Best Video Game to Movie Transition
 

Thread title explains it all. What do you think? And which conversions (Mario Bros. ¬_¬) really pissed you off?

Man, for some reason I can`t really focus on my options right now. But, after watching Silent Hill (Finally) last week I don`t think it did such a bad job. Even if it took plot elements from more than one game in the series and mixed them up.

Silent Hill is pretty much the only game franchise that actually had potential for being made into a movie. And that's because most of the other games that had movies, it was not a game that had most of the "gaming experience" coming from gameplay but from the story and the mood, which both are things that can be translated to a movie. Gameplay on the other hand is impossible to translate.
Plus, Silent Hill was pretty much the only game-movie that wasn't basically an essence of a certain kind of movies.
Resident Evil for example was a game based on various Zombie Movie cliches.
Mortal Kombat was a game that was based on Hong Kong style martial arts movies.
So... to make a movie based on such a thing is basically like making a copy, of a copy, of a copy.
Silent Hill might have been influenced by some things, but essentially it was something new. So it could be translated to another medium without the copy-of-a-copy losses.
Doom was IIRC the first movie that tried to bring some of the "gameplay" into a movie, but ultimately failed.

Personally, I wouldn't want ANY more game-movies. Simply because the industry usually picks games that are impossible to translate simply because the game franchises have been successful. Silent Hill is pretty much the exception so far. A Metal Gear Solid movie could be cool. COULD BE. Still it's nothing I'd want to see.

Silent Hill was definitely the best, but I personally feel it was still a below average film on its own. It was kind of disappointing seeing one of the greatest games adapted by a greater writer and directed by a great director and the product not being astounding. I lost all hope for video game movies at that point.

The one that has pissed me off the most is Resident Evil. They started with it being just barely based on the game and keep taking it farther and farther off course to the point where it's hardly even related.

I'd say Silent Hill. I liked that film as well.

Wtf? Why is Eleo banned? O_ô
*heads over to the ban discussion*

Yeah, that's another story. Most movies throw the gaming content overboard. Be it Doom, or RE. Sheesh... I really don't get it why they threw the Demons and Hell theme overboard with Doom. Fear of the christian right?

I say ban all game to movie transitions, they are all pretty poor. Having seen the likes of Street Fighter, Resident Evil and Super Mario Bros, I can't say that making films from games is all that good of an idea. With the worst being Super Mario Brothers. That film was awful beyond belief.

I watched both. The first one I slept through, and the second one...well...I just could not stop laughing the entire time the monster and what's her name were fighting. It was hilarious.

I think the Armored Core series could be turned into a CG Movie. Dunno how it would be plot wise, but it certainly would do well on the action parts if they get the same crew as in the intros from the later Armored Core games.

Oh, and there is another VG movie. Final Fantasy: Spirits within. I thought it was so-so. Certainly the best when compared to other movies I have seen(I have not seen Silent Hill yet).

I would have to say the first Mortal Kombat film. Most will say Silent Hill I would guess. However, in college we watched the MK film several times, and my roommate bought the soundtrack. (I believe the film faded out with Orbital's "Halcyon?") We always had fun watching the film. There were a few things that seemed a little cheesy, but not that many considering the film was based on a "fighting" genre game. (Certainly nothing like Street Fighter, comparatively.) Because we enjoyed watching the film and watched it several times, which is more than I can say for any other game movie made, and because you didn't need to know anything about the games to "get" the film and enjoy it, MK gets my vote...

...Does FFVII: AC count? >_>

Sure it's not the most awesome thing ever, but I prefer it to every other game to movie conversion. At least I was entertained, and the music sure helped. Awesome stuff.

P.S. I saw SMB several months ago on TV. Now I am traumatized for life.

Does Final Fantasy even count? The only thing it had in common with any of the games were chocobos (on pajamas) and a dude named Cid.

For accuracy FFVII:AC: The movie is EXACTLY a sequel to the game. Its not an 'adaption' of the original story, or an alternate universe, its a movie sequel. For that aspect it was entirely accurate. The story was weak, but lots of action,
and... well... okay voice acting. The charater development was non existent except for possibly Cloud.

For Plot/Story probably Silent Hill, although I haven't been able to see it yet (I.e., NOT AN EXPERT SPEAKING HERE). Most people have had positive reviews though, so that's an indication.

Mortal Kombat is a suprisngly good film. For what it is, and what the source material provided, it turned out to be a decent action flick. The plot, as crazy as it was served more-so as a setup for the fights, and gave the reason for the more un-human combatants.

Worst: Hmm, while Mario Bros could be looked upon for its camp/so-bad-its-funny value, Alone in the Dark is a shitstain on the used underwear of Paul W.S. Anderson, so naturally Uwe Boll picked up the tab.

Predicted Runner Up: 2-Way Tie between Resident Evil Extinction and DOA.

Definitely Silent Hill for me. The story followed pretty closely to the source material, had the creepy vibe and was a pretty decent horror flick. Honorable mentions would be Mortal Kombat and the Street Fighter Animated Movie. That should've been put into theaters instead of the Van Damme shit fest. Ironically, I remember watching it all the time when I was little.

I'd have to say Silent Hill is the only real movie to have done it "right" (being subjective here lol). At least you can tell that the filmmakers must've at least played the games, so understand the source material a little better.

In contrast, I remember hearing Paul WS Anderson saying he played Resident Evil 2 for like 20 minutes (which isn't very far unless you've already beat the game a few times and know all what to do and when), and then butchering what could've been a pretty good horror movie (still pisses me off how the "boss" of the first movie was just a regular monster, albeit one of the cooler ones, but still, just a "normal" monster. Where the heck was the Tyrant? That bastard still gives me the creeps of all the times I missed his claw swipe). Granted, the second one was slightly better, but mostly just because the actress playing Jill was kind of hot, and the comedy in the movie was pretty funny (if a bit out of place), although I still didn't like Alice and her "I can kick everyone's ass, even if I just look at them through a camera" attitude.

It's going to be difficult to make a good video game based movie, particularly if the filmmakers never played the games themselves, or aren't into gaming (they don't have to be hardcore, but I hope they at least played the games they're about to adapt long enough to understand it). And part of the problem is some games simply aren't going to make good movies (well, Mortal Kombat was okay, since it had somewhat of a backstory, but watch them make a movie out of Pong lol). Doom didn't have much of a storyline either (at least the ones prior to Doom 3, and I still remember the first game's backstory just essentially giving you an excuse to blow stuff up and kill aliens, which was okay cause it was fun), but they turned it into a movie, so don't say it can't happen lol (I doubt Nintendo will allow another Mario movie unless it's in CGI and Miyamoto okay's it, which is unlikely).

Although to be fair, Cloud was about the only character with unresolved issues from the last game. Everyone else had sort of completed their character arc entirely within the game with next to no possibility of further development, while Cloud's character was ever so slightly open-ended. (Of course Vincent's mysterious character got his own game.)

Come on, is this thread even real. Everyone who has a brain knows the only VG movie (non animated) that was actually good was the first Mortal Kombat. They should have stopped making VG movies after it because nothing else will ever be as good.

It also has the advantage of being the only VG movie I have ever purchased. Watched it so many times it ain't even funny. Nothing else has been as quotable, hilarious, bad, and so AWESOME at the same time.

It is the essence of what a conversion for a game of that type should be. Some people talk, they fight, someone dies, SHADOW KICK, GET DOWN HERE, PUNCH TO GOROS NUTS, good guys win, TECHNO THEME SONG.

God I love that movie. I heard someone plasting the theme song from their SUV while I was out last week. It was the most heroic thing I've ever seen.

Actually, Resident Evil was probably up there in terms of adaptations. Yeah, it's a dumb movie, but then again, the game had a pretty lame and generic story, too. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

In that sense, the Silent Hill movie worked pretty well.

I think the most disappointing for me was Doom. For an adaptation of a FPS game, there sure wasn't a lot of monsters to shoot at.

Don't even get me started on that crapfest. Yes, I lack the FFVII nostalgia to fully appreciate that bucket of fangirl-service. Advent Children just... Sucks plain ass. Maybe it's a good transition of the game (which doesn't help me much, as I loathe Final Fantasy anyway), but as a movie it just fails. Bad script, bad directing, total overuse of supposedly badass camerawork...
Not to speak of the overall weakness on the technical side. It's just not good. In no part it offers.

Mortal Kombat was actually kinda great. The theme song was excellent (Does anyone know where I could download it?) while the plot was cheesy and almost retarded. Just like it should be.

Resident Evil, I dunno. I mean, I enjoyed both of them. Well, the first one the most. The second one was a bit blah, but they weren't that bad. They just didn't really have anything to do with Resident Evil.

The worst is either Double Dragon, Street Fighter (The fact that Blanka didn't do anything and Dhalism was a peaceful scientist made me go Hulk) or Super Mario Brothers. However, fairs fair. All three movies made me laugh out loud. Especially Mario Bros. So fucking funny.

I'm not saying that the movie is anything close to a hollywood blockbuster, but in regards to the original question of OO I was answering: Best VIDEO GAME to MOVIE Transition.

The transition of FFVII:AC to A Movie was about as good as it will get because its not an adapation of the storylines (Silent Hill) or a reinvention of it (Ala Resident Evil). Mortal Kombat is second IN THAT REGARD.

THAT's the point I was trying to get across from my eariler post.

Silent Hill easily. Resident Evil movies are so poor, they went in the wrong direction compeletely. My brother and I always make fun of the flying dragon kick she does on the dog.

Silent Hill the movie blew me away. Even though it wasn't that scary, the visuals of the film (Pyramid Head, the tranforming of the world, storytelling) and music from the games made it great for me.

I think the movie they made off of Starcraft... oh man, what was it called? Oh yeah! Alien v.s. Predator.

Now THAT was a good game to movie adaptation

Hah yeah...I always thought that the alien movies had a starcraft vibe too it. Pretty nostolgic for me.

Hands down, Silent Hill won me over with its outstanding setting, music, and designs. However, the plot was decent and the acting was fair (not too exemplary but what can you say...Sean Bean yay!)

Watched Resident Evil, was a decent action movie. Didn't really watch it to see how it was based on the game for it would be inevitably off.

Can't say I have yet to see a game movie that faithfully follows the "plot" very well. Likewise, Silent Hill, the film that satisfied me, didn't accurately follow the plot of the first game (but it was interesting to see what they did with it).

You serious? Fanboy or no, it's impossible to argue the film's merits as an impressive feat of computer animation.

Or maybe you meant something else by 'technical side'.

I gotta go ahead and say the first Mortal Kombat movie.

When I think about it Mortal Kombat is one of the best. The movie wasn't good on its own, but if we're talking about adaptations from a game, then it captured the mindlessness of the Mortal Kombat games pretty well and didn't try to take itself too seriously.

Hmmm.

Random question: Was tron a video game or movie first?

Also;

Give Mario Bro's a break. Sure it was terrible. Sure it didn't make any sense. Sure they ruined Yoshi (my favorite character). And sure it had bad acting.
But seriously....
We've all played the game. I'd really like to say anyone make a GREAT movie about two plumbers who jump through portals stomping goomba's to save a princess. Anyone could see it wasn't going to be the best.

Same goes for all the NES games. If the screen writer/director have nothing good to work with, greatness simply cannot be acheived.

I don't really like any of the video game to Movie conversions yet except for the first Mortal Combat.

I thought SMB was actually pretty fucking entertaining. I loved the steampunkness.

Movie with a game premise.

I dont think the first mortal kombat was that bad. Its the second mortal kombat movie that sucked imho. They tried to cramp in just about all of the mortal kombat characters and gave them crappy personalities. Did you see nightwolf >< "its my animality, pretty cool huh" no O_O
The cg was bad at the end too when kang transformed and dont give me non of that "it was good for its time" shit, It was BAD. And baraka's head looked like it was coming off.
It tried so bad to fit in all the characters that it just went the same direction as street fighter. Oh yeah and they replaced sonya with and ugly one.

Street fighter still the worst. Worst. Rental. Ever.
They did a great job in silent hill in recreating the enviroment and the monsters. It makes me believe that only silent hill is actually the only video game franchise capable of becoming a decent movie. The story is off from the game but it all still fit like it belonged.
Now all we have to do is wait for the dead or alive movie to see how they ruined that. It honestly seems like it may not even make it to theaters or on dvd but on vhs ^_^;

Street Fighter! Just kidding, for me it's Silent Hill

None have been great but there will be a good one in not too long since there will be a MGS movie ^_^

I watched Silent Hill a few weeks ago and I would have to personally say that its the best transition I have seen so far. Mortal Kombat comes in second.

But yeah, surprisingly, I enjoyed Silent Hill. I never got a chance to play the games, but the movie was very good. I read all the reviews and the stories behind the games and the movie displayed them very well I feel.

Silent Hill has been my favourite so far, like seemingly all of you, lol. I loved the atmosphere, and the way they didn't have to buy into other horror movie tricks like having things jump out to make the movie scary, it was creepier having things slowly kind of ooze into the frame and having genuinely scary imagery.

What pisses me off is how there were plans for a Deus Ex movie, they even had Willem Dafoe on contract to play Bob Page, and then the plan fell through, as did the Deus Ex series, even though the second game wasn't as shitty as everyone said(in fact quite a bit better than the other schlok on the market at that time), it just wasn't as good as the first game.

Why, Eidos, why?:doh:

I really don't wish to see a DX movie.
Honestly. They can just fuck it up. Plus, I highly doubt any US studio would be willing to produce such a highly controversial, unpatriotic story.

Yeah, lol, it was going to be produced by a UK film studio actually. And I mean they could F it up, or they could turn the whole first game into a trilogy or series, that might work. Whatev, it would be worth it for some of us hardcore DX fanboys, lol... If nothing else,:biggrin: give us topic for discussion...

Mortal Kombat hands down. There's little to no contest.

Mortal Kombat 1 managed to capture the game's essence as well as provide a story for non MK players. The music rocked, the story was simple and the settings were incredible. To throw into the equation, there were even a few moments of fan-service: Scorpion's "GET OVER HERE!" and the appearance of one of the secret characters of MK1.

Flawless victory.

Everyone's been saying Silent Hill, but honestly apart from capturing the spirit of the game with the visuals and music, it was a bad movie. It managed to grab all the good elements of Silent Hill but it didn't translate well enough onto the big screen. Sorry guys.

Uwe Boll's butchering of films are horrendous. Alone in the Dark and Bloodrayne initially come to mind. Alone in the Dark especially since it was one of the first horror games I've ever played ;_;

I'm surprised no one's mentioned Tomb Raider. I thought TR sucked anyway, but many of my friends who were TR enthusiasts found it great. Opinions?

DOA sux baLLz. Of course I gotta hold my judgement until I see the movie, but the trailer was enough to shock me for the whole day (I was watching Fearless when I saw the trailer).

Next up for game-to-movie conversions is Peter Jackson's Halo. Game movie conversions will always happen as long as there is popularity and the chance for money.


(Oh, and Mario gets a good mention for being too camp, that it's entertaining.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA4cMk1Mx1Q

This is the best videogame to movie transition yet. This almost eliminates my doubt about the forthcoming MGS movie. Just replace those Taiwanese with American and we've got a winrar!

I cant believe Tomb Raider hasnt been mentioned yet. I thought they were both very enjoyable and well done films. They had the rules and feel of the games and seemed like a good transition. Angelina Jolie did very well in her role as LAra Croft and I was impressed at the results from that awesome film.

Silent Hill was an incredible movie because of how much it followed the game, and how they didnt try to use too much hollywood licence in changing the story. Thouroughly enjoyed it.

Mortal Kombat was very cool, I remember seeing it for the first time and being amazed at how much like the game it was, costumes, characters, fighting stlyes and moves etc. All very good.

Now the worst one in my opinion was Final Fantasy: Spirits Within. It was truly awful. It had no feel of any of the FF games and looked like a blatant trial of stunning visuals. Shame thats all it was. There was no magic, no materia type system, no big weapons, nothing. It plain sucked and was an insult to an otherwise shining series. Poo on Spirits Within.

Silent Hill would be at the top of my list...

followed by DOA: Dead Or Alive ---> you should watch this movie atleast twice! i just watched this movie today in theaters.



watch the movie it's great! :D

I can tell you what's worse than the Mario bros. movie... House of the Dead..
The Worst... I saw it on tv and I say I pitty those who paid to watch it in the theater.

There's a site for upcoming horror movies, I forgot the site name, but they have "Fatal Frame" listed in it so maybe that'll be something to look forward to. They say it's based on a true story. I just hope they don't screw it up like Silent Hill. Silent Hill had the elements down but could've done a bit better and there was too much story in the movie. Explain the freaky phenomenon but keep it general. Main point: get your kid and get out.. fast.

Well like everyone else, I also find Silent Hill to be a great movie adaptation of a video game. I wasn't expecting a very scary movie, but more of a disturbing, weirdly told plot and story, much like the games. Also, the fact the director did not let anyone else but Akira Yamaoka to do the soundtrack was a very smart move indeed.


And also, Mortal Kombat was a very very good movie. That's probably one of Paul Anderson's only films that can be respected I think lol. The end fight with Liu Kang and Shang Tsung was quite good, both those actors played those parts excellent I thought [ha ha ha, flawless victory].


I know this is cliche, especially for the 'week' that this is. But I think Ace Combat could be made into a movie. What I would want though is bring the writers of that game's story and have them join forces with the writers of whoever would even want to make that movie. It could be done, just hopefully it won't be a 'Top Gun: Part II' type of thing :/.

Absolutely !

That would make an awful movie, and would look like a straight to DVD film. It would be pegged as Top Gun II and everyone would hate it.

Sorry man, but making movies about fighter planes based on a game isnt gonna go down with the majority of the public.

Excellent - FF7:AC, Silent Hill
Good/decent - Doom, Tomb Raider, Mortal Kombat, AvP (bad acting/bad premise/bad continuity - but still enjoyable)
Bad - Bloodrayne, SMB, Street Fighter, FF:TSW, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, Tomb Raider 2, Alone in the Dark, Resident Evil, Resident Evil Apocalypse...

Halo seems promising, though. They could make an awesome movie out of that. Just as they could have made one from Deus Ex if they'd actually tried.

I liked Final Fantasy, but from what I hear Silent Hill seems to take the cake, although I have not seen it...

I would love to see Parasite EVE made into a movie based on the game. The original Parasite EVE movie in Japan was based on the novel.

Yeah, and the Japanese one sucked. Well, maybe not as bad as I thought, but here I was hoping for some kickass movie version of PE, and instead I get a trippy uncool story with badly-translated dialogue... oh well.

How can you seriously label AvP as a good/decent movie, yet have FF:TSW as a bad one? Spirits Within wasn't a good representation of the games, but it was a pretty good movie aside from some inane dialogue (mostly from Cid). If Square had just given it a different title it wouldn't be nearly as hated as it is.

AvP was just laughable in every respect. Saying that it was enjoyable despite everything about it being bad is akin to saying that House of the Dead was a good movie.

Wing Commander - as its the only VG to Movie translation thats actually part of the original continuity and adds a lot of interesting details and background.

(However, I'm baised because I love WC to begin with)

Quoted for 75 flavors of win.

But isn't the game based on the novel too? So the movie should be similar to the game, right? Unless the game took a completely different turn from the novel.

Actually... you're right. I put FF:TSW in the wrong spot. It was supposed to go in the good/decent category. Thanks for pointing that out.
I thought AvP was enjoyable because I liked the games (specifically AvP for the Atari Jaguar. Yeah man... haha) and it came around right when I was hoping for some mindless special-effects sci-fi violence fest. By all rights and purposes, it's a bad movie. But I found it enjoyable.

LeHah- I can't believe I forgot about WC! That movie was hella rad. Sure everyone was pissed off cause it didn't have Mark Hamill and a few of our other "beloved actors" from the game series but it fit right into the Wing Commander universe.

I agree with the majority on here that Silent Hill is the best game to movie project done so far.

The worst I would have to say is DoA, just watched it, it's so dire, it's not even funny ¬_¬

Double Post:
Just watched Mortal Kombat the Movie and, well, it's better than DoA, I'll give it that.

Overall it's not really that impressive, I enjoyed the Super Mario Brothers movie more because it was just pure cheese, funny tasting cheese :)

I still love the Street Fighter movie, no matter how lame it was, it was kind of cool seeing the game characters in a movie, no matter how horrible it was, or how HORRIBLY they represented M.Bison, gahhh!

You guys were so right about Silent Hill. After reading some posts about that movie I decided to check it out. All I have to say is, DAMN. I'm not a big fan of horror movies but Silent Hill turned over a new leaf. I loved how they used the music from the games, that was brilliant because Silent Hill has some of the best VGM out there. I can't recall any other movies or games that used music from their original counterparts. I liked it so much I'm going to buy the DVD.

As I watched it I honestly felt like I was playing the games again. That imo is a perfect transition from game to movie.

It still bugs me that all my friends hated Silent Hill, I've seen it 4 times and still love it, my friends are all like, "That was crap, total waste of time." idiots, lol...

You should sell those friends and buy some new ones, with updated appreciation modules built in :p