Adam Behan explores the changing fortunes of video games in the cinema landscape.
It brings me great satisfaction to witness some of my most beloved video game series making it to the silver screen as films and streaming series: The Last of Us, Fallout, and Halo, to name but a few. Not many years ago, when I heard that a particular video game or series was receiving an adaptation, my instinctive reaction was trepidation and scepticism. The majority of discourse surrounding the adaptation of video games takes a negative tone since many have tanked critically and/or financially.
The success of HBO's The Last of Us was certainly a breath of fresh air for the devotees of video games. It was massively popular around its release and successfully introduced the average consumer of streaming content to the wealth of narrative in the gaming medium. With the first season being such a roaring success, the second is already in production with beloved actors Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey reprising the roles of Joel and Ellie.
So, is it an extreme leap to conclude that we are emerging into a new age for video game adaptations? Have the studio executives and creatives finally cracked the code? As promising as The Last of Us is, I believe it may be too soon to tell.
Unfortunately, studios are still mucking it up. For example, the recent Halo series was met with a critical trashing, and widespread audience dislike. That being said, optimism is not unmeritable.
With the difficulty of adapting a book, play, historical event or otherwise, the so-called faithfulness of the adaptation is considered to be of paramount importance for some. The YouTube channel History Buffs is fantastic at comparing the historical subject material of a film as it originally transpired, versus how it is depicted on film. This source material is a blue-print for writers, however, it isn't so easy for creatives wanting to adapt, say, the Fallout Series, which provides the player with a multitude of paths and choices to direct and alter the narrative according to their tastes, allegiances with characters, etc.
This source material is a blue-print for writers, however, it isn't so easy for creatives wanting to adapt, say, the Fallout Series, which provides the player with a multitude of paths and choices to direct and alter the narrative according to their tastes, allegiances with characters.
HBO’s The Last of Us was faithful to its source material, but took creative liberties when it could; with Episode 3 being a fresh and unexpected take on a briefly implied relationship between Bill, and a man we never meet in the game, Frank. In the past, studios and producers either didn't understand or weren't careful with what IP they chose to adapt, falling into the trap of selecting games that prioritised gameplay over narrative.
In the past, studios and producers either didn't understand or weren't careful with what IP they chose to adapt, falling into the trap of selecting games that prioritised gameplay over narrative.
Super Mario in 1992 and Doom in 2005 are just two cringeworthy examples, and most non-gamers wouldn't have heard of them. The 1990s and 2000s were certainly the Dark Age for video game cinema. Does this explain why The Last of Us was such a major success because it appealed to a popular audience while retaining its narrative depth?
Warner Brothers appear to have capitalised most effectively on the video game adaptation. The Super Mario Bros. Movie is the highest-grossing film based on a video game ever, with an impressive 1.36 billion dollars in sales. Some studios even want to create cinematic universes for beloved video game characters like Sonic the Hedgehog, but we have yet to see the efficacy of such a vision.
Like the Western (and maybe soon the Superhero) genre, Video Game Adaptation may soon become a dominant force in the industry. Perhaps the silver screen is the most appropriate medium of adaptation for a video game series, considering the time investment that is required for both mediums. It’s also entirely plausible that the success of video game adaptations is, in part, down to their genre. The Walking Dead established the survival horror drama series as a staple of home entertainment and The Last of Us hits many of the same beats. My hopes for a Red Dead Redemption adaptation, and consequently a resurrection of the Western genre, are certainly higher than ever given the recent successes.
Perhaps, The Last of Us is not the exception to the rule, but has become it.