Whether they’ve cleaned up at the box office or crashed and burned into the side of the building, video game adaptations are here to stay. What makes or breaks these adaptations?

Doom. Angry Birds, Super Mario Bros. …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtMZKYnLg5c

It’s likely you just cringed a bit…and it’s no wonder. Video game movies often get a bad rep. While the inspiration for movies and TV shows come from books at a steady pace, video game adaptations are, well…a different animal altogether. While you can have some more “faithful” versions, like Warcraft, most of the time gamers will shy away from any mention of a video game getting picked up by the non-interactive screen. Why are we so protective over our video games?

If you google most of the more well-known video game movies, you’ll come up with a relatively low bar in terms of ratings. Quite often ranging from a low 5/10 to barely stretching towards a 7/10, video games adaptations are often not rated well. Is this because video games do not easily translate well to a restricted time setting? Do we inherently expect more from video game movies than we do of book adaptations? Are video game enthusiasts just more vocal than avid book-lovers about their adaptation woes? Do the non-gamers just not take as readily to our stories?

There are countless potential questions to ask oneself about gaming movies when there has yet to be a truly breakaway success. Sure, titles like Resident Evil have made for a horse-beating franchise, but is that what governs success? It would seem to me that part of the problem with a poorer reception of video game adaptations is anticipation, and subsequently, delivery. Clearly, there’s something about these stories that television and movie producers think will yet turn a profit. With a Tomb Raider reboot on the way, alongside a The Witcher TV series in the works from Netflix, it’s hard to believe that producers are just trying to capitalize on gamer’s desires to see their games on the big screen.

Many of the video game adaptations we see made into movies are action or horror narratives. Silent Hill, Assassin’s Creed, Hitman, Prince of Persia, etc. While it may seem like the big explosion or horrific titles would garner the best reaction from audiences. Unfortunately, this has not been the case. It’s not to say that these games don’t possess the storylines to carry forward to the big screen, but perhaps it’s because their narratives are actually too big for films.

Picture this, you’ve spent 35+ hours dedicated to piecing together a video game’s storyline. Through blood, sweat, and controller-throwing tears, you’ve been an active agent in the narrative. When translated to the big screen, anticipation for this kind of experience runs too high to actually be met by any director. While some may argue that books suffer the same fate, I would suggest that while in terms of stories that are too large to be told properly on screen is true, the fact remains that there’s just something that’s missing when you’ve effectively “lived” through a game and come to see it flat on a film screen. Excited gamers often leave theaters upset that the film did not deliver the same experience in a 1.5hr timeframe that they had previously experienced in five times that at home.

Another problem often felt by video game adaptations over their literary counterparts, is that video game movies are often not judged as their own interpretation of the original storyline inspiration, but are rather criticized for their narrative liberties. Silent Hill butchered the video game’s storyline when it came to the big screen. Melding narrative elements from the first three games, and completely changing established elements in order to fit the silver screen’s demands, it was not well received by series fans.

While on its own it was not the best horror movie of the year, however, it was better than many other horror movies which were better received. The first Resident Evil was saved this critical fate either. If taken on their own without associating them to their original media sources, would they have taken less of a hit by critics? Conversely, like in Warcraft, some video game movies are criticized for assuming the audience knows too much about the video game and neglects to explain things for those who entered the theater unwittingly.

Whether writers/directors are too faithful to the original narrative, or not faithful enough, it seems as though video game adaptations just can’t catch a break. There’s some sort of je ne sais quoi that video games seem to possess that just can’t quite translate to the big screen, even when they seem as though they should. Perhaps, in the end, the timeframe is all that’s holding back adaptations from their true glory. We passionately play through our narratives for hours on end, is it any wonder that the intricacies of these stories don’t translate well to a shorter and non-interactive media?

As The Witcher is due to be released as a series on Netflix, perhaps this will change. While many have tried to reproduce games on the big screen, fewer still have attempted live-action small screen productions. If The Witcher succeeds as a TV show, I would suspect we will see many other attempts at small screen adaptations take place. But perhaps that’s a good thing? More time to develop a narrative, and the ability to show the nuances of a game’s environment. Rather than running their heads into the same wall and hoping for different results, this time, things might actually be different.

I’m a glutton for video game movies myself, good or bad. While I don’t think many of the adaptations have been the best movies ever, I do think that they’re often not given as much credit as they deserve. I would love to see more movies cast on the big screen to see the worlds in new ways, not only to see what I already know shown in a new way. Much like what Marvel did for superhero movies, perhaps we just need someone to do it right for once, and maybe The Witcher will do just that.

If not, I’m holding out hope for a great BioShock or Mass Effect trilogy.

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