I Can’t Believe They Made That Game-To-Film Movie Pt.2 (or Why Max Payne: The Movie May Suck)
Current mood: aggravated
Well after my last post went on about Uwe Boll I thought I would be a good idea to go back to discussing game-to-film adaptations, and to keep this post interesting I'm going to do my best to avoid discussing Uwe Boll and his films, as that would quite frankly be to easy. I only have two things I have to say about Uwe Boll, the first being that I now very much hate online petitions. While the petition for Uwe Boll to stop directing is still gathering signature, a reasonable number of the signatures have been submitted by people posing under false names and using the petition as some form of rubbish comment system. Boll has seen this apparently and I wouldn't be surprised if he decides to dismiss the petition because of this. Well it's probably his plan dismiss the petition anyway, it does raise a question of how anyone could take these sort of online petitions seriously if they're going to have people filling them with rubbish.
At the same time though Uwe Boll is continuing to live up to my view of him being a Ed Wood like director with a wild testosterone problem. In a recent video on YouTube Uwe Boll decided to send one of his boxing challenges to director Michael Bay after Bay, in response to Boll's previous video, said he didn't really care about Boll and his movies. Now when Boll every so often talks about people who hate his films he does bring good point of asking why should these people about his films? They can quite easily just ignore his films, but instead they have to make huge complaints about his films on various website. A point that I do feel is quite valid. But for some reason when Michael Bay says he doesn't care about Uwe Boll and his films, it's some how different to a Uwe Boll hater deciding he won't care about his films. Uwe Boll, you are clearly one crazy delusional bastard.
But when you think about it a bit, and stop focusing only on Uwe Boll as being what's wrong with game-to-film adaptations. Ignore Uwe Boll's film for a while and you'll notice that all other game-to-film adaptations haven't faired that well ever. Just look at Resident Evil, a film I regard as the closes we've got to a good game-to-film adaptations and it only gets a 33% rating on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer. So lets get back to discussing what it is that is wrong with game-to-film adaptations.
Rather than pointing the finger straight away at the studios I thought spend a bit of time thinking about game story. Just think for a moment of how many games you've played that have good, decent stories to them. When you think about it you'll probably discover their actually isn't that much in good game stories. Now spend a bit more time thinking and try to work out how many of those games would make good films. What you should be left with now, if anything is a small handful of games. You see while games stories have been getting better over the years, the most important element of any game is still playability. If story was to be more important than playability then online games like World of Warcraft, Counter-Strike, and Team Fortress would be duds, but seeing as heap of people play them and they don't have any form of fixed storyline to them, I think it's fair to say that story really doesn't matter.
Then when you do have a game that has a good storyline, you have another problem as usually when you have a game with a good storyline, that story is usually built to work with the game environment. Take for example the Half-Life series. One of the most popular things about this series is it's story, as you play Gordon Freeman, a scientist from a secret research facility known as Black Mesa. While working on an experiment at the facility Gordon manages to open an inter-dimensional rift that sees earth become part of a large dimensional battle (well that's the best I can abbreviate it down to). The series involves what could be considered as sort of interactive cut scene in that you don't get taken away from controlling you're character and that games first person perspective during the scenes where the other characters go through discussing what's going on what you need to do.
This works well for the game but would not be good for a film, especially since Gordon is silent during most of this and doesn't have much choice in what to do. So really all how would do in the film is just run around with a crowbar, taking orders from various people and pick up Alyx Vance via the power of stare. All of a sudden a character that people have come to love a action scientist version of them, has become some form of creepy silent freak who actually manages to pull a hotter chick via the creepiest manner possible. Does that sound like a potentially successful film to you.
Though there is some suggestion that the original game story probably won't get that much attention during the production process anyway. Sometime back id Software decided to redo their Doom idea and produce Doom 3 (the game is titled as a sequel but is more of a reboot). Doom 3 gave the doom franchise a better look with better scares and a better storyline, about a lone space marine who must fight his way through zombies and demons that have taken over a science base on Mars via a mysterious teleportation technology being developed and tested on the base. This new Doom became so popular it got the attention of Hollywood.
Sometime later a film is released based on the game and while it did bare the name Doom and some of the look of the game along with some of the demons, and a similar Mars base setting, the similarities end there. Instead of being about a lone marine, the film followed a Marine squad who have to fight through a base full demons from not a teleportation experiment but rather a DNA based experiment. But the biggest the film makes is the fact that it is more of a action film than a horror film. One of the major things about Doom 3 is that it manages to be more of a horror based than it's predecessors. But for some reason the makes of the Doom movie felt a more action approach would be better. Now I'm not saying Doom 3's storyline is one of the best ever, but it still would have been good for a reasonable film. But no matter how good a story maybe it's still likely to get ignored by the filmmakers anyway.
Which brings me to Max Payne. For ages now I've thought that Max Payne would be the best game to base a film on, with it's story of an undercover detective who has lost everything and now finds himself being framed for the murder of his partner, so now in one night he decides to try and find who is responsible for pretty much everything wrong in his life. For a while now Fox Studios have had the right to this game and now they are actually producing it with Mark Wahlberg playing the role of Max Payne. Sounds good, doesn't it. But then I decided to do a bit more digging and I discovered that for the role of Mona Sax, a female assassin who actually appeared rather briefly in the first game, they've hired Mila Kunis from That 70's Show and Family Guy where she does the voice of Meg. And then for the role of Deputy Police Chief Jim Bravura, it is rumoured they have selected rapper Ludacris. Add to this the fact that the plot outline to this film on IMDb seems to suggest to me a that the Mona Sax character will have a more prominent role in this film than she did in the game, and you got what sounds like a potentially bad game-to-film adaptation.
So if Max Payne is now likely to become another addition to the pile of lower grade adaptations, is their any hope for game-to-film adaptation? I would like to imagine so, but I'm not holding my breath. What this area needs is less people coming in only interested in current following and sales figures of the games out their and the potential audience their film could get from that. What we need more of are directors and produces you decide to pick up a game-to-film adaptation project because they are actually interested in the story, characters, and setting, and are capable of working out what really would be best to base a movie on. but that dream may be a long way away.
YouTube - Heavy Rain Tech Demo - A tech demo for Quantic Dreams next game engine, not the actual game, but show that these guy maybe a good group to keep an eye on in relation to story considering that this is just a tech demo.
Well this is a bit of a late but that is because I didn't have much to discuss until now. As you may already know I'm not much of a Uwe Boll fan. The man is a film is a film director who has spent most of his career taking computer and video game property and churning out low grade bad flicks from them. Some films that Uwe Boll have made are House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark, and Bloodrayne, all of which rate below 4% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer, and yet he still gets funding for his films.
Well recently a I go a link from a friend to an only petition to stop Uwe Boll. Apparent in a recent interview Uwe Boll stated that he would stop directing film if he was to get 1,000,000 signatures to a petition to stop him making films. Well I look at this petition and decided to leave it alone, because while Uwe Boll is a bad director, he is still doing something I only wish I could do, which make films. When discussing some of these things their is a quote from George Burns I can but think of every so often that is "I'd rather be a failure at something I love than a success at something I hate". Now I'm not saying I hate working with computers and IT, but if I was to get to direct films for a living then I would rather do that, even if it was for straight-to-DVD crappy films. So initially my decision was not to sign it.
But then Uwe Boll decided to respond to the rapid number of signatures the petition got (at that time it had gotten up to 160,000+) with this (Warning: Video contains bad language from the worlds largest douche)
"I'm the only genius in the whole f@king business", from that line on all that other stuff about the fact he was doing something I wished I could went out the window, and this became more about the fact that this guy is just delusional, and needs a major bitch slap from reality because he seems to have been ignoring her for a very long time. The fact he makes bad films I can live with, the fact that he believes himself to be the greatest filmmaker of all time, when there are clearly hundreds of thousands of people who believe otherwise, for some reason I can't live with. This guy seriously needs a reality check and while making him give up that which he loves doing is a bit much, it is what we've been given at this time.
Personally I would prefer a temporary baring from making any feature films for a set number of years during which he could potentially review his own films and compare them to other similar films and work out what it is that is actually wrong with his films. Then when his allowed to come back to films his first film would have to be based on a original property/idea rather than an acquired video game property. But since that at the moment is not an option, I'm afraid voting him out is the only option.
Well it’s been a while between post, but with good reason...well no, not really. While I have been working on various projects, a number of which you can keep track of on crazyresearch.blogspot.com, a couple of things could be argued unimportant and unnecessary. I will say however I haven’t been a complete introvert, staying inside all this time, I’ve actually made a number of visits to Melbourne. Particular things I’ve visited in Melbourne are Game On at ACMI, a computer and video games exhibition that I’ve been to twice, and Melbourne Motorshow, kind of an odd thing for me to go to considering I don’t drive, but I have found myself getting into cars a bit recent, and went to that too twice (I actually got in for free one of those times).
I, of course, have also gotten into a few more films on DVDs. One film that I’ve oddly found myself getting in to is Ginger Snaps. The film is a little know Canadian film Which I had come across once or twice before when I use to have access to pay TV while I was flipping through channels. From the few glimpses I got back then I didn’t really think much of it. But then sometime later I found myself going through Rotten Tomatoes where I found out that the film has a 91% rating on the Tomatometer, making it "Certified Fresh". This tweek my interest, because what I remember of the film wasn’t anything brilliant.
So I got my hands on a copy of the Ginger Snaps DVD (it was cheap) and first impressions weren’t all that good, as film attempts to estabilish the idea that the town it is set in has a werewolf problem, from there their is a far bit in bad acting from much of the supporting cast and some bad directing. Ginger Snap however is one of those films where what is does right it does really right. The story concept for this film, putting female teenage puberty with lycanthropy, along with some great acting from the two lead actors (Emily Perkins and Katharine Isabelle). This film has oddly won me over, I was actually surprised by how much I liked it after seeing it, that being said I can’t really recommend it that much to others as it still has a fair bit of bad acting and bad directing (and even a bit of bad writing in places) that its probably going to be quite hard to get other people into this film.
So I think thats enough on that. I had originally wanted to make this post on Easter Sunday but a made a bit of a stuff up where, while prepering to submit the post I decided to go to another webpage on the tab I was submitting the post, and lost the whole thing, but thats okay because I have to say that post was running a bit to long. I’ll try and get back into the regular pace on this blog soon, so until next post, see ya.
Did That Subtitle Just Say What I think It Said?
Current mood: tired
Last night I went to a get together with a couple of friends from the Multimedia TAFE course a while back and spent a bit of time playing old Dreamcast games, Playing poker with Skittles (because we didn't have any chips), and watching some DVDs. Some of the DVDs we watched were some of these dodgy Taiwanese imports and while the films were not at good (the movies we watched were Hitman, and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem/AVPR) we did find something on AVPR that actually made me want to import more dodgy Taiwanese DVDs.
Usually I'm someone who would prefer to go legit with most of the stuff I want. A good majority of stuff I play, listen to, and watch comes from legit sources because usually the quailty is better, the media most legit material is on (pressed CDs and DVDs) is more reliable than the media most pirated material is on (burnable CDs and DVDs), and because I'm a believe of the idea that if you like something or are going to like something it is better to buy it than pirate it because a) that is part of the reason why these people have put in a lot of time and money to make this stuff, and b) because part of how these studios and publisher measure how successful a thing is is by seeing how much money it makes back, and if a film, album, or game makes a good amount of money back then the studios and publishers start looking at producing more material like that.
That said their is something you are missing out on from some dodgy Taiwanese DVDs. It's not that crappy image quality, nor is it the crud menus they've put together, or even the fact that they don't have any from of surround sound audio. It's the Engrish subtitles. As we watched AVPR we had the "English" subtitle on for some of it, where we got was some Engrish gold. Best bits of Engrish was the subtitled alternative to "this is not a democracy" that went for a couple of lines, and the scene where Reiko Aylesworth's character returns home at the start and everyone is happy but a subtitle come up for Aylesworth's character stating "I wish I had died" or something like that as she hugs here daughter.
This is probably the only good reason to go for some of these dodgy Taiwanese DVDs. Previous good examples of this have been the Engrish subtitles to Stars Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith (or as the subtitles call it, "Backstroke of the West") and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. These are just great because they are ridiculous. But what is kind of a worry though is that this kind of ridiculousness is now coming to genuine releases thanks to outsourcing. India and Malaysia are now doing the subtitle for a number of releases and are coming up with similarly funny results.
Well another Valentine's Day has been and gown. A day where all the people in relationships celebrate their love while all the single people fall into a pit of depression wondering where they went wrong in life...or maybe that's just me. Well if there is any joy singles can get out of this day it is in that a) their are other single out there like them who maybe hating this day just as much as them, and b) Some people celebration and expression of love is sometimes not all that good, like how George Lucas tries to produce a love story between Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala and fails (and I think I've just found one reason why I'm single at the moment).
The foolishest of the love struck fools will sometimes put these bad examples of affection in some form of media that can be viewed by all the public like a newspaper. And what I'm going to do now is go through some I saw in the Herald Sun Valentine's Day lift-out.
"Roses R Red Violets R Blue Life is beautiful making love with you."
It's nice to know that the only good part of your relationship is the sex. But at the least it is simple which, when you go through some of these, is probably what some people should stick to doing.
"My Fiance HAPPY VALENTINES DAY Bonito! My Luv 4u grows each day. U r my everything I will luv 2day tomorrow and 4eva. I will luv u until the day I die."
What is this. Even if the newspaper has decided to allow SMS submissions of Valentine's messages, plain English should still be used, if not for the fact that it's easier to read, then for the fact it seems less rushed and last minute than this crud.
"2 years ago you were the spunk across the counter. Today you my homie,lover,friend. And you iz really fit aye. Happy Valentine's Day my Sexi Gangsta. Love you lots dawg. Keep it Real. Wurd."
I'm sorry, you've put too much work into making this "gangsta" to have it be considered romantic. Seeing stuff like this just makes me think about the couple in New Zealand who want to call their child 4Real but couldn't because the New Zealand name register would allow number to be put into names so instead the couple decided to call the kid Superman, instead maybe using fourreal or forreal, or hows about this A PROPER NAME.
"SFE756, I guess by reading this you found you message. Thanks for 5 years together. LHH136"
My god, more people have managed to escape from that underground city in THX 1138 (and now I've discovered another reason why I'm single). I will give this person some credit for this one though as they are the one idiot to do this, making it unique.
"Suger T**s, Hey baby, it's another Valentine's Day. Please, put down the capsicum spray. I know you put up with a lot of my crap. From toilet training to my nanna nap. Remember I was the first unprofessional to ride you. There'll be a top of 23 with showers passing through. I know I spent time in a hotel with another man. But this is new for us and we're doing the best we can. The world may think we're mad.If they do that's just too bad, too sad. I Love You Sugar T**s."
Umm...what the hell was that. I would imagine that a number of women who are commonly referred to as Sugar Tits had their hearts pumping after reading that, along with a load of crap in their pants, and the instant reaction to capsicum spray anyone who came near them.
"Rose are red, Violets are blue. Even when you're cranky, I love you."
Response: 'Oh great, so even when I hate you, you still love me.'
"Chuck Norris round house kicked a triangle and made a heart. Happy Valentine's Day."
Chuck Norris, Yeah, that will win them over.
"Wuv your floppy ears. Wuv your wet pink nose. Wuv your soft furry paws. Just wuv you."
This concept of "Wuv" confuses and infuriates us! (Had to do it).
"To my two women. B___ I will always love you for your youthful good looks, your hazy knowledge of mathematics and for passionately teaching me the important things about life, like "So You Think You Can Dance, Australia." And to G_____, whom I love making round trips to Northcote for, I love your caramel slice, your hate of space and the way you taught me to have less then 4 children. I love you both more than my wife E____, and a little less then Angela Pippos.
Valentine messages directed at multiple people always seem funny and odd to me, but this one takes the cake. It would appear this message is openly address to two girls this guy does off to the side, only giving his wife a mention in the last section, mentioning that he loves these two girl more than the woman he is married to, but doesn't love them all as much as he loves ABC sport reporter, Angela Pippos, who I guess he is obsessed with. Oh is wife must have been waiting for him to come home after this, with a nice sharp knife to go into his groin.
I hope you enjoyed reading that just as much as I did putting that together.
Been continuing with my saga to produce a proper professional-ish DVD with no luck.
Applying for work.
Laid out some plans and prepped a mock design for a possible podcasting/new media site I might put together as a project for Crazy Research.
Got a notebook for writing stuff relating to 'New Day Come', which I'm now calling 'New Night Begins' and am thinking it might get another name change as I don't feel right with that one ever.
Did some work with some footage I shot will sitting on a train from Melbourne on using my little camera, which I plan on setting to the Tegan & Sarah song 'Dark Come Soon', and hopefully get up on YouTube or something when it's done.
Installed 'The Sims 2' again.
Quickly got bored with 'The Sims 2' again.
Laid out some spending stuff I need to do this year, main one being upgrading my PC.
Wrote up this list.
Things that may or may not happen next week
Continue to search for work.
Get that damn DVD burnt and/or turn into something that could be posted up on Crazy Research as a demonstration of how I would a DVD like it.
Get some work into that podcasting/new media site that could be posted up on Crazy Research.
Write some more stuff towards 'New Night Begins'.
Finish 'Dark Come Soon' train video.
Begin upgrading my PC.
Get to the city again.
Currently
playing
:
The Sims 2 Release date: 14 September, 2004
People and Computers - The Worlds Greatest Love/Hate Relationship
Current mood: annoyed
Oh the fun of video processing. Oh the time wasted when you get you're computer process a video so it can be put on to a DVD only to discover, at the wrong time, that the video has one minor fault that makes it impossible to burn the video to a DVD for some reason. That is pretty much what I've been doing for the last couple of days. Basically I'll been playing around with what I guess you could call a professional DVD publishing program, one where have complete control over the look and style of the menus and stuff, and pretty much spend a couple of hours laying out the menus and setting up the connects and then spending days transcoding the video for the DVD only to get an error telling me a whole lot of gibberish from which only a small amount of information can be deceived to possibly suggest a video on the disc needs to be redone, so you re do that video only to get that same message back or, if lucky, a new message.
As a result of all the time it takes to process video and that you can't really do much while it is stuffing you your DVD project, I mean while it transcodes video, I did get out to see another film. Today I got out to see '3:10 to Yuma' which I thought was rather good. The film is a western that follows an impoverish farmer as he and a small group of people take a major outlaw to the 3:10 train to Yuma prison. I thought that was rather a good film, though I'm not really sure I could suggest it to anyone else unless I have a good idea what they like. I do feel like noting that I rather liked the ending film unlike a number of other people who have seen it (well, The Totally Rad Show guys at least). My only complain is why are we getting this now in cinemas while in the US they already have it on DVD? Seems kind of stupid.
So that's the post for today, hope you enjoyed it, see ya.
Today’s links (because I don’t really have much to post)
Current mood: amused
Not really much to say other than I've given a name to the vampire film idea that I posted in the last 'This Hopefully is the Beginning to Something' post. The title I've settled on for now is 'New Day Come' which comes from a Shapeshifter track I've been listening to a bit recently when thinking about the film idea. Now this is probably just a temporary name as I don't really feel right about it, but it has helped at least at getting me started on writing the early plot layout for it.
Okay, that was a bit more than I intended to write on that. Also I'm looking to maybe make my way into the city sometime next week, which should be interesting. But now the links.
aggravated
calm
pleased
tired
amused
determined
annoyed
