June 19, 2023 • 61 mins
Why do so many video game adaptations fall short of the mark? Today, we're joined by Denise Chan and Martin Yeung as we tackle this pressing question and dissect the complex world of video game movies. From the debacle of Alone in the Dark to the more recent success of The Last of Us show, we dive into the key factors that contribute to the success or failure of these adaptations.
Together, we explore the significant differences between the storytelling of a movie and a video game, as well as the role of studio executives who may not be in tune with the games they're adapting. We also discuss the importance of staying true to the source material, as seen in iconic adaptations like Mortal Kombat. By examining our favorite video game adaptations, such as the animated series Arcane and the classic Wreck-It Ralph, we draw conclusions on the elements that make for a good adaptation, and how these stories can stand on their own while still honoring the games that inspired them.
Don't miss out on this fascinating conversation about the intricate process of adapting video games to other mediums. Join us as we uncover the secrets behind successful adaptations and discuss the challenges creators face in bringing beloved video game characters and stories to life. Share your favorite adaptations and let us know why they worked (or didn't) in your opinion!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey everyone, welcome to the show Today's episode.
I'm Michael Prishnary, joinedby Denise Chen and Martin Jung,
and today we're talking aboutvideo game adaptations.
Wahoo, wahoo.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Wahoo.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Wahoo.
Wahoo, i don't feel like yourwahoo kind of matched our energy
, Denise.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
That was the point.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Okay, Well, much like your wahoo just then.
it's very similar to video gameadaptations in that they're
always worse than what theyshould be.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
We were the original video games with a wahoo energy,
and then the movie is justwahoo.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Exactly, But every wahoo there's a wahoo Wahoo.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Wahoo.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
And then there's just wahoo, and then you've got Uwe
Bol who directs every freakingvideo game movie.
How does that guy direct somany bad movies back to back?
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Get green lit for it as well.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
If a movie says it's directed by Uwe Bol, however you
say his name Uwe Uwe, uwe, ubolUbol.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
U.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Udog, udog directed.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
I don't know what that was.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
U directed numerous video game movies that you
should stay away from One ofwhich we watched, we watched and
you can find that video on myYouTube channel reacting to
Alone in the Dark, terrible film.
And I think that's a great wayto kind of start this off, where
we're going to talk about whatmade video game adaptations work
(01:41):
, what made them not work, whatare the bad, what are the good.
And let's start off with thereally bad, alone in the Dark,
which has a 1% on RottenTomatoes.
Why was this not a good movieand didn't work as a video game
adaptation, guys?
Speaker 3 (01:57):
I've, like, mentally blocked out that movie.
to be quite honest with you, Itwas just so horrible I can't
say I blame you.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
But I mean, let's just look at the title.
It was called Alone in the Dark.
Was there ever a scene wherethere was a character alone in
the dark?
What?
Speaker 3 (02:16):
was it?
Didn't Lorraine say somethinglike crowded in the light or
something?
We should call it crowded inthe light.
It's just coming back to me now.
Much more fitting.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
All I remember is a really nice sink filling up.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
It's still filling up .
Yeah, it's still filling up.
That was the highlight, veryreminiscent, of an accident we
had downstairs.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
That sounds really bad if you don't provide context
.
What Martin's talking about isdownstairs.
This is a true story brother,i'm not making a quip or
anything My partner opened thedishwasher and it just sprayed
everywhere.
The water just went everywhere.
There's something wrong with mydishwasher.
(03:04):
It's like possessed orsomething where it just won't
turn off.
now It just keeps on anunending loop.
It's just like a sink.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
I feel like I really should also add that, guys, this
is not a euphemism, this is anactual dish.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
This is actual true story We were having dinner and
the dishwasher actually broke.
We're not making a joke.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
This isn't a What would this be A euphemism for
Denise?
It squirted everywhere.
You guys are immature.
You are so immature.
Future, martin, play it back,don't say that Martin's going to
do a whee-wee-wee-wee-wee-weeand rewind me and bring up the
(03:48):
clip.
But I'm wearing pants todaybecause Martin always likes to
aim the camera at my dick forsome reason.
What's all of that about?
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Anyway, let's just get back to your question.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
What makes a video game adaptation bad?
Like we were saying Alone inthe Dark, you got people with
machine guns in a very crowdedplace where there's light.
It totally goes against Alonein the Dark and what that means.
Alone in the Dark was a Itrebooted as a survival horror,
but the point was it was meantto be a scary, suspenseful game.
(04:29):
This movie did not even followthe normal rules of filmmaking.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
And we got.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Alone in the Dark, which is, to this day, the worst
rated video game movie of alltime.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
So where does this contrast come from?
Where the video games actuallyare quite good video games, but
then the movie adaptations arethe complete 180 of it.
What's getting lost intranslation?
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Every video game movie has to be based on a good
video game, because otherwiseit's like To get green lit To
get green lit.
It needs to be a game thatpeople like to play.
I mean there's Bloodrain.
I don't know who the hell greenlit that movie, because I don't
remember anyone playing thatgame, but someone must have
(05:17):
played it because it got a movie.
But for the most part, videogame movies are usually, 99% of
the time, based on games thatare actually very good and fun.
I think what's happening isyou've got studio executives
that don't play video gamestrying to adapt and interpret
(05:37):
and make money off somethingthat they don't understand.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Also, it's just a medium.
There's a medium difference.
The storytelling of a videogame is different to a movie,
where in a movie you're taken ona journey.
A video game, you have moreagency And there's more, i think
in video games even more of asuspension of disbelief as well,
and just basic logic just getsthrown out the window even more
(06:04):
in video games.
For example, there's no way youcan hold 999 apples in your
inventory and stuff.
There's just Yeah, and then youcan pay.
You can pace through the gameas fast or as slow as you want.
But I think it's just gameplaymechanics, especially certain
video games, where the mechanicsare intricately interwoven into
(06:24):
the storytelling.
They just cannot be translatedto visual and audio only.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
I think as well a video game can be fun and have a
shit story.
We know plenty of video gamesthat have terrible stories, but
they're really fun to play.
A movie with a shit storycompletely different.
It's a lot harder to make amovie that has a terrible story,
but it's still fun to watch.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
All right.
So video games, there's more toit than just a story as well.
Like, if it doesn't have, if ithas a bland kind of all
miniscule story, it can stillmake up for it in the
entertainment value, whereas amovie has to be about the actual
storytelling of theexperiential.
Yeah, because you're observingit.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
I mean, like Mario Brothers the Mario Brothers
games, a plumber that tries tosave a princess from a castle
that's guarded by a giant dragonthing.
How the hell do you translatethat into a movie or a real life
movie, which is what happenedin 1993?
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Good segue.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Oh man, i still need to watch that.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
I don't ever need to watch that movie.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
It's intense.
I watched the trailer for thatfor the first time.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Did you not show you the trailer?
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Maybe that was here and I've just forgotten.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
You buried it deep down.
I actually suppressed it And Iwas a shock.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
It's crazy that it's not a parody movie, that's what
it feels like It does, doesn'tit?
Right, it feels like no way.
This is real.
No way.
This is like a serious attemptat making something to honor the
legacy of this game, one of thekey things that that movie
screwed up is Mario and Luigi'slast names are Mario, what?
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Mario, mario.
Yeah, is that right.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
There's a part where like the cop is like asking
what's your last name And Luigisays Mario.
And then he asks Mario and he'slike Mario.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Is that why they call him Mario, if you can't even
nail the names of this game howthe hell are you gonna nail this
movie?
Speaker 1 (08:28):
And, truth be told, they didn't.
1993 only had one good movieabout dinosaurs, and it
definitely was not MarioBrothers.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
The other movie was like a small indie flick, yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Yeah, i think it was directed by Senor Spielburgo.
I think so.
Yeah, small Time Filmmaker.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Very small time?
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Yes, i don't think he's doing much now, except
directing musicals.
Anywho, a good question wouldbe what are your favourite video
game adaptations?
Denise and Martin.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Oh, that's a good question.
If we're talking film and TV,the recent ones that come to
mind are definitely one arcanethe animated series that's.
Netflix like, based on all thekind of League of Legends.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
I knew you were gonna say a show Jinks, jinks, jinks.
There's not many movies thatyou can pick out.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
I think what it speaks to is almost that at
least with a TV show you havemultiple facets to really have
an engaging story, not just withlittle subplots but that payoff
, different characters, arcs soyou can really explore them, but
like an overall main storylinethat just builds and builds to
eventually get to that reallyclimactic ending.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Also when I think of shows, obviously like, I think,
The Last of Us and the reasonThe Last of Us was so good is
because they stayed to thefucking story of the games.
Other than like exploring thebackstory of one character, the
Last of Us.
The show is like beat for beatthe game.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
And more actually they actually expanded on the
world building and stuff.
Yeah, they actually delve moreinto the quarter-seps and stuff
and its origin and everything.
Yeah so other than like littleminor changes.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Most of it is the exact same And really, when
you've got a game with a storyas fantastic as The Last of Us,
Yeah, i was gonna bring that up,yeah.
That's all you gotta do.
Like I don't even know why.
It says written by such andsuch.
It's like just use the story ofthe game.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Use the blueprint that was already set up in 2013.
Exactly, yeah, that story isgreat.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Don't fuck it up, don't try and invoke some gender
politics or woke shit.
Just keep it what it is.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
It definitely helped that you all.
It was already a phenomenalstory, so they didn't need to do
much adapting And like.
The point I will say is that itwasn't until sort of video
games took on more conventionalHollywood, sort of three-act
structure storytellingincorporating cinematic
techniques and focusing ondialogue and writing hero's
(11:14):
journey, inciting incident.
That kind of Hollywood sort oftook video game stories more
seriously, because we're talkingabout a medium that started off
where the ending of a game wasjust a black screen with white
text saying congratulations,thank you for saving me from my
slumber, or something, yeah,yeah.
So it wasn't until they broughton like Hollywood writers and
so on, that like Hollywoodstarted taking them seriously
(11:36):
and also to and this is from anearlier point of maybe, i guess
I'll make it now So the audiencematured and so has the stories
that were being told from, justlike rescuing damsels in
distress to well, yeah, last ofus, worldwide infection and the
human and the gripping characterdevelopments and the character
pieces and very mature themes aswell.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Plus, you can't have a damsel being a damsel in
distress in 2023.
That's just not.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
And how many times can you retell that story?
Not progressive.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
No.
You got you off the next, youbrought up arcane.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah, I think.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Why does arcane work?
Speaker 2 (12:16):
I think, like adding on to white works, and it's just
something that Martin saidabout and you got both of you
said actually, about how youknow when you stick to the story
, but not just that, you expandon what's already been
established, and that is whenyou cater not just to existing
fans but new fans as well,because you're really fleshing
out that universe and I feel ashow like arcane really works
(12:39):
because, say, for people whoaren't familiar with the law,
because when you play the game,unless you really dive into
reading all the back stories,and stuff.
You don't need to know that Youdon't need to know all that to
play the actual game right.
And it's a funny running jokethat everything about League of
Legends outside of the gameitself is amazing.
The game is like dirty, becauseour game was like truly up here
(13:02):
and, yeah, they expanded onthese stories and, like you had
given these histories and justall these details that you know,
i wasn't aware for some of thecharacters, that just made it so
impactful and really clarifiedthe characters relationships
with each other as well and theyhad really like meaningful arcs
.
I think that's what really justelevated it all for me, like it
(13:25):
made these video gamecharacters so human And, with
the thematic messages that werebeing told, it felt like
something you'd watch.
I don't know if there's areason Jinx is arc, for example,
without any spoilers.
It felt very much like theJoker, like on that level of
depth and kind of growth of howyou just see this character Go
(13:47):
all the way down is his arcpretty much a character that has
to break his own rules and ispushed too far, to the point
where I'd be getting intospoiler if you try to specify.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
No, i'm just asking.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Yeah, jinx, yeah, she's got that aspect of the
Joker.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
It's basically the tragedy as much.
Okay, that's a great way andplot twist.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
In contrast, because the main story follows kind of
her and her older sister andthey get like separated at some
point.
You see them have thatliterally different journeys,
like almost opposite to eachother.
It really adds like a reallynice.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Yeah, it's a tragedy, the age old tragedy, yeah, you
know it's like two, just twowarriors who have diverged off
different paths and they want toget back to the other part.
just they're two different now,so they can't rekindle.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Like how twin brothers, how they have
completely different lives.
I'm pretty sure there were twinbrothers that had lived a
completely different set oflives where one was like in jail
from drugs and the other onewas like a car or something like
that.
Something ridiculous, but itwas.
It was really riveting.
I like that idea though.
Yeah Of like siblings that livecompletely different lives, and
(15:01):
it comes down to like thesevery crucial but simple choices.
Yeah, that's it.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Because you just feel the impact of the stakes so
much more and there's this somuch behind it that expands on
the whole thing.
And it's very similar to how Ifelt about another TV show
cyberpunk edge runners as wellwhere it's like it has all these
cool Easter eggs and contextualthings from the actual game.
But you know we're followingcharacters we've never met
(15:30):
before and, through that,exploring other things that the
game might have touched on butmaybe didn't fully dive into
like the whole idea of, becausein the game cyberpunk 2077.
There's all this kind of.
You can pretty much upgradeyourself with robotic parts and
things which give youenhancements.
Yeah, enhancements and stuffand in the, the anime, they
(15:53):
basically explored, you know,the impacts of getting addicted
to that kind of cycle.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
And I didn't expect it to sound of this.
What's that fasting Santa Vistathing?
Speaker 2 (16:06):
It's like a spinal thing he implements, which I
think in the story.
It's like an illegal prototypepart that they were trying to
get and I don't know how.
I can't know what happened, buthe had to install it and it
basically made him sooverpowered that he got so
addicted to like using it, butit was like killing him in the
same time, it was the humanity.
(16:26):
Yeah, it's pretty full on, butagain.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
I wonder how far away we are from a future like
what's 2077 minus 2023.
We could get there sooner.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Try and be a bit more optimistic, as run as there's a
sequel, so it's one less year,but notice how everything we're
talking about here are grippingcharacter pieces.
Exactly is irrespective ofvideo game mechanics, and that
can be applied to justconventional Hollywood tales and
stuff.
Now, these successfuladaptations are the one that
(17:03):
focus on characters and threeact structure tragedies motives.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
If you want to have a horrible video game adaptation,
just here we go.
insert Mark Wahlberg.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
To like what Matt Vell is saying choices that are
obviously driven by businessinterests.
Yeah, that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Well, I mean like Uncharted.
Did you watch Uncharted?
Speaker 3 (17:28):
No, i don't plan to.
I don't want to Uncharted yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
I watched it in the cinemas.
I reviewed it for the podcast.
You, poor soul, you can listento that full podcast.
It was not a fun movie.
It was very groan inducing.
It felt like a big cash grab.
For all the good faith thatSony had built with me from
Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse, they lost all of it with that
(17:54):
movie.
The funny thing, though, isUncharted are fun story driven
games with big action set pieces.
Yes, and here you had a moviethat was stealing parts from
each game.
Yes, and then just having onecoherent storyline from one of
(18:15):
the games.
All Uncharted had to be was thesame story as the first
Uncharted game, and it wouldhave been fine.
Then you could have made thesequel the exact same as
Uncharted 2.
You save a fuck ton of moneyfrom writing credits because
you're just using the game asthe blueprint.
Instead, we got this moviewhere there's a plot twist about
(18:36):
a bad guy.
This person's the bad guy.
No one gives a shit.
It's very badly miscast Like.
Mark Wahlberg should not havebeen cast as Sully and the other
actor.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
No, no, no, Tom Holland isn't.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Tom Holland just doesn't suit Nathan Drake.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
And the groanie was made with this and that in 19th
century.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
No just that, that is not Nolan North, no just no,
the movie is a perfect exampleof studios thinking they know
what makes the game work andtotally missing the point.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
Yeah, you brought up the point.
It's like they're just likecherry picking bits and bobs,
like here and there, like justthe best moments of the
highlight reels, and what youhave is a weird mesh mash of
unfitting Jenga pieces that theythen, retroactively, are trying
to piece together with somekind of story just to string
everything together.
That was, from across threegames into one sitting for games
(19:39):
for.
Okay, right, yeah, four games,i just forgot the fourth one
exists.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
And the story in the fourth game is fantastic.
I, like, i love the story inthe fourth game.
I was telling the story.
I was playing the game in frontof my partner and she was like,
wait a sec, this is a fuckinggame.
I thought this was a movie thatyou were watching.
Yeah, that's one issue.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
I don't know if it's an issue, but it's just like the
games that taken more.
It seems like the games took onmore Hollywood storytelling
than an actual game.
Like to the point where I'dnever played the last of us or
any uncharted games or naughtydog games, because all I really
honestly do is just watch thecut scene compilations on
YouTube and treat it as if I'mgoing through like a movie
(20:23):
session And like, and all thebits in between are just like me
getting from point A to point Band only the most important
like story bits happening,pre-rendered cut scenes or Moe
captain stuff.
So it was to the point where Iwas like the last of us could
have just been a conventional TVshow.
And they did.
Yeah, it was like he was, hewas fully acted and Moe captain
stuff.
It was like why this could haveis very much just an episodic
(20:45):
series.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Which I disagree.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
There's some.
Really, it still is a fun game.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
I get that.
Mechanics, i get that And youcan totally watch the game.
Just all the cut scenes onYouTube.
The story is that great, butyou do lose some kind of
immersiveness by not playingthrough those levels.
So it's in between moments Youmiss out on conversations, world
building, that, certain thingsthat just could only be done
(21:11):
through a game, certain littledetails.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
How much are you missing, though?
I have played like Spider-Manon PS4, for example, but I could
see that well, maybe if youwatch only watch the cut scene,
you could still get the gist oflike the character sort of
relations and everything.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
I think the last of us is a game that you should try
and play from start to finish.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
Those dialogues that happen in between cut scenes.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
they add to your character relations 100% And
there are some key moments thatyou play the character, for
example, like you play thecharacter at the start of the
game.
Well, am I getting into spoilerterritory?
I mean, the game's been out forlike 10 years, but there's a
pivotal moment at the start ofthe last of us where you're
playing as it's not a cut scene-Yeah, you experience from like
(21:57):
a Well, not first person, butWell, you actually change
characters.
You play as one character andthen it changes to another
character.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
Actually, you know what The game is like 10 years
old.
I think you can go intospoilers.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
That's all I'm going to say.
I'll keep it fresh and just saythat it changes perspectives
and it's really cool.
I think you should at somepoint.
you should play the last of us,or we can There is something to
be said about when.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
It's something different, that when you have
agency, you actually directly,you have direct input into a
character, that you have evenmore of a connection, rather
than if you are watching in atheater.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Plus, it feels really satisfying to shoot people in
the head in that game.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
And that's something special.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Yeah, they need to make it.
I think Hideo Kojima needs tomake sure that to make a game
first and not just like BecauseI think Hideo Kojima, for all
intents and purposes, he justwants to go into Hollywood, he
just wants to make movies andstuff, he wants to smell his own
farts.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
He's making comments.
Sorry, but one hour long Gamesare so fucking pretentious.
I don't know anyone that?
actually genuinely enjoys thestories in the gameplay.
They either like one or theother.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
Yeah, somewhat relevant, there was a reviewer
from an Australian publishingwebsite on Death Stranding, one
of the few reviewers that putout like a, not like a 9 out of
10 or 10 out of 10, like mostpeople were.
They gave it a 6 out of 10,knowing that it would lead to a
lot of backlash, but they saidsomething along the lines of it
pains me to say it, but Konamimay have been a necessary evil
(23:34):
for him, a check and balanceagainst his more self-indulgent
ambitions Where he wanted to gooff the deep end.
But then Konami of all peoplewere telling him no, that's not
going to fly with people.
Yeah, that's I 110% agree withthat statement.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Sometimes, when you give people all the power that
they've been chasing, you kindof realize that they hang
themselves.
With that power You get DeathStranding, like they use that
rope to hang themselves.
I don't know, i feel like therewas a clever, a more clever
analogy in there, but I kind offucked it up.
But the point is Huberous.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
Yeah, hubris, excessive pride, whatever you
want to call it.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
That game showed people that this guy is not as
amazing and perfect as everyonemade out This section is going
to get us so much flame?
Speaker 3 (24:22):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
There's heaps of people that didn't like Death
Stranding and thought it wasoverrated.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Yeah, people just like lambasting IGN and games or
whatever and stuff Or anyonethat was saying the game was
horrible before they even playedit And then, once they got the
game in their own PlayStation,then like okay, maybe those
negative reviews were ontosomething, okay, anyways.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Movies.
That'll be a fun section foryou to edit.
Yes, so Arcane for Denise.
Yes, your favorite.
I haven't watched a lot.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
I'm sure if I got.
In Australia we've got astreaming platform called Binge.
That's how you watch The Lastof Us, right?
And in the Americas you have touse HBO Max, now called Max.
Yeah, i'm sure if I watchedthat then, yeah, last of Us
would also be up there for me,but I still haven't played the
game, so that might discount theequation.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Then Mario Brothers would be Yeah, Mario Brothers
2023.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
And then Sonic is like an okay movie but
definitely is not my topfavorite.
Mario movies definitely Youtake Jim Carrey out of Sonic and
it's Generic summer kids movies.
Yeah, nothing, not like anygroundbreaking storytelling or
anything like that.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
For me, my favorite video game adaptation has to be
Mortal Kombat.
I watched it the other day.
Mortal Kombat 1995, not 2021.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
With Cory, something.
Yuuki, the one that plays ShangTsung, Yeah, the dude that
plays Shang Tsung Your soul ismine.
He's facial acting.
Like he pointed out, i don'tneed to run.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
I don't need to run Lou Lou.
Lou Your brother's soul is mine.
That dude is the best.
No one could hold a candle tothat Shang Tsung iteration.
I watched the new one and I waslike this dude's putting me to
(26:24):
sleep.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
Get the other guy Is this Certain actors that has
forever owns the character theyplayed like decades ago, yeah,
but Mortal Kombat 1995, eventhough it was rated M or wasn't
rated MA or R18, whatever thelatest movie was.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
It's just such a simple story.
You're following Liu Kang,sonia and Johnny Cage to go into
the tournament.
You get these greatintroduction scenes to each
character.
You see that Liu Kang isfighting for revenge and he
could be consumed by revenge ifhe's not careful.
Johnny Cage is trying to provethat he's not just an actor,
(27:06):
that he actually has realmartial arts background, and
Sonia Blade is trying to trackdown Kano, who apparently is
killed a partner of hers.
But she doesn't like to workwith teammates, she always likes
to do things by herself.
Another one of those like Butthe point is you got three
(27:31):
characters.
They got clearly definedcharacter arcs In the movie that
they're very well cast.
Lyndon Ashby is like the bestJohnny Cage, robin shoe as Liu
Kang.
When you see this guy, thisjacked dude, play Liu Kang and
his majestic hair just flowingOh you're like that is Liu Kang.
(27:52):
Yeah, i watched the new moviesand when they pulled out the
actor playing Liu Kang, i waslike no offense, but there's
only one Liu Kang Oh.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
I did a quick sort of like Google research.
He only started doing martialarts sort of training at the age
of 19 or something.
19, yeah, that is.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Liu Kang.
I don't care what anyone says.
Don't you dare bring downRobert shoe.
He's Liu Kang.
I don't care if we learnmartial arts on the fucking sack
.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
What help did that?
he grew up on making a name forhimself in Hong Kong cinema, so
that really propelled him inhis like martial arts portfolio.
Yeah, fuck, so good castingthere.
You know, get the Hong.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Kong product he uses with his hair.
I need to get.
He conditions, he lotions Ohhair masks between, between,
takes you just like slavers, itup, yeah, coconut oil.
Stunning.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
So I think we're getting closer to why certain
Auditions work.
So you brought up so goodcasting, good character arcs.
That actually followsconventional sort of tried and
tested Hollywood techniques,when the source material itself
already had a good blueprints togo off of.
That they just need to adapt afew things and translate the
(29:18):
mechanics into And you said,simple story, but it's simple in
a good way easy, logicalprogression of like act one into
act two, into act three,something that complicates the
process along the way.
Each character has motives andstuff.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Yeah, like all the base story telling should be
there.
They.
We shouldn't lose sight ofthose things just because it's a
movie based on a video game.
But, just like with bookadaptations, people get the
shits when the movie doesn'tfollow the book.
Yeah same with the video gamenever change It's.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
It's funny because, like I've read so many YouTube
comments right of people whenthey're unhappy about something
like, say, halo, for example,the new halo TV show, and all
the comments are like, oh, theyjust literally adapted what was
in the cut scenes or thedialogue That you, you know
you're playing through.
All the stuff you play through.
We'd be so happy because thaton its own is already so great
(30:13):
and enough.
And it seems like studios arealways feeling like, oh, it's
not enough, we need to add thisand this and this and cater to
the times and the politicalsentiment and they also don't
know source material.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
Yeah, they don't research source material.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Yes, that's right.
I mean you a bold?
Clearly doesn't, butinterestingly the fans are
pretty much saying to them justcopy and paste, and we're happy
with that.
You could just copy paste thestory.
We'll pay again to hear thesame story or see the same story
(30:49):
, but as a real-life adaptation,isn't that fascinating?
this audience wants the easiestthing for Hollywood to produce
and make pre-existing source,pre-existing material.
Just translate it to real life.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
Obviously, it's not as easy as pressing a button and
then you can translate.
Of course you have to adapt toan actual, that, you have to
adapt to the format of a moviebecause the audience psychology
is different.
I get that.
But just like, yeah, they tryto do too much.
Oh, they don't know enough atall about the Miss Source
material, and then thetranslation process, it gets
screwed up.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Yeah, that's right if you made a Mario Brothers movie
and the Mario Brothers aren'tplumbers, well What the fuck?
why aren't they plumbers?
why wouldn't you do?
it's such a simple detail.
But it takes people out of likethe film because then they say
to themselves this is not it.
If you made a Harry PotterMovie and Harry Potter's not a
wizard.
(31:45):
Well, people are gonna be kindof pissed off because they're
gonna say to themselves, why, ifthe books are all about him
being a wizard?
Speaker 3 (31:53):
I remember like someone telling me that any sort
of long established franchiseThey're gonna when there's gonna
be many cooks involved in thekitchen, they're gonna
eventually Sort of draft up somekind of Bible, so to speak,
that Contains the essential sortof like lore details of this
like expansive franchise Likethis.
(32:13):
This character has to have thisideal and you cannot deviate
from this, and this in thisexact year this Insighting
incident happens.
So Every sort of long-standingfranchise should have some kind
of guideline, sort of Biblething that, like anyone that
jumps in on The fandom has tosort of follow through and in
(32:34):
order to not retcon Essentialsort of details, that's
something that should exist,like like halos and so like.
so, sergeant Johnson, he has tohave died for a heroic reason.
His death cannot have been invain, or something so they
should not deviate from thisBible.
That's as I mentioned so that'shelps with the translation
(32:54):
process, game mechanics intoConventional episodic series and
stuff.
Battlefield hardline I thinkit's called they actually for
the campaign They brought onactual CSI writers and stuff
like cop drama or like those,those sorts of like.
TV shows Yeah they reviewed inan interview where they actually
brought on like TV show writersjust to consult with them To
(33:16):
find out what is it that makeslike episodic series engaging to
the viewers, what, what's agood, engaging cliffhanger thing
that leads right into the nextepisode.
So once again, just likecementing my point that video
games, when they startedincorporating more Hollywood
techniques, that Hollywoodstarted taking them more
Seriously, and then thisfeedback loop then translated to
the recent spate of morefaithful adaptations.
(33:39):
Do you guys agree?
It's this feedback loop, thissymbiotic relationship.
Video games initially it's justa black screen saying
congratulations, thanks forsaving the princess to now
adapting conventional Theprincess is actually in another
castle, but then incorporatingconventional storytelling, tried
and tested screenwritingtechniques.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Yeah, so just bring what already works for films to
a film that's based on a videogame.
It sounds so simple when yousay it like that.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
Of course there is more to it than that, like we
said, but I was going to askDenise the Halo show, did you
watch it?
Speaker 1 (34:16):
I watched The Pilot That was it.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
I couldn't be bothered to watch the rest.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
Yeah, I just watched reviews.
I'm curious.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
I didn't want to watch it when Master Chief was
said to be kissing this covenantlady.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
It was against everything.
I just feel like I'm toofrustrated to keep watching it.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Fascinated by this.
Was there a particular momentin The Pilot where you said to
yourself this is not Halo.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
I'm not going to watch it.
This ain't it, Chief, Ah, Chief.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
Sounds so funny when I said it because I think a lot
of fans will agree with me Itwas the moment Master Chief just
took his helmet off So randomly, because in the games he never
takes his helmet off.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
It's just a thing We just so used to him Remove the
mystery.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
It's an iconic thing right And I feel like the
Mandalorian proved you couldhave a really compelling
character that just has thisoutfit on all the time.
You never needed to see hisface.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
There's a certain aura and mystery to the masked
or helmeted character.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
That's right.
You can feel this gravitas, thegravitas, there we go, the
silent protagonist Yeah, and notbeing approved by my actions
And that's what worked.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
That's one of the reasons I was so interested in
Master Chief as well was who isthis guy?
What's his whole story?
He's a super soldier.
So there's a scene where MasterChief takes off his helmet.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
He just takes it off.
And I mean, you know, kudos tothe actor, you know I'm sure
he's doing some fantastic work.
So I feel like maybe thedecision is because they wanted
to really showcase him in hisperformance, perhaps, but it
just takes you out of it becauseyou're like, oh okay, i didn't
expect to see his face firstepisode.
Like if they left it to a keymoment later on in the story and
(35:59):
it's for a very specific reason, then it would have had such an
impact.
Because, to my understanding ofthe arc, master Chief pretty
much goes on a journey of likeidentity, of like some artifact
he touches basically causes himto remember memories that he's
been forced to forget, basically, and then it's kind of like he
(36:21):
tries to find himself and herandomly gets thrown into this
love arc with this woman Andit's just like so strange I'm
bored.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
It doesn't feel like.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Halo right And it's not.
Halo.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
It's not Halo.
I was trying to wrap my brainto think what you were referring
to, but it's like I've playedthe Halo trilogy and none of
that.
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
No, it was all about the covenant in the first game,
And then you have that amazingtwist of like holy crap, we have
the flood now And that sets up,you know, for the second Halo
game.
And I remember playing thatthrough for the first time with
my dad as a kid And I was likelike this is incredible, the
fact that I got so scared withthe flood and stuff I stopped
playing the game for 10 years, igot like I knew it was coming.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
So I all, i all I did was play up to the silent.
Is it the silent cartographerat the fourth level and the
fifth level.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
And I knew that the flood was coming up.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
That's why I stopped myself from playing games.
I was scared as a kid Have yougone back to it yet?
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Yeah, I've been it.
Speaker 3 (37:16):
I.
Then, when I eventually gotback, i played through all the
way one to reach to Halo 4.
All the games I could get onsteam If you were too scared, oh
and Halo in front of you.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
I'll sit with you.
We'll do a video.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
Basically, you get your older brother to play your
mother.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
We'll just hold hands and we'll each play with one.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
I'll play with one side of the control keyboard and
mouse Man, first person shooter.
Look at these controllerpeasants.
Oh my God, i get it Okay.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Pc Master Race, but I was a Xbox person growing up,
finding out the flood thatplugged us into Halo 2.
It's just so compelling alreadyAnd from what I heard there
isn't enough covenant, But youdon't actually see the covenant
or Master Chief fight them likea lot in the TV show, which is
really strange.
And then there's this whole arcwith another character that's
(38:09):
not in the games.
It just kind of goes randomsegues.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
That actually brings up a good point.
Why do video game adaptationsadd characters that were never
in the fucking game?
Speaker 3 (38:21):
Cole Young.
What's his name?
Cole Young in the Mortal Kombat.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
Cole Young.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
Yes, so random.
Yes, you don't feel anythingfrom it because you have no
memories attributed to this likefresh original character.
There's no lore implications tothem at all, but he's a stupid
character anyway.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
His power is so generic, such a strange.
You've got a game where youhave characters that shoot
fireballs, that freeze people,that use lightning, that use
water, every element fuckingpossible.
So why do we need a characterthat wears an armored suit when
he turns his powers on?
(38:57):
And he's got the power of hisfamily.
He's got a daughter and a wife.
I'm like, why not just attachthis backstory to an existing
character of this franchise?
Why not just keep Liu Kang?
Liu Kang was fine as thecentral character in the other
two movies.
Why are we rewriting?
(39:19):
And I just find it hilarious.
You've got Mortal Kombat, agame franchise that has like 60
characters, and they were likeyou know what this franchise
needs.
We need to make a character upfrom scratch for the movie.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
Yeah, There's something to be said.
I just don't get it Adaptingbeloved franchises into movies.
You're now portrayingcharacters that millions of
people have grown attached tobecause they had the direct
input.
They have all the memoriesattributed to controlling that
character.
They remember the first momentthey get a power star, as Mario.
They remember the moments wherethey're sliding through
(39:56):
collecting the rings, as Sonic,and stuff.
So then now you're adapting toa movie, you're potentially sort
of tainting a very pure sourcematerial And then, on top of
that, out on a completelyoriginal character that no one
has any of that emotionalattribution to.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
But also no one wants to.
Speaker 3 (40:13):
No one wants to When you watch the film.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
He has a really generic backstory and it's no
fault of the actor, but he'sjust not an interesting or
compelling character.
He takes up a lot of screentime that could have went to
existing characters And my wholething was watching that movie,
that Johnny Cage could have beenthat role, just like he was in
the original 1995 Mortal Kombatmovie, and it would have been
(40:40):
fine because he is an outsider,he's a human actor who could be
transported into this weirdworld And you can introduce the
audience to Mortal Kombatthrough him.
He is your bridge to the real,the general, casual audience.
Speaker 3 (40:58):
Yeah, you don't have to exactly reinvent the wheel,
like, if you still want anoriginal story, you could still
adapt elements like carefullyadapt elements, not just grab
moments from here and there,reverse engineering or
incorporate that into an alreadyexisting character.
There's just this endorphinrelease by seeing like so many
(41:19):
people will have emotionalmemories attached to playing as
Master Chief, the silentprotagonist.
When they first look up at thehalo They've realized that the
world is on the inside of a ring.
And then maybe they dosomething in the halo TV series
where they also have that likegrand moment, but like just
something, instead ofintroducing new characters and
stuff.
Just how do you recreate thatmagic and then have that good
(41:42):
payoff to make the fans believethat, okay, this is a faithful
adaptation by a director thatknows that is one of us, he's
one of us, he understands usbecause he is one of us, he also
is like us, remembering thatchildhood memory And he is.
Finally, we have a competentdirector and competent studio
that has adapted that magic,that magic moment of looking up
the halo rings and so on It likebeloved character, you know you
(42:05):
got to feel like you got tohave that.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
These movies were made by a gamer who played the
games and experienced all thosespecial moments that made you
fall in love with her.
Speaker 3 (42:18):
I guess just to jump points a bit, just to preface
this, i am a firm believer thatevery story should stand on its
own merits and every entry canbe like a sort of gateway drug
for newcomers.
So like people jumping in therethat were never a game or would
be like, oh wow, this whole TVseries about cordyceps and
infections and stuff that'sbased off of video game That has
(42:40):
piqued my interest.
Every entry is a potentialentry drug for newcomers and
stuff.
So, yes, the story should standon its own merits and it should
not be reliant on externalmedia.
Right, the story should beself-evidence, it should be
self-sufficient and any sort ofexternal media like tie-in
graphic novels, mangas, shouldnot be factored in.
(43:02):
Yeah, i was going to say thereshould only be an optional lore,
like you were saying withArkane, that actually expands
and enriches the world building,but they are entirely optional.
The game should come first, orlike if it was firstly a game,
or the movie should beself-evident.
And to that end, i'm so glad webrought like Halo into our
(43:23):
conversation, because I want tobring to attention that the
composer of the original Halotrilogy, marty O'Donnell, like
he said in various interviewsthat the philosophy of the
bungee he worked with back inthe 2000s, not the one with
what's the game they made on thePlayStation Destiny, destiny 1
and 2.
So it's a different team backthen, so the philosophy is
(43:44):
different.
Basically, the philosophy ofthe bungee back then was that
all trans media should beancillary to the games.
The games come first.
Yeah, movies should not beessential.
Viewing to contain essentialplot threads that play into the
game franchise.
Like, for example, when peoplefound out that the main
(44:04):
antagonist of Halo 4 called theDiedact and stuff.
Like when they found out theDiedact was essentially killed
offscreen in a graphic novel.
It just rubbed so many peoplethe wrong way.
The same similar thing inAssassin's Creed 3.
At the conclusion of that, theyset up this whole big arc that
they were going to have thisvillain arc.
(44:25):
It was going to be the Thanosto the Infinity, like Saga or
whatever Marvel called it.
It was someone called Juno, andJuno as well was killed off in
a graphic novel.
It's always those tie-in mangasand graphic novels.
This takes place between Halo 4and 5 and it contains so much
important details.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
Yeah, important canon .
Speaker 3 (44:45):
An important canon that is never talked about or
referenced in the game itself,even though the game is the
thing that comes first.
As I said, the trans mediashould be entirely optional.
What you were saying legallegends it was a legal legends
arcane or something like thegames down here, but the world
building and all the mangas andstuff.
Speaker 2 (45:04):
It made it so accessible that you didn't need
to play the game to enjoy theshow.
That's what I felt.
Speaker 3 (45:10):
Characters' story was set up so well that you really
didn't need that background tojust understand and get it So
like are there, like certain fanbases that are huge fans of,
like the books and the graphicnovels and the TV shows, without
ever having touched thekeyboard and mouse of the game
itself, like where people theycould just stay in that lore
bubble without ever havingplayed the game?
(45:30):
Is that that sort of thing?
I think it's possible.
Speaker 2 (45:33):
Subforms and stuff.
I mean, you'd hope one day thatadaptations get that good.
Speaker 1 (45:39):
We didn't get there.
Speaker 3 (45:40):
See, i mean what Nintendo is looking to just
expand beyond the fact thatMario is a video game character,
and I think they'vesuccessfully already
incorporated Mario into popculture, where it's seen as more
than just the jump man andstuff.
I mean what Mario is in the Rio2016 Olympics.
that's how much of a culturalicon he is.
They want to cement themselvesinto that.
(46:02):
They have what UniversalStudios and stuff.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
I feel like I need a glass of water.
It's just like you're tiring meout.
It's all good, Martin, Youcould slow you down.
I need time to catch up to you.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
Love how detailed these notes are.
They're amazing guys, yeah, butlike.
Speaker 3 (46:18):
this is where you know video game movies fail.
You know It's like if there isa movie adaptation, it should
stand on its own merits and notbe reliant on the audience's
knowledge of the game that itwas based on.
Don't you agree?
Speaker 1 (46:30):
It should stand alone as well, One of the reasons I
hated that Mortal Kombat moviewhich I hate?
Speaker 2 (46:35):
Which one?
sorry, the second one, the onethey didn't like.
Speaker 1 (46:37):
I didn't like the reboot because everything was
building towards the sequel.
It was practically a prequel toMortal Kombat, but it just felt
They don't have a tournament init.
Speaker 3 (46:47):
It felt like everything they were holding
back on.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
All the characters were the shitty knockoff
characters so that they couldkill them off And this and that,
and you got this main characterthat no one gives a crap about.
But by the end of it you werelike, oh so, this was all
building towards the sequel, Butwhat do?
I get for watching this movie,and you just didn't get that
(47:10):
satisfaction.
Interestingly, though, bringsup Mortal Kombat Annihilation,
the second worst video gamemovie that we watched 4%.
Speaker 3 (47:21):
Like Rotten Tomatoes, i looked at yeah, 4%, yeah, and
we're going to have the fullvideo reaction to that movie
Close to the release of MortalKombat 1.
Speaker 1 (47:29):
Looking forward to that Is that coming out in
September?
September Fuck how do they pumpthem out so quick?
Speaker 3 (47:34):
Yeah, we're going to get so much media releases
between now and September?
Yeah, but Annihilation,annihilation, yeah, from your
favorite to a complete 180 tothe worst.
Speaker 1 (47:44):
Yeah, it's funny how the original is like my favorite
video game movie in the sequelis the absolute drizzling shit.
Speaker 3 (47:53):
No more of your soulless mind, no iconic lines,
just the memes.
There's my brother.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
No, actually there is an iconic line From Sankh Shah
Khan and stuff Mother, you'realive.
Too bad you will die.
Speaker 3 (48:14):
What kind of badassery is that?
Speaker 1 (48:18):
Wow, what a moment, Ooh at some point Scene stealer
In this video.
Martin, you should add the clipfrom Mortal Kombat Annihilation
, where Raiden says A door thatcloses can also open.
What the hell does?
Speaker 3 (48:31):
that mean Oh, that's a good teaser right there.
Speaker 2 (48:34):
It was great.
Speaker 3 (48:35):
What were you saying about like Uncharted being just
a badly connecting mishmash ofjust the best bits, but in a way
that doesn't tie well together?
on the complete opposite end ofthat spectrum is a complete
snooze fest.
That is Assassin's Creed withMichael Fassbender, where again,
as I said, they just relied onthe audience's knowledge of the
game, but it was just theexecutive cash grabby sort of
(48:58):
movie You can just tell Sowhat's?
I haven't watched it, though,unfortunately, because I know I
haven't watched it.
Speaker 2 (49:03):
I feel like I watched it, but I forgot everything.
Speaker 3 (49:06):
It's like some weird animus machine.
Speaker 2 (49:08):
That's not good.
Speaker 3 (49:08):
That says it all Where you're tied to, like your
spine or something.
It lifts you up into the airand you're meant to imitate the
actual motions of your ancestors.
An animus is one where you justlie in a machine like this, not
just be strapped to a movingcog or whatever.
Speaker 1 (49:24):
I think we got to wrap up before Martin has a
heart attack.
Speaker 2 (49:28):
You can talk for days about this guys.
Speaker 3 (49:30):
We didn't even bring up Wreck-It Ralph, though.
Speaker 1 (49:32):
Yeah, that was an actual Now there's a great video
game movie.
Speaker 2 (49:37):
Have you seen Wreck-It Ralph?
Of course, of course.
Speaker 1 (49:39):
Oh, I think We'll talk about it and we'll see if
it's Wreck-It Ralph.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
It's weird because I think I've actually seen
Wreck-It Ralph 2, but not thefirst one.
I don't know how that happened,but I really enjoyed the sequel
Plus for me.
I really enjoyed the sequelfilm.
I think it was the sequel, idon't know.
I'm so confused.
I've watched so many movies.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
I feel my heart shrinking.
Speaker 2 (50:06):
Wait, okay, it was the one where he leaves his own
game to go and do something.
Speaker 1 (50:11):
Get a medal, to get a medal A medal, yeah, that might
have been it.
That's the first one.
Okay, okay, Okay okay, oh,thank.
God.
Speaker 2 (50:18):
It is the first.
Speaker 1 (50:20):
Jesus Christ, my ears are bleeding.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
He meets Sarah Silverman Doody.
Speaker 3 (50:27):
Doody, one more, one more.
What do you get?
Call of duty Yeah, gosh, i wantthis.
Speaker 2 (50:33):
It was a sugar rush, that film, but it was very fun,
very, very fun, so much lovewent into that movie.
Speaker 1 (50:40):
You feel so love, love as a gamer, you feel like
these people love gamers.
Every little Easter egg and nodand reference, like with the
Mario Brothers movie, you feellike this movie was made for me
as a gamer.
Speaker 3 (50:58):
I think in recent spate of movies I was like I've
always maintained like when youremove the nostalgia bait, the
callbacks, the Easter eggs, thecameos, what do you have for a
story?
And I think Wreck-It Ralph hadthe absolute Pixar sort of
skeletal structure.
I don't think it's like one ofPixar's best, but you could
definitely see that it has thePixar DNA.
We are talking about 10 yearsago and Pixar was still at their
(51:21):
age.
I can't believe it's been 10years.
Yeah, it's like it has theinciting incidents, the
injustices that forcescharacters to do things that you
sort of like against the world,that drives the division in the
friendships and so on.
It has those moments that makeyou feel something for the
characters We talked about this.
Michael Denise, are youfamiliar with something called a
screenwriting technique, calledthe Save the Cat?
Speaker 2 (51:44):
Sounds familiar but runs through.
Speaker 3 (51:45):
Save the Cat is the moment when the character does
something that makes theaudience feel they are worthy of
rooting for.
So like Aladdin is sort of likefirst stealing some food and
then seeing some hungry kids andthen deciding oh okay, let me
just break bread and give it tothem and stopping them from
being with Gets us on their side.
Speaker 1 (52:05):
Yeah, you show a character that's kind of selfish
and you don't think he's verylikable.
He's flawed, but then he doessomething redeeming.
Speaker 2 (52:13):
Yeah, yeah, save the Cat.
Okay, so that's the term, yeah.
Speaker 1 (52:16):
With Ralph because he's a bad guy in a video game
at the start, you don't reallyyou kind of like, oh why should
I care?
Like why should I feel sympathyfor him?
But you see that he helps othervideo game characters that are
like homeless and don't have avideo game to go to.
Speaker 2 (52:30):
Yeah, you know what's funny about that?
I feel like when we talk aboutas well those random side
characters that aren't in thegames like get brought in, i
feel like what's always missingis they don't have a Save the
Cat moment, and that's why, evenwhen they're newly introduced,
it's hard for us to even want tocare about them, because there
is no Save the Cat thing whereit's like, okay, they're just
(52:52):
new and they're here and they'retaking us away from the main
plot, so why are they here?
Speaker 1 (52:55):
That's interesting.
Speaker 2 (52:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (52:57):
I mean, the more I think about it.
I'm thinking of Mortal Kombat,i'm thinking of all these other
video game movies.
No good, save the Cat momentfor a lot of them.
Speaker 3 (53:07):
Yeah, i think Wreck-It Ralph is a perfect
demonstration of like, thecombination of like points that
we raised about what makes avideo game movie work is when
they, you know, just have allthose cat gripping character
pieces.
Are you gonna say cat?
Speaker 1 (53:21):
gripping, i think you're gonna say cat gripping
character pieces.
Speaker 3 (53:29):
You gotta grip that cat and flying it around, I
guess before we go to like theWreck-It Ralph, immediately
after me and Michael watched it.
I just said to you that itcements the point that I made
about the Mario Brothers movie,whereby you can have all the
nostalgia and the callbacks andthe cameos and references and
(53:51):
stuff that makes you understand.
the creators knows video gamesbecause they don't know what's
going on And the creators knowsvideo games because they are one
of us.
You can have all that but stillhave a gripping story and a
gripping character piece.
You don't?
the one doesn't have to besacrificed in the service of the
other like the Mario.
Brothers was.
Where is the rare case wherethe pure abundance of faithful
(54:14):
adaptations and callbacks tosource material made it raise
the tour nine?
I'm now more of an eight and ahalf or an eight out of ten for
me, maybe still veering on nine.
But I could recognize now inhindsight, the more I've
processed it, that even thoughit's as a first entry they still
could have a very grippingcharacter piece where you have
those moments that makes youwant to root for the character
(54:37):
and feel for the character, likePixar has with Wreck-It Ralph.
I felt something for thecharacters and yet I could still
appreciate all the video gameysort of references and stuff
that just makes you think thisis a video game movie at its
peak, you know.
Speaker 1 (54:51):
They love it when Martin gets passionate.
Speaker 2 (54:53):
That's great.
So this energy come from?
it's amazing.
Speaker 1 (55:00):
I don't even have any coffee for winging like, oh,
i'm gonna.
Food came on energy and thennext move.
Speaker 3 (55:15):
So, to conclude, what makes a bad adaptation and what
makes a good adaptation badadaptation?
Speaker 1 (55:20):
total disrespect towards gamers obvious cash
grabs obvious cash grab.
Horrible miscasting, lack ofunderstanding for the source
material.
Those would be the big things Isay.
But the good adaptations goodadaptations respect the source
material, have a cast thatmatched the characters, personas
.
And look at the characters Ohyeah, true, true, they have to
(55:44):
look like it It matches thevideo games and totally matches
the video games like, forexample, mortal Kombat's fun and
light.
So you should make a moviethat's fun and light, doesn't
take itself too seriously, whichthe last Mortal Kombat did not
do.
Speaker 3 (56:00):
Unless the source material itself is already
serious, like the last of us,and is a mature story.
Then of course, go with thedark tone.
Speaker 1 (56:08):
Yes, if it's Batman, then match Batman, ah, and have
a gripping story with acharacter that has to go through
a journey and and learn somelife lessons, like I mean.
The last of us is a greatexample.
You got Joel.
His journey is fantastic.
Just the relationship betweenJoel and Ellie is very well done
(56:31):
.
Without going into spoilers,it's just a very dynamic
relationship that grows a lotfrom first episode to last
episode.
Speaker 3 (56:40):
Man, there's something to be said, like when,
the, when the story is alreadywritten so well that the actors
they honestly maybe don't haveto do much like because that
relationship that the writershave already done the mental
homework about the dynamics, allthey need to do is just like.
so.
Pedro Pascal and the one thatplayed Ellie Yeah, he was in
Grammar Throne's.
They just really good They justneed to know the script and
(57:02):
they just live and breathe thecharacter and they just, you
reckon they nailed that Saga.
father, daughter dynamic.
Speaker 1 (57:09):
Yeah, yeah, that's good, that's good and it helped
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (57:12):
And it's all the more easier when the source material
already has that down pat andPedro nailed the voice that
gravelly like southern accent.
Speaker 1 (57:22):
Yeah, jesus boy.
I can't do a really good Joel.
Speaker 3 (57:27):
Pedro Pascal versus Troy Baker.
Who is like a better Joel,would you say?
Troy Baker, definitely Jesusboy.
Speaker 1 (57:34):
God.
Speaker 3 (57:34):
Pedro Pascal is he like a very close second.
Speaker 1 (57:37):
Is really good.
He ain't no, troy Baker.
Speaker 3 (57:41):
But you ain't no, try baby.
Speaker 1 (57:43):
And that is the end of that.
That's where we're going towrap it, i think, guys.
Speaker 3 (57:50):
Stream of consciousness?
Speaker 1 (57:51):
Yes, any final words?
Speaker 2 (57:53):
Denise, yeah, i think you know, given all that we've
talked about, especially whatmakes a good video game
adaptation you know it reallyleads into, like new fallout TV
show by Amazon Prime that's inproduction right now.
Like hopefully they follow someof these things that are tried
and tested, that are, you know,seemingly simple to do, and like
(58:16):
that's all they need to do andit'll be great.
The fact that we're following,i think, a new character that's
a ghoul, but if it's, you know,a gripping save the cat kind of
character, it should becompelling enough within an
already established world.
Speaker 1 (58:29):
So that's something to look forward to and hope they
get right The fact that it's aghoul, who they're.
they usually presented asenemies in fallout or like
really scummy kind of people.
It'll be really easy to subvertthat and have a ghoul with the
heart of a heart of gold or aghoul that's actually more
sympathetic than the humans inthat world could be trying to
(58:52):
communicate some complex themesthere.
Speaker 2 (58:55):
So that could work really well.
Speaker 1 (58:57):
Yeah, nice Fuck yeah.
Speaker 3 (58:59):
I love it when I come up with something smart And
Martin, yeah, to go off ofDenise's point yet not not
needing to reinvent the wheeland just follow the Bible.
movie makers follow the Biblethat long standing franchises
should have if the law is tooexpansive and sort of like
intricate, just like sort ofgrounded to a more simple and
(59:21):
easy to follow Arcs.
like you have the three maincharacters in easy to follow up,
that it's about how they'repassed into twining because of a
common cause, sort of thing.
And ultimately, to add on tothe points is to make sure that
the story stand on its ownmerits and it's self sufficient
and yeah, i'm self evident andone that's done well.
(59:43):
when that's done well, it canbe a gateway drug for like
moviegoers to then discover thebreadth and wealth of the source
material that it comes from anddon't cast Mark Wahlberg in
your video game movie.
Speaker 1 (59:59):
People are going to think I hate Mark Wahlberg.
I actually really like MarkWahlberg, but he just missed
cast.
Anyway, that's all we got timefor folks.
If you enjoyed this video,please like, share and subscribe
for more videos like it.
You can also check out ourMortal Kombat review here, or
(01:00:21):
our alone in the dark reactionvideo there, or our Mario
Brothers review.
Speaker 3 (01:00:30):
Bam and also comment below what's your favorite video
game adaptations?
What are your reasons for yourfavorite video game adaptation.
Speaker 1 (01:00:45):
Tell us all your secrets.
Hey everyone, welcome to the show Today's episode.
I'm Michael Prishnary, joinedby Denise Chen and Martin Jung,
and today we're talking aboutvideo game adaptations.
Wahoo, wahoo.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Wahoo.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Wahoo.
Wahoo, i don't feel like yourwahoo kind of matched our energy
, Denise.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
That was the point.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Okay, Well, much like your wahoo just then.
it's very similar to video gameadaptations in that they're
always worse than what theyshould be.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
We were the original video games with a wahoo energy,
and then the movie is justwahoo.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Exactly, But every wahoo there's a wahoo Wahoo.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Wahoo.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
And then there's just wahoo, and then you've got Uwe
Bol who directs every freakingvideo game movie.
How does that guy direct somany bad movies back to back?
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Get green lit for it as well.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
If a movie says it's directed by Uwe Bol, however you
say his name Uwe Uwe, uwe, ubolUbol.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
U.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Udog, udog directed.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
I don't know what that was.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
U directed numerous video game movies that you
should stay away from One ofwhich we watched, we watched and
you can find that video on myYouTube channel reacting to
Alone in the Dark, terrible film.
And I think that's a great wayto kind of start this off, where
we're going to talk about whatmade video game adaptations work
(01:41):
, what made them not work, whatare the bad, what are the good.
And let's start off with thereally bad, alone in the Dark,
which has a 1% on RottenTomatoes.
Why was this not a good movieand didn't work as a video game
adaptation, guys?
Speaker 3 (01:57):
I've, like, mentally blocked out that movie.
to be quite honest with you, Itwas just so horrible I can't
say I blame you.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
But I mean, let's just look at the title.
It was called Alone in the Dark.
Was there ever a scene wherethere was a character alone in
the dark?
What?
Speaker 3 (02:16):
was it?
Didn't Lorraine say somethinglike crowded in the light or
something?
We should call it crowded inthe light.
It's just coming back to me now.
Much more fitting.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
All I remember is a really nice sink filling up.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
It's still filling up .
Yeah, it's still filling up.
That was the highlight, veryreminiscent, of an accident we
had downstairs.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
That sounds really bad if you don't provide context
.
What Martin's talking about isdownstairs.
This is a true story brother,i'm not making a quip or
anything My partner opened thedishwasher and it just sprayed
everywhere.
The water just went everywhere.
There's something wrong with mydishwasher.
(03:04):
It's like possessed orsomething where it just won't
turn off.
now It just keeps on anunending loop.
It's just like a sink.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
I feel like I really should also add that, guys, this
is not a euphemism, this is anactual dish.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
This is actual true story We were having dinner and
the dishwasher actually broke.
We're not making a joke.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
This isn't a What would this be A euphemism for
Denise?
It squirted everywhere.
You guys are immature.
You are so immature.
Future, martin, play it back,don't say that Martin's going to
do a whee-wee-wee-wee-wee-weeand rewind me and bring up the
(03:48):
clip.
But I'm wearing pants todaybecause Martin always likes to
aim the camera at my dick forsome reason.
What's all of that about?
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Anyway, let's just get back to your question.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
What makes a video game adaptation bad?
Like we were saying Alone inthe Dark, you got people with
machine guns in a very crowdedplace where there's light.
It totally goes against Alonein the Dark and what that means.
Alone in the Dark was a Itrebooted as a survival horror,
but the point was it was meantto be a scary, suspenseful game.
(04:29):
This movie did not even followthe normal rules of filmmaking.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
And we got.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Alone in the Dark, which is, to this day, the worst
rated video game movie of alltime.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
So where does this contrast come from?
Where the video games actuallyare quite good video games, but
then the movie adaptations arethe complete 180 of it.
What's getting lost intranslation?
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Every video game movie has to be based on a good
video game, because otherwiseit's like To get green lit To
get green lit.
It needs to be a game thatpeople like to play.
I mean there's Bloodrain.
I don't know who the hell greenlit that movie, because I don't
remember anyone playing thatgame, but someone must have
(05:17):
played it because it got a movie.
But for the most part, videogame movies are usually, 99% of
the time, based on games thatare actually very good and fun.
I think what's happening isyou've got studio executives
that don't play video gamestrying to adapt and interpret
(05:37):
and make money off somethingthat they don't understand.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Also, it's just a medium.
There's a medium difference.
The storytelling of a videogame is different to a movie,
where in a movie you're taken ona journey.
A video game, you have moreagency And there's more, i think
in video games even more of asuspension of disbelief as well,
and just basic logic just getsthrown out the window even more
(06:04):
in video games.
For example, there's no way youcan hold 999 apples in your
inventory and stuff.
There's just Yeah, and then youcan pay.
You can pace through the gameas fast or as slow as you want.
But I think it's just gameplaymechanics, especially certain
video games, where the mechanicsare intricately interwoven into
(06:24):
the storytelling.
They just cannot be translatedto visual and audio only.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
I think as well a video game can be fun and have a
shit story.
We know plenty of video gamesthat have terrible stories, but
they're really fun to play.
A movie with a shit storycompletely different.
It's a lot harder to make amovie that has a terrible story,
but it's still fun to watch.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
All right.
So video games, there's more toit than just a story as well.
Like, if it doesn't have, if ithas a bland kind of all
miniscule story, it can stillmake up for it in the
entertainment value, whereas amovie has to be about the actual
storytelling of theexperiential.
Yeah, because you're observingit.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
I mean, like Mario Brothers the Mario Brothers
games, a plumber that tries tosave a princess from a castle
that's guarded by a giant dragonthing.
How the hell do you translatethat into a movie or a real life
movie, which is what happenedin 1993?
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Good segue.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Oh man, i still need to watch that.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
I don't ever need to watch that movie.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
It's intense.
I watched the trailer for thatfor the first time.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Did you not show you the trailer?
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Maybe that was here and I've just forgotten.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
You buried it deep down.
I actually suppressed it And Iwas a shock.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
It's crazy that it's not a parody movie, that's what
it feels like It does, doesn'tit?
Right, it feels like no way.
This is real.
No way.
This is like a serious attemptat making something to honor the
legacy of this game, one of thekey things that that movie
screwed up is Mario and Luigi'slast names are Mario, what?
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Mario, mario.
Yeah, is that right.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
There's a part where like the cop is like asking
what's your last name And Luigisays Mario.
And then he asks Mario and he'slike Mario.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Is that why they call him Mario, if you can't even
nail the names of this game howthe hell are you gonna nail this
movie?
Speaker 1 (08:28):
And, truth be told, they didn't.
1993 only had one good movieabout dinosaurs, and it
definitely was not MarioBrothers.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
The other movie was like a small indie flick, yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Yeah, i think it was directed by Senor Spielburgo.
I think so.
Yeah, small Time Filmmaker.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Very small time?
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Yes, i don't think he's doing much now, except
directing musicals.
Anywho, a good question wouldbe what are your favourite video
game adaptations?
Denise and Martin.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Oh, that's a good question.
If we're talking film and TV,the recent ones that come to
mind are definitely one arcanethe animated series that's.
Netflix like, based on all thekind of League of Legends.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
I knew you were gonna say a show Jinks, jinks, jinks.
There's not many movies thatyou can pick out.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
I think what it speaks to is almost that at
least with a TV show you havemultiple facets to really have
an engaging story, not just withlittle subplots but that payoff
, different characters, arcs soyou can really explore them, but
like an overall main storylinethat just builds and builds to
eventually get to that reallyclimactic ending.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Also when I think of shows, obviously like, I think,
The Last of Us and the reasonThe Last of Us was so good is
because they stayed to thefucking story of the games.
Other than like exploring thebackstory of one character, the
Last of Us.
The show is like beat for beatthe game.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
And more actually they actually expanded on the
world building and stuff.
Yeah, they actually delve moreinto the quarter-seps and stuff
and its origin and everything.
Yeah so other than like littleminor changes.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Most of it is the exact same And really, when
you've got a game with a storyas fantastic as The Last of Us,
Yeah, i was gonna bring that up,yeah.
That's all you gotta do.
Like I don't even know why.
It says written by such andsuch.
It's like just use the story ofthe game.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Use the blueprint that was already set up in 2013.
Exactly, yeah, that story isgreat.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Don't fuck it up, don't try and invoke some gender
politics or woke shit.
Just keep it what it is.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
It definitely helped that you all.
It was already a phenomenalstory, so they didn't need to do
much adapting And like.
The point I will say is that itwasn't until sort of video
games took on more conventionalHollywood, sort of three-act
structure storytellingincorporating cinematic
techniques and focusing ondialogue and writing hero's
(11:14):
journey, inciting incident.
That kind of Hollywood sort oftook video game stories more
seriously, because we're talkingabout a medium that started off
where the ending of a game wasjust a black screen with white
text saying congratulations,thank you for saving me from my
slumber, or something, yeah,yeah.
So it wasn't until they broughton like Hollywood writers and
so on, that like Hollywoodstarted taking them seriously
(11:36):
and also to and this is from anearlier point of maybe, i guess
I'll make it now So the audiencematured and so has the stories
that were being told from, justlike rescuing damsels in
distress to well, yeah, last ofus, worldwide infection and the
human and the gripping characterdevelopments and the character
pieces and very mature themes aswell.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Plus, you can't have a damsel being a damsel in
distress in 2023.
That's just not.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
And how many times can you retell that story?
Not progressive.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
No.
You got you off the next, youbrought up arcane.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah, I think.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Why does arcane work?
Speaker 2 (12:16):
I think, like adding on to white works, and it's just
something that Martin saidabout and you got both of you
said actually, about how youknow when you stick to the story
, but not just that, you expandon what's already been
established, and that is whenyou cater not just to existing
fans but new fans as well,because you're really fleshing
out that universe and I feel ashow like arcane really works
(12:39):
because, say, for people whoaren't familiar with the law,
because when you play the game,unless you really dive into
reading all the back stories,and stuff.
You don't need to know that Youdon't need to know all that to
play the actual game right.
And it's a funny running jokethat everything about League of
Legends outside of the gameitself is amazing.
The game is like dirty, becauseour game was like truly up here
(13:02):
and, yeah, they expanded onthese stories and, like you had
given these histories and justall these details that you know,
i wasn't aware for some of thecharacters, that just made it so
impactful and really clarifiedthe characters relationships
with each other as well and theyhad really like meaningful arcs
.
I think that's what really justelevated it all for me, like it
(13:25):
made these video gamecharacters so human And, with
the thematic messages that werebeing told, it felt like
something you'd watch.
I don't know if there's areason Jinx is arc, for example,
without any spoilers.
It felt very much like theJoker, like on that level of
depth and kind of growth of howyou just see this character Go
(13:47):
all the way down is his arcpretty much a character that has
to break his own rules and ispushed too far, to the point
where I'd be getting intospoiler if you try to specify.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
No, i'm just asking.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Yeah, jinx, yeah, she's got that aspect of the
Joker.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
It's basically the tragedy as much.
Okay, that's a great way andplot twist.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
In contrast, because the main story follows kind of
her and her older sister andthey get like separated at some
point.
You see them have thatliterally different journeys,
like almost opposite to eachother.
It really adds like a reallynice.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Yeah, it's a tragedy, the age old tragedy, yeah, you
know it's like two, just twowarriors who have diverged off
different paths and they want toget back to the other part.
just they're two different now,so they can't rekindle.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Like how twin brothers, how they have
completely different lives.
I'm pretty sure there were twinbrothers that had lived a
completely different set oflives where one was like in jail
from drugs and the other onewas like a car or something like
that.
Something ridiculous, but itwas.
It was really riveting.
I like that idea though.
Yeah Of like siblings that livecompletely different lives, and
(15:01):
it comes down to like thesevery crucial but simple choices.
Yeah, that's it.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Because you just feel the impact of the stakes so
much more and there's this somuch behind it that expands on
the whole thing.
And it's very similar to how Ifelt about another TV show
cyberpunk edge runners as wellwhere it's like it has all these
cool Easter eggs and contextualthings from the actual game.
But you know we're followingcharacters we've never met
(15:30):
before and, through that,exploring other things that the
game might have touched on butmaybe didn't fully dive into
like the whole idea of, becausein the game cyberpunk 2077.
There's all this kind of.
You can pretty much upgradeyourself with robotic parts and
things which give youenhancements.
Yeah, enhancements and stuffand in the, the anime, they
(15:53):
basically explored, you know,the impacts of getting addicted
to that kind of cycle.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
And I didn't expect it to sound of this.
What's that fasting Santa Vistathing?
Speaker 2 (16:06):
It's like a spinal thing he implements, which I
think in the story.
It's like an illegal prototypepart that they were trying to
get and I don't know how.
I can't know what happened, buthe had to install it and it
basically made him sooverpowered that he got so
addicted to like using it, butit was like killing him in the
same time, it was the humanity.
(16:26):
Yeah, it's pretty full on, butagain.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
I wonder how far away we are from a future like
what's 2077 minus 2023.
We could get there sooner.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Try and be a bit more optimistic, as run as there's a
sequel, so it's one less year,but notice how everything we're
talking about here are grippingcharacter pieces.
Exactly is irrespective ofvideo game mechanics, and that
can be applied to justconventional Hollywood tales and
stuff.
Now, these successfuladaptations are the one that
(17:03):
focus on characters and threeact structure tragedies motives.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
If you want to have a horrible video game adaptation,
just here we go.
insert Mark Wahlberg.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
To like what Matt Vell is saying choices that are
obviously driven by businessinterests.
Yeah, that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Well, I mean like Uncharted.
Did you watch Uncharted?
Speaker 3 (17:28):
No, i don't plan to.
I don't want to Uncharted yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
I watched it in the cinemas.
I reviewed it for the podcast.
You, poor soul, you can listento that full podcast.
It was not a fun movie.
It was very groan inducing.
It felt like a big cash grab.
For all the good faith thatSony had built with me from
Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse, they lost all of it with that
(17:54):
movie.
The funny thing, though, isUncharted are fun story driven
games with big action set pieces.
Yes, and here you had a moviethat was stealing parts from
each game.
Yes, and then just having onecoherent storyline from one of
(18:15):
the games.
All Uncharted had to be was thesame story as the first
Uncharted game, and it wouldhave been fine.
Then you could have made thesequel the exact same as
Uncharted 2.
You save a fuck ton of moneyfrom writing credits because
you're just using the game asthe blueprint.
Instead, we got this moviewhere there's a plot twist about
(18:36):
a bad guy.
This person's the bad guy.
No one gives a shit.
It's very badly miscast Like.
Mark Wahlberg should not havebeen cast as Sully and the other
actor.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
No, no, no, Tom Holland isn't.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Tom Holland just doesn't suit Nathan Drake.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
And the groanie was made with this and that in 19th
century.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
No just that, that is not Nolan North, no just no,
the movie is a perfect exampleof studios thinking they know
what makes the game work andtotally missing the point.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
Yeah, you brought up the point.
It's like they're just likecherry picking bits and bobs,
like here and there, like justthe best moments of the
highlight reels, and what youhave is a weird mesh mash of
unfitting Jenga pieces that theythen, retroactively, are trying
to piece together with somekind of story just to string
everything together.
That was, from across threegames into one sitting for games
(19:39):
for.
Okay, right, yeah, four games,i just forgot the fourth one
exists.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
And the story in the fourth game is fantastic.
I, like, i love the story inthe fourth game.
I was telling the story.
I was playing the game in frontof my partner and she was like,
wait a sec, this is a fuckinggame.
I thought this was a movie thatyou were watching.
Yeah, that's one issue.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
I don't know if it's an issue, but it's just like the
games that taken more.
It seems like the games took onmore Hollywood storytelling
than an actual game.
Like to the point where I'dnever played the last of us or
any uncharted games or naughtydog games, because all I really
honestly do is just watch thecut scene compilations on
YouTube and treat it as if I'mgoing through like a movie
(20:23):
session And like, and all thebits in between are just like me
getting from point A to point Band only the most important
like story bits happening,pre-rendered cut scenes or Moe
captain stuff.
So it was to the point where Iwas like the last of us could
have just been a conventional TVshow.
And they did.
Yeah, it was like he was, hewas fully acted and Moe captain
stuff.
It was like why this could haveis very much just an episodic
(20:45):
series.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Which I disagree.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
There's some.
Really, it still is a fun game.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
I get that.
Mechanics, i get that And youcan totally watch the game.
Just all the cut scenes onYouTube.
The story is that great, butyou do lose some kind of
immersiveness by not playingthrough those levels.
So it's in between moments Youmiss out on conversations, world
building, that, certain thingsthat just could only be done
(21:11):
through a game, certain littledetails.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
How much are you missing, though?
I have played like Spider-Manon PS4, for example, but I could
see that well, maybe if youwatch only watch the cut scene,
you could still get the gist oflike the character sort of
relations and everything.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
I think the last of us is a game that you should try
and play from start to finish.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
Those dialogues that happen in between cut scenes.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
they add to your character relations 100% And
there are some key moments thatyou play the character, for
example, like you play thecharacter at the start of the
game.
Well, am I getting into spoilerterritory?
I mean, the game's been out forlike 10 years, but there's a
pivotal moment at the start ofthe last of us where you're
playing as it's not a cut scene-Yeah, you experience from like
(21:57):
a Well, not first person, butWell, you actually change
characters.
You play as one character andthen it changes to another
character.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
Actually, you know what The game is like 10 years
old.
I think you can go intospoilers.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
That's all I'm going to say.
I'll keep it fresh and just saythat it changes perspectives
and it's really cool.
I think you should at somepoint.
you should play the last of us,or we can There is something to
be said about when.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
It's something different, that when you have
agency, you actually directly,you have direct input into a
character, that you have evenmore of a connection, rather
than if you are watching in atheater.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Plus, it feels really satisfying to shoot people in
the head in that game.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
And that's something special.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
Yeah, they need to make it.
I think Hideo Kojima needs tomake sure that to make a game
first and not just like BecauseI think Hideo Kojima, for all
intents and purposes, he justwants to go into Hollywood, he
just wants to make movies andstuff, he wants to smell his own
farts.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
He's making comments.
Sorry, but one hour long Gamesare so fucking pretentious.
I don't know anyone that?
actually genuinely enjoys thestories in the gameplay.
They either like one or theother.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
Yeah, somewhat relevant, there was a reviewer
from an Australian publishingwebsite on Death Stranding, one
of the few reviewers that putout like a, not like a 9 out of
10 or 10 out of 10, like mostpeople were.
They gave it a 6 out of 10,knowing that it would lead to a
lot of backlash, but they saidsomething along the lines of it
pains me to say it, but Konamimay have been a necessary evil
(23:34):
for him, a check and balanceagainst his more self-indulgent
ambitions Where he wanted to gooff the deep end.
But then Konami of all peoplewere telling him no, that's not
going to fly with people.
Yeah, that's I 110% agree withthat statement.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Sometimes, when you give people all the power that
they've been chasing, you kindof realize that they hang
themselves.
With that power You get DeathStranding, like they use that
rope to hang themselves.
I don't know, i feel like therewas a clever, a more clever
analogy in there, but I kind offucked it up.
But the point is Huberous.
Speaker 3 (24:08):
Yeah, hubris, excessive pride, whatever you
want to call it.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
That game showed people that this guy is not as
amazing and perfect as everyonemade out This section is going
to get us so much flame?
Speaker 3 (24:22):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
There's heaps of people that didn't like Death
Stranding and thought it wasoverrated.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Yeah, people just like lambasting IGN and games or
whatever and stuff Or anyonethat was saying the game was
horrible before they even playedit And then, once they got the
game in their own PlayStation,then like okay, maybe those
negative reviews were ontosomething, okay, anyways.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Movies.
That'll be a fun section foryou to edit.
Yes, so Arcane for Denise.
Yes, your favorite.
I haven't watched a lot.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
I'm sure if I got.
In Australia we've got astreaming platform called Binge.
That's how you watch The Lastof Us, right?
And in the Americas you have touse HBO Max, now called Max.
Yeah, i'm sure if I watchedthat then, yeah, last of Us
would also be up there for me,but I still haven't played the
game, so that might discount theequation.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Then Mario Brothers would be Yeah, Mario Brothers
2023.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
And then Sonic is like an okay movie but
definitely is not my topfavorite.
Mario movies definitely Youtake Jim Carrey out of Sonic and
it's Generic summer kids movies.
Yeah, nothing, not like anygroundbreaking storytelling or
anything like that.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
For me, my favorite video game adaptation has to be
Mortal Kombat.
I watched it the other day.
Mortal Kombat 1995, not 2021.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
With Cory, something.
Yuuki, the one that plays ShangTsung, Yeah, the dude that
plays Shang Tsung Your soul ismine.
He's facial acting.
Like he pointed out, i don'tneed to run.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
I don't need to run Lou Lou.
Lou Your brother's soul is mine.
That dude is the best.
No one could hold a candle tothat Shang Tsung iteration.
I watched the new one and I waslike this dude's putting me to
(26:24):
sleep.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
Get the other guy Is this Certain actors that has
forever owns the character theyplayed like decades ago, yeah,
but Mortal Kombat 1995, eventhough it was rated M or wasn't
rated MA or R18, whatever thelatest movie was.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
It's just such a simple story.
You're following Liu Kang,sonia and Johnny Cage to go into
the tournament.
You get these greatintroduction scenes to each
character.
You see that Liu Kang isfighting for revenge and he
could be consumed by revenge ifhe's not careful.
Johnny Cage is trying to provethat he's not just an actor,
(27:06):
that he actually has realmartial arts background, and
Sonia Blade is trying to trackdown Kano, who apparently is
killed a partner of hers.
But she doesn't like to workwith teammates, she always likes
to do things by herself.
Another one of those like Butthe point is you got three
(27:31):
characters.
They got clearly definedcharacter arcs In the movie that
they're very well cast.
Lyndon Ashby is like the bestJohnny Cage, robin shoe as Liu
Kang.
When you see this guy, thisjacked dude, play Liu Kang and
his majestic hair just flowingOh you're like that is Liu Kang.
(27:52):
Yeah, i watched the new moviesand when they pulled out the
actor playing Liu Kang, i waslike no offense, but there's
only one Liu Kang Oh.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
I did a quick sort of like Google research.
He only started doing martialarts sort of training at the age
of 19 or something.
19, yeah, that is.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
Liu Kang.
I don't care what anyone says.
Don't you dare bring downRobert shoe.
He's Liu Kang.
I don't care if we learnmartial arts on the fucking sack
.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
What help did that?
he grew up on making a name forhimself in Hong Kong cinema, so
that really propelled him inhis like martial arts portfolio.
Yeah, fuck, so good castingthere.
You know, get the Hong.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Kong product he uses with his hair.
I need to get.
He conditions, he lotions Ohhair masks between, between,
takes you just like slavers, itup, yeah, coconut oil.
Stunning.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
So I think we're getting closer to why certain
Auditions work.
So you brought up so goodcasting, good character arcs.
That actually followsconventional sort of tried and
tested Hollywood techniques,when the source material itself
already had a good blueprints togo off of.
That they just need to adapt afew things and translate the
(29:18):
mechanics into And you said,simple story, but it's simple in
a good way easy, logicalprogression of like act one into
act two, into act three,something that complicates the
process along the way.
Each character has motives andstuff.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Yeah, like all the base story telling should be
there.
They.
We shouldn't lose sight ofthose things just because it's a
movie based on a video game.
But, just like with bookadaptations, people get the
shits when the movie doesn'tfollow the book.
Yeah same with the video gamenever change It's.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
It's funny because, like I've read so many YouTube
comments right of people whenthey're unhappy about something
like, say, halo, for example,the new halo TV show, and all
the comments are like, oh, theyjust literally adapted what was
in the cut scenes or thedialogue That you, you know
you're playing through.
All the stuff you play through.
We'd be so happy because thaton its own is already so great
(30:13):
and enough.
And it seems like studios arealways feeling like, oh, it's
not enough, we need to add thisand this and this and cater to
the times and the politicalsentiment and they also don't
know source material.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
Yeah, they don't research source material.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Yes, that's right.
I mean you a bold?
Clearly doesn't, butinterestingly the fans are
pretty much saying to them justcopy and paste, and we're happy
with that.
You could just copy paste thestory.
We'll pay again to hear thesame story or see the same story
(30:49):
, but as a real-life adaptation,isn't that fascinating?
this audience wants the easiestthing for Hollywood to produce
and make pre-existing source,pre-existing material.
Just translate it to real life.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
Obviously, it's not as easy as pressing a button and
then you can translate.
Of course you have to adapt toan actual, that, you have to
adapt to the format of a moviebecause the audience psychology
is different.
I get that.
But just like, yeah, they tryto do too much.
Oh, they don't know enough atall about the Miss Source
material, and then thetranslation process, it gets
screwed up.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Yeah, that's right if you made a Mario Brothers movie
and the Mario Brothers aren'tplumbers, well What the fuck?
why aren't they plumbers?
why wouldn't you do?
it's such a simple detail.
But it takes people out of likethe film because then they say
to themselves this is not it.
If you made a Harry PotterMovie and Harry Potter's not a
wizard.
(31:45):
Well, people are gonna be kindof pissed off because they're
gonna say to themselves, why, ifthe books are all about him
being a wizard?
Speaker 3 (31:53):
I remember like someone telling me that any sort
of long established franchiseThey're gonna when there's gonna
be many cooks involved in thekitchen, they're gonna
eventually Sort of draft up somekind of Bible, so to speak,
that Contains the essential sortof like lore details of this
like expansive franchise Likethis.
(32:13):
This character has to have thisideal and you cannot deviate
from this, and this in thisexact year this Insighting
incident happens.
So Every sort of long-standingfranchise should have some kind
of guideline, sort of Biblething that, like anyone that
jumps in on The fandom has tosort of follow through and in
(32:34):
order to not retcon Essentialsort of details, that's
something that should exist,like like halos and so like.
so, sergeant Johnson, he has tohave died for a heroic reason.
His death cannot have been invain, or something so they
should not deviate from thisBible.
That's as I mentioned so that'shelps with the translation
(32:54):
process, game mechanics intoConventional episodic series and
stuff.
Battlefield hardline I thinkit's called they actually for
the campaign They brought onactual CSI writers and stuff
like cop drama or like those,those sorts of like.
TV shows Yeah they reviewed inan interview where they actually
brought on like TV show writersjust to consult with them To
(33:16):
find out what is it that makeslike episodic series engaging to
the viewers, what, what's agood, engaging cliffhanger thing
that leads right into the nextepisode.
So once again, just likecementing my point that video
games, when they startedincorporating more Hollywood
techniques, that Hollywoodstarted taking them more
Seriously, and then thisfeedback loop then translated to
the recent spate of morefaithful adaptations.
(33:39):
Do you guys agree?
It's this feedback loop, thissymbiotic relationship.
Video games initially it's justa black screen saying
congratulations, thanks forsaving the princess to now
adapting conventional Theprincess is actually in another
castle, but then incorporatingconventional storytelling, tried
and tested screenwritingtechniques.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Yeah, so just bring what already works for films to
a film that's based on a videogame.
It sounds so simple when yousay it like that.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
Of course there is more to it than that, like we
said, but I was going to askDenise the Halo show, did you
watch it?
Speaker 1 (34:16):
I watched The Pilot That was it.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
I couldn't be bothered to watch the rest.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
Yeah, I just watched reviews.
I'm curious.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
I didn't want to watch it when Master Chief was
said to be kissing this covenantlady.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
It was against everything.
I just feel like I'm toofrustrated to keep watching it.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Fascinated by this.
Was there a particular momentin The Pilot where you said to
yourself this is not Halo.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
I'm not going to watch it.
This ain't it, Chief, Ah, Chief.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
Sounds so funny when I said it because I think a lot
of fans will agree with me Itwas the moment Master Chief just
took his helmet off So randomly, because in the games he never
takes his helmet off.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
It's just a thing We just so used to him Remove the
mystery.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
It's an iconic thing right And I feel like the
Mandalorian proved you couldhave a really compelling
character that just has thisoutfit on all the time.
You never needed to see hisface.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
There's a certain aura and mystery to the masked
or helmeted character.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
That's right.
You can feel this gravitas, thegravitas, there we go, the
silent protagonist Yeah, and notbeing approved by my actions
And that's what worked.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
That's one of the reasons I was so interested in
Master Chief as well was who isthis guy?
What's his whole story?
He's a super soldier.
So there's a scene where MasterChief takes off his helmet.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
He just takes it off.
And I mean, you know, kudos tothe actor, you know I'm sure
he's doing some fantastic work.
So I feel like maybe thedecision is because they wanted
to really showcase him in hisperformance, perhaps, but it
just takes you out of it becauseyou're like, oh okay, i didn't
expect to see his face firstepisode.
Like if they left it to a keymoment later on in the story and
(35:59):
it's for a very specific reason, then it would have had such an
impact.
Because, to my understanding ofthe arc, master Chief pretty
much goes on a journey of likeidentity, of like some artifact
he touches basically causes himto remember memories that he's
been forced to forget, basically, and then it's kind of like he
(36:21):
tries to find himself and herandomly gets thrown into this
love arc with this woman Andit's just like so strange I'm
bored.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
It doesn't feel like.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Halo right And it's not.
Halo.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
It's not Halo.
I was trying to wrap my brainto think what you were referring
to, but it's like I've playedthe Halo trilogy and none of
that.
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
No, it was all about the covenant in the first game,
And then you have that amazingtwist of like holy crap, we have
the flood now And that sets up,you know, for the second Halo
game.
And I remember playing thatthrough for the first time with
my dad as a kid And I was likelike this is incredible, the
fact that I got so scared withthe flood and stuff I stopped
playing the game for 10 years, igot like I knew it was coming.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
So I all, i all I did was play up to the silent.
Is it the silent cartographerat the fourth level and the
fifth level.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
And I knew that the flood was coming up.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
That's why I stopped myself from playing games.
I was scared as a kid Have yougone back to it yet?
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Yeah, I've been it.
Speaker 3 (37:16):
I.
Then, when I eventually gotback, i played through all the
way one to reach to Halo 4.
All the games I could get onsteam If you were too scared, oh
and Halo in front of you.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
I'll sit with you.
We'll do a video.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
Basically, you get your older brother to play your
mother.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
We'll just hold hands and we'll each play with one.
Speaker 3 (37:40):
I'll play with one side of the control keyboard and
mouse Man, first person shooter.
Look at these controllerpeasants.
Oh my God, i get it Okay.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Pc Master Race, but I was a Xbox person growing up,
finding out the flood thatplugged us into Halo 2.
It's just so compelling alreadyAnd from what I heard there
isn't enough covenant, But youdon't actually see the covenant
or Master Chief fight them likea lot in the TV show, which is
really strange.
And then there's this whole arcwith another character that's
(38:09):
not in the games.
It just kind of goes randomsegues.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
That actually brings up a good point.
Why do video game adaptationsadd characters that were never
in the fucking game?
Speaker 3 (38:21):
Cole Young.
What's his name?
Cole Young in the Mortal Kombat.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
Cole Young.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
Yes, so random.
Yes, you don't feel anythingfrom it because you have no
memories attributed to this likefresh original character.
There's no lore implications tothem at all, but he's a stupid
character anyway.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
His power is so generic, such a strange.
You've got a game where youhave characters that shoot
fireballs, that freeze people,that use lightning, that use
water, every element fuckingpossible.
So why do we need a characterthat wears an armored suit when
he turns his powers on?
(38:57):
And he's got the power of hisfamily.
He's got a daughter and a wife.
I'm like, why not just attachthis backstory to an existing
character of this franchise?
Why not just keep Liu Kang?
Liu Kang was fine as thecentral character in the other
two movies.
Why are we rewriting?
(39:19):
And I just find it hilarious.
You've got Mortal Kombat, agame franchise that has like 60
characters, and they were likeyou know what this franchise
needs.
We need to make a character upfrom scratch for the movie.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
Yeah, There's something to be said.
I just don't get it Adaptingbeloved franchises into movies.
You're now portrayingcharacters that millions of
people have grown attached tobecause they had the direct
input.
They have all the memoriesattributed to controlling that
character.
They remember the first momentthey get a power star, as Mario.
They remember the moments wherethey're sliding through
(39:56):
collecting the rings, as Sonic,and stuff.
So then now you're adapting toa movie, you're potentially sort
of tainting a very pure sourcematerial And then, on top of
that, out on a completelyoriginal character that no one
has any of that emotionalattribution to.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
But also no one wants to.
Speaker 3 (40:13):
No one wants to When you watch the film.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
He has a really generic backstory and it's no
fault of the actor, but he'sjust not an interesting or
compelling character.
He takes up a lot of screentime that could have went to
existing characters And my wholething was watching that movie,
that Johnny Cage could have beenthat role, just like he was in
the original 1995 Mortal Kombatmovie, and it would have been
(40:40):
fine because he is an outsider,he's a human actor who could be
transported into this weirdworld And you can introduce the
audience to Mortal Kombatthrough him.
He is your bridge to the real,the general, casual audience.
Speaker 3 (40:58):
Yeah, you don't have to exactly reinvent the wheel,
like, if you still want anoriginal story, you could still
adapt elements like carefullyadapt elements, not just grab
moments from here and there,reverse engineering or
incorporate that into an alreadyexisting character.
There's just this endorphinrelease by seeing like so many
(41:19):
people will have emotionalmemories attached to playing as
Master Chief, the silentprotagonist.
When they first look up at thehalo They've realized that the
world is on the inside of a ring.
And then maybe they dosomething in the halo TV series
where they also have that likegrand moment, but like just
something, instead ofintroducing new characters and
stuff.
Just how do you recreate thatmagic and then have that good
(41:42):
payoff to make the fans believethat, okay, this is a faithful
adaptation by a director thatknows that is one of us, he's
one of us, he understands usbecause he is one of us, he also
is like us, remembering thatchildhood memory And he is.
Finally, we have a competentdirector and competent studio
that has adapted that magic,that magic moment of looking up
the halo rings and so on It likebeloved character, you know you
(42:05):
got to feel like you got tohave that.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
These movies were made by a gamer who played the
games and experienced all thosespecial moments that made you
fall in love with her.
Speaker 3 (42:18):
I guess just to jump points a bit, just to preface
this, i am a firm believer thatevery story should stand on its
own merits and every entry canbe like a sort of gateway drug
for newcomers.
So like people jumping in therethat were never a game or would
be like, oh wow, this whole TVseries about cordyceps and
infections and stuff that'sbased off of video game That has
(42:40):
piqued my interest.
Every entry is a potentialentry drug for newcomers and
stuff.
So, yes, the story should standon its own merits and it should
not be reliant on externalmedia.
Right, the story should beself-evidence, it should be
self-sufficient and any sort ofexternal media like tie-in
graphic novels, mangas, shouldnot be factored in.
(43:02):
Yeah, i was going to say thereshould only be an optional lore,
like you were saying withArkane, that actually expands
and enriches the world building,but they are entirely optional.
The game should come first, orlike if it was firstly a game,
or the movie should beself-evident.
And to that end, i'm so glad webrought like Halo into our
(43:23):
conversation, because I want tobring to attention that the
composer of the original Halotrilogy, marty O'Donnell, like
he said in various interviewsthat the philosophy of the
bungee he worked with back inthe 2000s, not the one with
what's the game they made on thePlayStation Destiny, destiny 1
and 2.
So it's a different team backthen, so the philosophy is
(43:44):
different.
Basically, the philosophy ofthe bungee back then was that
all trans media should beancillary to the games.
The games come first.
Yeah, movies should not beessential.
Viewing to contain essentialplot threads that play into the
game franchise.
Like, for example, when peoplefound out that the main
(44:04):
antagonist of Halo 4 called theDiedact and stuff.
Like when they found out theDiedact was essentially killed
offscreen in a graphic novel.
It just rubbed so many peoplethe wrong way.
The same similar thing inAssassin's Creed 3.
At the conclusion of that, theyset up this whole big arc that
they were going to have thisvillain arc.
(44:25):
It was going to be the Thanosto the Infinity, like Saga or
whatever Marvel called it.
It was someone called Juno, andJuno as well was killed off in
a graphic novel.
It's always those tie-in mangasand graphic novels.
This takes place between Halo 4and 5 and it contains so much
important details.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
Yeah, important canon .
Speaker 3 (44:45):
An important canon that is never talked about or
referenced in the game itself,even though the game is the
thing that comes first.
As I said, the trans mediashould be entirely optional.
What you were saying legallegends it was a legal legends
arcane or something like thegames down here, but the world
building and all the mangas andstuff.
Speaker 2 (45:04):
It made it so accessible that you didn't need
to play the game to enjoy theshow.
That's what I felt.
Speaker 3 (45:10):
Characters' story was set up so well that you really
didn't need that background tojust understand and get it So
like are there, like certain fanbases that are huge fans of,
like the books and the graphicnovels and the TV shows, without
ever having touched thekeyboard and mouse of the game
itself, like where people theycould just stay in that lore
bubble without ever havingplayed the game?
(45:30):
Is that that sort of thing?
I think it's possible.
Speaker 2 (45:33):
Subforms and stuff.
I mean, you'd hope one day thatadaptations get that good.
Speaker 1 (45:39):
We didn't get there.
Speaker 3 (45:40):
See, i mean what Nintendo is looking to just
expand beyond the fact thatMario is a video game character,
and I think they'vesuccessfully already
incorporated Mario into popculture, where it's seen as more
than just the jump man andstuff.
I mean what Mario is in the Rio2016 Olympics.
that's how much of a culturalicon he is.
They want to cement themselvesinto that.
(46:02):
They have what UniversalStudios and stuff.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
I feel like I need a glass of water.
It's just like you're tiring meout.
It's all good, Martin, Youcould slow you down.
I need time to catch up to you.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
Love how detailed these notes are.
They're amazing guys, yeah, butlike.
Speaker 3 (46:18):
this is where you know video game movies fail.
You know It's like if there isa movie adaptation, it should
stand on its own merits and notbe reliant on the audience's
knowledge of the game that itwas based on.
Don't you agree?
Speaker 1 (46:30):
It should stand alone as well, One of the reasons I
hated that Mortal Kombat moviewhich I hate?
Speaker 2 (46:35):
Which one?
sorry, the second one, the onethey didn't like.
Speaker 1 (46:37):
I didn't like the reboot because everything was
building towards the sequel.
It was practically a prequel toMortal Kombat, but it just felt
They don't have a tournament init.
Speaker 3 (46:47):
It felt like everything they were holding
back on.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
All the characters were the shitty knockoff
characters so that they couldkill them off And this and that,
and you got this main characterthat no one gives a crap about.
But by the end of it you werelike, oh so, this was all
building towards the sequel, Butwhat do?
I get for watching this movie,and you just didn't get that
(47:10):
satisfaction.
Interestingly, though, bringsup Mortal Kombat Annihilation,
the second worst video gamemovie that we watched 4%.
Speaker 3 (47:21):
Like Rotten Tomatoes, i looked at yeah, 4%, yeah, and
we're going to have the fullvideo reaction to that movie
Close to the release of MortalKombat 1.
Speaker 1 (47:29):
Looking forward to that Is that coming out in
September?
September Fuck how do they pumpthem out so quick?
Speaker 3 (47:34):
Yeah, we're going to get so much media releases
between now and September?
Yeah, but Annihilation,annihilation, yeah, from your
favorite to a complete 180 tothe worst.
Speaker 1 (47:44):
Yeah, it's funny how the original is like my favorite
video game movie in the sequelis the absolute drizzling shit.
Speaker 3 (47:53):
No more of your soulless mind, no iconic lines,
just the memes.
There's my brother.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
No, actually there is an iconic line From Sankh Shah
Khan and stuff Mother, you'realive.
Too bad you will die.
Speaker 3 (48:14):
What kind of badassery is that?
Speaker 1 (48:18):
Wow, what a moment, Ooh at some point Scene stealer
In this video.
Martin, you should add the clipfrom Mortal Kombat Annihilation
, where Raiden says A door thatcloses can also open.
What the hell does?
Speaker 3 (48:31):
that mean Oh, that's a good teaser right there.
Speaker 2 (48:34):
It was great.
Speaker 3 (48:35):
What were you saying about like Uncharted being just
a badly connecting mishmash ofjust the best bits, but in a way
that doesn't tie well together?
on the complete opposite end ofthat spectrum is a complete
snooze fest.
That is Assassin's Creed withMichael Fassbender, where again,
as I said, they just relied onthe audience's knowledge of the
game, but it was just theexecutive cash grabby sort of
(48:58):
movie You can just tell Sowhat's?
I haven't watched it, though,unfortunately, because I know I
haven't watched it.
Speaker 2 (49:03):
I feel like I watched it, but I forgot everything.
Speaker 3 (49:06):
It's like some weird animus machine.
Speaker 2 (49:08):
That's not good.
Speaker 3 (49:08):
That says it all Where you're tied to, like your
spine or something.
It lifts you up into the airand you're meant to imitate the
actual motions of your ancestors.
An animus is one where you justlie in a machine like this, not
just be strapped to a movingcog or whatever.
Speaker 1 (49:24):
I think we got to wrap up before Martin has a
heart attack.
Speaker 2 (49:28):
You can talk for days about this guys.
Speaker 3 (49:30):
We didn't even bring up Wreck-It Ralph, though.
Speaker 1 (49:32):
Yeah, that was an actual Now there's a great video
game movie.
Speaker 2 (49:37):
Have you seen Wreck-It Ralph?
Of course, of course.
Speaker 1 (49:39):
Oh, I think We'll talk about it and we'll see if
it's Wreck-It Ralph.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
It's weird because I think I've actually seen
Wreck-It Ralph 2, but not thefirst one.
I don't know how that happened,but I really enjoyed the sequel
Plus for me.
I really enjoyed the sequelfilm.
I think it was the sequel, idon't know.
I'm so confused.
I've watched so many movies.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
I feel my heart shrinking.
Speaker 2 (50:06):
Wait, okay, it was the one where he leaves his own
game to go and do something.
Speaker 1 (50:11):
Get a medal, to get a medal A medal, yeah, that might
have been it.
That's the first one.
Okay, okay, Okay okay, oh,thank.
God.
Speaker 2 (50:18):
It is the first.
Speaker 1 (50:20):
Jesus Christ, my ears are bleeding.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
He meets Sarah Silverman Doody.
Speaker 3 (50:27):
Doody, one more, one more.
What do you get?
Call of duty Yeah, gosh, i wantthis.
Speaker 2 (50:33):
It was a sugar rush, that film, but it was very fun,
very, very fun, so much lovewent into that movie.
Speaker 1 (50:40):
You feel so love, love as a gamer, you feel like
these people love gamers.
Every little Easter egg and nodand reference, like with the
Mario Brothers movie, you feellike this movie was made for me
as a gamer.
Speaker 3 (50:58):
I think in recent spate of movies I was like I've
always maintained like when youremove the nostalgia bait, the
callbacks, the Easter eggs, thecameos, what do you have for a
story?
And I think Wreck-It Ralph hadthe absolute Pixar sort of
skeletal structure.
I don't think it's like one ofPixar's best, but you could
definitely see that it has thePixar DNA.
We are talking about 10 yearsago and Pixar was still at their
(51:21):
age.
I can't believe it's been 10years.
Yeah, it's like it has theinciting incidents, the
injustices that forcescharacters to do things that you
sort of like against the world,that drives the division in the
friendships and so on.
It has those moments that makeyou feel something for the
characters We talked about this.
Michael Denise, are youfamiliar with something called a
screenwriting technique, calledthe Save the Cat?
Speaker 2 (51:44):
Sounds familiar but runs through.
Speaker 3 (51:45):
Save the Cat is the moment when the character does
something that makes theaudience feel they are worthy of
rooting for.
So like Aladdin is sort of likefirst stealing some food and
then seeing some hungry kids andthen deciding oh okay, let me
just break bread and give it tothem and stopping them from
being with Gets us on their side.
Speaker 1 (52:05):
Yeah, you show a character that's kind of selfish
and you don't think he's verylikable.
He's flawed, but then he doessomething redeeming.
Speaker 2 (52:13):
Yeah, yeah, save the Cat.
Okay, so that's the term, yeah.
Speaker 1 (52:16):
With Ralph because he's a bad guy in a video game
at the start, you don't reallyyou kind of like, oh why should
I care?
Like why should I feel sympathyfor him?
But you see that he helps othervideo game characters that are
like homeless and don't have avideo game to go to.
Speaker 2 (52:30):
Yeah, you know what's funny about that?
I feel like when we talk aboutas well those random side
characters that aren't in thegames like get brought in, i
feel like what's always missingis they don't have a Save the
Cat moment, and that's why, evenwhen they're newly introduced,
it's hard for us to even want tocare about them, because there
is no Save the Cat thing whereit's like, okay, they're just
(52:52):
new and they're here and they'retaking us away from the main
plot, so why are they here?
Speaker 1 (52:55):
That's interesting.
Speaker 2 (52:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (52:57):
I mean, the more I think about it.
I'm thinking of Mortal Kombat,i'm thinking of all these other
video game movies.
No good, save the Cat momentfor a lot of them.
Speaker 3 (53:07):
Yeah, i think Wreck-It Ralph is a perfect
demonstration of like, thecombination of like points that
we raised about what makes avideo game movie work is when
they, you know, just have allthose cat gripping character
pieces.
Are you gonna say cat?
Speaker 1 (53:21):
gripping, i think you're gonna say cat gripping
character pieces.
Speaker 3 (53:29):
You gotta grip that cat and flying it around, I
guess before we go to like theWreck-It Ralph, immediately
after me and Michael watched it.
I just said to you that itcements the point that I made
about the Mario Brothers movie,whereby you can have all the
nostalgia and the callbacks andthe cameos and references and
(53:51):
stuff that makes you understand.
the creators knows video gamesbecause they don't know what's
going on And the creators knowsvideo games because they are one
of us.
You can have all that but stillhave a gripping story and a
gripping character piece.
You don't?
the one doesn't have to besacrificed in the service of the
other like the Mario.
Brothers was.
Where is the rare case wherethe pure abundance of faithful
(54:14):
adaptations and callbacks tosource material made it raise
the tour nine?
I'm now more of an eight and ahalf or an eight out of ten for
me, maybe still veering on nine.
But I could recognize now inhindsight, the more I've
processed it, that even thoughit's as a first entry they still
could have a very grippingcharacter piece where you have
those moments that makes youwant to root for the character
(54:37):
and feel for the character, likePixar has with Wreck-It Ralph.
I felt something for thecharacters and yet I could still
appreciate all the video gameysort of references and stuff
that just makes you think thisis a video game movie at its
peak, you know.
Speaker 1 (54:51):
They love it when Martin gets passionate.
Speaker 2 (54:53):
That's great.
So this energy come from?
it's amazing.
Speaker 1 (55:00):
I don't even have any coffee for winging like, oh,
i'm gonna.
Food came on energy and thennext move.
Speaker 3 (55:15):
So, to conclude, what makes a bad adaptation and what
makes a good adaptation badadaptation?
Speaker 1 (55:20):
total disrespect towards gamers obvious cash
grabs obvious cash grab.
Horrible miscasting, lack ofunderstanding for the source
material.
Those would be the big things Isay.
But the good adaptations goodadaptations respect the source
material, have a cast thatmatched the characters, personas
.
And look at the characters Ohyeah, true, true, they have to
(55:44):
look like it It matches thevideo games and totally matches
the video games like, forexample, mortal Kombat's fun and
light.
So you should make a moviethat's fun and light, doesn't
take itself too seriously, whichthe last Mortal Kombat did not
do.
Speaker 3 (56:00):
Unless the source material itself is already
serious, like the last of us,and is a mature story.
Then of course, go with thedark tone.
Speaker 1 (56:08):
Yes, if it's Batman, then match Batman, ah, and have
a gripping story with acharacter that has to go through
a journey and and learn somelife lessons, like I mean.
The last of us is a greatexample.
You got Joel.
His journey is fantastic.
Just the relationship betweenJoel and Ellie is very well done
(56:31):
.
Without going into spoilers,it's just a very dynamic
relationship that grows a lotfrom first episode to last
episode.
Speaker 3 (56:40):
Man, there's something to be said, like when,
the, when the story is alreadywritten so well that the actors
they honestly maybe don't haveto do much like because that
relationship that the writershave already done the mental
homework about the dynamics, allthey need to do is just like.
so.
Pedro Pascal and the one thatplayed Ellie Yeah, he was in
Grammar Throne's.
They just really good They justneed to know the script and
(57:02):
they just live and breathe thecharacter and they just, you
reckon they nailed that Saga.
father, daughter dynamic.
Speaker 1 (57:09):
Yeah, yeah, that's good, that's good and it helped
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (57:12):
And it's all the more easier when the source material
already has that down pat andPedro nailed the voice that
gravelly like southern accent.
Speaker 1 (57:22):
Yeah, jesus boy.
I can't do a really good Joel.
Speaker 3 (57:27):
Pedro Pascal versus Troy Baker.
Who is like a better Joel,would you say?
Troy Baker, definitely Jesusboy.
Speaker 1 (57:34):
God.
Speaker 3 (57:34):
Pedro Pascal is he like a very close second.
Speaker 1 (57:37):
Is really good.
He ain't no, troy Baker.
Speaker 3 (57:41):
But you ain't no, try baby.
Speaker 1 (57:43):
And that is the end of that.
That's where we're going towrap it, i think, guys.
Speaker 3 (57:50):
Stream of consciousness?
Speaker 1 (57:51):
Yes, any final words?
Speaker 2 (57:53):
Denise, yeah, i think you know, given all that we've
talked about, especially whatmakes a good video game
adaptation you know it reallyleads into, like new fallout TV
show by Amazon Prime that's inproduction right now.
Like hopefully they follow someof these things that are tried
and tested, that are, you know,seemingly simple to do, and like
(58:16):
that's all they need to do andit'll be great.
The fact that we're following,i think, a new character that's
a ghoul, but if it's, you know,a gripping save the cat kind of
character, it should becompelling enough within an
already established world.
Speaker 1 (58:29):
So that's something to look forward to and hope they
get right The fact that it's aghoul, who they're.
they usually presented asenemies in fallout or like
really scummy kind of people.
It'll be really easy to subvertthat and have a ghoul with the
heart of a heart of gold or aghoul that's actually more
sympathetic than the humans inthat world could be trying to
(58:52):
communicate some complex themesthere.
Speaker 2 (58:55):
So that could work really well.
Speaker 1 (58:57):
Yeah, nice Fuck yeah.
Speaker 3 (58:59):
I love it when I come up with something smart And
Martin, yeah, to go off ofDenise's point yet not not
needing to reinvent the wheeland just follow the Bible.
movie makers follow the Biblethat long standing franchises
should have if the law is tooexpansive and sort of like
intricate, just like sort ofgrounded to a more simple and
(59:21):
easy to follow Arcs.
like you have the three maincharacters in easy to follow up,
that it's about how they'repassed into twining because of a
common cause, sort of thing.
And ultimately, to add on tothe points is to make sure that
the story stand on its ownmerits and it's self sufficient
and yeah, i'm self evident andone that's done well.
(59:43):
when that's done well, it canbe a gateway drug for like
moviegoers to then discover thebreadth and wealth of the source
material that it comes from anddon't cast Mark Wahlberg in
your video game movie.
Speaker 1 (59:59):
People are going to think I hate Mark Wahlberg.
I actually really like MarkWahlberg, but he just missed
cast.
Anyway, that's all we got timefor folks.
If you enjoyed this video,please like, share and subscribe
for more videos like it.
You can also check out ourMortal Kombat review here, or
(01:00:21):
our alone in the dark reactionvideo there, or our Mario
Brothers review.
Speaker 3 (01:00:30):
Bam and also comment below what's your favorite video
game adaptations?
What are your reasons for yourfavorite video game adaptation.
Speaker 1 (01:00:45):
Tell us all your secrets.
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