I believe that one day there will be a movie based on a video game that will be awesome. So awesome, that it will be compared to Spiderman 2, or the second X-Men movie, or even the first Spiderman. I believe that movie will emerge, and when it does, Uwe Boll will be revealed as the crap artist he is.
Unfortunately, the Max Payne movie was not that movie. It was a bland action movie that suffers from disjointed scenes, lack of faith toward source material, lots of dialogue and not enough shooting.
I personally love the Max Payne games, although I have to admit the storyline for the first one wasn't gold, or let alone bronze. Here is why:
Max Payne meets up with cop.
Cop gets shot.
Max starts up train and crashes through wall.
Max runs down tracks and ends up in a bank robbery for some reason.
So then Max looks for a bad guy in the wrong place, twice.
Then he kills bad guy, but he was the wrong bad guy. End Act One.
I admit, there needed to be some cleaning up. So in doing so, they cut out both the Italian mob and the Russians. Vlad's gone. The Trio's gone. Vinnie Gognitti? He gets a cameo. The camera pans down during one scene revealing a neon lit sign that reads, "Vinnie Gognitti's Storage." That's his cameo.
And while major characters fall of the map, minor characters get fleshed out. Mona shows up more often. Lisa Sax becomes Natasha Sax, and Russian, and gets a part outside of "dead girl on bed." B.B. gets a facelift.
Speaking of B.B., they don't give him a full name. They don't give him a first name or a last name. It's just, "Hey! B.B.!" Or, "Look, it's B.B. over there!" And when they call him by his initials so often, you have to wonder why they didn't just give him a name.
Also, it was rated PG-13. The game was rated Mature, why downgrade the violence for the movie version? Grrr!
Ultimately, I'm not recommending anyone to watch Max Payne. At least in theatres. Wait until the unrated edition comes out on dvd, then you can watch some hot chick hit on Max Payne, and then Max say, "NO! Me and Agent 47 don't have sex with hot girls." Did they hire Mark Whalberg only to realize they forgot to sign on his penis?
P.S.
I'm noticing an interesting trend towards hot chicks wanting to have sex with main characters of video game based movies, and the main guy turns them down.
Unfortunately, the Max Payne movie was not that movie. It was a bland action movie that suffers from disjointed scenes, lack of faith toward source material, lots of dialogue and not enough shooting.
I personally love the Max Payne games, although I have to admit the storyline for the first one wasn't gold, or let alone bronze. Here is why:
Max Payne meets up with cop.
Cop gets shot.
Max starts up train and crashes through wall.
Max runs down tracks and ends up in a bank robbery for some reason.
So then Max looks for a bad guy in the wrong place, twice.
Then he kills bad guy, but he was the wrong bad guy. End Act One.
I admit, there needed to be some cleaning up. So in doing so, they cut out both the Italian mob and the Russians. Vlad's gone. The Trio's gone. Vinnie Gognitti? He gets a cameo. The camera pans down during one scene revealing a neon lit sign that reads, "Vinnie Gognitti's Storage." That's his cameo.
And while major characters fall of the map, minor characters get fleshed out. Mona shows up more often. Lisa Sax becomes Natasha Sax, and Russian, and gets a part outside of "dead girl on bed." B.B. gets a facelift.
Speaking of B.B., they don't give him a full name. They don't give him a first name or a last name. It's just, "Hey! B.B.!" Or, "Look, it's B.B. over there!" And when they call him by his initials so often, you have to wonder why they didn't just give him a name.
Also, it was rated PG-13. The game was rated Mature, why downgrade the violence for the movie version? Grrr!
Ultimately, I'm not recommending anyone to watch Max Payne. At least in theatres. Wait until the unrated edition comes out on dvd, then you can watch some hot chick hit on Max Payne, and then Max say, "NO! Me and Agent 47 don't have sex with hot girls." Did they hire Mark Whalberg only to realize they forgot to sign on his penis?
P.S.
I'm noticing an interesting trend towards hot chicks wanting to have sex with main characters of video game based movies, and the main guy turns them down.
My blog:
http://nvracar.wordpress.com/
http://nvracar.wordpress.com/
Yes there will eventually be a good movie based on a game. You know why? I'm going to be the one directing the darn thing.
Mark my words guys (and quote them in your sigs), when I make it big on Hollywood I won't forget my promise to make one of the Tex Murphy games into a smash hit movie!
-Cub. =o)
Mark my words guys (and quote them in your sigs), when I make it big on Hollywood I won't forget my promise to make one of the Tex Murphy games into a smash hit movie!
-Cub. =o)
Jen wrote:I don't think that Resident Evil(s) sucked. They made a decent amount of money. I thought they were good popcorn flicks.
I agree, they may not have followed the game to a T, but they were good movies nonetheless...
I'm waiting for the MegaMan Movie to come out... That would be awesome...
The Paved Straight Road, Won't Always Get You Farther Than The Winding Dirt Road...
Can You Run Your Game??? Click Here And Find Out...
*Note, Not All Games Have Been Tested & Therefore May Not Be Listed...
Can You Run Your Game??? Click Here And Find Out...
*Note, Not All Games Have Been Tested & Therefore May Not Be Listed...
Don't forget to drop me an email for the auditions!Cubase wrote:
Mark my words guys (and quote them in your sigs), when I make it big on Hollywood I won't forget my promise to make one of the Tex Murphy games into a smash hit movie!
-Cub. =o)
As for video game films, yeah, they have mostly sucked. But I loved the Super Mario Brothers film when it was out. Good cast, pretty good acting when you take into account the script and genre of the film, but best of all, it wasn't bound to the asthetics or environment of the game, the film was its own thing.
In my opinion, it worked as an enjoyable action/adventure/sci-fi to take your mind off the world for 90 minutes in the same way that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull did. As long as things don't go too far, I don't mind some films lacking some finer elements of realism if the film is fun.
They are currently working on Castlevania as well... Though the Writers involved have been getting some bad mouthing from what I've seen on another message board, I'm holding a little hope for this, it was rumored that Jonathon Frakes was going to be in it... He's a decent actor and has a certain characteristic air about him, I wish he did more acting, but he is more into Directing nowadays...
The Paved Straight Road, Won't Always Get You Farther Than The Winding Dirt Road...
Can You Run Your Game??? Click Here And Find Out...
*Note, Not All Games Have Been Tested & Therefore May Not Be Listed...
Can You Run Your Game??? Click Here And Find Out...
*Note, Not All Games Have Been Tested & Therefore May Not Be Listed...
I agree, the first Resident Evil was okay. The beginning was good, the ending was good, the middle was iffy. It's two sequels were awful.
My blog:
http://nvracar.wordpress.com/
http://nvracar.wordpress.com/
I think this proves Aaron and Chris' ideas about the massive potential for story in games. In video games, like Max Payne, there is much more time to tell the story. In the first MP game, Max has to fight his way through many Russian Doll enemies before he finally reaches the final villain. The movie could not have had room for all of that.
I'll take Anderson over Boll any day of the week, all year every year.
Here's my take on Uwe Boll: Imagine a great movie. I mean tremendously great, one that everyone can agree is a fantastic piece of cinema, even if they don't much care for the movie itself themselves. Like, for instance, The Godfather.
The Godfather is, as a movie, comparable to a work of musical art. Say... Mozart, for instance. Yes. The Godfather is the equivalent of a work by Mozart - pure genius, a work of, well, art.
Anything by Uwe Boll is more like ten thousand steel pots and pans tumbling down a bastard cliff!!
Also, Cubase? Guess what! I'm directing my own, low-budget short film next year!! You heard it here first!!
-Fred
Here's my take on Uwe Boll: Imagine a great movie. I mean tremendously great, one that everyone can agree is a fantastic piece of cinema, even if they don't much care for the movie itself themselves. Like, for instance, The Godfather.
The Godfather is, as a movie, comparable to a work of musical art. Say... Mozart, for instance. Yes. The Godfather is the equivalent of a work by Mozart - pure genius, a work of, well, art.
Anything by Uwe Boll is more like ten thousand steel pots and pans tumbling down a bastard cliff!!
Also, Cubase? Guess what! I'm directing my own, low-budget short film next year!! You heard it here first!!
-Fred
Pirates, vampires, zombies, ninjas, ghouls, aliens, goblins, monsters, robots, sorcerers, undead, werewolves, demons, mutated dinosaur-cyborgs and those pesky phone salesmen! The shotgun is a one-size-fits-all solution!
Yeah I've read that and it did make me disappointed, but I'm going to hold a little hope for it either way... Castlevania was one of the best series I can remember playing... It's a shame that it will most likely get a "Prison Rape" from the writers and directors they are choosing to do this project... Hopefully the actors involved are able to put their own spin on it and leave the director holding their own droppings...lotus_j wrote:Anderson does both the directing and writing!
He's also the hack behind the upcoming Castlevania. So don't expect anything there either.
I still have almost every episode produced in the series, the only ones I don't have are the ones made for any of the Hand-Held devices...
I did however download one that Cingular had on it's list... Could have been better, but what can you expect from a Cell Phone game, it was decent for 6 bucks... I haven't finished it yet, but since it was Castlevania I had to download it... Just like the Mega Man games they have made for the Cell Phone, I have Mega Man 2 & 3, they are so kewl to have on the phone...
The Paved Straight Road, Won't Always Get You Farther Than The Winding Dirt Road...
Can You Run Your Game??? Click Here And Find Out...
*Note, Not All Games Have Been Tested & Therefore May Not Be Listed...
Can You Run Your Game??? Click Here And Find Out...
*Note, Not All Games Have Been Tested & Therefore May Not Be Listed...
Still waiting on a Grim Fandango movie.
Although I really don't know what it would add to the game. Not to screw it up they'd have to pretty much put all the cutscenes together, throw in some in-game action and put it all together. At this point, we might as well just replay the game.
Same is true for Deus Ex. Amazing story in-game, but a movie would be entirely pointless. A tv series might be a lot more appropriate, although it would probably suffer an X-Filles comparison.
What I don't understand from Max Payne is why they took the best characters, the best lines/quotes and most importantly, the best music, and replaced it by generic crap. Did they only buy the rights for a few names and characters? I know most people want a movie that stands on its own, but this one is just silly.
One thing I'd like to say is that bad stories in games are a very poor excuse for bad movies based on games. A game like Half Life, for instance, is excellent material for a good story-teller. The environment is extremely interesting while the game leaves a LOT of room for work and interpretation. IMO, this makes the task a whole lot easier. A game with a compelling story would be difficult to adapt, and leave you wondering what it brings to the table that wasn't already covered by the game. Chances are you're going to cut more than you add. Of course the source material needs to at least have potential. I find the environment and premise to be the most important.
It's a lot like remakes. The best remakes seem to be those based on movies that had potential but turned out to be poor or awful, or just really, really outdated. I've yet to see a good remake of a good film.
Although I really don't know what it would add to the game. Not to screw it up they'd have to pretty much put all the cutscenes together, throw in some in-game action and put it all together. At this point, we might as well just replay the game.
Same is true for Deus Ex. Amazing story in-game, but a movie would be entirely pointless. A tv series might be a lot more appropriate, although it would probably suffer an X-Filles comparison.
What I don't understand from Max Payne is why they took the best characters, the best lines/quotes and most importantly, the best music, and replaced it by generic crap. Did they only buy the rights for a few names and characters? I know most people want a movie that stands on its own, but this one is just silly.
One thing I'd like to say is that bad stories in games are a very poor excuse for bad movies based on games. A game like Half Life, for instance, is excellent material for a good story-teller. The environment is extremely interesting while the game leaves a LOT of room for work and interpretation. IMO, this makes the task a whole lot easier. A game with a compelling story would be difficult to adapt, and leave you wondering what it brings to the table that wasn't already covered by the game. Chances are you're going to cut more than you add. Of course the source material needs to at least have potential. I find the environment and premise to be the most important.
It's a lot like remakes. The best remakes seem to be those based on movies that had potential but turned out to be poor or awful, or just really, really outdated. I've yet to see a good remake of a good film.
Part-Time Nomad
I agree... other than improved visuals I don't think there is a lot I would change. The cinematography, voice acting and general setting and atmosphere are already so perfect.Frank wrote:Still waiting on a Grim Fandango movie.
Although I really don't know what it would add to the game. Not to screw it up they'd have to pretty much put all the cutscenes together, throw in some in-game action and put it all together. At this point, we might as well just replay the game.
-Cub. =o)