Weekly Thought: "Difficult, Not Impossible..."

How do we save the video-game movie?

If you’re a fan of the silver screen then you’ll probably know by now that game-movies almost always suck; Doom, Tomb Raider, Street Fighter, The Chronicles of Riddick, Farcry… the list of failures could go on. Why? Well, developers would appear to be renting out all the wrong properties to begin with, and just because something is exciting to play upon the home console won’t mean it’ll necessarily be nearly so thrilling to watch elsewhere. Indeed, part of the reason that many of the above were so exhilarating as games in the first place was down to an adrenaline-ridden interactivity, and if you snatch that crucial piece of the puzzle away then it stands to reason that the ensuing magic simply won’t be there either. Good and solid franchises they may be, but guaranteed Hollywood successes they are not.

I mean, does it really matter how well a particular title grossed if it sports a weak storyline, a forgettable premise or predictable, formulaic and two-dimensional characters? There’s already more than enough rubbish out there saturating the market as it is without providing an excuse for more. To make a decent translation from living-room to theatre, isn’t it common sense that you should have more than a big, weighty name behind you? Film-to movie I.Ps need be chosen very carefully and put into action only if they have a genuinely hot concept behind them to intrigue and draw audiences, a phenomenal script to bring that tale to life, a decent cast and crew to give it soul and voice and a brand-name that will be comfortably able to shake off the nerdy, game-associated stigma that will undoubtedly dog the film’s release right up to and beyond opening day.

If studios and directors are willing to take all of this on-board and learn from their mistakes instead of blindly chasing that tempting dollar bill, then maybe - just maybe - the tables will begin to turn; as one particularly famous, fictional butler once said, after all, “why do we fall, sir? So we can pick ourselves up again.”

I think he had a pretty good point, personally.