Game play?? Movie play??
Take a populair game based with a plot you can find in a lot of bad action movies. Throw in a few good actors who try to do a bad job(and succeed) and add some good special affect that have absolutely nothing to do with the bad story.
What do you get?? The Max Payne movie.
Yet another failed attempt to base a movie on a game. But of all the game-movies this was one that you could have counted on failing.
In the game you do not really have to have a good story. Most of the time it’s walking around, solving a few puzzles and shooting the bad guys. Although it’s a little story, max payne (the game) has a story.
Cop’s wife and kid are killed and he’s out for revenge. He finds out his wife was killed because she knew to much. And an old family friend is the murderer. Good story for a game. Bad story for a movie. There are dozens of movies with the same plot.
Games have an extra advantage that movies haven’t. The user interaction.
It’s frustrating if you don’t succeed and it’s a relieve if you do. But the players actions determine the story.
This can’t be done in a movie. So the bad story works for a game and not for a movie.
After a lot a failed game adaptations why do they keep trying??
Here is a list of movies based on games I’ve seen
| Movie/Game | My comments |
| Super Mario Bros | Bad movie. Story was horrible and the acting worse. |
| Double Dragon | Only the characters names are based on the game. And they came up with a bad story for them. |
| Street fighter | Was this an action?? or a failed slapstick comedy movie?? |
| Mortal Kombat | Acceptable story and not so bad acting. |
| Mortal Kombat: Annihilation | First one was acceptable. This one wasn’t |
| Wing Commanders * | The movie wasn’t bad, not good ether. But since I don’t know the game I cant compare. |
| Lara Croft: Tomb Raider | Angelina Jolie in a tight suite?? Who gives a damn about the story. |
| Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The cradle of life | Same as above. |
| Resident Evil | Loosely based on the game, the story in the movie is was better. The story is loosely based on the game. One of the better zombie movies. This movie is the exception to the rule. |
| Resident Evil: Apocalypse | Did not really live up to the success of the first. |
| Resident Evil: Extinction | They should have stopped after two movies. |
| House of the dead | Only the name and some bad zombies where from the game. And it was a very very bad movie. |
| Alone in the Dark * | Never played the game, not a bad movie, just not my type. |
| Doom | On of the worst game adaptations I’ve ever seen. No THE worst. I’d rather cut off my left arm then look at the movie again. |
| Bloodrayne * | Why do they always rape the vampire legends?? Hated it. Now I’m never gonna wanna play the game |
| Silent Hill * | Pretty scary movie. Did not really get the story, but I’ll try the game. |
| Dead or Alive | Another failed martial art tournament movie. |
| Hitman * | I like it. |
| In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale * | I liked the movie, But I never knew it was based on a game if I didn’t read it somewhere. |
| And Max Payne | Bad story, bad acting, Pointless special effects. |
* = I haven’t played this game
So most of the movies based on games did not do very good.
There are a few exceptions. But not enough for me to start loving this movie genre.
There are rumours about a upcoming “prince of persia” and a “god of war” movie. I love these games. Let us hope they are gonna do the games good.
Comments