Silent Hill: The Movie

Well, once again, Hollywood has managed to put another nail in the coffin of videogame-to-film adaptations.

This seems to be the rationale of the 'genius' producers. First, license a successful game. Next, hire a C-rate writer to create the screenplay (after all, you don't need a first rate writer -- he just needs to take what's in the game and put it on screen). Tell the writer to play the game a few times and write a film that pretty much captures what it's like to play the game. Finally, release this rubbish, and get all the gamers to run to the cinema and give you their money.

Maybe it's a good formula, in the short-term. Silent Hill was successful at the box office. But you're not likely to see a Silent Hill 2.

Here's why the movie sucks -- they pretty much captured what it's like to play the game. But as gamer knows -- nothing is more boring than watching someone else play a game.

You see the main character run around, look at maps, use a flashlight, read documents... all the things that are fun to do in a game because you're doing it not watching it.

If The Matrix had been a videogame prior to being a movie, the film would involve Neo running around aimlessly, opening doors, ending in a big battle with Agent Smith -- without much plot or backstory surrounding it.

If Hollywood wants to create a successful movie based on a video game, the first thing they should get out of their head is the 'novel idea' that people want to see exactly what you get in the game. Next, they should realise that video game plots are fragmented and incomplete at best. I think it would take even more effort than creating a book adaptation where the plot is fully realised, but not yet visualised. Finally, they should hire writers that have written good screenplays within the same genre AND enjoy videogames. The first quality would ensure they know how to weave a decent tale, the second would allow them to get past the 'novelty' of playing a game ('oh! so you have to check the maps often -- I have to put that in the movie!') and actually dig into the core of the plot.

Take, for example, the Resident Evil films, which are somewhat watchable. They ditched most of the plot, ignored the gameplay, and created an action zombie flick -- which is the essence of the video game, not a literal reproduction.

So long as Hollywood chases a quick buck, the successful adaptation is not likely to happen. More likely, they'll kill the genre and move on to the next easily exploitable franchise.