DOOM Movie...

[Wes]

You all say that if it plays out like this story-revision tells it, you're better of just watching RE, yet if it had the original "gateway to Hell" thing going, wouldn't that just be Event Horizon, with (hopefully) more violence? (Yes of course I know Doom came out first, but...)

That, and Christopher Lambert was the man as Raiden. That was probably the only good VG movie. This of course being the worst:

...it has portals to other dimensions to!

Edited January 29, 2005 by Wes

[Kin]

You all say that if it plays out like this story-revision tells it, you're better of just watching RE, yet if it had the original "gateway to Hell" thing going, wouldn't that just be Event Horizon, with (hopefully) more violence? (Yes of course I know Doom came out first, but...)

That, and Christopher Lambert was the man as Raiden. That was probably the only good VG movie. This of course being the worst:

...it has portals to other dimensions to!

Lol... I watched the movie and it hasn't got the slightest resemblance with mario world. Take a body of a man and put a 1:1 scale snake head on it... how cheap

[Noriko Takaya]

Trailer for DOOM the live action movie.

DOOM

To see it, right click and "save link as"

Bitchin'!

[Radd]

You all say that if it plays out like this story-revision tells it, you're better of just watching RE, yet if it had the original "gateway to Hell" thing going, wouldn't that just be Event Horizon, with (hopefully) more violence?   (Yes of course I know Doom came out first, but...)

That, and Christopher Lambert was the man as Raiden.  That was probably the only good VG movie.  This of course being the worst:

...it has portals to other dimensions to!

Lol... I watched the movie and it hasn't got the slightest resemblance with mario world. Take a body of a man and put a 1:1 scale snake head on it... how cheap

Yet Miyamoto co-wrote the movie. I actually enjoyed it, probably because it was so different from the typical Mario world, yet bore a twisted "Through the Looking Glass" type resemblence to it. Plus it was a lot of fun, you could tell the actors were having a good time with their roles.

I'm not gonna argue that it's some classic of cinema, but it was a great rainy day flick, totally underserving of most of the trash talk thrown its way.

[Gaijin]

Oh no! Doom movie...they are raping my early 20's!!

[wolfx]

Wasn't there a rap OST to this Mario movie?

[JB0]

You all say that if it plays out like this story-revision tells it, you're better of just watching RE, yet if it had the original "gateway to Hell" thing going, wouldn't that just be Event Horizon, with (hopefully) more violence?   (Yes of course I know Doom came out first, but...)

That, and Christopher Lambert was the man as Raiden.  That was probably the only good VG movie.  This of course being the worst:

...it has portals to other dimensions to!

Lol... I watched the movie and it hasn't got the slightest resemblance with mario world. Take a body of a man and put a 1:1 scale snake head on it... how cheap

Yet Miyamoto co-wrote the movie. I actually enjoyed it, probably because it was so different from the typical Mario world, yet bore a twisted "Through the Looking Glass" type resemblence to it. Plus it was a lot of fun, you could tell the actors were having a good time with their roles.

I'm not gonna argue that it's some classic of cinema, but it was a great rainy day flick, totally underserving of most of the trash talk thrown its way.

Indeed. It's a fun show.

And if it was faithful, people would be complaining about how crappy the writing was, how cliche the stars were, and how lame the set designs were.

Game-movie adaptations are a lose-lose situation. If it's faithful, it's poo. If it's not faithful, it's poo. There's no pleasing the target audience.

[Graham]

Seeing as how I was wrong about Id intending the enemy to be hell itself in the original Doom that brings my thoughts on the movie context into sort of a new light... well not really. More or less it makes me think that the cop-out excuse of "they don't want to use a touchy subject like hell in a movie" holds no water. Just even a short search reveals many recent movies that featured satan, hell and demons prominently and as key story elements. Heck, Agent ONE will even remember the Arnold movie End of Days... that had the devil himself in it. With all these big name movies featuring serious depictions of hell and demons in recent times I'd think that excuse as for why the theme was not used for the Doom movie holds no water.

Yeah, I just fail to understand why using hell in the movie would be considered a touchy subject?

More likely their budget is too small and they can't afford the effects .

Graham

[Akilae]

I don't think Hell is a problem, after all, "End of Days", "The Nine Gate", "Constantine", etc..

I think the problem might be the overall visceral nature of Doom... after all, consider chain saw, shotgun... not to mention plasma rifles and BFGs... so much gore Movies released lately have been hacked and PC'd in order to sell to a younger audience.

'sides, if anything, Doom should send a POSITIVE images... imagine, you get to kick ass in Hell killing demons!!

[Graham]

I think the problem might be the overall visceral nature of Doom... after all, consider chain saw, shotgun... not to mention plasma rifles and BFGs... so much gore Movies released lately have been hacked and PC'd in order to sell to a younger audience.

Nah, I still say it's budget.

If they really wanted to they could still do Space Marines running around Mars, with cool sci-fi guns and chainsaw and reduce the gore level to make it suitable for the younger audiences, but instead we're gonna be getting SWAT type guys, no doubt armed with the ubiquitious MP5s, M4s or G36s in a modern day setting.

Graham

[Sumdumgai]

Looks like Karl Urban (Eomer in LOTR) is in the Doom movie according to IMDB.

It's sounding "meh"-ish.

[mikeszekely]

Has there ever been a sucessful movie based on a vidio game?

That depends on your definition of "successful"... a "successful" movie to hollywood is one that, when it is all said and done, the movie breaks even. No loss, no real profit, just breaking even. It means all the bills are paid, no one is left holding the bag and production can start on the next piece. Boffo is when the movie turns a profit above and beyond production costs.

If your definition of success is the same as hollywoods then yes, several video game movies have been successful. Give me a minute and I'll pull some numbers.

EDIT TO ADD:

Just some numbers from some video game movies to put this in perspective...

(all numbers source: "the numbers")

Mortal Kombat 1 cost an est. $20 mil to make, it made over $70 mil at the box office.

Lara Croft Tomb Raider cost an est. $90 mil to make and grossed well into $270 mil worldwide box office.

Resident Evil 1 cost $35 mil to make at had a worldwide box office take of just under $60 mil.

Resident Evil Apocalypse had a budget of $50 mil and made about a $78 mil worldwide box office take.

And the new "Alone in the Dark" movie has a $20 mil budget... it will earn that back in the first two weeks of release I bet.

The only real notable video game movie "flops" are Final Fantasy: Spirits within which suffered a whopping $60 mil loss worldwide and doomed Square's movie division to death... and the abysmal Wing Commander movie which had a budget of $30 mil and barely squeeked an $11 mil domestic box office take.

So, by rule of the hard figures (only box office numbers mind you), Video game movies are good business for hollywood. Their successes outweigh their failures.

Yeah, but where's the numbers for Super Mario Bros, Street Fighter, the second Tomb Raider (which I understood to be such a failure that Paramount tried to blame Eidos, saying that "Angel of Darkness" was so bad that people didn't want to see the movie after playing it), or Double Dragon?

[JsARCLIGHT]

No budget numbers on Super Mario Brothers, but it did make over $20 mil in the US box office. If it's budget was not much higher then it would have broken even.

Street Fighter the movie also has no budget numbers and made just over $33 mil in the US market. Once again, without budget numbers we don't know if it broke even or tanked.

Double Dragon barely made $2 mil domestic... no matter what the budget was that was abysmal and I'll give you that one.

Tomb Raider 2 had a production budget of over $90 mil and barely turned just over a $65 mil US box office take. Did not break even at the theaters but might have broke even with rentals and DVD purchases... hell, even flops like Gigli broke even thanks to rentals and DVD sales. Even that being said, $65 mil is no "failure"... Final Fantasy Spirits Within and it's initial box office loss of almost $100+ million, now THAT was a failure.

[Kin]

I've been thinking...

A good movie has a good story which can be used and added into games. But if you do the opposite, the movie is going to miss alot of the gaming sensation and people already how the story is going to end. Looks like a step backwards to me.

If you watch the movie, you just can't fit yourself in it like in games.

Edited January 31, 2005 by Kin

[mikeszekely]

I've been thinking...

A good movie has a good story which can be used and added into games. But if you do the opposite, the movie is going to miss alot of the gaming sensation and people already how the story is going to end. Looks like a step backwards to me.

If you watch the movie, you just can't fit yourself in it like in games.

That's a positively brilliant assertation, and I think I agree. It started with RPGs, but now, games in almost all genres, including fighting games and FPS, are starting to have bigger and bigger stories. Plus, more and more games are getting star power, be they voice actors like the countless celebs in the GTA games, or actual digital representations like Brooke Burke in NFSU2 or Jean Reno in Onimusha 3. The videogame industry has grown to ridiculous proportions and bring in revenues that are close to the revenues that Hollywood has been bringing in. And as revenue goes up, more money is spent on development. In some ways, videogames have surpassed Hollywood films as a means of cinematic story-telling, as videogames are often longer, and can spend more time developing the plot and characters Also, while movies are purely passive, videogames are interactive, which creates a deeper emotional involvement. When you watch a film like Dawn of the Dead, there's some intense scenes that leave you wondering how the characters are going to keep from being zombie chow, but at the end of the film, you walk away, reguardless of the outcome. Play a game like Resident Evil, and that's you figuring out how you're going to run through that room full of zombies with only two bullets left. If you die, well, you just restart from your last save, but if you succede, that feeling of satisfaction is personal.

[JB0]

The videogame industry has grown to ridiculous proportions and bring in revenues that are close to the revenues that Hollywood has been bringing in.

Corrrection. Video games are currently the single largest and most profitable entertainment industry in the US.

Games generate MORE revenue than Hollywood.

[mikeszekely]

The videogame industry has grown to ridiculous proportions and bring in revenues that are close to the revenues that Hollywood has been bringing in.

Corrrection. Video games are currently the single largest and most profitable entertainment industry in the US.

Games generate MORE revenue than Hollywood.

Which only serves to emphasize the point.

Interactivity is a two-edged sword, though. While it draws players into the story more, people who lack the aptitude to play the game, or tolerance for certain genres (in my case, I really can't get into any kind of RTS or tactics games) keeps people from experiencing what is otherwise a solid game/story, while, providing the movie really doesn't suck, a movie is instantly accessible to anyone, and even if the viewer didn't care for the movie, they can usually identify with it on some kind of level.