mountaindewslave said:
some of the Resident Evil movies are actually pretty damn good
specifically the first one (Resident Evil) and Resident Evil: Afterlife were both pretty good in my opinion. they felt 'right' compared to the games
just commenting on that since the OP mentioned them
in terms of an Assassin Creed movie. I would say that the AC universe sort of lends itself to Hollywood which is good and bad. good because it seems like a property that wouldn't be that hard to adapt to film (action adventure with unique time periods) but bad in the sense of there have been a LOT of movies already in the past with similar plots to Assassin's Creed. i.e., hero is teleported to a unique time period in which he attempts to stop some sort of evil group or plot
I'm hesistantly curious. the Prince of Persia movie adaption sort of speaks volumes to the fact that even if you a video game property that seems like it would be well suited for film that it can go terribly wrong
the problem is I think in production of a video game related film a lot of production companies can feel too obligated too closely connect it to the actual game plots OR they're so comfortable with knowing that they have a video game built in audience to go see it, that they half ass it
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@bold. No. Not pretty damn good. They were OK and pretty much got what they deserved, money-wise.
Prince of Persia was also OK for the movie genre, and it's the highest grossing video game movie ever, though Tomb Raider wins when adjusting for inflation. It's main problem was the horrendously large budget, which made it extremely difficult for the movie to break even. If they'd found a way to shave $50 million off the budget the movie might have made a modest profit.
These are the hurdles that a video game adaptation needs to jump in order to have a good chance at profitability (which is the key at the end of the day, reviews don't matter if the movie profits, which is why there have been multiple Resident Evil movies). Writing and budget. The movie has to be well enough written that there's actually something worth filming. Most video game adaptations fall over at that hurdle. Budget is important because that sets the break even target. People in the industry should know that it's very difficult to get a box office smash with video game adaptations, so budgets should be kept as tight as possible. If you make a decent enough movie first time out one a modest budget, then you can think about splurging and spend more on a second movie.
You've identified the main writing issues. Do you wirte a movie version of the game, or do you write a totally different story based on the overall theme of the game? That all depends on the game. With The Last of Us they are essentially adapting the game to the big screen, pretty much like adapting a book to the big screen. With Ass Creed arguably none of the games individually have a base story sufficient to adapt into a movie, so the best thing is to make a movie using the name and major themes of the franchise. It also somewhat depends on whether a game or game franchise focusses strongly on one single character (God of War, Uncharted) or whether the franchise has multiple characters (Resident Evil, Ass Creed). It's easier to follow the themes but not the plots for games where the whole narrative isn't focussed on one character across multiple games. But it can still be done.
To me, as I mention above I have a significant concertn about the writing quality for Ass Creed. And that is likely to be its weak point and the reason it falls over critically and financially. hardly anyone other than Ass Creed game fans are goiong to go and see it, and with Ass Creed diminishing in popularity among gamers that Audience is probably going to be not as big as it was a couple of years ago. The movie was perhaps a bit too late in coming out.