# Games that would maake great movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 12, 2003, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382 "2003-06-12T17:12:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![helenahandbasket](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f05b48/32.png) [@helenahandbasket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/helenahandbasket)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/41 "2003-06-13T03:08:00Z")
i would really enjoy a movie based on alice. the rights to it have been bought by wes craven which kind of scares me considering his last few films but you never know. two other games that would make a good movie imo would be nocturne _which had a storyline that would be good if it were expanded upon for a movie_ and silent hill _i’m a sucker for anything horrific_ ---
**Author:** ![Fibber\_McGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a6a055/32.png) [@Fibber\_McGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fibber_McGee)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/42 "2003-06-13T03:15:53Z")
Gah, no! Silent Hill is pretty much the prototypical example of a nonsensical plot that’s good for a game, because you’re immersed in the experience and can forgive the story for not making sense, but would make a shitty movie. Unless of course you put it in the hands of someone who makes this sort of thing their stock-in-trade, like David Lynch. Not a particular fan of his work, but if anyone could do a Silent Hill film justice, it’s him. ---
**Author:** ![green\_bladder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@green\_bladder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/green_bladder)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/43 "2003-06-13T03:43:03Z")
If they did **C&C/Red Alert** right, it could turn out to be a halfway decent war movie. What about **Flight Simulator**? That has ‘blockbuster’ written all over it 😃 ---
**Author:** ![helenahandbasket](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f05b48/32.png) [@helenahandbasket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/helenahandbasket)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/44 "2003-06-13T03:44:42Z")
exactly fibber. most games to movies are going to run into the problem of not translating well to screen if not handled properly, which is why most of them have failed i think. and like i said, i’m a sucker for the subject matter and the basic elements are already in place to get me interested to see what they could do with it. ---
**Author:** ![Drastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Drastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drastic)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/45 "2003-06-13T04:37:41Z")
Give me a **Planescape: Torment** _mini-series_. I don’t think it’s possible to compress ol’ Nameless’s journey into ~2 hours. A series of escalating false climaxes over the span of eight or ten, with intermissions every show or movie-length? Doable. **Max Payne** …well, iffy. There’s way too many set-pieces as-is. Although…keep major shootouts, edited tightly for pacing, at the Ragnarok, the Cold Steel/Deep Six (total sidenote: there is actually a Cold Steel knife company–I’ve got the tuff-lite, a sweet little lockback, on my keychain. I wonder if there were any legal mutterings from that name choice by the devs), and Aesir Co. Nicole Horne’s end is a must to keep, of course (one of the best over-the-top villain demises ever). Toss out most of the rest, in favor of a sort of “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid” absurdist feel. Oh, and have Max do the entire Deep Six run while on the “lethal” Valkyr overdose, with lighting and camerawork shifts to shift back and forth between his psychotic perceptions and that of the increasingly-terrified merc guards. ---
**Author:** ![Fibber\_McGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a6a055/32.png) [@Fibber\_McGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fibber_McGee)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/46 "2003-06-13T04:41:26Z")
Max Payne wouldn’t as a film because it would be just like every other action movie out today. As a game it was fun, innovative and original. As a move it would be tiresome and derivative. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/47 "2003-06-13T04:50:31Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Fibber McGee_ > I think you’re giving the game way too much credit. (Don’t get me wrong, loved the game, great fun to play.) The plot was an amalgam of every hard-boiled, one man against a corrupt system, noir action cliche in the book, but it took itself far to seriously to possibly be an intentional parody. I simply can’t believe that anyone could write voice-overs that bad with a straight face. Especially considering the quality of the rest of the game. It’s gotta be intentional. ---
**Author:** ![Fibber\_McGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a6a055/32.png) [@Fibber\_McGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fibber_McGee)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/48 "2003-06-13T04:54:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Miller \* > \*\*I simply can’t believe that anyone could write voice-overs that bad with a straight face. Especially considering the quality of the rest of the game. It’s gotta be intentional. \*\* I’ve never seen _anything_ to indicate that, and if Max Payne were intended as a parody of noir action thrillers, you’d think someone involved in the production of the game would have mentioned it by now. I’ve played far too many good games with cheesy voice acting and crappy plots to think the cheesy voice acting and crappy plot of Max Payne was intentional. If it was good for them, but then again if it was, it was too subtle. A joke almost no one gets is hardly a joke at all. ---
**Author:** ![Drastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Drastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drastic)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/49 "2003-06-13T04:57:32Z")
[hijack] Well, yeah–like every other action movie. Which is why it needs effective parody (as opposed to the game writing’s flailing attempt at parody) in between well-choreographed bullet ballets. Although there were hooks–cut off, there in only abortive potentials, buried in the plot. For awhile there, I was thinking it the game might possibly pull off the twist that Max himself had killed his family, while in a Valkyr fugue, from glimpses of effective unsettling during the “dream sequences”, before they devolved into the whole run-along-the-floating-veins thing. The “you’re in a comic book, Max,” and “you’re in a computer game, Max” elements really had my hope spiking that it would turn out that way, as ol’ hard-boiled MP realizes he’s living in a cracked illusory shell and the reality is pretty foul. Unfortunately, it took a hard turn in the third act to force itself into a traditional revenge-closure. But there was more potential in that game than most people give it credit for. [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/50 "2003-06-13T05:03:52Z")
I think we might disagree on the definition of “subtle,” **Fibber**. I didn’t see anything subtle about the humor in Payne. I don’t think the developers need to come out and say it was a joke any more than Mel Brooks needs to explain that Blazing Saddles is supposed to be funny. But, hell, even if you don’t think they did it on purpose, you gotta admit it’s pretty fricken hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![samarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4da419/32.png) [@samarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samarm)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/51 "2003-06-13T05:04:12Z")
I see Keanu Reeves in the lead role of Deus Ex: The Movie. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Fibber\_McGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a6a055/32.png) [@Fibber\_McGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fibber_McGee)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/52 "2003-06-13T05:06:26Z")
I’m not denying the game had potential Drastic, but potential means exactly jack sqaut if you don’t live up to it. ---
**Author:** ![Drastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Drastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drastic)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/53 "2003-06-13T05:20:24Z")
> [@](#): > > …but potential means exactly jack squat if you don’t live up to it. I must admit to being a little bit baffled as to why you’re in this particular thread, then–which is about which games have the _potential_ to make good movies. Max Payne does, in several different directions–both in ways that would have made better story as backdrop in between the bouts of killing pixels, but also as potential points of conversion from game-to-theoretical-movie. Back to topic, my interest meter would pique if I ever heard a movie was being made out of Infocom’s “A Mind Forever Voyaging”. ---
**Author:** ![Nightime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Nightime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightime)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/54 "2003-06-13T05:47:23Z")
Grim Fandango. ---
**Author:** ![Fibber\_McGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a6a055/32.png) [@Fibber\_McGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fibber_McGee)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/55 "2003-06-13T05:56:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Drastic \* > \*\*I must admit to being a little bit baffled as to why you’re in this particular thread, then \*\* Because I neither like game movies nor think they’re necessary, and think that pointing this out so others may respond makes for a much more interesting discussion than simply listing what games have the (inevitably wasted) potential to make good movies. I thought interesting discussions were welcome here. ---
**Author:** ![Drastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Drastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drastic)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/56 "2003-06-13T06:19:15Z")
Nope, still baffled. Moreso, even, by trying to see how “necessary” and “movie” fit together as concepts. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/57 "2003-06-13T06:36:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fibber McGee \* > \*\*Because I neither like game movies nor think they’re necessary, and think that pointing this out so others may respond makes for a much more interesting discussion than simply listing what games have the (inevitably wasted) potential to make good movies. I thought interesting discussions were welcome here. \*\* Have to agree with **Drastic** , here. The point of the thread is “What games would make good movies” not “Should games be turned into movies.” The first topic interests me. The second, not so much. ---
**Author:** ![Fibber\_McGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a6a055/32.png) [@Fibber\_McGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fibber_McGee)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/58 "2003-06-13T06:42:32Z")
Okay, “movie” and “necessary” are mutually exclusive concepts I’ll grant you that, but I must admit to being a bit baffled myself about your objection to my presence in this thread. This is a thread about video game movies. I could start my own thread discussing the problems I have with video game movies, but why do that when there’s a video game movie thread already in existence, and people who apparently think video game movies are a good idea already posting in the thread to discuss the subject with. If you disagree with what I’m saying that’s cool, I have no problem with that, but you’ve for some reason decided to make this discussion about me rather than about the subject at hand. No offense, but people tend to save tactics like that for when they have nothing else to add to the discussion. ---
**Author:** ![Fibber\_McGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a6a055/32.png) [@Fibber\_McGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fibber_McGee)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/59 "2003-06-13T06:44:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Miller \* > \*\*I think we might disagree on the definition of “subtle,” **Fibber**. I didn’t see anything subtle about the humor in Payne. I don’t think the developers need to come out and say it was a joke any more than Mel Brooks needs to explain that Blazing Saddles is supposed to be funny. > > But, hell, even if you don’t think they did it on purpose, you gotta admit it’s pretty fricken hilarious. \*\* Uh . . . no I don’t. Since my comments make it obvious I missed most of the humor in the game, why should I admit to it being hilarious? ---
**Author:** ![Fibber\_McGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a6a055/32.png) [@Fibber\_McGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fibber_McGee)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2003, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382/60 "2003-06-13T06:49:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Miller \* > \*\*Have to agree with **Drastic** , here. The point of the thread is “What games would make good movies” not “Should games be turned into movies.” The first topic interests me. The second, not so much. \*\* Well that’s your prerogative, but let me say that if that’s honestly how you feel, then ignoring me would be a much better way of getting me to shut up. I’ll admit that deciding to turn a lighthearted discussion about what games would make good movies might seem inappropriate to some, but it ain’t against the rules or anything. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/games-that-would-maake-great-movies/181382.md?page=4)