Video games rarely work as movies. The basic forms are alike in surface
ways, but the best parts of a video game are usually the parts where the
player is in control, all the action stuff. In video games the story is
usually the tertiary concern (gameplay and graphics usually come
first), so what works in a game doesn’t translate to cinema.
But
there are a handful of modern games that feel like they could actually
make decent movies. A handful of games that have rich characters and
stories and worlds, and that aren’t just excuses for endless series of
battles or the solving of puzzles. One of those is Mass Effect, BioWare’s space epic, and it’s
been optioned by Legendary Pictures.
Legendary are the folks behind the
new Batman and Superman films, as well as the upcoming Godzilla and
World of
Warcraft,
among many other geek properties. They’re hiring I Am Legend‘s Mark Protosevich to write the
screenplay, which I’m assuming will be based on the first game (there
are two right now, with the series being planned as a trilogy).
In
Mass
Effect you
play Commander Shepard (who can be male or female, but you can bet
it’ll be a dude in the movie) as he takes control of the SS Normandy to
battle an alien threat that wipes out all life in the galaxy every
500,000 years. The pending invasion takes place against a backdrop of
hundreds of alien worlds and dozens of alien cultures, with the human
race still getting used to life as a spacefaring species.
There’s
no word on a date for Mass Effect.
10 comments
I was wondering when this would get snatched up. I agree, this might translate into a good film, but I'm not gonna let myself get as hyped for this as I did Silent Hill… ugh!
Mass Effect definitely could work well as a film, but the game is so filmic that a film doesn't need to exist in the first place. It was obvious this was gonna happen (EA is trying to get a Dead Space film going too) but it just doesn't need to happen. That said, I wouldn't mind watching it.
Ha maybe Seth Green will reprise his role as the pilot of the Normandy.
It really doesn't matter how many qualities a game shares with cinema. It's not a direct translation from one medium to the other. Just about any video game could make an excellent film if the right people are behind it. Fucking Tetris could be awesome if it was done right. It blows my mind that nobody has tried adapting Mario again yet. It has such a massive fan base and is a perfect jumping off point for a PG adventure movie. But I guess the people hired to make video game movies are just hacks. I don't know why. Studios have low standards.
I think this could translate well. I don't know how they can top either of the two games soundtracks though. Two of my favorite scores from anything in a long time and some of the best sci-fi scores ever in my personal opinion. Great great stuff. I haven't even finished the first game, but I have both soundtracks.
So i guess Michelle Rodriguez as Ashley?
bale as shepard
bale??? really??? I'm thinking Matthew Fox is perfect for shepard. And I'm sorry, but you have to get someone better looking than Michelle Rodriguez to play Ashley…ugh!
This is rather had to swallow. Given that one the greatest strengths of the game, and specifically designed by such by Bioware, is the role playing elements. The parts where the player builds their personal character and makes choices through the story of the game to reach it's outcome. Now argue what you will about those choices not amounting to much and the end conclusion just being variations of the same event, but it's through those choices and customization that draws an attachment of sorts to the character of Shepard. So in a movie when all those aspects are stripped away you're already giving the gaming audience a kick in the balls, but I guess this is to be expected because lets face it. Even the most elite of game designers and players are just good at that, making and playing games….not so much movies.
At the end of the soapbox, can a 2 hour movie capture the spirit of a space adventure, flying across the galaxy in pursuit of an overhanging evil destructive power and banging alien and human chicks along the way.
Scribe inspires confidence that it will not reach above professionally made mediocrity – not that the source is all that great to begin with.
"It wasn't that bad" is all I expect anyone will ever say regarding ME: THE MOVIE.
Nuance: "it" doesn't extinguish ALL life in the universe every 500K years (in which case we wouldn't be here. See: evolution) "It extinguishes all sentient life.
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