From Consoles to Hollywood - The Good
July 6th 2008 01:55
Category: C
Could this film be the greatest movie based on a video game?
This week I have decided to start off with the good movies out there that were based off video games. Please note I am not judging how good a movie is based on how well it done at the box office. I am judging movies based on how close they were to the video game they were meant to be based off. The sad thing is that many video game movies out there suck very badly so I decided we should look at the good ones out there before all collapse in an avalanche of crap.
I’ll begin each movie off with a general idea of what the game is about then follow it up with what the movie was about, and end it with my thoughts. So let’s begin shall we with probably the one movie I think is the best movie based around a video game ever made, Silent Hill.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
It may not be Harry Mason but why complain? Besides the main character being a chick, the Silent Hill movie stays true to the nature of the game.
Silent Hill.
Konami’s best horror series and probably one of the greatest horror series out there. Silent Hill has different main characters in each game but they are all linked to the mysterious ghost town of Silent Hill, a place were satanic worship took place. Players would explore the town - unless you’re playing Silent Hill 4 which sucked – and things appear normal until you hear a damning siren and everything turns to shit, literally. From a normal world you are transported into a place of blood, rust, death and gore. There were multiple endings to the game and depending what you did during the game is how it affected the ending.
So what was the movie about? It was heavily based off the storyline from the first Silent Hill game with hints of 2 and 3 in it as well. In Silent Hill 1 you played a man who had a car accident while on a trip with his little daughter. He wakes up, the daughter is missing and he investigates the town of Silent Hill. In the movie the exact same thing happened – only until of a man it was a woman.
Everything about the movie was so close to the game – the music, the monsters, the characters, the history of the town and its cult hell they even had the siren and the screwed up transformations! The story was very similar as well with some slight differences. In the game, the girl’s mother Dahlia Gillespie was responsible for setting her daughter on fire attempting to please her demon god. In the movie, Dahlia Gillespie was the poor grieving mother of the girl whom the town burnt to rip them from the curse. The ending was dark as the game was and it was really good. This movie stayed very true to the game and I would say it is probably one of the best video-game movies out there. This movie is was true Silent Hill fans so you may find it a bit confusing if you haven’t played the game before.
Mortal Kombat.
It was a classic bloody video game and they turned it into a pretty kick ass movie. Mortal Kombat was about an ancient tournament involving mortals from Earthrealm (Earth) against the forces of Outworld (Hell more or less). Every ten years a tournament was held and if Outworld won ten in a row, they would claim Earthrealm on behalf of their overlord Shao Khan.
How did the movie compare? It followed the exact same storyline. We had humans chosen by the Thunder & Lightning God Raiden – Liu Kang, Johnny Cage and Sonya going up against Shang Tsung’s hand picked warriors – Scorpian, Sub-Zero, Kano and the four armed beast Goro. The costumes looked as they were in the game and it was nice to see a little bit of Mortal Kombat 2 thrown in the mix of things as well. The game was based more around the first Mortal Kombat though and lived up to the hype very well.
The characters from the movie were spot on with the characters from the game – backgrounds, fighting style and as I mentioned before, their costumes. It was an enjoyable movie for its time and I can still watch it today and enjoy it. Let’s not forget the kick ass song as well! It was a real damn shame that the second movie was a massive let down, and I’ll be looking at that another day.
They battled it out on the Playstation now fans get to see Cloud face off against Sephiroth once more in the movie Final Fantasy: Advent Children.
Final Fantasy: Advent Children.
Now here is an awesome gem that many people haven’t heard of before. Final Fantasy 7 is arguably the greatest RPG game ever made. It was insanely popular and has spawned many spin-off games – not as good as the original of course but they have been decent. The game was about a mystery man named Cloud who teams up with a bunch of random people in order to stop and defeat the wicked Sephiroth from destroying their world.
Did they make a movie based on the exact same game? No… but they made a movie set a few years after the events of the game. It followed Cloud trying to stop Sephiroth’s clones from gathering the head of Jenova from bringing their master back. It worked very well and incorporated a lot from the game.
Despite being set in a different period of time, everything about the movie was exactly the same as the video game. The characters were true to what they were in the game, the city, the settings, the world and they even few in some of the monsters you can summon. Hell, they had the little Materia balls that give your characters the power of magic! It was awesome! Besides Silent Hill, this movie is another one of the best video game movies of all time. Beautiful CGI animations and it did a lot better than the other movie based on Final Fantasy… and more on that another day. It was a shame that movie got the huge hype more than this one. Squaresoft really dropped the ball there.
Tomb Raider.
It was a movie that many people were looking forward to – and by people I meant nerdy young men with had a fetish for pixilated boobies. Lara Croft was brought to life on the big screen based on the immense popularity of the video game Tomb Raider. The game pretty much placed on as Lara Croft as she explored massive tombs in search of artifacts. Some of the puzzles were ridiculously hard and had you going for hours. It was a really good game for it’s time and I can still play it now.
What about the movie? It was basically the same thing as the games. Lara Croft lived in her massive mansion, had her butler, and set out on a quest to find an artifact that was being sort after by a group who wanted to use its power for evil. It is a race against time to see if Lara could reach the artifact first before her enemies caught up to her.
The movie was pretty good and I enjoyed it for what it was. There wasn’t much of a storyline as was the case for the games. It’s basically “Here’s a big breasted hot woman; she’s going to find an artifact before the bad guys do”. Of course you’re not going to see a movie where the main character is running all over the same place for hours trying to figure out a puzzle – that’s what the game was for. Good film, good action, the acting was a bit weak which wasn’t a big issue and it was a shame the sequel sucked.
Thank God the animated Street Fighter movie was not as terrible as the live action one...
Street Fighter.
I bet a lot of you just flipped out in outrage when you read that didn’t you? Don’t worry, I know the Street Fighter movie was terrible… but have you heard of the other Street Fighter movie that was made? It was a Japanese anime version called Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie. Thank GOD it was true to the video game and did not end up terrible like the live action one. The game involved a world tournament hosted by the crime lord M. Bison to look for new recruitments for his organization, as well as a new host for his demonic powers.
The movie had a more developed storyline and mainly focused on the warrior Ryu – who was the main character and the most popular character out of the Street Fighter series. He is a mysterious warrior who travels the world looking for worthy opponents. He soon gets caught up in Bison’s world, who has an attraction to Ryu as a new host for his powers, and joins Guile and other Street Fighter characters to stop Bison’s plans.
The movie was very good and is another hidden gem that true Street Fighter fans should get their hands on. The characters were well developed, even if some had a few brief cameo appearances, and the storyline was pretty good. The fight scenes were pretty good as well for an anime and the movie stayed true to all the characters – unlike another movie that ruined everything. It’s definitely worth a watch and a pretty good video game movie as well.
There are some other movies out there that were good but these five stick out more than the others. The directors and writers stayed very true to what the games were about and the characters in the movie were exactly the same as those in the game. If only the other directors of these types of movies paid attention to what was going on, I am sure we would have seen a lot more better video game movies out there.
Next week I’ll take a look at what happens when a director takes a video game and adds their own ingredients to the mix. It makes one really bad cake that doesn’t go down very well I can tell you all that. Until then I hope you have enjoyed this article!
| 72 |
| Vote |
Shared on
Subscribe to this blog
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
Terrible acting and worse dialogue.
"you've lost me, I've lost men, so lets just call it even." Brrrrrr....
Comment by Wayne F
Bucket Movies
Totally agree with you on Tomb Raider 2. Some of the actions scenes were ok but overdone. The acting sucked a lot and the script was pathetic. A shame since the first was a good movie and was enjoyable. I'll pretend a second movie never came out. Be grateful Jolie was in the second...
Comment by Cibbuano
20/20 Filmsight
Science News
Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak
what about The Wizard?
Comment by Wayne F
Bucket Movies
As for the Wizard, I'm sure there is going to be a place for that movie here in the Bucket in the near future.
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
Comment by Ann 2
Muzikal Mafia
Canadiens Watch
Football Slate
Comment by Wayne F
Bucket Movies
Ann2, I loved the Mortal Kombat song I have it on my computer and bust it out every now and then hehe. Silent Hill too is worth a looking at, but be warned you may not like it if you're not a fan of the game.
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
The mad house level had me creeped out.
Comment by Wayne F
Bucket Movies
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
Shoot one of the dance hall girls and they turn into 5 pigs. Absolute weirdos made that game.
Suicide bomber pigs. Priceless.