Why I Don't Like Video Game Movies

Scene from Warcraft

This Friday marks the release of director Duncan Jones' Warcraft. It is likely that if you were a teenager around the turn of the millennium that you are familiar with the online game World of Warcraft (commonly abbreviated as WoW), which had characters interact as fantastical creatures while gaining points to evolve and become stronger. While this isn't the first film of 2016 - the other so far being Angry Birds: The Movie - to be based off of a video game, it does service as one of the most blatant examples of why video games and films have trouble mixing. Anyone who's seen the ads will be quick to note how ridiculous they look. Anyone who has read reviews for the film will also know that it doesn't break the unfortunate trend of terrible. However, there's a deeper reason that most, if not all, adaptations have failed to work. One is interactive, while the other is a spectator's sport.

I will admit that my experience with video games is very limited. At most, I play maybe a dozen hours of gaming a year, and even that is done poorly in trial-equivalent modes. I also haven't played any game relevant to a movie since Super Mario Bros. in the early 90's. Yet I cannot help but feel like the medium deserves more credit than me bashing their existence. On the contrary, I do accept that they work as a strategic stimulation in which the player experiences gratification by completing tasks. There is value there that simply doesn't interest me. However, I want to say that playing a game is a lot different from watching a movie, and most video games don't have great fodder for film stories.

Video games themselves have improved in story telling over the past few years thanks to cut screens with elaborate stories that tie into the interactive action. There's a decent argument that they may even be more elaborate than the best of cinema. Of course, part of the thrill is trying to get to the next chapter, which isn't the same as a film where one has to just wait 10 minutes for the dialogue exchange to end. One has to play their way through, defeating villains and solving strategic puzzles. While movies tend to have a more implicit way of having a viewer deconstruct its intent, they're never as visceral or as complicated. At least, this is all in traditional video game culture as well as in film. Audiences have tried to find new ways to evolve the techniques with virtual reality, but nothing has necessarily replaced the tried and true models.

Warcraft has the unfortunate trend of not coming from a game with a clear through line. It's an online role playing game that can, frankly, be played for years. With critics noting Jones' dedication to exploring the mythology in detail, there's a certain part that wonders if the story can actually be that good. There are missions to complete and ways to enhance gaming experience, but do they necessarily make for compelling stories? If the film is true to the source, it will be more about meandering from place to place than resolving any great tension. Again, WoW is something that is more fun to interact with than to tell a story that follows through on conventional plot beats condensed to two hours or less.

It makes sense that people would try to make cinema out of video games. After all, it's a medium that has openly embraced TV and book adaptations for decades. Cultural events have inspired some of the best movies in history. It only makes sense that a medium that is dependent on action and adventure would join the league of films that thrive on that. However, it doesn't seem likely that there could be a faithful adaptation, especially to the games that are more intricate and reliant on hours of plot that exceed film's potential. Yet there's little to stop it from becoming a possibility. After all, cinema has incorporated gamer techniques that make characters take on first person action, such as Hardcore Henry, or simply go about a mission int he familiar and meticulous way. To say that video games don't influence film is quite an oversight. However, to say that a legitimate adaptation can be done with great results is another matter entirely. The more complicated the source material, the harder that things will get to be truthful. Sometimes it involves just being abstractly related, such as Battleship (a film based on Hasbro's iconic game).

Despite Warcraft looking to be a critical flop, it doesn't seem like the trend of video game adaptations will die. In fact, it seems likely that they will only continue to grow as the medium embraces more intricate narratives. Even the big names are getting on board the adaptations, as Assassin's Creed is coming to the big screen with two-time Oscar nominee Michael Fassbender in the lead role. The trailer looked really good, but it's hard to tell if it will merely be another example of action and jarring exposition, or if there will be an attempt to follow a cohesive story. Still, the trailer covers a lot of ground that isn't necessarily accessible to those who haven't played the game. With many already hoping that it's one of the first good examples of a video game movie, it goes to show that after over 20 years, there still hasn't been any sign of the transition going smoothly. They can be entertaining, but there's a disparaging difference between console adaptations and even comic books. 

In fact, the only critically acclaimed "video game" movie has been Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. The reason that this is in quotations is because of the fact that it's not actually based on any video game (though there was a spin-off game). It actually comes from a graphic novel series by Bryan Lee O'Malley. It just happens to have a strong dependence on gamer culture and creates a surreal vision of what mixing life with video games actually does. It does help that the crew behind the scenes were innovative and brought the technique to life in exciting ways. Even then, the film failed at the box office, likely because of how niche the audience actually would be for a film like that. True, Wreck-It Ralph was also a "video game" movie, but it mostly used it as a wraparound device for a more conventional story. 

The general issue is that video games are fun to play. Movies are fun to watch. While these may be interchangeable for an instance, they don't have a lasting impact. While both have meshed into the other with mixed results, it seems like they both doomed to never get each other without sacrificing something. I do think that there could be a good movie based on a video game one of these days. If someone has the style and charisma to make a film feel active, it can happen. The only issue is that most films try to add a deeper sense of drama and character moments into the mix, and that in essence is why it can never connect with video games. You have to keep playing. You can't slow down just to fill in the blanks. Movies are too distracting and limited for video games.