The transgression from Video game to Film.

I finished my english work an hour earlier than expected, so i thought i'd contemplate over the whole concept of Video games that have been turned into movies.
Overall i think this post will just be a rambling of things i appreciate and don't appreciate, i'm feeling critical >=]

Firstly im gonna look at "Final Fantasy" franchise and how digitally animated movies have been produced because of the popularity of these games. Just to note that Final Fantasy is the fourth biggest video-gaming franchise in the world, extremely extremely popular and to only be beaten by Mario, Pokemon and The Sims.

The Spirits Within:



Made by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the man who created the whole Final Fantasy gaming franchise; this movie was the first movie to attempt to create a realistic photorendered 3d film. The animation or rendering of the people (whatever the process is i dont know LOL) reminded me of Final fantasy 8 sequences in terms of graphics. And in terms of style and similarity i believe that it somewhat does pay a good homage to it's predacessing games. BUT. and thats a big but.
I thought that the film and the concept of it was completely and utterly: shit.

I felt almost no similarity to the original game in terms of characterisation, battle style or emotional attatchment from the protagonist to another person. ME NO LIKEY. I did like the subtle similarites to Final Fantasy 7 in terms of the planets life force and a evil big baddy threatening to potentially destroy the earth, but it didn't feel authentic. -sad face-

Maybe my expectations of this film were too high, but i was expecting something that would keep me glued to my seat and wanting to sit there for hours waiting for the plot to unfold. (as i have done with most of the games) but nah, it was all futuristic and sci-fi like and them silly "phantoms".
Abit of a single-minded and ignorant review, but i'm just a fan that was let down.


ahhh i just found something on wikipedia that made me happy :)

"The film received mixed reviews and despite aggressive promotion by Sony, it became a huge box office bomb. With a budget of $137 million (including marketing costs) the film made $85 million worldwide, meaning total losses were approximately $94 million (the studio typically receives half the box office gross). The domestic box office loss was, at the time, the largest in film history."

^_^ it failed. and that's what you get when you try and rip off an amazing piece of gaming history and besmirch its name with a tacky typical cliche sci-fi movie.

But i think i'll progress onto the positive side of this post, video game movies which progress on an already made plot which was established in the game. and elaborate and enlighten the audience as to "what could have happened next"


Advent Children:



When i had heard that this film was being released i think it made me the happiest id been in ages. And after looking through alot of internet forums and talking to alot of other gaming geeks at the time, i knew i wasn't alone. Due the the huge popularity of FF7 the release of this film was to be sought out by gaming geeks all over the world ;D

Yeah once i watched the film i was extremely please with everything i saw, the progression in graphics since number seven was outstanding. I thought that the voices for each of the characters were good and the english actors voiced the parts well, everything in it ticked my boxes.
But thinking in retrospect, had i not been a big fan of the game then i probably wouldn't have enjoyed it as much, because well; i wouldn't have had a clue what was going on. All the re-introductions of characters and references to the old game just made it one of the most fun movies for me to watch.
I could go on for ages about this particular film but i should stop innit before i sound like even more of a nerd.

But that draws me to my conclusion. I think that Movie producers who try and re-create an already defined and well known game into something completely new will FAIL

Whereas a movie-based prequel or sequel to a game which has an already established background and workable storyline, will do well. (particularly if the original game was met with large success)

The whole starting point of this post was when i was reading some reviews of the new "Max Payne" movie which is a remake of the game. And all the reveiws were mostly bad bad bad, which made me laugh because i actually loved the max payne game LOL.

But will more classic video games be brought to life on the big screen because hollywood is running out of ideas? Only time will tell!