From video games to movies: The good, the bad, and the ugly
Novels that become movies, check. Comic books that become movies, check. Video games that become movies? Yes, there are a lot of them, but not all film adaptation of great video games turn out, uhmm, great.
Take, for example, Street Fighter. The video game is excellent, spawning dozens of sequels and spinoffs, and thrilling every Tom, Dick, Harry and Jane to the core of their very being. Street Fighter has touched a cross section of generations and races. Ask the oldest person on the block about the game and chances are he or she has heard about Street Fighter … or Guile … or Ryu … or Ken. In the same light, ask the kid down the street about the game, and he or she will tell you about the latest addition to the growing family of the game, Street Fighter IV.
The film adaptation (yes, the one starring Jean-Claude Van Damme as Guile), sadly, is a thing best forgotten. It’s only saving grace, at least for me, is the fact that it starred the late Golden Globe award-winning actor Raul Julia (either that or seeing a lot of Kylie Minogue in Cammy’s tanktop and short shorts getup).
Let’s hope the next film based on the popular franchise, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, will turn out better … waaaay better than it’s predecessor. Hmmm, regardless of how it’ll “look,” however, I’d probably still pay a few dollars so I can watch the beautiful Kristin Kreuk, Lana Lang of Smallville fame.
Eh, what about Mortal Kombat? It sucked a bit, too. The acting was a bit cheesy and most of the things you see in the video game (read: blood and gore) didn’t see the light of day in the film.
Italian plumber in bright red jumpers? Uhmm, let’s not talk about Super Mario Brothers.
On the other end of the scale, we have Tomb Raider, Resident Evil and the upcoming Max Payne movie. Now these are adaptations. No pulling punches, plenty of blood, gore and limbs flying around.
Here’s to another year of good film adaptations of video games. Now, if only some Hollywood bigshot would get the crazy idea of making a film out of Starcraft.
Hey, what’s a post about movies if you don’t have trailers! Here’s the latest trailer of the Max Payne movie:
