Video Games to Movies – The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

Hollywood always seems to have video game movies in production at various studios. Unfortunately, with almost any existing property turned into a movie, these studios tend to ignore what made the source material great in the first place, and instead change things to appeal to a wider audience. That said, here’s a look at some of the upcoming movies based on video games.

Uncharted

The Good: The movie is being handled in-house by Sony and the company knows how important the property is. While it will unlikely be a direct adaptation of the game, it should retain everything that made the franchise so enthralling.

The Bad: It’s being directed by Seth Gordon. His only noteworthy directorial feature was The King of Kong. He directed Horrible Bosses as well, but that’s not exactly a confidence-building resume.

The Ugly: At one point, Mark Wahlberg was attached to play Nathan Drake.

World of Warcraft

The Good: It’s being directed by Duncan Jones, who also directed Moon and Source Code. Moon is one of the best movies no one has seen, and Source Code is generally accepted as a solid film. We may not see much else that can be listed as a positive for this movie, but at least Jones is at the helm.

The Bad: Did you see the logo treatment? It looks more like Starcraft than Warcraft. If you need to change the story or whatever else to appeal to a wider audience, fine, but when you can’t even get the logo right there’s a bigger problem brewing.

The Ugly: The film focuses on the initial encounters between the humans and the orcs. Orcs are pretty ugly, but an origin story of the Warcraft universe could be even uglier.

Assassin’s Creed

The Good: Michael Fassbender will play the main character and understands what makes the series work. With so many different stories in the Assassin’s Creed universe, there’s a lot movie studios can work with and still retain what makes AC entertaining while offering a film that appeals to a wider audience.

The Bad: The movie was delayed multiple times and currently has an unspecified 2016 release date. With Fassbender tied up working on the X-Men films, the future of this one could be uncertain.

The Ugly: We’ll have to deal with the modern day descendant of the main character, who is rumored to be a convicted felon. Hopefully that means it only takes up a fraction of the run time, as we all want to see Michael Fassbender the assassin, not Michael Fassbender the modern day convict.

Angry Birds

The Good: The film will be animated so it looks similar to the game, and it stars Maya Rudolph, Peter Dinklage, Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Bill Hader and Danny McBride. That’s a solid cast for what we hope is a stellar comedy.

The Bad: Ian Andrew Hecox and Anthony Padilla from Smosh have also joined the cast. What voice-acting credentials do they have? Why are YouTubers being included? KassemG didn’t add anything to Transformers. Why are they here?

The Ugly: It’s pigs against birds. It doesn’t get any uglier, aside from maybe Animal Farm.

Ratchet and Clank

The Good: Insomniac Games will play a role in the film’s production, screenplay, character development and provide animation consulting. The voice cast from the game has also been tapped to reprise their roles in the movie. It’s also based on the first game in the series, which means it should be everything fans would hope for from a movie about the franchise. This is basically an animated film version of the first game, which is great for everyone involved.

The Bad: There’s still no official word on a proper Ratchet and Clank video game sequel. Even if the movie does well, at the moment there’s only a remake of the original coming to the PS4.

The Ugly: By the time the PS4 game and this movie arrive, consumers may have grown tired of the original Ratchet and Clank.

The Last of US

The Good: Neil Druckmann, the original writer behind The Last of Us video game, is also writing the movie script. In addition, Maisie Williams of Game of Thrones fame has been widely rumored to play Ellie. If that happens, most would consider it perfect casting.

The Bad: The game entails a 15-hour narrative that has to be cut down to fit into a two-hour film. To make this happen, Druckmann took the most important beats of the main narrative that follows Joel and Ellie and cut everything else out.

The Ugly: Hopefully the ending to the movie isn’t quite as bewildering as the ending of the game. Most would agree that Joel’s actions toward the end weren’t exactly heroic, and it even ruined the story for some players.