Poppular Videogame to Become Movie? High Risk of a Flop...

[Tendou]

I have to say that the key reasons why a video game based movie doesn't succeed is because of the writing staff first and foremost and then due to the guys at the top.

There is little to no creativity when these writers write the script. They tend to try and stick to what the game has in it and they don't go any further. No one game(excluding Metal Gear Solid Franchise) has enough material to make a decent plot for a movie. Nowadays you see a lot of the bigger games have novels and a whole expanded universe supporting them. Games like Halo, Gears of War, Mass Effect and many others have many novels and other material that expands the universe.

As for the guys at top they tend to play it safe. They are sometimes the ones that urge the writers to just stick to the game's plot and not expand it. They want to make money not do the game justice.

In order to make a good video game based movie there needs to be an expanded universe for the game. That EU needs to be implemented in the script heavily in order to give more substance. Also it needs to be treated seriously. Not just like some B action flick. There needs to be decent characters that are well developed and a very immersive plot. Also in my opinion the most important piece is that the developers need to be heavily involved as well as the publisher of the game.

The one game that I see making the best transition to the big screen is Halo. Out of all the current popular games on the market Halo due to the novels, games and many other sources has the single most well developed story. There is so much material to use that it would be easy to make a decent script. Also both Bungie and Microsoft have already shown how involved they would be with the project. All of the amazing live action Halo commericals are their attempts at showing that making a movie for this game is possible. Also Microsoft was actually willing to pay for almost the whole movie.

As for Shadow of the Colossus I played the game and thought it was massive in scope and was a great experience. I think that if they do what I said above then it will be a great movie. I do believe that it will be good. I doubt they would want to waste money on a flop. The other video game inspired movies cost very little to make, but this one I would assume would cost a pretty penny.(I think that is the phrase) I would definitely see this movie upon release. I usually have high hopes about these types of movies.