Super Mario: Hollywood edition
Close your eyes and imagine Lara Croft. Picture her tiny hot pants; those impractical but ridiculously sexy utility garters around her thighs; her knee high boots; those breasts, that pout. Now try to imagine Mario. Those blue dungarees; that little red cap, his bristling handlebar moustache…
Which version of each one came into your head? Was it Angelina Jolie, or the real Lara Croft? Bob Hoskins, or the bouncing cluster of pixels we know simply as Mario? You probably didn’t even know that Bob Hoskins had anything to do with the beloved character of Mario, which leads to the question: what is the appeal of film adaptations of video games, and why are some more successful than others?
The film Super Mario Bros. was the first ever video-game-cum-film (VGCF), and actually ended up grossing $8,532,623 on its release in 1993. Based around the story of two plumber brothers in Brooklyn (oh yes, Luigi was brought to life too) and their adventures, other familiar characters such as Yoshi and Princess Peach also make an appearance. The film was slated at the time for a lack of consistency with the game, with one reviewer stating sharply: “First off, Super Mario Bros. takes place in the Mushroom Kingdom, a happy place that has been taken over by King Koopa (a.k.a Bowser) and its people forced to mindlessly obey his will. Mario has to defeat Bowser to bring peace back to the Mushroom Kingdom. We all know that.”
The film has since been reappraised however, with bloggers commenting that: “Making a live-action adaptation of a side-scrolling platform video game was obviously a challenge, but the result is a creative, original and fun movie that could never be replaced by an animation. A movie that strictly adhered to every detail of the games could have easily lacked the human depth and imagination shown in this film.” Although the “human depth and imagination” part is questionable, the basic premise is correct. Turning a videogame into a film carries with it a number of problems, perhaps the most crucial of which is a lack of plot.
This slight hitch was not picked up on for a while however. The classic 90s beat-em-up Street Fighter was next to hit the cinemas and fail appallingly, quickly followed by Mortal Kombat, which was actually significantly more popular. Gamers praised the latter for its dedication to the story of the game, and for the fantastic fight scenes. One reviewer commented: “Few movies in recent years can match the grittiness and pure painfulness of these fights. A story of revenge, pride, weakness, determination, friendship, life and death.” For those interested in movies that encompass just about every theme humanity could throw at you, plus lots of “gritty” fight scenes, it is worth looking up Pokémon: The First Movie, so named because they were clearly already planning the next 11.
Pikachu and company aside, fight scenes are clearly an incredibly important aspect of videogames-turned-movies. This was what the gaming community, predominantly teenage males, wanted, and this is what they would be expecting from any film adaptations too. This was probably, to be fair, what attracted many directors to adapt the games in the first place. The catch to this, however, was that in order for a film to be successful, it has to appeal to a much larger market than just teenage boys, and a film consisting entirely of a series of ridiculous fight scenes scattered amongst the rotting bones of a plotline was never going to break out of this audience.
Cue Lara Croft, the answer to problems you never even knew existed. Whilst not by a long way the only main character in a computer game created by a bunch of horny nerds, she is certainly the most famous, thanks to the ever-plump lips of Angelina Jolie. Interestingly, the female leads in many of the VGCFs share similarities. They are all empowered, not necessarily in the way they dress, but in the way they behave; carelessly, free. They do not listen to the men around them, and do not spend their time whimpering after a happy ending, or worse, love. They can all defend themselves, and more than this, are better at fighting than the characters around them. They are all orphans, consequentially portrayed as outcasts from society searching for their purpose or identity. They are also, it cannot be ignored, all constantly in a state of semi-undress. Lara Croft, Resident Evil’s bio-hero Alice, BloodRayne’s vampire Rayne… The conclusion? These are male characters in women’s bodies and not much else. It certainly ticks another box though, and out of all the movies made from video games over the last decade and a half, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider is by far the most popular, having made $274 million since its release in 2001.
Resident Evil followed similar principles for success. From the casting of the very attractive supermodel Mila Jovovich in the lead role to the merging of the need for lots of fight scenes with the then-popular theme of zombies, Paul Anderson, perhaps heady from the fame of his Mortal Kombat films, wasn’t exactly doing anything new.
It wasn’t until the first (but definitely not the last) Final Fantasy film that VGCFs really came into their own. A Japanese creation, the Final Fantasy video games were born out of a completely different mindset from previously mentioned games, and can be seen as the climax in the long and slow development of the emphasis on game narrative. Director Hironobu Sakaguchi said of himself, “I don’t think I have what it takes to make a good action game; I think I’m better at telling a story.” Tell a story he did.
There are 28 Final Fantasy games and counting. Each one stands alone as a story but also features recurring character archetypes and gameplay. The score, by Nobuo Uematsu, has been acclaimed internationally, and the preoccupation with environmental destruction and the power and beauty of the elements is typical of Japanimé. The films, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001) and Final Fantasy VII: The Advent Children (2005) stay loyal to these details; most gamers were hard pressed to fault either, other than in a purely filmic sense.
What makes these films so revolutionary in terms of VGCFs is that they were computer animated, allowing for filming angles not previously possible, and battle sequences beyond what could normally be created. Animation also had the important effect of establishing the film as a true fantasy. Whilst other VGCFs had to reach for as exotic locations as they could manage, countries such as China, Vietnam, or else create alternate realities in the Western world, Final Fantasy could cut straight through the limitations imposed by the scenes and landscapes of the world we know so well, and paint an entirely different world in front of our eyes. Even Super Mario Bros. tried to set their film in modern day Brooklyn, albeit with an alternate dinosaur world below, but Final Fantasy felt no need for realism, and consequentially managed to capture the true appeal of video games, that is, escapism, with all the added benefits of a film.
That said, the fantasy aspect is prevalent in other VGCFs. 2007 saw the unhappy release of BloodRayne II: Deliverance, a sequel to the equally disastrous BloodRayne. Both were based on the eponymous action game about a vampire seeking revenge on her father for the rape of her mother. Uwe Boll directed both of both movies, as well as a whole of host of similarly distressing movies based on videogames, 3 of which occupy a coveted place in Time’s Top 10 worst VGCFs. A dubious legend in his own field, he is a shoo-in for ‘Worst Career Achievement’ at the 29th Golden Raspberry Awards later this month. When a rumour circulated that Boll would helm a Metal Gear Solid movie, its creator Hideo Kojima quickly responded in his audioblog: “Absolutely not! It’s impossible that we’d ever do a movie with him.”
Although both of the BloodRayne movies were abysmal, it is the gothic elements of the movie which are interesting to note, especially once one realises that such elements echo in nearly every single VGCF made. From vampires in BloodRayne to the Goth dress in Final Fantasy there is a dark element to these films which is captured in the way the characters dress. The sinister side of characters and settings is consistently prioritised, with religion being a particularly easy way into this. Silent Hill, arguably one of the best VGCFs to date, makes special use of this, with the Church and ideas of the devil and Hell (called the Otherworld in the game), playing a pivotal role. Not only does this heighten the sense of fantasy in the games and their film adaptations, but it also plays on one of the most fundamental aspects of any video game, the definition of good and evil, who to trust and who to fight.
There is clearly a lot of potential in video games for the creation of engaging and entertaining films, yet most of them fall far short of these criteria. Gamers will always find something to criticise in adaptations of their beloved worlds, be it the depiction of the characters or a misrepresentation of the atmosphere. Whether a film sticks to the game or strays from it, it will never be quite right. Perhaps the crux of the matter lies in the fact that video games provide something that films can’t: the ability to become the character, to make choices and affect the sequence of events. When you watch a film, you are a spectator watching the action; when you play a video game, you transform into someone else living in another world. A film may never be able to provide the same satisfaction as a video game, although there is hope, as long as Uwe Boll never has another go.
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