Hindsight Hub #2: Killer Movie Sin-drome

B.T.

Have you ever heard or said: “That movie would make an awesome game” or the inverse “that game would make an awesome movie”? I’m almost 100% you have heard or have thought about one of these statements at some point in your existence. Hell even I have said it but that’s one of those things that seemingly is rare to be done properly. Even when a decent budget is put up for a movie or a game they tend to be too rushed for some crappy reason like wanting to be released before Christmas. Or they are just not at all epic like the fans expected them to be.

And maybe it’s not all on the creators of a movie or game, but on the fans? Maybe we as fans expect too much and when we get something that is less than perfect we can’t accept it as just decent or worth the money we paid. However we can’t blame ourselves for the sins of the developers and producers… 

Maybe the major Sin is indeed twofold… Developers and producers with their inherent inabilities to put in the proper amount of time, money, and subsequent effort to make blockbuster hits that portray the game or movie in question as grand as the source material portrays it. The second side to the coin is we as fans and our inability to accept creative license and those changes made to what we consider our imaginative interpretation of a creative work…

But not all “sins” are bad some can be rather enjoyable like eating too much chocolate.

Movie Sins
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The Bad: 

The movie Doom was doomed from the start (pun intended). This movie focused more on suspension and drama than what the games origins come from. To me the Doom games were always a mix of science fiction, horror, and good ole ‘shoot them in the face’ action. While the games were indeed a mix of science fiction and horror the games could be different to play style, in my case it was a ‘shoot them in the face WE NEED TO GET TO THE CHOPPA!!!!’ I would run through everything as fast as I could in an attempt to not be scared by the 90’s 3d graphics.

As a kid imagination took flight from these games and could scare me and I can say that. Since this movie lost where it came from and tried to be like the first Resident Evil movie it just ended up sucking real bad. To me forgetting where you come from… is a major sin. So this movie never felt like anything like Doom with the exception of the end portion that emulated the game which to me was interesting but not enough to make me want to watch it multiple times.

 The Good: 

 

Resident Evil… What can be said? I like this movie…a lot, and considering the series games of old could and did give me nightmares that’s saying something if I was willing to risk that torment again ha ha! Seriously though this movie is just good and out of all the movies it’s the only one that’s true to the beginning games of the series.

The original games weren’t so much about running around and shooting things but more about surviving. We never knew what was around the corner and that suspension of danger was carried over from the games into this movie. From the onset we all knew shit was going to go down and that it was going to be a storm in a matter of time. What we didn’t know was how it was going to happen and the twists and turns that would have to be conversed to get there. Some things were foreshadowed or we as gamers of the series would have instinctively been able to foresee what was going to transpire.

Even still this movie brought to the table what it claimed to be: Resident Evil.

Dishonorable Mentions:

Super Mario Bros.

This movie… took an easy to understand story and then convoluted it and completely went out in left field. Not to mention poor choice of actors.

Street Fighter

While similar enough to the games, at the same time it feels amiss… not to mention again poor actor choices.

Honorable Mentions: 

Mortal Kombat

This movie is an honorable mention more so out of the fact it MADE MONEY… it’s not the greatest movie of all time but it does out beat DOA, Street Fighter, Double Dragon, and Street Fighter the Legend of Chun-Li. 

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

This movie is an honorable mention simply as personal choice. Now this one is actually an okay animated movie however it’s not like Final Fantasy in the eyes of fans. Though I tend to disagree since there’s a good bit of Science fiction in Final Fantasy games, and on top of that like Final Fantasy games the protagonist group/main character has to go around collecting a series of items to save the planet…. Kind of the major basis of almost the entire FF game series…

Game Sins

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The Bad: 

OH MY GOD… >_> what to say? What is there that hasn’t already been said. This game is just bad. It really doesn’t relate to the movie much at all and considering it was anticipated to be one of the bestselling games of all time. While reportedly it did sell over a million copies for the Atari 2600, it also did not sell several million more that were created and then subsequently destroyed or boxed up.

As we all know supply and demand basics dictate when the supply is larger than the demand then the value decreases. Many reasons have been put forth as to why this is the worst game of all time, but really this game just proves my issue of game companies or their mother company rushing to put out the game instead of spending more time to make a game worthwhile.

Rushing anything often times never ends well.

The Good:

Why this one? For one you got to play along the movies story as well as go to places only briefly mentioned. And personally I like RTS games. While this isn’t the best game and surely not the most recent but at a point LOTR and Star Wars games in general are more enjoyable than other games or game series based off movies. 

Most movie games are the generic action rpg/platformers or beat’em up that the companies spend not enough time on and so aren’t worth the 40 or 60 they are asking for. On occasion there can be a great game that is of the general variety.  But at the time I bought Battle for Middle Earth there was just more bang for my buck.

Dishonorable Mentions:

Space Jam

This game is bad, but not worth paragraphs. I typically dislike sports games, and there are some even I enjoy but this one… is not one of them. This game was wacky to wonky in controls and the characters left a lot to be desired. 

Dragonball Evolution

WHY, why… Soooooooooo… Someone thought it was a good idea to make a real shit game based off a shitty movie, based of an okay anime, based off a decent manga which in turn was based off an even better previous series… Come now there’s no shame in giving up. If you like DBZ or DB buy and play another game… much less movie. Or anything else.

Honorable Mentions: 

Goldeneye 007

Ah nostalgia, while I prefer more modern games as far as multiplayer goes, the story mode or solo mode is still fun to play even though graphically this game has not aged well.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game

This game harkens back to an older age to such glorious entertaining master pieces such of the likes of: River City Ransom. And pays homage to awesomeness through out.