Since it's Summer Blockbuster Season, and there are many glitzy Hollywood films to be seen and talk about, my girlfriend and I were talking about movies as usual at lunch today. Eventually, the topic fell on video game movies.
Now, I own a PlayStation 3. If you haven't attempted to play a game on the PS3 or XBox 360 in the last few years, let me tell you something...they've come a LONG way since "Pac-Man" and "Super Mario Bros."
What was once a simple side-scrolling romp through pipes and prairies, or a little yellow circle eating dots and being chased by ghosts, now is something that plays out like a 10-hour movie (or it is if you play games like I do).
Hollywood is planning some adaptations of recent video game release from the last 5 years. The problem is that so many of these planned adaptions are titles where the story is so involved and epic, it would take at least two or three movies...just to adapt one video game.
Take "God of War" for example. The first "God of War" game was released for the PlayStation 2 in March of 2005. In the game, our anti-hero protagonist Kratos, once a vigilant servant for Ares, the god of war, is tasked by the gods of Olympus to to kill Ares before he destroys Athens completely. Almost as complicated as your typical "Legend of Zelda" game, Kratos has to talk to an oracle, gain powers from several of the Greek gods, retrieve a bunch of other crap, track down the fallen titan Chronos in the desert, climb up his back, enter one labyrinth, unlock the way to Pandora's Box, find your way through ANOTHER labyrinth, get Pandora's Box, get killed by Ares, fight your way through all the levels of Hades, and finally, you take on Ares.
I mention all this because, since "God of War" has been so popular, since spawning two main sequels, two in-between games, and a prequel to be released next year, Hollywood has been wanting to make a movie out of the franchise. This would be a huge mistake, even if Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson teamed up for this one too.
Take a look at the video games they HAVE adapted for the big screen. "Super Mario Bros.", "Double Dragron", "Mortal Kombat", "Street Fighter", "Final Fantasy", "Doom" and "Tomb Raider". Let me ask you this...were any of these movies good? Not really.
"Doom" was good, but still couldn't avoid being campy at times. "Tomb Raider" was at least fun, though hardly anything to write home about, even if the sequel was pretty good (and, yes, I am being kind). "Final Fantasy" at least didn't try to make a live-action adaptation, deciding a 3D movie was a better idea. It was a better idea, but the movie also flopped so bad that it bankrupted Squaresoft, the company that released all the original "Final Fantasy" video games. The others? Well, let's just say I'm still waiting for the RiffTrax on them (assuming they don't already exist).
Do you know why there aren't any talks of a "Zelda" or "Castlevania" movie? Because the games are too involved, complicated, take too long to tell the story. If the game has save points, it's too damn complicated for a movie adaptation.
But why would you need one? Games today are amazing, often utilizing Hollywood talent to do voice acting for the games. "God of War 3" featured Rip Torn and Malcom McDowell. Mark Hamill does voice work for many video game adaptations, including "Batman: Arkham Asylum" and "Batman: Arkham City", which featured many of the voices from the "Batman" animated series from the 90s. The "cinematics" of the games now (or, for those who are not initiated in gamer speak, the in-between-the-action movies where the story unfolds) are often amazing, and should be considered movies all on their own.
Here are some other video games that have captured my attention away from the movies...
"INFAMOUS" (2009) and "INFAMOUS 2" (2011)
When courier Cole MacGrath delivers a package that nearly obliterates Empire City and finds himself in the center of the blast, he obviously should be dead. But somehow he manages to survive...and wakes up to find that he has the strange ability to manipulate lighting with his hands.
The awesome thing about these two games is that you can choose to be the city's protector, or choose to only look out for yourself -- and it affects the gameplay in a major capacity, especially when it comes to the second game, where it affects the side dialogue and story.
"UNCHARTED" (3 titles in series: "Drake's Fortune" (2007), "Among Thieves" (2009), and "Drake's Deception" (2011))
Think of it as "Indiana Jones" for the new generation. Nathan Drake is a snarky treasure hunter always looking for the next big score. Along with his old pall Sullivan (or Sully, as he's often called), Drake will find him in some very bizarre, exotic locations all throughout the world, wherever the next clue will take him to find the next "treasure trove of a lifetime". Too bad other fortune seekers are always looking for the same treasure...and always seem to be lead by someone Drake has pissed off in the past.
The movie adaptation for "Drake's Fortune" has been in the works for a long time now, but has faced a plague of problems since they started trying. No director seems to want to be a part of it, and casting leading man Nathan Drake has been a problem. Rumor has it that "Limitless" director Neil Burger has picked up the reigns as director, and that Nathan Fillion (TV's "Firefly" and "Castle") is interested to star in the film, but no concrete news has come about.
"DARKSIDERS" (2010; "Darksiders II" comes out August 2012)
The End of Days has fallen. Heaven and Hell are in a war, and humanity is in the middle of it. War, one of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, is charged with inciting the war and breaking the treaty between Heaven and Hell. Insisting he is innocent, War demands that he be allowed to prove his innocence. In order to do that, he must traverse a post-apocalyptic Earth to seek vengeance on those who would see him take the fall for this crime.
Think that "Legend of Zelda" is too family friendly? "Darksiders" is for you. With similar puzzle structures to "Zelda", along with stunning cinematics and animation, this game will have you begging for more. The sequel is a parallel storyline where you fight as the horseman Death. Yeah. That sounds awesome.
"SLY COOPER" (3 titles in series: "Sly Cooper and the Thievious Raccoonus" (2002), "Sly 2: Band of Thieves" (2004), and Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves" (2005); "Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time" comes out late 2012)
Sly Cooper is a raccoon who is the last remaining member of the Cooper Clan, a family band of thieves famous for stealing from other master criminals. When Sly's parents are murdered one night, Sly is left an orphan, and meets Murray (a hippo), the muscle and wheelman, and Bentley (a turtle), the tech expert. Now, as an adult, Sly has his own Cooper Gang and stealing from the greatest master criminal minds out there -- all the while avoiding Inspector Carmelita Fox, who is always hot on the gang's tale.
What seems like a cute little cartoon turns out to be quite a dark little tale about thievery and murder. But hey, it's addicting as hell. I've played the original three games all the way through several times now. It's quite an amazing series, and I'm really excited for the next chapter. It's quite cheesy and ridiculous at times, but it's addicting and hilarious.
"HEAVY RAIN" (2010)
When a little boy is taken from a park, the search is on before it's too late. The story follows Ethan (the young boy's father), Scott Shelby (a private detective), FBI Agent Norman Jayden, and Madison Paige (a photojournalist) as they all do their parts to solve the mystery before the Origami Killer takes another young life.
You don't get more interactive movie than this, folks. Everything that happens in the game pushes the story in a different direction. If one character dies, the other characters still go on, and so does the story. There are multiple endings to this game, so it's a different experience every time. Talk about value!
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