LA Times: game narratives too 'weak' for movies, Uwe Boll agrees

by James Ransom-Wiley on Jan 25th 2008 2:30PM

Los Angeles Times Magazine spent some time breaking down the rules of Hollywood, schooling would-be fortune-seekers and laying down some hard truth: "Hollywood can't win at video games." Filmmakers are advised to avoid video games as source material because games' "weak narratives" haven't transitioned to the big screen as well as comics – a sentiment echoed by Uwe Boll during a recent Fox News interview; the infamous director declares, "A lot of video games have no story." (Yeah, especially light gun games.) But even something as intricately devised as the Halo universe doesn't seem to hold much promise in the eyes of Hollywood. Halo script re-writer Josh Olson (A History of Violence) complains that video games "have aimless cycles. You go to A, shoot some monsters, then go to B, then start over and do it again." Why argue?

Historically, Hollywood has done a miserable job selecting games for film adaptation, while we've enjoyed plenty of strong narratives developed for and executed in games. We say: Why give Hollywood a chance to muck up the true gems? The game industry has nothing to prove to American cinema.

Read - LA Times (subscription required; try: bugmenot)
Watch - Uwe Boll on Fox News (warning: obnoxious)

Tags: film, hollywood, la-times, uwe-boll, uweboll

Reader Comments (86)

Don't even think that!

If Uwe Boll now decides to make a Zelda film, I'm coming after both you and him. Zelda doesn't deserve to be messed about by him.

O GOD NOT HIM FOR IT! D:
i meant more generally, by a actual director.

I was just talking about this yesterday. One of the great parts of adapting a video game, you can just apply a story into the universe. People think you need to make the film just like the game. You shoot this enemy, you shoot that enemy. I think they are thinking about this all wrong.
One of the major issues with comic films is attempting to slam a full comic story arc into a a 2 hour film. It would make more sense to take general concepts of a video game and apply it to an original story.

It's odd, that games seem to be the pug-ugly bastard child of entertainment. Not in the sense of popularity, or the amount of money they make, but in the way it's always getting beat on.

And I agree with the point Greyseal made. The movie adaptations are often altered to an entirely different narrative. Creating characters for the sake of a good movie hero, altering timelines to make things fit down to a good 90 minutes and leaving things perfectly open for a sequel.

Despite that though, what is wrong with, say, Resident Evils storyline in the first place? It's classic horror, bunch of people get trapped in a scary place, they can't escape, so they split up, thus making it easier for them to die off one by one. But above that, it has this great feeling of conspiracy that underlines the tone from game to game, much in the way a Television show like Lost does.

Also, I'm going to also have to add the default response of "Someone send these people a copy of Bioshock"...'cos y'know, it begs to be said.

This is a ridiculous sentiment, and it comes from film makers who have obviously never played a game - much like the comments from the other day by "women gamers" who turned out to be no more than porn stars who didn't mind when their boyfriends played games.

Video game developers are taking storyline very seriously today, because gamers are a more sophisticated audience than some movie goers. It has become imperative that a game contains solid graphics, playability (and replayability), and a great story. I'll say that not every game has all three, but AAA will continue to aim higher with every release.

Some game developers are now hiring writers from concept to completion - well known writers, infact - to make sure they have what's needed in terms of story. And other developers now have in house writers for every game - and that's full-time.

As a girl gamer, a writer, and a creator, I think it's comments like that that really show the weakness of those involved in the film translations, not the games themselves.

You're right: gamers ARE more sophisticated than many movie-goers.

"Aim higher with every release." That's what she said! El oh el!

Oops, my Halo is showing...

let's go the other way... how many good games have been made that are based on movies?

movie narratives too 'weak' for games

This is fookin bull shit! HALO could have a great story if the writer would pull his head out of his ass. Look how good the Super Mario movie was. Seriously though, I think there are some video games that could make great movies and HALO is one of them. The writers need to quit thinking of the game being written from a players perspective. I will be the screen writer for HALO. Let me have it!

A Shadow of the Colossus movie would be so epic

20-60 hours of game with probably 20-60% of those games being entirely story meaning that roughly 5-35 hours of game can be solely dedicated to its story. I understand that I'm pulling numbers out of my ass, but whereas films have 2 hours (3 if they enjoy watching their audiences pay to sleep) to tell a full story. Frankly, games are much longer and more fleshed out than a stupid 2 hour movie could possibly hope to accomplish.

I like how Ew-vay says the narratives are too weak, effectively removing any culpability for the fact the guy couldn't direct a statue to stay still. More importantly, instead of trying to prove he has any capacity for true creativity, he continues to churn out movies based on game designs that are, in his opinion, flawed.

In other news: "Uwe" is an ancient *insert random extinct language here* word for "Useless Hack Director."

There is a difference between a story in a game and a narrative for film purposes. In a game, a story is compelling because you're a part of it and you are advancing it as the player. A narrative in film has to be compelling to the third party observer. While I agree with the point that most of you make, that there are games with compelling stories, I'm not sure that even those games' stories necessarily make a strong movie, at least not in the way they are told in the game.

I wish Hollywood would just stop trying. All they do is pump these things out so that teenagers will go see them for a weekend or two and then they disappear. It's insulting to just about everyone involved.

A lot of the video games with better stories have stories that are well-adapted to the medium, but not necessarily to the motion picture medium.

Games whose stories thrive on the narrative of desolation, like Silent Hill, BioShock, Metroid, these games tell a great story as games, but would be boring on screen, unless adapted properly

What you need is proper adaptation, much like in any transition of a story between mediums. Lord of the Rings movies were long as hell, and they still had to butcher the story to fit it into acceptable time. Yet they were still great movies (standalone, i have trouble liking them because i loved the books)

replace greater thans with less thans please

Most videogames have about the same story depth as your average action movie. (Especially western games).

Games with actual good stories (Especially Eastern ones.. especially RPG's) are usually flat out ignored because either
A) They sold badly, as such, their existence is unknown
B) Their demographic ISN'T the beer-and-chip gamers, as such.. again, their existence is not known.

In any case, I'd say there isn't enough story emphasis in the west, as far as games go. Usually it's in fleeting interest to make something cinematic. Another area where everyone fails, at least 99% of the time, is character depth, character development, and character interaction.

What you end up getting is usually split into two different things:
EAST: A bunch of loosely connected avatars that look pretty and not much else.
WEST: A bunch of barely connected avatars that are poorly designed, almost as if they were picked out of a stock "CHARACTER GENERATOR" program.

If only I could get a good eastern story with western character design.....just my preferences.

and I'd like to add that barely-there-story solutions like Half-Life 2 and BioShock ARE NOT the answer. Screw those.
The people who are strongly for these ideas simply, 99% of the time, hate stories. It's like some hidden agenda to remove stories from games entirely.

Their favorite slogan?
"OMG IT DOESN'T HOLD YOUR HAND, WTF"

It's sad that they don't realize the stories in KOTOR and even KOTOR II bitch slap those in the last three Star Wars movies.

And the original trilogy......imo......

Yeah is definitively that is not that the Directors just force their Dicks into the Movie or that the script is pure shité because the moron who wrote it never played the game or play it on drugs or just played a different game altogether resulting in a movie that could be described as a bad acid trip full of Dicks.

Now I’m surprised of the hypocrisy of Uwe Boll at least he should admit he simply sucks and move on not blame the games that he already bastardized, is that this man has no conscience? You freaking kill House on the Dead and then blame the game? That’s like killing someone and urinating in his grave not that the guy minds because is already dead but still is fucking unacceptable.

For all the crap I’m forced to see lately I can 100% assure you that videogames story wise beat Movies by miles.

Uwe Boll agrees? WTF?
So Alone in the Dark is narrative a good movie I guess? Are u fuckin kidding me?

have these ppl played video games before? They dont know shit. A video game does not only consists of the story, theres so much more.

Phoenix Wright would be a fantastic movie.
Imagine A Shot in the Dark, but in a courtroom. How could you go wrong there?

Who the fuck is Uwe boll that he fuckin allows to complain???
how old are video games? 36 years? look at movies, that came out when movies where 36 years old. look at what ppl said about movies, when they where 36 years old. history will prove us right fellow gamers!

Joystiq Reader: Movies too short for game narrative

Are these times people fucking serious.

I just finished watching Metal Gear Solid 3 on youtube (with the gameplay edited out) and it is hands down one of the best "movies" i have ever seen. Hideo Kojima knows how to write stories, develop characters and make an unreal story, fuck Uwe Boll! Where does this guy get his money to make his movies! I was in the video store the other day and on the shelf was Blood Rayne 2! HONESTLY WTF!

The fact is that hollywood writers are shit at writing adaptations (Master Chief wouldnt be in the halo movie! WTF!). I'm along the lines to believe that SquareEnix wrote Advent Children themselves and i think that turned out great

I could make better movie based off of Madden 08 the Uwe Boll could make a movie based off of Metal Gewar Solid. Before Uwe Boll even think to badmouth the stories in videogames he needs to make a movie that I don't walk out of within 20 mins. Uwe make a good movie or shut up. Since its impossible for you to make a good movie then please STFU.

its not that games dont make good movies

its just that uwe boll is a horrible...horrible director

Sounds like the movie guys are just mad that they can,t make good movies from games.

Yes, LA Times, I agree. Gigli had a much better story than Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest put together!

Hollywood:Get someone talented to work on game movies. Talented people = Good movies(usually). Don't say the story for, say, Mario is too simple, then make Stardust! That's like, duh!

I actually wrote an article about narratives in video games recently, though I sort of took the opposite view, which is "Why do Games even have to have Narratives?"

Anyhow, its an interesting idea and one that I think video games are grappling with pretty hard right now.

I'd love to know what anyone thinks about the article too:
http://thumbbutler.com/2008/01/24/god-of-war-2-director-likes-stories-misses-boats/

If games had stronger stories, then maybe they would be good for films. Bioshock is an example of a game with a fantastic story. However, the way it is presented would not work as a film. If there were other games like Bioshock, but without the choice factor/faceless main character, it would probably make a fantastic movie.

I'm not going to debate how extensively scripted a videogame or movie can be, but I think that one of the main qualities that a videogame possesses is the fact that the player can really make choices and discover the world.

How could you translate that discovery by one's self into a narrative which portrays from one possible view and pacing?

Video games, by necesity, spread their plots out over a much longer period. (like butter scraped over too much bread).

Otherwise they would be essentially just cutscenes.

However the amount of plot in a well written videogame is equal to, or greater than the ammount of plot in a lot of movies.

However the movie industry seems intent on choosing the most plotless videogames to convert (Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Super Mario, DoA, House of the Dead, The Sims, Halo, Doom, etc..) None of these games had any substantial plot, so its no surprise the movie industry got into the habit of ignoring the game and creating its own plot.

However, even when there WAS a decent plot the movie industry tends to IGNORE it. (Resident Evil, Bloodrayne, AvP...) and just make up its own. WTF!

Prince of Persia, System Shock, Deus Ex, Resident Evil, Thief, etc.. all have easily enough plot to fill up a 2 hour movie.. if not a trilogy in the case of several of those franchises.

(heck, nost movies don't have enough plot to fill up a video game...)

Clearly, these people haven't played Final Fantasy Tactics.

Oddworld Inhabitants is my best examples of Video Games writing genious as u cannae say that the studio weren't imagnitive creating a whole world from scratch populating it & bringing it tae life.

I still play all there games over most if not all my movie collection.

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LA Times: game narratives too 'weak' for movies, Uwe Boll agrees

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