For maybe two decades, Hollywood has focused less and less on new IP and more on adapting video games and comics for the big and small screen. While there were significant mistakes on both sides, there were many more on the gaming side. Comic book adaptations have become some of the most profitable for Hollywood, while to this day, Hollywood struggles to adapt video games.
If they can do one, why not both?
At first glance, you’d think that if studios around the world can adapt comics with steady success, they could follow the same path with video games. Both already have the source material, the comics literally have the storyboards, and a lot of video games these days are cinematic enough it should be a breeze. However, for every billion dollar Marvel comic book movie, we have a box office and a critical flop. Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, or the most recent and equally terrible resident Evil Netflix show.
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The real answer to the question comes from who is behind the movies. For example, nearly every Marvel Studios property on the big and small screen is overseen by Kevin Feige, himself a huge comic book fan and fan of the original stories he brings to the big screen. He then makes sure that the directors, writers, and actors are either equally invested in the story, or at least invested in making a faithful on-screen adaptation.
Of course, when it comes to the comics there are plenty of flip sides too, you don’t have to look far in Morbius, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Venom: Let There Be Carnage to see it. . Whether it’s interference from the studio that cares more about the money than the story, or just people behind the scenes not understanding the source material, there are a few missteps in the tape. drawn.
A playable movie should make a watchable movie?
Over the years we’ve had a lot of video game adaptations, starting in 2005 Loss to 2021 mentioned above Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. In both of these examples, the directors and writers stayed true to the source material, while adding their own spin. Loss even had an FPS section to emulate games! resident Evil had the mansion, the little claustrophobic feel to the town, lots of legacy characters, and easter eggs at the games future plot points. They were both still poor. More recently the Halo The show was released on Paramount+, with many fans less than enthusiastic about the big screen portrayal of Master Chief and the world of Halo in general.
Related: It Had To Be Adapted For TV: Paramount + CCO Praises Halo For Overwhelming Subscribers Despite Horrifying Fan Reviews
One of the few diamonds in the rough in video game adaptations is the sonic the hedgehog film, and its more recent sequel. Both reputed to be incredibly accurate and fun portrayals of the characters involved, this is one of the very few adaptations that actually worked, and who thought the super-fast blue hedgehog would be the best?
Maybe one day we’ll get a decent video game adaptation, and there are a few I’d like to see if they’re done right (Gears of War anyone?!). But for now, I think we’re stuck with the near-constant success of comic book adaptations (at least with Marvel Studios anyway), while Hollywood struggles to adapt video games for us.
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