There has been plenty of chatter online about popular video games being turned into movies, with Halo, Uncharted and Mass Effect being the most prominent examples. It's news that generally receives a lukewarm reaction from the relevant fan bases. It's easy to see why they're apprehensive. It's fair to say that the film and video game industries haven't coexisted quite as well as they could have, with horrible adaptations crossing the divide from both sides.
The Super Mario Bros. film released in 1993 was such a box office disaster that the film's very existence is only talked off in hushed whispers. That's not the only video game failure in the film world, though, as Mortal Kombat, House of the Dead, Dead or Alive and Prince of Persia have all made unsuccessful attempts to harness the power of film.
It's gone both ways, in fairness: Avatar, The Karate Kid, Saw, The Matrix and E.T., just to name a few, have all similarly been critically savaged.
Although the picture looks bleak, there are examples where the two genres have produced successful cross-overs - GoldenEye, the new Ghostbusters game, and even the Hitman film was decent. So it can be done. With the research, funding and collective will, a film can become a good video game and vice versa. But only as long as it receives proper attention.
So what films can be adapted or even re-released as a video game?
Superman
Batman and Spiderman recently got back into the video game groove, perhaps the Man of Steel should reconsider another adventure into our disc trays.
Serenity
Science fiction has been much loved on all formats, and this particular sci-fi film would make for a good adaptation primarily for the eerie universe.
Sin City
Dark, gritty, with a world not too dissimilar to Gotham City, it could certainly be done.
The Matrix
Yes, it was mentioned earlier as a bad example of a film-based video game, but one of the primary reasons for its ultimate failure was the game engine limiting the undoubted potential it had. On a next-gen console that should not be a problem.
Brokeback Mountain
You know you want it.
If you have any suggestions of your own, let me know. And who knows, if I don't get too badly flamed, I might even do another article of games that should be films. We'll see, the rest is up to you.
