What makes a good video game movie? Is there even such a thing?
The curse of the video game movie has long been documented, and the stigma that it’s impossible to make a good one regardless of how much money you throw at it or who plays the lead has dogged the genre for years. Video games are more lucrative than Hollywood films overall, yet video game adaptations still struggle to be taken seriously by studio executives, who often misunderstand what makes the source material so popular to begin with.
The anatomy of what makes a game-to-film adaptation tick is particularly relevant now with the release of Detective Pikachu, an adaptation of one of the franchise’s lesser-known properties, a spinoff crime-solving game by the same name. With the film on track to be the highest-rated video game movie to date with a 66% Rotten Tomatoes score and a goal to hit a $160m weekend global launch, has the electric mouse finally cracked the code of what makes a decent game film?
Maybe, maybe not. In terms of charting an upward trend for the genre, Pokémon is probably the least useful example we can look at. After all, no other gaming franchise has reached nearly the same level of saturation, being a cultural mainstay since the first games debuted in 1996. In fact, MovieWeb reports Pokémon is the highest grossing media franchise of all time, topping Star Wars, the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Harry Potter. Video game franchises are often estimated to have revenues in the billions, with Tomb Raider worth $3bn, Warcraft $10bn and Mario $30bn. Pokémon’s lifetime to-date revenue is an astonishing $90bn.
Pokémon may very well be an outlier, but the fact that the rating is certified fresh indicates that there’s more at play than simply fan nostalgia. When considering what is the key element of a film, whether it be the costumes, effectsor the cast, Shelly Tan at the Washington Post writes that “it’s the story that’s most important – and video game movies usually get that part wrong”.
A good story happens when the creative team has a passion for – or at least deep understanding of – the material on which the film is based. You wouldn’t, after all, hire writers who hate comic books to craft the latest superhero film. When it comes to video game adaptations, the difference between what makes a film good or not seems to hinge on one central, simple thing: do the people involved actually understand and care about the game they’re adapting?
In speaking to CBR, Detective Pikachu’s director, Rob Letterman, said it was “a big deal in our household to work on a Pokémon movie since we’ve been living with it for so many years. Between the cards, games and even manga, it’s been a big part of our household.”
Lead actor Justice Smith shares a similar passion for the source material, telling the Hollywood Reporter: “I was a huge fan of Pokémon. I watched the anime. I had all the original cards. I played all the games … It meant a lot to me as a kid.”
“Detective Pikachu understands Pokémon. It’s why the film works,” writes Brian Ashcraft at Kotaku.
There are exceptions to every rule, but an interest in the source material seems to have a definite effect on the end product. We can track this across other films that were critically panned yet beloved by fans.
Paul WS Anderson first won the rights to direct the 1995 Mortal Kombat because of his demonstrated excitement for the games. “I didn’t know anybody in London, so all I would do is play video games for three or four hours at the arcade. One of my favorites was Mortal Kombat,” Anderson told THR. Anderson’s adaptation grossed $122m worldwide and was embraced by fans for its remarkably high production values: it was filmed in several gorgeous locations in Thailand, had surprisingly good special effects for the time and cast Hong Kong martial arts veteran Robin Shou as the lead. Although way less gory than the games and full of corny dialogue, it stayed pretty true to its gaming roots.
Anderson then took on the Resident Evil franchise, another series he was personally invested in. “I loved the video game. I loved the movies that the video game was clearly based upon,” Anderson said to Thrillist. It’s a franchise that endured for 15 years, churning out six films focused on Milla Jovovich’s Alice and grossing over $1.2bn worldwide. Collider credits them with “delivering some good zombie action before it was a commercial craze and for delivering one kickass action heroine”.
When it came to the iconic Silent Hill horror franchise, director Christophe Gans attempted for five years to obtain the film rights from Konami, eventually sending a video interview to them explaining how important the games were to him. Impressed with his dedication, they gave the OK. What resulted was a film that somehow managed to stay relatively true to the story while delivering truly haunting visuals and atmospheric tension through the use of the game’s music.
The same could be said about Duncan Jones’s Warcraft. Jones had been playing Warcraft for more than 20 years, which is what drove him to pitch his ideas to Legendary and Blizzard Entertainment. The resulting CGI-laden epic was panned by critics but well-liked by fans, with a 28% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes versus a much more favorable 77% audience score. Forbes credits this to the film capturing the rich fantasy setting, creating relatable characters and investing heavily in the music and visuals.
In contrast, it’s obvious when the creative team has only passing knowledge of the source material. Director Justin Kurzel of the critically panned Assassin’s Creed revealed to the Guardian that he was unfamiliar with the source material before signing on, saying: “The last video game I played was Double Dragon as a kid.” The stunt choreographer and actors on the set of the 1994 Street Fighter film were not even aware that each fighter in the game had a distinct martial arts style. Director Uwe Boll has been clear in his disdain for video games as a lower art form, and his nine video game adaptations were trashed across the board. The 1993 Super Mario Bros movie is possibly the only film to buck the trend, as production on the first ever video game film was so unabashedly chaotic that the resulting psychedelic hodgepodge of a movie, about parallel universes, dino humanoids and helpful fungi, became a cult classic.
For everything else not involving two Brooklyn plumbers, it seems that choosing the right title, and the right people who have a respect for the material, can result in a film that has the highest chance of winning over critics, diehard fans and mainstream audiences alike. That’s not to say that every director of these adaptations needs to be a diehard gamer. But it seems to be a no-brainer that there should an adviser on set who can ensure that the creative team understands why a particular game was popular to begin with.
When it comes to video games, it’s not all just mindless gunfights and gore. There are some genuinely moving, engaging, emotional story arcs in many of today’s games that are ripe with adaptation potential, and if Hollywood wants to tap into even one slice of the thriving gaming market, they’d do well to understand that.