So what is worse?

[SenGoku81]

So the other night on freeview the truly terrible movie Street Fighter was on and out of morbid curiosity I gave it a watch as the last time I saw it was shortly after its release in the 90s, having been a big fan of SFII on my SNES many moons back. Even then I wasn't impressed.

This time round I found that the film came off as poorly acted, unfaithful, badly produced and total waste of time to anyone making it or watching it and it had aged terribly. I also contribute the film as key in the late Raúl Juliás demise, having completed it and watching it he was so disgraced to have been involved that he prematurely shuffeled off this 'ere mortal coil.

I'm not here to debate the merits and flaws of this particular film but I do wish to ask the Forum which they think is worse; Films that have been made into games or games that have been made into films.

I do accept that there are few rare exceptions to such a rule (shockingly so was Street Fighter; the Animated Movie!) But generally I feel slightly ill when I see things like the game Iron Man, the recent Tekken movie and I projectile vomit my entire intestinal tract when I hear fan boys wetting their pants at the prospect of getting a Halo movie.

Again I stress that in my mind both FOG's and GOF's are generally bad news and I do not need convincing otherwise. What I do want is people to submit cases for or against either party making clear, constructive criticism or praise and why they think their party FOG's/GOF's are worthy of more lothing/praise.

I'm going to give it a month before I bring down the hammer so once and for all it is know which is the worse.
Have fun ^^

[Medusa]

I vote films based on games. Because at least while playing a badly made film-based game, you can imagine that it's as good as the movie. You can't imagine that a film is any better than it is while you're stuck watching it.

[mdhay]

I'm going for films based on games, seeing as I thought that the AvP game was pretty decent, same as Star Wars Battlefront, although it isn't really based on the films.

[Dan Locke]

There are many awesome games based on films, but (to my knowledge) no good films based on games.

The sad thing is that it certainly doesn't have to be that way - given a game with a good story and a talented director, you could easily have a great movie.

Even if the game doesn't have much of a story, it's still a good moviemaking opportunity. Imagine a Metroid movie - not one about Samus rolling around in caves, but one about her other bounty hunts. Wouldn't that be awesome?

[mdhay]

That would. :hyper

[SenGoku81]

I'd agree that a film port of Metroid would be an interesting prospect, Samus Aran isn't your usual testosterone fueled square jawed meat head who usually plays the part of protagonist, a lone female bounty hunter struggling for equality in a male bounty hunters universe ^^

To call back to a mentioned gripe (Halo) I've never seen the appeal of making such a story into a movie, the very basic framework of narrative that games usually provide works well enough to coax the common or garden gamer into blasting endless enemies to pieces for upwards of 20 hours but how would it fill the space of two hours of viewing and no participation.

Perhaps I should also cover books into films and vice versa next time ^^

[Woopzilla]

Films based on games.

I say this because as others have stated, there are some games based on films that are decent and fun. Though I've not played them, I've heard some praise for certain Star Wars games. Back on the SNES (although admittedly, back then games didn't have such high standards) there were plenty of fun games based on films/series/cartoons. I think this is because games have no problem sticking close to the original film's storyline. They just need to add characters loyal to the film and you can just imagine the rest as you play the level.

The problem with films based on games is that they have to change the plot and things so that the film doesn't just apeal to gamers. They want to make money, and theres a good percentage of movie goers who might not have played the games. Films also are something where you can't imagine things... it's just the way it appears on screen and you can't help but notice all the bizarre changes done for seemingly no reason whatsoever. Names changes, plot changes, location changes...

My biggest disappointment was Silent Hill. I love the game series and when I read that the director was a big fan of SH1 I had a little hope of it turning out ok. But when I saw the finished movie with Sean Bean mindlessly running around in some bizarre subplot and the ideas behind Silent Hill being totally butchered I couldn't help but rage. While Pyramid Head's appearance was sort of cool, he only appears in SH2 which is unrelated to the other games in the series. I understand Sean Bean's weird subplot was added because after a review the producers said the film had a too large female-only cast. Well... maybe they shouldn't have given the main character a genderswap? :/

Anyhow, some non-gamers might enjoy the films, but deviations from canon-storylines never goes down well with gamers.

[amplificated]

Not a single film based on a game can be actually called "good". There may be some guilty pleasure type movies out there, but you'd still have slim pickings with what's just avalable there.

Games based on films? Well, it's not too different, except for Goldeneye on the '64. Game was a classic. That alone notches the games based on films category to the higher ranking, however slight that lead may be.

Best game-to-film type of movie I remember seeing was a Mortal Kombat one. It mostly sucked, but was worth a watch for the fight scenes and campyness.

[Harvai]

I voted for films based off games. I can only think of the bad ones (Street Fighter, DOA, Doom)

I can understand why they change (fundamental) parts of the game in question to adapt to the big screen and to gain a wider audience, but because they've changed things from the game they start to lose fans of the game in question.

I mean the Street Fighter movie wasn't all that great, DOA made less sense than the games it was based off and Doom needed more HUGE GUTS RIP AND TEAR.
I can also understand that these games didn't have much of a story to begin with, but maybe that means they shouldn't add MORE storylines!

[yeldar2097]

Watching the Dead or Alive film on ITV at the moment. Worst/funniest thing I've ever seen in my life ever ever ever. Ever.

:lol

[Aeroracer]

i watched 10 mins of dead and alive tonight..i thought it was noncense so turned it off.game is much more realistic..

mind u it did make me laught when the woman was beating those guys while putting her bra on..it happens to me everyday..:p

[blackwiggle]

Films based on games.
Hollywood has been making a higher percentage of garbage movies over good movies for years now.
They have run out of ideas or are just too bone idle to put the effort in.
I can understand a merchandising tie-in with a game based on a movie, but the other way around is really scraping the bottom of the barrel.
What next?
TETRIS the movie.

Have you seen the list of Marvel comic book based movies about to hit our screens or that are in production?
There were 7 at last count, God help us.
Another Spiderman & Ironman, Captain America, Wonder Woman,The Green Hornet, Justice League and supposedly another HULK movie, which would have to be the most depressing news out of all of them since the last one was so bad.

If you look at up coming , yet to be released movies, things are looking pretty grim.
Only "The Killer Inside Me" - Casy Affleck, looks like it might be something worth the wait.

[Aeroracer]

i was just reading that director Uwe Boll makes much of this game to film merde..

he is so rubbish according to the net that at some games awards ceromonys their is the uwe boll award ..this awarded to a really crap game so crap its worthy to be made into a film by him..

they say he gets most of his movie cash from govement handouts from germany and would be a flop if he was not supported by his country..

my personal opinion of him based on watching alone in the dark is he is truly rubbish...

[Dan Locke]

What next?
TETRIS the movie.
Uh, about that... (http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/1/24/)