Throughout the history of movies (especially within the last decade or so) many adaptations have been made from things like books and video games. Some are bad, some are good, and some are just mediocre.
In recent years, due to the massive success of Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, movies based on teen novels have been popping up. Most notably things like Maze Runner, Divergent, and The Fault in Our Stars. Adaptations from book to film aren’t always from “teen novels” though. Take for example, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, my favorite film series of all time and a massive success.
Even TV shows have adopted this formula with shows like Game of Thrones. I’ve never had a problem understanding why filmmakers frequently turn books into movies. It’s basically just a script that someone wrote and tossed out for the public to read, but when it comes to video games I just don’t understand the draw.
I’m not talking about things like Pixels though. I don’t get the video game specific movies like Mortal Kombat or Super Mario Brothers. It is extremely rare that you find a good video game movie. I think the reason that they never really hit there mark is that a video game is more of a personal thing.
No two people really ever have the same experience. You can play in different ways. Trying to make that into a movie just doesn’t work. Maybe a very story heavy game that doesn’t focus that much on game-play could work, but something like Mario Bros…not a chance.
Don’t even get me started on movies turned into video games. It’s the same argument but in reverse. A movie is supposed to be a specific story, told in a specific way. Only rarely does something like that work when transformed into a video game.
There have even been some movies based on toys recently like The Lego Movie. Another thing that I don’t understand is the transition from cartoons and anime into live action movies. The reason that people animate certain things is so that they can exaggerate things or have something look a certain way. Turning that into a live action movie or TV show completely strips it of its uniqueness most of the time.
What I completely understand are comic book adaptations. They’re almost like a combination of a script and a storyboard. The most successful of these are all of Marvel’s superhero movies but the closest ever to the comic book itself are the Sin City movies. Another amazing example would be Kingsman: The Secret Service, one of my favorite movies of all time.
Watching those movies is almost like watching a comic book come to life. It’s fantastic.
As a whole, adaptations can be a very great thing and it’s not always bad if a director makes some changes to the plot or characters to better compliment the movie form. If you want everything to be exactly the same just reread the book. Let me know some of your favorite (or least favorite) adaptations in the comments. Thanks for reading.