantasy worlds and monster scenes... Although it is not a head game IP, it has its own characteristics and is more emotional.
I have to say that the game adaptation movie is rolled up to this day, not only relying on entertainment to content, but also relying on the feelings of the years accumulated by time. Just like the word-of-mouth collapse of the movie version of "Assassin's Creed" that year, because the story is chaotic and the character creation is slightly shallow, even if the visual effects are excellent, it is still complained about by players. On the contrary, "Warcraft" at the same time presented a gourmet meal to Warcraft players around the world with super high degree of restoration and strong emotional content.
Under the emotional orientation, game adaptation movies have also begun to take the emotional route, and the upcoming movie "Tetris" focuses on the process of the birth and popularity of this game, combined with the historical background, revealing the untold story behind the game development - perhaps this is not exactly a game adaptation movie, but it firmly captures the mentality of players. Recently, the game company CAPCOM announced that it will cooperate with Legendary Pictures to adapt the game "Street Fighter" into a movie again, and its "motive" must have emotional elements, after all, when it comes to this game, the post-80s and post-90s will remember their "glory days" in the street game hall.
Undoubtedly, when video games have become a part of people's life entertainment, when people have been immersed in a game for decades, games are not only games, but also carry people's dreams, emotions and sustenance, and this must be one of the important reasons why game adaptation movies finally won the favor of the audience. From genre to visual effects, to today's feelings are king, the purpose of game movie adaptation is to let players find the fun of the game and let the audience wander an extraordinary journey, because this is also the mission of video games when they were born, even if it is adapted into a movie, it has not changed!