The rise of video game adaptations has caused a frenzy in Hollywood to gather as many intellectual properties as possible to get these beloved stories on the silver screen- and it’s horrible. Not the adaptations themselves, but the increasing normalization of this taking these video game worlds and putting them in live action instead of digital. These adaptations take away the thing that made video games enjoyable in the first place, the interactivity.
The main appeal of video games is the ‘game’ part. People enjoy playing and interacting with the world in their own ways, creating their story as the game goes on and creating unique playthroughs because of it. But when you put these games on the big screen, taking away that part of the video game, it lessens the magic of the story.
The Super Mario Bros. movie is the biggest offender of this, while the narrative is compelling and the story is well done, it removes the section of joy that makes Mario games fun which is playing as Mario. There is a certain magic that is lost with these game adaptations when you watch a Chris Pratt-sounding-Mario stomp on Goombas and eat mushrooms without your input, almost like watching a cutscene compilation on YouTube.
HBO’s The Last of Us has the same problems as many video game movies. The show was praised for its story and acting, which was portrayed the story in the games well, and I enjoyed the adaptation. But, as I sat down and marinated on the show, I realized that I had essentially watched The Last of Us cutscenes but with Pedro Pascal in them. The show added some new parts and changed some story elements, but it followed the same narrative. However, without any transitions into me fighting fungal zombies it felt cheap and there was a lack of anticipation. The show strives to recreate the feeling of playing The Last of Us again but without the playing part of that formula, and it feels slightly hollow.
Video game adaptations are not bad in any sense of the word, the box office numbers and ratings from audiences show this clearly, but taking these stories and putting them on the silver screen instead of the screen at home takes away the fun of video games. Many of the original stories in these video game universes would be great to see if they were video games originally and we could experience them for ourselves. Hollywood seems to be content with having directors make cutscenes for all your favorite game franchises and removing the ‘game’ out of video game adaptation.
