From Console to Film Roll: Why most video game adaptations don't work out very well
- BradBeGodlike
- Feb 23, 2017
- 3 min read
Peace fam!
So I'm at work waiting for my foreman this fine Sunday morning so he can open a box and grab me some zip ties but he's taking forever so I'm on Facebook. I see a drawing of the very first playable moment of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
Now as most of you from my generation know, San Andreas is one of the greatest sandbox games to ever grace a console and it was Rockstar's swan song to their 3D era on the 6th generation consoles.
Many gamers have fond memories of this game and it was released to critical acclaim back in 2004 receiving several Game of the Year awards from many gaming publications.
During my childhood many of my friends including myself would always utter the words “Man if they made a Grand Theft Auto movie it would be crazy!”, but by today’s standards there would be no need to create a movie based on this franchise because it borrows very heavily from pre-existing films and American culture.
Grand Theft Auto:San Andreas specifically borrows heavily from the 80s/90s Los Angeles gang era and films such as Boys in the Hood and Menace to Society.
The main reason why video game movies as a whole fail is the fact that video games while being scripted during certain events and cut scenes in the game are opened ended for the player to go about their objectives as they CHOOSE meaning a mission can be accomplished in one particular manner but a player can go about finishing it any way they so choose to.
Recently the 6th film in the Resident Evil series released with more than likely ire from fans of that franchise.
The film series has been running since 2002 being very loosely related to the games, as it should being film related media but that is the biggest draw when any form of media be it books, graphic novels, comic books, and especially video games when adapted for a live action film release.
The open ended nature of a video game will never be captured in the form of film because there are choices that the protagonist If named after a specific character, will go horribly if miscast or the characters personality isn’t exemplified correctly. Especially if the movie was made based off San Andreas as CJ is a beloved character who isn’t completely immoral, cares about his family and is at the whim of certain characters in the series.
Video games are a medium in which no two playthroughs of a game will be the same as new methods can be used to achieve results in different ways.
A game can be brand new or twenty years old and a new method of playing the game can be found by players of that game because it’s all open for interpretation; whereas a movie is finished unless the director wants to go back and finish it. I.E. George Lucas.
As much I hate to say it, from what the Fast and Furious series started out as and what it has become today is what fans of the Grand Theft Auto series have been looking for in the form of a film.
Do you think we’ll ever get a video game movie that actually gives gamers the satisfaction they seek on the silver screen?
Hit up the comments and share your thoughts.
BradBeGodlike is an avid gamer, student of film and generally funny dude who just started writing articles for FiendFix in 2017.
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