In recent years, Hollywood has increased the rate at which it outputs goovies significantly, as the popularity of gaming itself has risen. Let's take a look at the more recent films, to see if directors have developed the format beyond the rudimentary basics.
In terms of critical reception, Resident Evil as a movie received only a percentage of what it received as a game. There are a multitude of reasons for this. Firstly, Resident Evil as a game was scary primarily because of your interaction. In the early games, most of the tension existed on your choice of when to save - remember the ribbon and typewriter system? This kept players constantly on their guard, constantly weighing up the decision to go on and risk death or save and risk lack of ribbons for future points in the game.
A movie can never offer that kind of entertainment. To interact within a movie we need to be able to sympathise with a character. Resident Evil wasn't a master-class of storytelling, but survived on having an extraordinarily beautiful lead as well as pretty cool special effects (remember the guy in the laser room who got sliced into different bits?). Special effects and a fit girl don't, however, lead to a critically acclaimed masterpiece.
Final Fantasy missed the boat completely. The focus on setting up a visually stunning piece of work was realised, at the expense of any coherent storyline. The creators once again underestimated the necessity for a movie to include a plot. I even remember, back in the day, seeing an excitable kids TV presenter on Blue Peter interviewing a CGI animator about how great the lead character was because she had 70,000 individually created hairs on her head. If 70,000 hairs on your head makes you great then come have a look at me, because I have about that many on my chest, shoulders and back.
What the makers of the Final Fantasy movie intended was to recreate the feel of the games into a movie. Upon reviewing their work, and other goovies, its becoming increasingly difficult to see whether that transformation is even possible. How do you turn a 60 hour, interactive game into a movie? Sacrifices have to be made and in this case the sacrifice was storyline. It didn't work and Final Fantasy made one $30 million at the box office.
Casting a strong leading role is definitely one of the most important factors in creating a goovie. Playing a game requires you to slip into the shoes of the leading character in a story, so when we come to watch a goovie we need to feel as though that leading role accurately represents what it is like in the game. When, in Doom, you look at The Rock you see a character that appears, at least, as if he could actually be taking on a military base. Unlike a cockney Mario, The Rock fills the role adequately and the result is a fairly satisfactory, if simplistic, action movie.
Despite Doom actually being an enjoyable goovie the box office disagreed. The movie made a loss according to IMDB. Costing $70 million bucks to make, Doom wasn't cheap. Considering it only took $45 million at the cinemas it wasn't the financial success it could have been. One imagines it will be doing moderately well on DVD but still, this doesn't scream out to Hollywood investors that this is the way to make a goovie.
I'm wary of going into a massive 'Boll-bashing' session. Apart from that fact that the director has been consistently hammered by critics in both the games and movie industry he is also renowned as being a bit of a fighter. Recently, in an event sponsored by gambling site Golden Palace, Boll (a former amateur boxer) actually fought and defeated a load of journalists who had criticised him. The event was dubbed 'Ragin Boll' – do I really need to say any more?
Boll isn't finished making goovies either. With German funds behind him the director is working on the movie adaptation of the cult gaming title 'Postal' (the one with Gary Coleman) and there were also rumours he would be involved in the big screen adaptation of Metal Gear Solid. Thankfully Hideo Koshima has denied reports that Boll has his hands on the script. Future of goovies certainly looks bright.
For a table of the highest grossing goovies of all time check out this Box Office Mojo.
Resident Evil
Resident Evil succeeded almost entirely because it was part of a mini Zombie renaissance (coming out at a similar time to 28 Days Later and Dawn of the Dead). As such, it was able to attract not only gaming fans but those who have a taste for the undead.In terms of critical reception, Resident Evil as a movie received only a percentage of what it received as a game. There are a multitude of reasons for this. Firstly, Resident Evil as a game was scary primarily because of your interaction. In the early games, most of the tension existed on your choice of when to save - remember the ribbon and typewriter system? This kept players constantly on their guard, constantly weighing up the decision to go on and risk death or save and risk lack of ribbons for future points in the game.
A movie can never offer that kind of entertainment. To interact within a movie we need to be able to sympathise with a character. Resident Evil wasn't a master-class of storytelling, but survived on having an extraordinarily beautiful lead as well as pretty cool special effects (remember the guy in the laser room who got sliced into different bits?). Special effects and a fit girl don't, however, lead to a critically acclaimed masterpiece.
Final Fantasy
The Final Fantasy movie was probably the first realistic chance for a goovie to be critically acclaimed. Huge hype surrounded its release. This was to be the first serious, big budget (a whopping $130,000,000) CGI movie targeting a more adult audience, and was billed as the most detailed CGI work yet.Final Fantasy missed the boat completely. The focus on setting up a visually stunning piece of work was realised, at the expense of any coherent storyline. The creators once again underestimated the necessity for a movie to include a plot. I even remember, back in the day, seeing an excitable kids TV presenter on Blue Peter interviewing a CGI animator about how great the lead character was because she had 70,000 individually created hairs on her head. If 70,000 hairs on your head makes you great then come have a look at me, because I have about that many on my chest, shoulders and back.
What the makers of the Final Fantasy movie intended was to recreate the feel of the games into a movie. Upon reviewing their work, and other goovies, its becoming increasingly difficult to see whether that transformation is even possible. How do you turn a 60 hour, interactive game into a movie? Sacrifices have to be made and in this case the sacrifice was storyline. It didn't work and Final Fantasy made one $30 million at the box office.
Doom
The final stratagem movie makers have attempted has been to cast an iconic lead role in the hope they will hold the movie together. In Doom this strategy works, to a degree, with wrestler-come-actor The Rock taking on the lead role of a marine within the Doom world. This movie, although scientifically skewed, survives in the same way that the games do - with a simple formula of one man versus lots of monsters.Casting a strong leading role is definitely one of the most important factors in creating a goovie. Playing a game requires you to slip into the shoes of the leading character in a story, so when we come to watch a goovie we need to feel as though that leading role accurately represents what it is like in the game. When, in Doom, you look at The Rock you see a character that appears, at least, as if he could actually be taking on a military base. Unlike a cockney Mario, The Rock fills the role adequately and the result is a fairly satisfactory, if simplistic, action movie.
Despite Doom actually being an enjoyable goovie the box office disagreed. The movie made a loss according to IMDB. Costing $70 million bucks to make, Doom wasn't cheap. Considering it only took $45 million at the cinemas it wasn't the financial success it could have been. One imagines it will be doing moderately well on DVD but still, this doesn't scream out to Hollywood investors that this is the way to make a goovie.
Uwe Boll
A special mention needs to go to the infamous director responsible for consistently producing goovie disaster after goovie disaster. Uwe Boll, the German director, has made movie adaptations of House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark and BloodRayne, all of which have been, surprisingly, commercial successes.I'm wary of going into a massive 'Boll-bashing' session. Apart from that fact that the director has been consistently hammered by critics in both the games and movie industry he is also renowned as being a bit of a fighter. Recently, in an event sponsored by gambling site Golden Palace, Boll (a former amateur boxer) actually fought and defeated a load of journalists who had criticised him. The event was dubbed 'Ragin Boll' – do I really need to say any more?
Boll isn't finished making goovies either. With German funds behind him the director is working on the movie adaptation of the cult gaming title 'Postal' (the one with Gary Coleman) and there were also rumours he would be involved in the big screen adaptation of Metal Gear Solid. Thankfully Hideo Koshima has denied reports that Boll has his hands on the script. Future of goovies certainly looks bright.
For a table of the highest grossing goovies of all time check out this Box Office Mojo.
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