A round-up of last month’s community musings
Prior to the release of the Detective Pikachu movie, a lot of videogame fans were excited at the initial trailers and hope that a videogame-based movie may finally turn out to be good. After its release, two things were confirmed. First, is that Detective Pikachu is actually good and quite well-liked and may be the highest grossing videogame-based movie of all time. Second, is that it still struggled in getting good critical scores, even if it avoided getting slammed as much as other game-based movies.
This disparity inspired me to write about videogame movie adaptations in general, and about how the differences between the mediums make it difficult to do justice to both at the same time. Community bloggers would notice that this also inspired by the excellent Band of Bloggers prompt of this month, so check out the writing of other CBloggers on the topic below.
Back to Detective Pikachu for a second, the first question to ask is: Is it a good adaptation of the videogame?
After seeing the movie and listening to the reactions of many fans of the series, I think we can equivocally say that it is in fact, an excellent adaptation of the game. In both creature design and lore establishment, the movie does incredible justice to the central element of the Pokémon franchise, and that is the Pokémon creatures themselves. While the “realistic” design was a worry for some at first, I think the majority decision is that they are depicted with great faithfulness to the original design, but in a way that makes sense in the “real” world of the movie. That is compounded in the design of the city itself, in which the Pokémon are again given central stage in how unique it is, as you can see them doing their own things in the background to create an interesting and believable space.
One thing for sure is the movie nailed the cuteness of Pikachu
The second question we now ask is: Is this good adaptation of the videogame a good movie?
The answer to this question is going to be different from many people, but I think few would argue it is a very good movie. At best, it is a good movie with some significant shortcomings. However, when we answer this question, we need to ask a follow-up: Are the movie’s weaknesses related to it being a videogame adaptation?
In this case, I think the answer is emphatically no. The movie’s weakness is not due to the Pokémon but due to plot issues and weakness that are almost universal in kid’s movies. This is a case where the same movie, without the videogame connection, would be considered a mediocre one.
To conclude on our Detective Pikachu analysis, this is a mediocre to good movie that is actually a great adaptation of the videogame. Its weaknesses are not related to the videogame part, but rather the shortcomings of the writing and the plot itself, which could have been made better to make an overall very good movie and videogame adaptation. It is fitting that the other videogame-based movie that hits the same notes is the current most successful videogame adaptation; Tomb Raider.
In the other end of the spectrum, we have many movies that are both bad on their own right as movies, and also a bad adaptation of the videogames they are based on. Starting from the original Super Mario Bros. movie and running through such forgettable messes as Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Alone in the Dark, Prince of Persia, and Assassin’s Creed.
That’s Uwe Boll in the background, lurking to destroy yet another videogame-based movie
When analyzing those movies, the answer to both questions above is a no. Other than poor usage of characters and the established lore, those movies do not typically feel like a good adaptation of the games they are based on. As such, they are often B-Level movies with over-exposition and little cohesive storytelling.
I think that one of the reasons this often happens is that movies and videogames are widely different mediums, and shoehorning one into the other is bound to backfire. In storytelling, they have a completely different focus, different pacing, and different time limitations. As such, attempting to faithfully adapt a videogame may actually be the reason for the movie being bad. Lore and characters that are explored over many hours cannot be effectively condensed into a two-hour movie. Gameplay that is inherent to the franchise may not be easily translatable in movie format (Mario’s jumping for instance).
Perhaps only with the Naughty Dog games can you make a seamless transition, as those are already paced like movies but with gameplay inserted in between the cut scenes.
One of the best examples of shoehorning a game’s themes hurting the overall product is actually in an Anime, rather than a movie. If you ever heard about Gungrave then you would have probably heard that it is one of the best videogame Anime adaptations, and that’s correct. Yet, its best features are in spite of the videogame it is based on, and not because of it.
For two-thirds of the anime, where the background of the characters and the conflict is explored, the show is really good. There is very few (if any) Anime shows that showcases Mafia stories, and Gungrave’s story about the rise of two beat-up kids to the high ranks of a Mafia organization is gripping and well-told.
However, this was an adaptation of an admittedly cheesy action game. As such, when that adaptation kicks in in the final third, and the Anime show suddenly becomes a full-fledged videogame adaptation, filled with tedious peon fights and even a chopper boss fight, the Anime starts falling flat.
Honestly, the show’s final episodes, where it turns from a gripping and personal Mafia story to a full-on Boss-fight gauntlet is extremely disappointing.
In this case, we were in the cusp of getting a good show, but not a really good adaptation of the game. On trying to be more faithful to the game, the story and the show suffered as a result.
Gungrave was at its best when being an original anime and at its worst when closely adapting the videogame’s style and structure
Ultimately, I think answering both questions is often a separate issue. Is the focus in providing a good movie, or a good adaptation to attract fans of the original property? In Detective Pikachu’s case, the story was not harmed because of the adaptation, and we could imagine a scenario in which we have both a good movie and a good adaptation. In others, the process of adaptation effectively harmed the movie, or the movie had little to do with the game, gaining little interest from the fans (and mostly being bad movies as well).
What do you think should be the balance between answering those two questions?
- The first to respond to this month’s prompt is Fivefinger Delta, with this excellent blog on a little-known character action game based on Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas movie. The game actually looks quite good for a movie tie-in, especially with the minds behind Devil May Cry on the helm.
- I am sure none of you heard about the Finnish comic character, Numbskull Emptybrook, but he is well-known enough in Finland to get his own licensed videogame on the Commodore 64. This is actually a pretty interesting story that Flegma covers really in this blog.
- Here, Shoggoth2588 watches movies of videogames based on movies. This blog covers longplays of the SNES videogame adaptations of the Batman and RoboCop movies.
- Given this prompt, the Tomb Raider movie was a natural fit and depheonix took the plunge to blog about the movie, which does some justice to the character and franchise while still being a stupid movie in some way.
- While the this is technically a cartoon show tie-in, we will all let it pass for Boxman214 as he reviews the Capcom developed SNES adaptation of the Goof Troop cartoon starring Goofy and his son.
- LaTerry plays a game that is not only an adaptation of one movie but an adaptation of an entire movie genre. Earth Defense Force V is both a celebration and parody of the monster movie genre and is the more special because of that.
- The Great Escape is a very good 60’s movie and you wouldn’t expect a videogame adaptation of it on the PS2. You would be wrong though, as Sharukurusu somehow found it on the PS2 and played it for this month’s BoB prompt.
- I had no idea that Hardcore Henry, a movie that is built like a videogame, existed. However, Riley1sCool’s blog convinced me to check it out.
- You can’t think about videogame adaptations of movies without bringing up the LEGO franchises. In this blog, Roager checks out the LEGO adaptation of the Lord of the Rings movies, excluding the terrible Hobbit cash grab.
It sure captures the look, and uh, “plot” of the games
To be fair the Resident Evil movies, they are good adaptations of Resident Evil 6
S- I guess we are in with another round of Dungeons & Dragons stories from Aurachad.
S- Is this related to the D&D sessions Aurachad have been playing?
S- Also, Aurachad is giving us an update of what exactly is he playing now.
S- Longtime Dtoider, Seymour, shares an update on his life (and his pet situation).
Is this movie making or cosplay?
M- Here is another round of PhilsPhinding blogs, where he scours the internet to find tunes that are similar, or may even have inspired, famous videogame tracks:
- The first blog of the month checks out Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and finds a similarity between the “Invincibility” theme and some classic cha-cha themes such as “El Loco Cha Cha” by Rene Touzet.
- Here, we come back to the classics with an exploration of T-Square, one of Koji Kondo’s influencers.
- It was only a matter of time before a Bomberman game is featured here, and I must say that the chosen theme is not at all similar to whatPhils is suggesting.
- Covering Queen’s “Stone Cold Crazy” song, Phils looks at several videogame themes that may be inspired by it, from games such as TMNT and Mega Man X3.
- This blog covers the little know Big Sky Trooper theme which is similar to the theme of the Robin Williams Peter Pan movie.
- Back to Contra, we get another similarity that I am not quite convinced by.
- My guess is that a lot of you may recognize the two “combo” tunes in the famous Dr. Mario game, and you would agree with the blog here.
- I wouldn’t be surprised if, as Phils say, Konami composers really liked 80’s action movie soundtracks, as this similarity betweena Gradius III and a Rambo theme shows.
- Back to Mega Man music, the blog explores the Baroque influence on the Fire Man & Cut Man stage music.
The Assassin’s Creed movie was bogged down by trying to explain the lore of the games
R- I guess what The Baked Potato is saying is that you should beware ofTERF.
R- Here, Sapato64 shares the leveling-up stories of his hero, Tango, in this City of Heroes game.
R- And here, Sapato64 starts a story blog featuring his World of Warcraft character.
L- This is a brilliant series by Dr Mel, who is scouring old magazines and checking the gaming advertisements included within:
- In “Wizard” magazine, issue 121 (October 2001), check out the Advance Wars and Planet of the Apes ads among others.
- There are more funny ads in “Blackwulf the Sacrifice”, Vol. 1 No. 3 (August 1994), especially the MC Hammer pants in the cereal ad.
- In issue 375 of “Spider-Man” (March 1993), the advertisements are filled with 90’s “attitude”, personified by the hilarious Marvel trading cards ad.
- Other than a good and topical AIDS awareness advertisement, there is nothing special in the other ads in the second issue of “Lobo” (1994) magazine.
F- The Qposts for advertisements is that way.
All eyes are on you now Sonic
The month of May saw a substantial increase in the number of blogs compared to April. Specifically, there were 73 vs. 58 blogs. One trend I noticed is that the Band of Bloggers prompt has inspired many writers this month, but the blogs were only released at the end.
Regardless of the number of blogs, your continued readership is important in keeping the Cblog community thriving, so go ahead and read and comment on as many blogs that you can. I am positive that many of these blogs are an interesting read to anyone who is interested enough in videogames to be a Dtoid member.
To celebrate the recap of the entire month, give a hand to the following bloggers:
Topsauced Bloggers:
Comments of the Week and Band of Bloggers Team of this Month:
Be Lucky
Blog Count: 73