Entertainment has been ingrained in the public mind for many, many years. Everywhere we go there are people talking about how the last football game ended or where the Soccer world cup is being held. As time moved on and technology improved, the entertainment industry shifted from being entirely physical to having a mixture of both physical and technological elements. Enter movies and video games, the two biggest juggernauts of the latter category. Both of these entertainment forms have enraptured the public eye for at least over 20 years, and the train does not seem to be stopping anytime soon. So, obviously, the best thing for these two art forms is to combine themselves to create an amazingly engrossing product that outsells the biggest Marvel superhero films. The combined might of both gamers and movie-watchers will overrun all of the competition! Yeah, that did not happen.
The biggest problem with combining games and movies is that they have two entirely different ways of entertaining people: one completely lacks interactivity, and the other is entirely based on interactivity. When producers try to merge these conflicting ideals, all that ends up happening is a movie that lacks the charm of a completely original idea. For example, the Ratchet and Clank movie that came in 2016 is based on the incredibly popular Ratchet and Clank franchise (Who could have guessed?). Personally, I adore all of the original four Ratchet and Clank games, and find the future trilogy to be okay. However, when I went to go see the movie, I found it be devoid of any and all charm that the original games had. This is due to how games and movies differ in entertaining people. A movie’s drive is all focused around the characters and the story; there is nothing else to keep the audience entertained. With a game, you have the story, characters, AND the gameplay. This leads a dip in quality for the story and characters to allow for a polished gameplay system. However, when a movie adaptation comes along and tries to modify a game, they are left with two aspects that are not necessarily the focus, leading to a movie that does not do much of anything.
Despite this, producers continue to try and create a good video game movie. I personally do not see a time in which a video game movie will ever outshine a purely original movie. A movie is entirely focused around the aspects that make something entertaining to watch, not to experience. A video game is more so focused around the aspects that make something fun to take part in yourself, not to passively enjoy.
Cheesecakeify My Opinion 