We May End Just Up With a ‘Just Cause’ Movie
By George Robbins
Video game movies are just one of those things that nobody expects to really be any good due to the painful history that this niche genre has. Almost every single movie that has been created that has been based on a video game has seen almost abysmal reviews upon release and more times than not, they have lost a lot of money for studios. Not every one that is made ends up being terrible, but a majority of them do and it has made it difficult for there to be any kind of audience for the genre moving forward. One movie that recently released within the past couple of years that showed that it was possible for a video game movie to succeed was the ‘Detective Pikachu‘ movie. There were a number of factors that ended up playing into this such as the good will of the franchise and the fact there were so many mediums for the games already.
Just because a video game was successfully adapted into a TV show before a live-action film was made doesn’t mean making video game films can be pointless. What I mean to say is that it doesn’t necessarily take popularity from another watchable medium to make it possible to create a successful video game movie. Simultaneously, it is very difficult to actually make a successful film based on a video game due to the mediums being so wildly different. For instance, movies are something you watch and have no direct interactivity with while video games are something you interact with constantly and in your own way. Thus it becomes kind of difficult to make a movie based on a game that captures that same intent.
The upcoming ‘Monster Hunter‘ movie is one that many are already predicting to fail even though its release isn’t until April of next year. The movie was made by director Paul W.S. Anderson who is also responsible for the creation of the ‘Resident Evil’ movies. There are a ton of criticisms for those movies, but it is the same issues that come up in regards to other video game movie adaptations. The movies often times come up with stories that wildly deviate from the source material in an effort to make the movie more watchable so it doesn’t feel “off.” By not playing the story ourselves, the movie becomes different in our eyes and it is viewed as a bad idea for movies to follow the plots of the games because of it.
The next game to get a movie adaptation is the ‘Uncharted’ movie that just started production and while the story is supposedly going to be different from the games, it sounds interesting. The plot of the movie is going to be a prequel to the games it’s based on and this gives it a way to make it seem more interesting to audiences. Now it would appear as though we will be getting a film based on the ‘Just Cause‘ series of games. Director Michael Dowse, who was responsible for the movie ‘Stuber’ has been tapped to lead the project and possibly bring the movie to the silver screen. There is no telling if this will actually work out or not, but at this point I guess there isn’t any harm in trying to make the film work out.