I have spent hours talking and writing about my feelings about video game movies. I am, mostly, not a fan. Why would I be? Look at Super Mario Bros., Double Dragon, Street Fighter, House of the Dead, Rampage, and countless other horrors. Sure, we’ve had a few movies end up being good, but they’re not good adaptations of the source material.

Resident Evil is a perfect example of this, great zombie flick. but a terrible adaptation of the game. I’ve been saying that streaming series are the way to go. I have even supported the idea of more I.P.s getting animated like Castlevania. However, I recently saw Sonic the Hedgehog and enjoyed the hell out of it.

Sonic isn’t the only video game movie I have enjoyed recently, Detective Pikachu was a wonderful film with a lot of heart that brought limitless possibilities for the Pokemon franchise on the big screen. In fact, Sonic actually follows a lot of the same beats that Detective Pikachu did. The lonely creature, the reluctant human, the reluctant human’s companion giving the protagonist the nudge they need to do the right thing. And both use lightning.

What Works

Both movies work well because they have a focused story. Neither one spends too much time on world-building and both really focus on the characters and let them introduce you to the world. Of course, there is some exposition to explain things about Pokemon or how Sonic’s abilities work, but we never get bogged down with this.

Having this kind of focus and staying true to the source material is exactly why these two films are enjoyable. In the past, studios were afraid to embrace the source material and that made them try to build entire universes, character backgrounds, and conflicts in less than two-and-a-half hours. That doesn’t work. The great thing about turning video games into films is the same as it is for comic books, built-in fan bases, stories, and storyboards. The game literally gives you camera angles!

That built-in fan base is important too. It’s what saved Sonic. You may recall the first trailer caused some uproar over the to-realistic look for the Sega mascot. It was atrocious looking and I still don’t know how that design made it all the way through to be used in a trailer. I almost buy into the theory that Paramount and Sega created the bad model on purpose to generate buzz and seem like they listened to fans with the redesign. Some people think that the design change set a dangerous precedent, that studios may begin to listen to fans and limit the artistic flexibility of filmmakers. I think listening to fans is a smart idea if you want to make money.

RELATED: What Saved Sonic The Hedgehog From Being A Box Office Flop?

The really impressive thing is how much heart and character is in Sonic himself. Ben Schwartz does an amazing job voicing the Blue Blur. The audience is able to connect to Sonic, who is in hiding, because we’ve all felt alone at one point in our lives. That connection is harder to get from a video game movie than other films because we actually control and play as the characters in the games. We spend hours in their shoes and this means filmmakers have to work within expectations that new and original characters don’t come with. If a studio or director can accept that, they have a better chance of making a good movie.

What Doesn’t Work

The big thing that video game movies have going against them is time. As I stated before, we spend hours with our characters in games. A platformer, like Sonic the Hedgehog, usually offers three to four hours of play while an action-adventure game may have 10 to 12 hours. Then there are RPGs that have 30, 40, 50, or more hours of content. This means the filmmakers really have to nail the character or the audience will not be pleased, but they only have two hours to do this. Two hours is a lot of time to create something original, but when there are expectations and existing material, that’s not enough time.

Another thing is picking the right property. Honestly, racing games and fighting games are poor choices to adapt to film, but both have been done. Need For Speed was terrible. It was a crappy story, with crappy acting, and tried too hard to be like the Fast & Furious franchise (Editor’s Note: I feel personally attacked by this statement).

RELATED – Sonic Speeds To The Top Of The Box Office And The Flash May Undo The Justice League! | LRMornings

The original Mortal Kombat did exceptionally well making over $120 million on a $20 million budget, but it was a bad movie (Editor’s Note: I feel even more personally attacked by this statement). The acting and dialogue were bad, the visuals suffered, and the story barely touched the mythology of the game. The studio wanted the focus to be on the fights, which is fine, but we never got a chance to get to care about the characters. The sequel was even worse. Street Fighter is another example where there’s not a lot of story in the source and the filmmakers are basically left putting square pegs into round holes.

Resident Evil seemed like a prime property with its rich story but we got a weird cyber-punk zombie flick that didn’t catch the survivor-horror feel. It was too action-y. So getting the right tone for an adaptation is a challenge too. Really, you would think only action-adventure and RPGs would work for film, but Sonic proved that to be very wrong.

So, Series Or Film?

So, has my mind been totally changed? Is the silver screen the place for video games?  Yeas and no. It all depends on the property. The longer the game and the more mythology or story behind it, the more likely it would work better as a series. Our editor-in-chief brought up the idea of Metroid as a film and I can totally see that working. It could easily take the Alien approach and give us one hell of a sci-fi scare. Horizon: Zero Dawn though, that needs at least two seasons to tell its story.

I would also highly suggest to studios to look at animation. Castlevania is one of the best game adaptations ever made, and it’s one of the best Dracula stories ever told. My faith in the VGM has been restored though. Sonic the Hedgehog really impressed me and I have some hope for the future. I’m still not sold on the Mortal Kombat film reboot, but if the studio respects the source, uses its time wisely, and makes us care about the characters they have a chance at success.

What do you think? Would games do better on the big or small screen? Let us know in the comments below!

Don’t forget to share this post on your Facebook wall and with your Twitter followers! Just hit the buttons on the top of this page.

—–

Have you checked out LRM Online’s official podcast feed yet The LRM Online Podcast Network? This includes our flagship podcast Los Fanboys, our premiere podcast Breaking Geek Radio: The Podcast, and our morning show LRMornings. Check it out by listening below. It’s also available on all your favorite podcast apps!

Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts |  Spotify  |  SoundCloud | Stitcher | Google Play

 

  FOR FANBOYS, BY FANBOYS Have you checked out LRM Online’s official podcasts and videos on The Genreverse Podcast Network? Available on YouTube and all your favorite podcast apps, This multimedia empire includes The Daily CoG, Breaking Geek Radio: The Podcast, GeekScholars Movie News, Anime-Versal Review Podcast, and our Star Wars dedicated podcast The Cantina. Check it out by listening on all your favorite podcast apps, or watching on YouTube! Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts |  Spotify |  SoundCloud | Stitcher | Google Play