We love video games, right? They're entertaining, addicting, and most of all; fun. So why is it when Hollywood tries to adapt a video game into a movie... Things don't go well. Well, let's look at an example.
For instance, the
Assassin's Creed movie back in 2016. Starring Michael Fassbender, Jeremy Irons, and Michael K Williams, you would think a solid cast like that would hide any flaws the film had. Unfortunately, that was far from the truth. The movie earned an 18% on Rotten Tomatoes, being called "overly complex, incoherent, and frustrating". The box office earnings was pretty pathetic as well, so what's the deal? Assassin's Creed is a highly respected video game with an ever growing fan-base. Yet, none of that translated to the big screen.
Problem is, just because the video game you're basing it off is good, doesn't mean it will make the movie any better. The writing and direction for the film has to be top notch, in order to be comparable to its game. In other words, you can't ride off the success from the game. You have to make your own. However, there are some games that don't really have huge success to ride off from in the first place.
Look at
Rampage. The actual game Rampage wasn't exactly very well known, and yet it's gotten its own movie. How's it doing? Well, it's pretty much what you expect. Most critics see it as dumb fun. Emphasis on the "dumb" part.
With the rise of popularity mobile phone games are getting, it was only a matter of time we had an
Angry Birds (2016) movie. Granted, this film was never going to receive any Oscars anyway, but regardless, not a lot of people liked it. Wasn't outright terrible, but that's not saying much.
So as you get the idea, movies based of video games just don't sit well with the general audience. Could it be pure coincidence? Or is it simply because video games are supposed to stay just that?
Video games. It's a question to think about, but look at
Ready Player One as a supporting answer.
Ready Player One, directed by Steven Spielberg, has been getting great feedback across the nation. However, here's the big difference between Ready Player One and all of the others. It's not a film based off a video game. It's a film that's
about a video game.
Ready Player One was originally a book, so it never was an actual game you could buy and play. Which in a way, takes the pressure off and allows you to enjoy the movie for what it is.
So, what's the future looking like for video game movies? We have upcoming titles like
Uncharted,
Sonic: The Hedgehog, and even Nintendo is looking to get into the movie business with
Mario. History can tend to repeat itself, but hopefully it doesn't. At the end of the day, these games are creative and fun ideas. So when making a film based from it, that same type of fun factor needs to be kept. And as long as that important ingredient is used, the future can look bright. Otherwise, your Xbox or Nintendo Switch could provide a better story than the big screen can.