Three ways you could improve the quality of movies based on videogames

It’s almost common knowledge that movies based upon movies always well…suck. Some of these factors include a lot of things. It could be the clichéd “take over the world” storyline, the poor special effects or the meagre acting. If video games movies are to be taken seriously they need to be critically and commercially revered. Comic book movies did just that with the release of The Dark Knight so it’s possible a video game movie could do it too - but it hasn’t happened yet! Here are three ways that could improve the quality of movies based on video games.

1) Get Better Directors

The quality of any movie heavy relies on good direction. One of the many reasons why video games movies are so bad is because most of them have been directed by Uwe Boll. The man is responsible for many travesties including House of the Dead, Bloodrayne and Alone in the Dark just to name a few. The man has one more Razzie awards than any other person in history. If you don’t know what a Razzie is, it’s the complete opposite of what an Academy Award represents. Better still, if you don’t know who Uwe Boll is or never heard of his movies you’re not alone. All of his movies were Box Office flops and many countries decided not to release them in cinemas including NZ. Ouch! The movie studios should know by now that he exudes poor quality. They should replace him for the likes of Christopher Nolan, James Cameron or Peter Jackson. I’m sure they could deliver the first great video game movie.

2) Quality Actors

There’s no doubt some video game movies actually did feature some quality actors. Obviously, everyone remembers Angelina Joile’s performance as Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider films – too bad everything else wasn’t of that standard. Most of the time, the choice of actors are very questionable. Who could forget Jean Claude Vann Damme and his brutal portrayal of Guile in the Street Fighter movie? However, my biggest disappointment is the two actors who played Ryu and Ken. They looked nothing like Ryu and Ken! The acting is just as wooden in the Mortal Kombat films as well as the Dead or Alive movie. If only the characters were portrayed by credible actors only then will the standard be reached.

3) A Proper Story and coherent script

In most video game films the villains strive to do two things. They either want to rule the world or they seek to destroy it – if not the world then it’s the universe. If only there’s someone out there who could adapt a screenplay based on the Grand Theft Auto or Metal Gear Solid series. Only then will we see a proper storyline. The script also has to make sense for viewers too. I remember in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation they mentioned an “Animality” without explaining to the audience what it was. How are people supposed to know an Animality is when you can turn into an animal to finish off your opponent? The previously mentioned sentence sounded pretty stupid itself but at least explain what it means within the script.

There are probably many other ways and examples out there that would improve the quality of video game movies but there’s too many for me to put down. It seems many movie studios have given up gambling their budgets on video game franchises. The Halo movie has yet to come into fruition and problems have halted the production of movies based on Bioshock and Lost Planet due to over-blown budgets.

Hope is not all lost however lost if the Prince of Persia movie can prove to be a success. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and starring Jake Gyllenhall as the “Prince” - this promises to be a hit. Then again, chances are it will be yet another horrendous videogame-to-movie adaptation. All our questions will be answered when the movie hits cinemas mid 2010. As for now I’d advise you not to watch any videogame movies and stick to just playing the games themselves instead. You’ll be much happier that way…

Damian Seeto