Video Game Movies Suck
Oh video game movies, how we hate you. It seems for every one decent movie based on a video game we get ten direct-to-DVD bargain bin stinkers. Sure, some of them are good for a few laughs (with Bob Hoskins as Mario, how could you not?), but it’s a rare occasion indeed when one even manages to turn a profit, let alone end up any good.
Radar Group, a venture capital-funded start-up, hopes to change all that. Co-founded last year by CEO Jim Perkins, the company seeks to manage original content intended for your favorite consoles and theaters alike.
The company’s mission statement promises “No more games based on 3rd party licensed Intellectual Properties. No more sweatshop internal development. No more stale titles. Now - fresh properties.” Some lofty goals to be sure. Maybe we’d be more excited if we hadn’t been burned so often in the past.
Thus far the company has announced three projects: a sci-fi FPS developed by 3D Realms called Earth No More, the Constantine-esque Incarnate, and Prey 2, the follow-up to PC Gamer’s “Action Game of the Year”.
Radar Group has a tough road ahead of it, trying to craft a story that works for two disparate media. The successful movie-to-game crossovers of the past have often side-stepped the problem of using a movie’s linear story by staying true only to the tone of the source material. The same has held true for most game-to-movie franchises.
It looks like we’ll just have to wait to see how this first round of movie adaptations works out before making any predictions about the future of Radar Group. At least they’ve got one thing going for them: Uwe Boll is mercifully absent from the company’s management roster.
Tags: Jim Perkins, Nintendo, Super Mario, Tomb Raider
You’re forgetting about the best video game movie out there, Resident Evil. They made three movies out of yet another interpretation of the zombie apocalypse. But, you’re right Mario Brothers was awesome. Bowser < bomb-omb
Oh man I loved the Super Mario Bros. movie! Just wish they’d make a Halo movie already…
Man, the Halo trailer looks great.
Anyone remember Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter? Oh, the 90’s classics…
Super Mario Bros movie was sick, So was the first incarnation of Resident Evil. I didn’t like Mortal Kombat too much, and theres plenty more out there, but Tomb Raider…. oh Angelina Jolie.
I dunno, I honestly liked Mortal Kombat.
Who could forget the one that began the trend, The Wizard. Although it was not exactly based on a particular video game, I nearly fainted when I saw Fred Savage and company playing Super Mario Brothers 3 for the first time. Go Power Glove!
Honorable mention goes to Double Dragon circa 1994 starring Scott Wolf, Robert Patrick, Alyssa Milano, Mark Dacascos, and the very talented Vanna White (Yes, from Wheel of Fortune).
I think history will smile on old Uwe Boll as a visionary - a kind of Ed Wood of our time. Either that or his next movie (a screen adaptation of Far Cry) will force Hollywood to cancel all future video game movies due to lack of interest. Good call by the way on Double Dragon, who can beat Mark Dacascos really?
Speaking Uwe Boll . . .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpczN_t7Uk8&watch_response
*speaking of Uwe Boll
bleh . . .
there needs to be a connect4 movie.
Mario Brothers does not deserve to be the icon for this article. That movie was siiick! (when i was 10), but still…you guys remember the huge green guys with the tiny heads…haha
Video game movies! WORSE THAN COMIC BOOK MOVIES! (And thats saying something - sans Superman Returns and Batman Begins; fingers crossed for Iron Man) Really, “speaking of Uwe Boll,” BloodRayne really deserved to be the poster child for bad video game movies. Also… what about video game cartoons? Anyone remember the Sonic comic and cartoon? What about the old Zelda cartoons. KICKASS! I think animation is the best medium for video game themed non-interactive entertainment. What I’d like to see in the works is a World of Warcraft Saturday morning cartoon or perhaps an adult swim type cartoon.
[...] All because of the shadowy stigma that has haunted the video game film genre: they’re garbage. While one name has become almost synonymous with bad VG-film adaptations, Uwe Boll is not [...]