When I first heard that there was going to be a Prince of Persia film made I actually got a little bit excited. The ‘Sands of Time’ trilogy of Prince of Persia are some of my favourite games ever- especially the first one, which the movie is named after.
Then I came to my senses, I remembered that there is no point getting excited about a movie based on a game because they are usually just plain awful, especially the ones trying to take themselves seriously. I don’t know why but whenever a film is made based on the premise of a game it never fails to turn into a big pile of steamy crap.
The weird thing is that Hollywood doesn’t ever seem to realise this fact. To make matters worse there are a whole array of games ready to be made into big screen disasters.
Another Mortal Combat film- you’d have thought they would have learned by now; a possible Gears of War film; two World of Warcraft movies and the drama-filled, potential Halo movie.
It’s hard to please anyone when making films like this. If you’re making a movie based on Megaman, for example, you have to keep the potential new viewer happy. If the film is non-stop inside references to the game and its characters it will inevitably leave someone with no prior knowledge confused upset and possibly angry.
On the other side of the table, you don’t want to make the movie too different from the original- then you’re alienating the existing audience, and that defies the point of making a video game based movie in the first place.
It’s hard to keep both camps happy at the same time. I would say if you’re going to make a movie based on a game; make it a tribute to the fan. There is a defined audience for that film before it’s even announced and, if it’s a good film, it might at least go down as a cult classic-or even the first good movie based on a video game.
Of course there is no chance of that happening; Hollywood being the grotesque money munching cookie monster that it is. Video game movies just seem to be another big pot that Hollywood have decided to delve into now that they’ve ran out of original ideas.
With every super hero under the sun getting their own big screen adventure, why not go the next step and not only steal characters and back stories, but entire narratives as well. The alternative is to make a movie named after a game but then have very little to do with the games own narrative. *cough*residentevil*cough*
Another Disney sell-out?
So what does that leave us with? A long series of movies very loosely ‘inspired’ by the plots and characters of video games?
The reality is a cold brisk kick in the spuds. There is no way that Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time will be a loving tribute to one of my favourite games of all time. It will be a glammed up action movie with an overblown cast and special effects budget. And knowing Disney (yes that’s right, Disney) it will turn the Prince into the next huge line of kids toys and colouring books and crappy Halloween costumes.
Taking Disney’s track history into account when making this genre of film, I’m guessing that The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time will show as much faith to the original as Jack Sparrow did to a knackered old ride in Disney World called Pirates of the Caribbean. On the bright side at least there won’t be any god awful games made based on the movie… will there?
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