From Android to Assassin

Now that the larger population of the movie watching community is comprised of gamers between the ages of ADD laden Twilight adorers and politics stammering business slaves, the trending heel has turned its focus on video game to movie adaptations. Among the recently announced films of the gaming ilk is Assassin’s Creed, the first of half a dozen titles in Ubisoft’s hit game series to feature their amazing history hopping story universe.

The game story for Assassin’s Creed centers on a formerly trained assassin turned bartender, name Desmond. An affluent corporation, Abstergo Industries, serves a secret society who is familiar with Desmond’s lineage and successfully abducts him with purposes to exploit the memories of his ancestors. Not given any leverage on personal rights, Desmond is forced to participate in their experiments. Using a prototype machine called the Animus, Desmond’s DNA is tapped to reveal the memories of his historical bloodline. Altair--a distant relative of Desmond’s--was an assassin whose life was spared after a fault and is in deep debt of servitude. His path to redemption was an important one that impacted many key figures. Altair’s progression is followed closely with artificially recreated flashbacks, hoping that his experiences will warm the trail to finding the Pieces of Eden, artifacts believed to withhold power for its controller to manipulate mankind’s fate. Meanwhile, the extraction of these ancestral memories is inconsequently causing a bleed-in with Desmond’s psyche; a process that could stem unpredictable results.

Not much is news on the movie version of this story other than Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds, X-Men: First Class,) is helmed to play the part of Altair. Despite Desmond’s character being the forefront to the plot, it is Altair who steals the limelight. Many of the important clues that are sought rest in the past with Altair. Fassbender will be the star of the screen, having to leap across rooftops, scale walls, and hide in the shadows—or even hide in plain sight—to carry out his bloody contracts. There is a shallow amusement in the concept of Fassbender transitioning from Prometheus to the likes of an Assassin’s Creed film. Both stories are science fiction tales that try to give indirect explanations for the existence of mankind. Regardless of this similarity, there is no room to debate Fassbender’s adeptness to pull off this role. His blank stares set an ambience that strike with coldness and would appear vapid if attempted by a lesser actor. Altair doesn’t hold the most respectable of professions. He certainly isn’t the kind of guy who gets invited to Christmas parties. However, Altair is a man who is doing bad things for the right reasons. He is an anti-hero of a sort, with a burden to convince his audience that you don’t have to love the way he resolves conflicts but you should respect the reasons that he does it. If Fassbender’s portrayal of David in Prometheus is any indication, he can certainly get you to back him no matter how dastardly his actions.

I am excited to see this adaptation being made, made large in part by Fassbender’s participation in it. Nothing that Fassbender has starred in or co-starred in has been horrible. Certainly, by title and star power alone, the Assassin’s Creed movie is going to be a blockbuster hit. Still, it is premature to judge the successful outcome of Assassin’s Creed as a viable piece of art. For me, that is what is important. I want Assassin’s Creed to be something I can enjoy seeing multiple times. The locales, plot, and mystery is already well in place by the game. It will take a bit of pride and a dash of talent to translate this powerful setup into a theatrical production. Games have yet to make their mark on the film industry in a revolutionary way and the likes of Resident Evil nor Tomb Raider have contributed anything positive on that fact. Assassin’s Creed thus far has the highest potential to change that. It all depends on the overall vision of the producer and director. Will it be edgy like the Dark Knight or turn out as another whimsical turd like the Prince of Persia?

Metal Gear Solid Makes The Movie Transition

I am an advocate for promoting selective video game stories into movies with the serious tenor that they deserve. Considering that the road has been paved by Uwe Boll’s land mines, it is not surprising that the Resident Evil movie saga is about as good as it seems to get for appeasing the fans of videogame-to-movie adaptations. It is going to take the prowess of an established visionary who understands the customer base targeted to jump start video games into movie glory. Such a person has been sought out with Avi Arad, best known for producing hit films such as Iron Man (2008) and The Amazing Spider-Man (2012). Arad showed Hollywood that comic themed movies can be phenomenally successful when grit coats over the cheese. He is wielding that philosophy to the video gaming franchise and his first projects were revealed as of late. Among the list of titles that Arad is producing, is Hideo Kojima’s masterpiece, Metal Gear Solid (1998).

Metal Gear Solid is a Konami produced game that was exclusively for Sony’s Playstation gaming console. The story revolves around a soldier name Snake who should not be mistaken with Kurt Russell’s Snake Plissken, the obvious inspirational mold.  A terrorist organization has procured a nuclear disposal facility. With the newly acquired capabilities, the terrorists have threatened an atomic assault on the United States if the US government does not relinquish the preserved remains of a biologically advanced super soldier name Big Boss. Snake is tasked to deploy to the facility, kick ass, rescue hostages, and smoke a cig from the flames of that which he lays to rest. Standard action goodness on the surface but as the tale progresses, it unravels a plot laden with more holes than Octomom’s condoms.

Hideo Kojima (the creative mind behind the Metal Gear Solid series) once wanted to work with movies but fate dealt him to become a video game designer. It is a good career for a person who has demonstrated an aptitude for providing quality interactive products, when you can actually play them. Kojima’s passion for movies is evident in his games, very frustratingly so. As technology permitted gradually expanding space for full motion video (FMV), Kojima must had taken this as an invitation to fill that space up with more arbitrary animation with each new installment of his beloved Metal Gear Solid series. To me, it felt like I was already watching a damn movie that sometimes would break the monotony by including a few minutes of actual game play. As a result, there is an established template for a story that leaves little to the imagination for how it can be scripted for the big screen. That is, until you realize that Kojima is out of his fucking mind and that the Metal Gear Solid story spirals into a convoluted mess. Chock full of so many ending twists that it would make M. Night Shyamalan blush, as Snake’s character transitions from covert superstar to a clown who is the center stage of a confusing circus. Will this madness carry over to the movie rendition of Metal Gear Solid? It is difficult to say. Arad’s movies have been impressively faithful to their source material. If Metal Gear Solid receives that same treatment, then let the perplexity commence! Otherwise, some crafty editing is needed to carve a solid story out of a block of silly putty.

As with any reimagining of a series, it is difficult to ascertain what the final results will provide. There could be something quite imaginative in the process that delivers a pleasant surprise. I can’t fathom Metal Gear Solid being the viable choice for redefining video games as having a significant adult fan base. The title is just ingrained with too much silly shit. I am curious to see which elements are borrowed or excluded when the movie is released, lest we sit through an 8 minute sequence of a kid frying a fucking egg [as seen in Metal Gear Solid 4]. God of War should have been championed for the big screen but that is just wishful thinking. Despite my grievances, I sincerely hope that the Metal Gear Solid movie wins over audiences in a big way. There are many talented writers who have provided their services to adapting video game screenplays. Stories that at times have trumped most of Hollywood’s best summer blockbusters. These stories deserve to be told to audiences who don’t play games or own the consoles that the media is featured on. Metal Gear Solid just may be the silver lining to that opportunity, if handled correctly. Then again, even if the movie bombs, not like it will stop Avi Arad. The abomination that is Ghost Rider (2007) didn’t stop Arad from producing the sequel of Satan, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011). Proving that the only thing more astonishing than a flaming skeleton biker, is that Nicholas Cage is still allowed to star in movies.

Bringing Video Games to the Big Screen the Right Way

I’m going to rant off topic a bit. There is an interesting correlation regarding popular comic superhero themed movies. The more faithful the story and dialogue of the film is to the comic, the higher the prospect of its success. This concept was founded with Richard Donner’s DC comic famed character come to life, Superman (1978) and only glazed with Tim Burton’s playfully dark interpretation of another DC Comic icon, Batman (1989). The latter title was well received and stayed akin to peoples’ liking well over any successor comic films. A trend of lackluster superhero movies steadied for over a decade until the introduction of Bryan Singer’s well executed X-Men (2000) followed shortly by Sam Raimi’s balance of grit and restrained silliness in his smash hit Spider-Man (2002). With a medium that already has detailed story arcs, established character development, and a cult fan base, it seems too difficult to mess up the transition of comic to film. So, why the many mediocre to catastrophic flops stacked in the graveyards of film studios? Because those incarnations failed to provide what the previously mentioned gems and many other hits to follow are doing, hiring directors and writers who understand the material and let their heroes grow up. At first glance, it seems like any protagonist that dons a costume, spawns from another dimension, or wields magic to battle the forces of evil is begging to not be taken seriously. This in itself would explain why comic superhero films are often slapstick to a fault. I’m looking at you Batman & Robin (1997) and your stupid bat nipples! Despite exterior appearances, the leads of these stories are supposed to be internally conflicted, mentally troubled, and made to be understood why they would take it upon themselves to become vigilante law enforcers. Comic superheroes are not expected to act silly. They are trailing violent thugs and criminal masterminds, not petty shoplifters. Here’s a concept, how about taking the director of Memento (2000), the film about a tormented man who overcomes improbable complications to avenge his wife by obsessively seeking out and confronting her murderer by using detective skills, and place that director to the helm of a Batman film, the story of a tormented man who overcomes improbable complications to avenge his parents by obsessively seeking out and confronting their murderer by using detective skills. It seems to make so much sense that it might possibly work. Oh wait, it did. Christopher Nolan went on to do the sleeper hits Batman Begins and Dark Knight films with Dark Knight Rises around the corner. Have filmmakers learned anything from this experience? I sure hope so.

There is a point to all of this and it leads directly to the untapped potential of video game to film adaptations. A genre of which has yet to breach successful ground due to the same transitional misconceptions that mar comic themed movies until only recently. While studios are churning out a title for just about any well-known comic character ever licensed and trying to reboot the ones they already bled out, there still sits idly many good video game themed movies to be made. Once the first successful title gets released, watch how quickly a barrage of similar titles will follow. Here are a few tips on how to pull it off.

1)      Pick Games With Actual Stories to Them

Just because it makes a fun video game does not mean it will make for a good story. Super Mario Brothers is not something that was ever meant to translate well into live action. The attempt made for a bizarre film in 1993 that I am glad I got to see just for the pure morbid curiosity of it. It certainly was not a good movie and I don’t plan on ever reliving the experience unless I decide I hate life. A tale about Italian plumber brothers who battle a fire breathing turtle to save the princess of a mushroom world is not exactly poetry. Even as a Nintendo game addicted child I knew that this movie was a bad idea in the making and I used to like the bane that is Teen Wolf.

Doom got made into a movie too. Kudos to putting enough fun twists into the mix to make a romp out of it but still there was nothing to even go off of at the start. Doom is a first-person-shooter game developed by ID Software, a company notorious for lacking stories and this was by early video game player standards! What the hell did they think the movie could possibly provide? If anything, I watched it just to find out what the game I had played was about as unless you read the instruction manual that came with the game, all you can figure is that you are somebody shooting demons in another dimension.

Games like Double Dragon, Street Fighter, and Tekken are all based on fighting and brandish silly stories that are just throwaway excuses to explain why the characters in the game are fighting. All of which makes no sense in context but it doesn’t matter because those games are played for the fights, not the lore. What makes these worse as a movie is that there comes this obligation to borrow the special maneuvers of the game’s characters and put them on film with hilarious results. Watching Raul Julia doing a psycho crusher on Street Fighter (1994) just made me groan in pain. Plus it is a long painful haul to watch a fight intensive film with choreography that looks like it was directed by a group of kids who only saw one episode of The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and felt like they got the concept figured out.

None of this is nearly as bad as Uwe Boll’s House of the Dead. A movie based on a video game that is played entirely using a handheld light gun. When there are plenty of games out there that provide long drawn out mythologies that have been creatively consolidated into packaged screenplays, steer far from the polar opposite with a game where the objective is just to shoot at zombies on a screen the whole time. Chances are it isn’t sponsored with an engaging story. Speaking of Mr. Boll, this leads me to another important piece of advice.

2)      Hire Uwe Boll as a Marketing Consultant

Okay, I'm using this as a chance to pick on the man who is responsible for the worst video game themed movies if not the worst movies ever. The way you utilize his services is like this, ask Uwe Boll what he thinks of your idea and then do the opposite of his suggestion. This man understands movies and video games about as well as Twilight understands menacing vampires. Uwe Boll is a German director that funds his own movies and bases them off of whatever video game license he can purchase at the bargain bin. His movies are so bad that I’m sure they lead to the untimely death of video game franchises that otherwise could have forked out a few more successful titles. It is a fun fact that Boll is a talented boxer and has even invited some of his critics to challenge him in the ring. An opportunity I wish he was young enough for me to petition for as I would love to take a swing at the guy. Unless he feels froggy now in his 50’s and still issues challenges. I’d fight the old bastard. I don’t care. He has to pay for his sins of making the Bloodrayne series.

3)      Give Good Directors and Writers the Leverage They Have Earned

Peter Jackson who was still well within his aura of fandom after having turned the Lord of the Rings series into a sensational reality, had garnered deep interest in making a film adaptation of the video game Halo. Unlike most other first-person-shooters, Halo actually had an enriched story that was matched only by its engaging gameplay.

As the legend goes, a series of conflicts within the studio led to Peter Jackson abandoning the Halo project and instead supporting what would come to be the acclaimed District 9. A good movie that rose from the ashes of a fire that not only was a major blow to Halo fans, but to the kick-start that video games really needed for their stories to be better represented. If you have a director who has proven themself then you might want to cut that person a bit of slack. Some people take their movies very seriously. Not everybody is the next explosive happy Michael Bay, trying to distract the kiddies with beautiful women and exaggerated pyrotechnics to hide from the fact that the movie is a garbled mess.

I have my pick for what would make a powerful combination and a reasonable project to pull off to help make video game to movie adaptations the next hot commodity for studios to capitalize on. A special nod to Cinematicimpact reader and friend Ryan White for discussing the following suggestion with me.

Make God of War into a movie! With the success of Zack Snyder’s 300 that sits on the shelves of every testosterone fueled movie lover that I know, God of War is a powerfully energetic story that needs to be realized in theaters. In the wake of recent horrific Greek mythology themed films such as Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Clash of the Titans (2010), and Immortals, it is blurring out the enthusiasm that would ensue if only God of War were chosen as the worthy film project it is. Shame on studios out there for not nabbing up the license to this game and then filming this easy money making extravaganza.

For those who don’t know. God of War is about Kratos, a Spartan general who leads his army to many victories before meeting an unexpectedly imminent defeat that he is not prepared to accept. In a moment of desperation, Kratos pledges his eternal soul to do the bidding of the Greek God of War Ares, if that god gives him the power to win this battle. The exchange is agreed upon and Kratos rises as a more powerful being who easily dispatches his foe and thrives on many more victories to come in the name of Ares. Believing Kratos to be pacified by the love of family, Ares hatches a plot that successfully tricks Kratos into accidentally killing his wife and daughter and cursed to wear the ashes of his slain family on his skin as a sinful consequence. This event follows Kratos denouncing his service to Ares, struggling through various trials set forth by other gods in a plea of self-redemption, and ultimately seeking out the opportunity for the power necessary to actually challenge and kill Ares himself.

God of War is the kind of story that makes men want to hunt gazelle using just their throat-tearing mandibles. The problem it seems is that there aren’t any good supporting characters to accompany him. Kratos is a lonely guy but he encounters enough random people to keep dialogue fresh. His most frequented reoccurring interaction being with the Goddess Athena, sibling rival of Ares. When the most memorable line from 300 happened to be an enraged Leonidas exclaiming, “This is Sparta!” I don’t believe the audience that is attracted to a God of War movie is expecting Kratos to ponder on the intricacies of emotional deterioration. We want to see a bad-ass man, become an unstoppable threat, and bloodlust for a foe that even the gods themselves don’t dare fuck with.

To piece this together, it should be directed by the visual master behind Hellboy and Pan’s Labyrinth, Guillermo del Toro. Who I believe has the gifted insight on how to bring the surreal ominous nature of Greek Mythology creatures and godly structures to life. The role of Kratos can’t possibly go to anybody other than Dwayne Johnson of Scorpion King recognition. When Johnson was featured in Fast Five, I thought he already was training for the part of Kratos. I mean, look at the guy!

As for a writer, I say hire the same guys who wrote for the game itself. Who knows the story better than they do? Otherwise, put somebody who knows how to string action along and throw out a few good one-liners. Whatever you do, don’t let Uwe Boll pen it!