The movie industry has always attempted to capitalize on the fanbase of successful video games. This attempt of capitalization is used to bring both those who love watching movies and those who love to play video games under the same umbrella to increase revenue. Video games are often known for their rich story and developed characters, but when they are put on the big screen, these stories often fall flat. We’ve seen this time and again, Dead or Alive, Street Fighter, Bloodrayne, Assassin’s Creed, the list goes on. So why does movie based on video games fail? There are a few reasons to why video game movies miss their mark.
Lack of Interactivity
One of the biggest reasons why video games fail is because watching a movie is not as interactive as playing a video game. Video games allows the players to immerse themselves into the story by making characters do various actions like conversing with a quest giver or shooting an enemy. This allows the player to dive into the game, giving them a better incentive to finish the game or following the main character’s storyline. Players can create their own stories in video games, given the right mechanics or creative mindset. Movies simply cannot offer the scale of immersion that video game have. Watching an actor scale a building or jump off a rooftop does not have the same immersion as pressing the command to do such feats.
Missing Key Game Elements
Another reason why video game movies flop is because the movies fail to capture the key elements that make the video games great. Agent 47, which was a movie that was based on the game Hitman, failed to utilize one of the game’s biggest mechanics, the stealth. Instead of the movie being centered on completing missions while remaining undetected, it shifted its focus to a more action style movie. While gunfights are an element in Hitman, it is not the major element that makes the game great. Taking out enemies without being noticed, sneaking into buildings, or donning different disguises by searching through various areas of the map is what made the game great. The movie failed to emphasize this key component and lead to the movie not doing well.
It can be argued that the movie industry simply doesn’t understand how to create a great video game movie yet because gamers are a very diverse audience. By not understanding target audience, the movie industry fails to create a platform that resonates with the gaming community. Not knowing what the community wants forces movie producers to create video game movies on smaller good elements of a game while missing the major ones that brought players to games in the first place. Video games are refined enough to express a game mechanic or a storyline in such a fashion, that the publishers understand what the target audience enjoys. Assassin’s Creed is a good example of this. The movie took the idea of sneaking and jumping from high points from the game, which is a good element to consider, but failed to capitalize on one major element that brought the target audience back wanting more. Assassin’s Creed’s ability bring different eras of history to the player is one of the series greatest element, there is heavy detail on this. Majority of the Assassin Creed movie is set in modern time, which takes out a significant element in what makes the games great.
Video game movies are not going anywhere soon. According to Den of Geek, there are 42 video game movies currently in development. If these movie creators were to take anything from the past shortcomings of video game movies, is understand that the community is different from traditional movie goers. Understanding a movie can not match the interactive power of playing a video game so fully understanding what made these games great would go a long way.
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