Why Video Games Movies Never Work

Super Mario Bros. (film) - Wikipedia

This Does Not Work

Now, why does this not work? It's kind've complicated, but I want to tackle this challenge. So, lets break it down.

Interactivity

The very thing that makes video games it's own medium is the interactivity. It's so much easier to be immersed when you're controlling the actions of the main protagonist for 90% of the game or controlling the flow of the story. When you strip that down you're left with this bare sub product that doesn't feel right because the story and characters weren't created with television or movies in mind. However, there still have been successful adaptations into the film medium with things like The Witcher and Castlevania (Netflix), so what do those get right?
The Witcher | Netflix Official SiteFirst, looking at The Witcher it was originally a series of Polish novels, and the television show chose to be based off the books as opposed to the games, but still carries the same name. It takes the stories from the novels and gives us the character found in the games, and Geralt in the games is his own character. He is controlled by the player but he does not make decisions based off the player. He has limited dialogue options, he only does things as he would as a Witcher, and most importantly he is Geralt The Witcher, not a created character like you'd find in an RPG (yes this is my alluding to the failure of that Warcraft movie that came out). The Witcher is also fantasy, which is an easier genre to bring to the screen as opposed to a platformer like Mario. Even though he's his own character, how do you bring the thrill of traversing levels to the screen? Well, you don't, that's why platformer movies don't exist (at least not succesful ones)
Now, with Castlevania. Castlevania is an original property and doesn't receive inspiration from novels, so what lead to it's success? I think this is better told in my next topic...

Time

If You Like 'The Witcher,' Don't Miss Netflix's 'Castlevania,' Now ...The average runtime for a movie is 96.5 minutes. Now, this is no small number. This means most movies eat up around a hour and a half of your time on average.However, when you compares this to video games (at least the ones people seem to be wanting to make movies on), you can range from 8 hours to hundreds of hours based on the content. The runtime of a movie is about the same runtime of an indie developer with a small budget. So a huge problem with most video game adaptations (not all obviously) is compression. They have to force feed lore and do massive info drop monologues that aren't entertaining for anyone involved. This is why for most video games (again, not all obviously), the way to go with adaptation is to go with a television format, and then decide live action or animation. Then you can drip info through a longer runtime and re-explore established characters, instead of creating caricatures. Which, speaking of...

Caricatures

Hitman: Agent 47 (2015) - IMDbThe most horrendous offender of this is the Hitman film series. Agent 47 is not a character. He is a caricature the player controls for interesting encounters. When your protagonist in a film is a caricature, it does not work. Agent 47 gets away with this in video games because it's not about the character, it's about the interactivity (yes I am referring to a previous point to hammer things home). Films and television are an entirely different story, and without a compelling protagonist the film is going to fall flat. Most films that are style over substance do not work (with the exception of films like 300), so unless it's a production company that nails style using caricatures will not work. Even if it is a stylish film however, I don't consider it a success. It doesn't bring anything new to the industry and doesn't provoke thought, which is where the best bits of film come from.

Bibliography

“Are Movies Getting Longer?” Stephen Follows, 22 Nov. 2019, stephenfollows.com/are-movies-getting-longer/.
“Castlevania Netflix.” Forbes, www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2020/03/07/if-you-like-the-witcher-dont-miss-netflixs-castlevania-now-in-season-3/#328453e35659.
“Hitman Agent 47 (2015).” IMDb, 2015, www.imdb.com/title/tt2679042/.
“Super Mario Bros. Film Poster.” Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros._(film).
“The Witcher Netflix.” Netflix, 2019, www.netflix.com/title/80189685.

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