Since entering the Internet era, video games have ushered in a period of vigorous development, and their influence has been rising steadily.
At present, the IP of a well-known game undoubtedly has a natural fan appeal, and the game itself often has a complete world view and character setting, and when this trait is captured by the film company, the idea of game adaptation of the movie naturally follows.
For game companies, adapting the game into a movie is also beneficial, not only can use the movie to promote their own game, but also can make a profit.
So the two sides hit it off, giving game fans and movie fans around the world countless bad movies.
As early as 1993, as one of the most influential IP, "Super Mario" was put on the big screen, and the well-known director Roland Joffey joined forces with the film emperor Bob Hoskins, plus a high investment of up to $48 million at the time, the movie of the same name "Super Mario Brothers" shocked the world, but the result was only 21.9 million US dollars at the box office, as well as a miserable reputation.
Mario and Luigi in the film
The failure of the "predecessors" did not hinder the footsteps of the latecomers, but apart from deepening the impression that "game adaptations of movies are equal to bad films", almost no positive effects have been achieved.
The main reason for this is that although the game and the movie can complement each other in terms of interests, the attractive mechanisms of the two sides are completely different.
The former itself has a strong interactivity, in the game, the player is active, the feedback is also real-time, whether it is to add a little skill, or to get a piece of equipment, the player can immediately feel the effect that follows, while the film is a passive behavior, more emphasis on the art of audiovisual, through a long time of story narration and performance, let the audience gradually substitute into it, so as to obtain emotional resonance.
Movies adapted from games often struggle to meet the needs of both parties at the same time.
For example, Hideo Kojima in the game industry, as a pioneer of cinematic storytelling, is a producer who loves movies very much, and his initial dream is to become a director, so that after becoming a game producer, he also tried to realize his dream in another way in the game.
In its latest work "Death Stranding", a large number of broadcast narratives are used, and some players joke that "the game is ten minutes, the film is broadcast for one hour", which happens to be one of the reasons why "Death Stranding" is criticized by some players. Although the broadcast is not a real movie, it is not difficult to see from it that there is a natural contradiction between active players and passive audiences.
In addition, although a large number of games are excellent, the background setting and plot are very single, it is difficult to extract a good story from it, and the creative space is extremely narrow, which is not suitable for adaptation into a movie.
This has to mention the "Super Mario Brothers", the game itself can be called no plot to speak of, the main line can be summarized in only three words - save the princess, the rescue process does not have a thorn-like experience, then the movie naturally can not shoot Mario all the way to pick mushrooms, top bricks story, in the case of the choreographer to release himself, the final result is that in addition to the name, the movie and the game itself are almost unrelated, the original plot is also rotten to the point of disbelief.
The follow-up "Street Fighter", "Life and Death Fighting", "King of Fighters" and a series of movies adapted from well-known fighting game IP are the same, not only can not reflect the unique interactivity of fighting games, messy and thin original plot is also difficult to comb on the big screen, and finally without exception by the core players and the public audience double verbal criticism.
Movie Street Fighter
On the other hand, even if the adapted game object has an excellent narrative in itself, it is often not so easy to adapt it into a movie.
A movie is often only one and a half hours to two hours long, three hours is already a handful, and games with excellent scripts often reach tens or even hundreds of hours. A large number of bright lines, dark lines, undulating turns, etc., even if they are repeatedly compressed and simplified, it is difficult to condense them into the length of a movie.
There are also directors who choose to extract the essence of the game, but this is also not an easy task.
The most obvious example is the "Warcraft" released in 2016, the original game as a game that carries the memories of a generation of players for many years, its worldview is huge, and the details have reached the point where the scalps of unfamiliar players are numb.
Although director Duncan Jones very wisely abandoned the composition of the worldview and directly aimed at "Warcraft" with the orc war as the background, in order to satisfy the mass audience who do not play the game, the plot is simply summarized as the two obvious opposites of the orc invasion and the Terran rebellion, and the racial story and skill system in the game are not mentioned at all, so that although the needs of the mass players are met to a large extent - at least a complete story can be enjoyed, but due to the length, Many of the details of the adaptation in the movie still caused dissatisfaction among the core players.
This trade-off is also what every director of a game adaptation needs to consider when facing a game with a complex plot. If you want to satisfy both the core players and the mass audience, it is easy to form a situation where the two ends are not pleased.
However, the truth is that not all filmmakers have the ability to "please" players, and Duncan, the director of Warcraft, is still a loyal player with several years of game experience, so he can make timely trade-offs and not adapt the original plot too outrageously, which is the main reason why Blizzard chose him, but more filmmakers who took over the adaptation often did not play the original game in depth.
Movie "Warcraft"
For most film directors, especially the well-known part, they will spend a lot of time on their film careers, and even if they have the heart to experience the game, they will not have much leisure time at all. In this way, even if there is a high shooting method, how can you make a movie that satisfies the player without understanding the original?
For example, the famous "Resident Evil" series is like this, in the first part we can also see some shadows of the game, the story basically revolves around Raccoon City and the Hive Dungeon, but the follow-up is reduced to a pure action film, in addition to several main character titles, almost all the plot is original, and the heroine who appeared at the beginning is a fictional character who has never appeared in the game.
Although the Resident Evil series is very commercially successful, the total box office of the six films exceeds $1 billion, but the reputation is deteriorating, for gamers, the IP at this time is just a gimmick of the movie, and has nothing to do with the game, and for some public audiences, I am afraid that after watching the entire series, they will not know the game "Resident Evil".
Movie "Resident Evil: The Final Chapter"
This simple commercial success has deepened the idea of film companies adapting games to some extent, but it has also exacerbated the production of bad movies adapted from games.
You know, even if it is a movie adapted from a game, the biggest contributor to its box office is still the mass audience who has not played the game, not to mention that it is obviously more difficult for players to "serve" than the mass audience. With less interactivity and preconceptions when playing the game, players will always feel a little less interesting, even if the producers sculpt the film. In this case, which side the film company will favor is naturally self-evident.
In order to cater to the taste of the public, film investors are bound to ask filmmakers to find front-line directors or actors, and as mentioned above, such people often have no game experience – although investors do not care about this. As a result, there have been many adaptations such as "Prince of Persia: Blade of Time" and "Assassin's Creed" that completely separate the core players from the general audience.
Movie Assassin's Creed
The recently released game adaptation movie "True Three Kingdoms Matchless" is obviously to cater to the public audience, and many first-line actors such as Wang Kai, Gu Tianle, Gulinaza and so on have been found, which is bound to maximize the fan effect of stars.
Although from the perspective of technique, the film tries to restore the "mowing" effect in the game, and in the "Qunxiong" special edition, it also uses data to show the martial arts force value, but for game fans, one feels that the appearance of the actor does not conform to the game setting, and the other is right, resulting in the release
In addition, the theme of "Three Kingdoms" itself will attract fans of the history of the Three Kingdoms, but the plot of the game that is far from history may not be so easy to accept for this part of the people. Under various pressures, the evaluation of the movie "True Three Kingdoms Matchless" is naturally what it is now.
So far, for many reasons, the game adaptation of the movie, which should have made fans on both sides shake hands and laugh, always disappointed in the expectation, is it impossible for fish and bear paws to have both? Not necessarily.
The barriers between games and movies are not insurmountable. In Warcraft, we can see some shadows, and when the director himself is a player who is familiar with the game, he undoubtedly has an advantage in grasping the balance between the core players and the audience of the general audience. Although "Warcraft" still has many shortcomings, this is the first time Duncan has taken over the game adaptation film, compared to other peers, in terms of word of mouth, "Warcraft" is already a leader.
If the game company wants to adapt its own game into a movie, it is bound to actively participate in the production of the film, rather than simply licensing the IP. Of course, the game company personally took over the power to adapt the film, it is also not feasible, the so-called "interlaced like a mountain", a producer may be able to make a good game, but the film is somewhat reluctant.
Directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the father of Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy: Deep in the Soul is a typical failure case, although the game has a large number of fans, but the box office is dismal, once put Square on the verge of bankruptcy.
Final Fantasy: The Soul Inside
Actively understanding each other's industries is the basis for game companies and film companies to achieve a win-win situation in the project of adapting movies. There are indeed similarities between games and movies, and there are also ways to play games that highlight sound and picture effects, which is what we call "interactive movie" games, and the line between the two is gradually blurring at the moment when technology is constantly evolving.
It is foreseeable that the game adaptation of the movie will always exist in the future, even more and more frequently, but until the many contradictions mentioned above are resolved, the road ahead is bound to be bumpy and bumpy.
However, looking at the film history of game adaptation films, compared with the past, today's adaptations have made too much progress, and it may not be impossible for a game adaptation film that is not divorced from the original and satisfies the public audience in the future.
More information will be the first time to release the same name public number ~