What Video Game was the First to be made into a good movie?

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Permalink Reply by Mark on April 28, 2008 at 5:59pm

Thats a difficult question... the opposite question is easily answered, but I can't really think of a good movie that was based off of a game... Perhaps that will change when the Halo movie is released?

That said, there have been a lot of movies that have been followed with really crappy games. I think the key to a good movie-video game is keeping the IP where it came from. For example, there are a multitude of excellent Star Wars games simply because the majority of them were produced by the Lucas family of companies (e.g. LucasArts).

I would say that as long as the same people that designed the game have input on all aspects of the movie (I would imagine that the same goes for the opposite..) including the story, then you'll have a fine movie/game.

Now if that wasn't confusing... lol..

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Permalink Reply by Dale on April 28, 2008 at 6:06pm

this could be useful

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_based_on_video_games

Looks like the first cinema release for a game/movie cross over was the Mario movie, though from that list im not sure there is a movie there that i would say was good.

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Permalink Reply by Leadpipe on April 28, 2008 at 6:11pm

it certainly hasn't happened. I doubt it will. The narrative demands of a video game are there to facilitate and give context to gameplay, which is the center of the video game. Take away the gameplay and even a faithful recitation of the story pales.

That is not to say that gameplay can not be used to enhance storytelling within a game, and is an effective tool. But a game will suffer less from removing its story than a story will from removing its gameplay.

I don't like to say never, but I don't think it's possible. The media are simply too different.

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Permalink Reply by Mark on April 29, 2008 at 1:32am

I'm not sure if it will never happen... I think we'll start to see more integration as technology and time passes. Maybe someday in the future, we'll all sit in a movie theater, don our VR helmets and enjoy a movie thats interactive.

While that day may be far from nowadays, I think the introduction of 'cinematic' games like Mass Effect or Gears of War are bringing the two mediums closer together. Some would say Final Fantasy VII was more movie than game after all. In addition, these cinematic games are nothing to scoff at, as they were big hits in the gaming community.

I think that as long as the culture created by the game and those that play it are taken into consideration, a movie wouldn't be so far fetched.

Sooner or later, someone is going to do it right, and if the same production values used on creating the game are carried over to the movie, I think it'll be a hit.

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Permalink Reply by Chuck on April 29, 2008 at 10:25am

For the sake of an answer, I want to say the Super Mario Brothers movie, the one with John Leguizamo cause it was in that group of movies that was SO bad it was good, even if there was no Yoshi.

For the sake of a real answer, i guess the GOOD movie would have to be either the pokemon movie (haven't seen it) or the first short from the Animatrix (the CG one from the people that did the Final Fantasy movie. which sucks for lack of chocobos, among others)

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Permalink Reply by LVS on May 3, 2008 at 9:00am

Ugh the Super Mario Movie was terrible. All I remember from that film was the prehistoric goo. How did that ever tie into the game?

Personally I think that they should make Golden Axe into a movie. It would have a slightly more interesting plot than The Sims or Spyro the Dragon (both are in production/preproduction). I just dont think games can cross over into Movies like comics/novels can. Not until characters in video games have some true depth will this transition start to be successful.

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Permalink Reply by Chuck on May 6, 2008 at 8:57am

but it's awfulness makes it great! it's like Rocky Horror Picture Show, except Birdo isn't in fishnets or there.

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Permalink Reply by CrazyCheshireCat on May 7, 2008 at 12:08pm

It really was terrible... re-watching it while drunk didn't make it better either. =/

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Permalink Reply by Niegel on April 29, 2008 at 10:29am

none...there hasn't been and vis versa...also when you have shitty directors like Uwe Boll turning gold into shit why would anyone want to give the rights of there game to anyone...

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Permalink Reply by Leadpipe on April 29, 2008 at 10:35am

my argument for vice versa would be Path of Neo. It wasn't a fantastic game, but it was certainly playable and fun for what it was.

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Permalink Reply by ksawyer on May 6, 2008 at 4:12am

That N64 game Goldeneye got turned into a really good film.

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Permalink Reply by Leadpipe on May 6, 2008 at 4:42am

lol

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