Why Films will never be as good as Books or Videogames
Posted on 21 May 2010 under Random
One of my favourite games of all time, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, has recently had its film adaptation made. Normally, I would treat such news with despair, because it’s very rare that a good game or a good book give birth to a good movie. However, I have comparatively higher hopes from this one because Jordan Mechner, the creator and director of the original Prince of Persia games (the ones you played when you were a kid, irrespective of whatever your current age is) as well as the POP: The Sands of Time game, has co-written the story for the movie. Now, I respect Jordan Mechner for the way he approaches his games. He has an amazing sense of what will work and what won’t, and what needs to go in and what needs to stay out.
However, there’s an inherent flaw when you convert books (a medium based on imagination) or games (a medium that thrives on interactivity) into movies (a medium that is based entirely on visuals alone). The characters that one can play around with in books and games have an edge over the characters that we see in movies.
Game heroes don’t have to be good-looking or desirable across any social strata. In fact, if you look carefully, Altair, the protagonist of the wildly popular game Assassin’s Creed, appears to have a bit of a pot-belly, and has absolutely terrible posture and gait. Hermione (from Harry Potter, as if you needed to be told that) is far from pretty in the books. However, look how stunning they make her look in the movies (you can do your own Google Image search for Emma Watson). And so, we come to the point. Movies sell based on the stars that appear in them. It’s a sad fact of life that when most people go to watch a movie, they wouldn’t care much about seeing realistic characters, real men with pot-bellies or crooked noses. They want to see a hero that is desirable, perfect in appearance and attractive beyond what is common.
The Prince from The Sands of Time game is a young man, probably barely in his early twenties, immature and brash, passionate with a desire to impress his father, the king. He does not have a thick, gravelly, manly voice. In fact, his voice is fairly light and pleasant to the ear, and he comes across, as he rightly should, as a boy turning into a man, facing the consequences of his actions. I have seen nothing more than a trailer of The Sands of Time movie, but already I can see the differences I dislike. Prince Dastan (who was unnamed in the game series) has a body seemingly chiselled by God’s favourite sculptor, whereas the Prince from the videogames is more of a lean, athletic build. The voice of Dastan (from the movies) is grainier too.
Well, these minor compromises were to be expected, I guess. I’m happy that at least Prince Dastan doesn’t appear to have an annoyingly American accent!
I just wish I could agree with you my friend! But I dont read silly pages of text and I believe that the likes of The Godfather, Kite Runner, Revolutionary Road and Parineeta were masterpieces!
If you call it “silly pages of text”, I don’t think that comment deserves a reply.
As for the second part of your comment, I won’t deny that there are books that have led to awesome movies, but I think that is generally the exception rather than the rule.
While it is a fact that most games might not make it big with the movies, movies made from games and books have always been criticized as they present the view of the person who is making the movie. That keeping in mind the movie still needs to be liked by people who have not read the book or played the game.
If you ask a person who has not played Prince of Persia to go and see the movie, the movie has to still appeal to him. The audience cannot always consist of people who read the books and Play games only.
Just like Mango Man has said before, there are masterpieces in movies that were made of books, like the Godfather or even so for a movie like Lord of the Rings.
Movies that make it big in the cinema draw success on the same lines as books or games, human emotions so whether you are reading, playing or watching; the emotions and responses they would evoke are the important part of the experience, and to my knowledge, books or games would make a lot of effort to evoke a similar response as what a movie would.
Games would make good movies, w.r.to Hitman, Prince of Persia, Tomb Raider (well almost). I am afraid I would beg to differ
What I have deliberately tried to stay away from is the topic of how films have to change the storyline in order to condense a 15-hour game or a 400-page novel into a 2-hour movie. This is acceptable because obviously, a movie’s length should be practical.
However, what I have tried to focus more on in this post is how things need to move faster in a movie, plotlines may occasionally need to be thrown at you rather than allowed to develop gradually as they would in a book or a movie. For someone who enjoys the gradual development of the story and the characters, that is generally inevitably what good books are all about, watching a movie after reading the book is not always fun.
The other point in the post is about how characters are modified from being realistic to being desirable, which is probably not refutable.
That being said, I COMPLETELY agree with you that there are plenty of books (and maybe games) that have resulted in outstanding movies, and plenty of movies that have resulted in good books as well.
As you said, it is to some extent about the emotions that the movies, books or games evoke. But not always. The Prince of Persia (Sands of Time), for example, to me was more about the fantastic gameplay, artistic graphic design and fantastic atmosphere rather than the story, which is highly simplistic at best.
Anyway, I think one thing we can agree upon is “to each his own”. If you are a movie-buff and don’t particularly enjoy reading too much, then it’s expected that you would prefer to watch the movie version of a book (or a videogame).
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Ah, ok then…
I always feel books have an in-depth story line as compared to the movies. But sometimes movies turn out well as compared to books and games.
I love the Twilight series in both the book and movie form. I feel reading the book 1st and then watching the movie has more fun.
Ardent Smith
The problem with films is that they reflect someone else’s idea about how things should look. Films I have watched have rarely matched my imagination when I previously read the book, despite the millions they cost to make.
@Dave: I completely agree with you.
Films can never be like a book or a video game. Or a video game can never be a book or a film. They’ll never be the same because they are of different medium. But sometimes a film version of the book can be as good or better.
Carlos K.
blogger:http://www.powerwheelsbattery.org
Imaginations converted into writing is limitless, filming it on the other hand sometimes lack the creativity, failing to portray what is written. And the whole book can not be contained in a film.
I personally love the fact that I conjure up my own world when I read a book. On a few occasions the pciture I had imagined has been replicated in the film adaptation. A great example of this being the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, which is a fantastic example of classic books, films and games.
I worked at a publishing house that published Harry Potter books in one of the European countries. When the first film came out we were all very excited, but after we saw it, we were devastated. The movie was, in my opinion, light years from the book – there was no suspense, no thrill, only nice scenery.
When I saw the film after a few years, I thought it was much better than the first time, but my expectations have greatly fallen until then.
So yes, I agree 100% – the films cannot be as good as the book.
John C
The other thing that is lose when a game or book is converted to a movie is internal dialogue. This can be a significant portion of some books and I’ve seen it work good in video games (mostly as idle chatter while the character is alone).
But for it to work in movies, there is usually a wavy motion flashback or some kind of narrator talking while the action is still taking place. And like you said Gurdit, compressing a 15 hour game or 400 page book into a 2 hour movie requires that things are cut.
That’s a good point, actually.
First, books you kind of navigate you own thoughts and let your imagination take you personally to the journey… While in the games you play the role of the “star” you take the lead… in movies, well you watch and admire.
I have to agree that it’s quite a difficult job to bring a book to ‘life’ in a 2 hour movie – and I don’t envy the task either. But, there have been many games spawned from movies – I’m just not sure if those games ended up BETTER than the movie that created them. Anyone got any thoughts on that?
Michael V
Strata Management
Yeah I definitely think you are right on with most of your assessment – movies better than their book/video game counterpart are almost always the exception to the rule. It’s generally just too hard to squeeze so much character development into a 90 minute span. I also have to agree that Prince of Persia was one of the greatest games of all time. Brings back fond memories of my childhood
I enjoy books and the thoughts they evoke much more than movies. Always have and I am guessing always will. I can understand where others are coming from though. The problem I have is how to get your kids to enjoy reading in this day and age with pretty much any book made into a movie or game. As a child I would read at least 4 or 5 books a week. I knew I could get lost in it and sometimes would read a book more than once if I really enjoyed it. Watching a movie allows you to 1-watch the movie 2-check you texts 3-check facebook 4-run for a snack and miss a minute or two here and there, thus missing some major point in the movie that the writers only had a minute to get across. Just my thoughts, of course I have to keep reminding myself that time does not stand still.
Well, I don’t have any deep inner reaching comment on why or how books and games are better than films – I just had to comment on how crappy I thought Prince of Persia the movie with Jake Gyllenhaal was…
Also being a fan of the video game, I was preemptively quite excited for the movie release (sigh!)
Yo @Gurdit, since you had only seen the movie trailer when you made this post – have you seen the movie? What you think of it?
One last thing: @ardentsmith (comment 10) Twilight is crap.
That is all.
Cheers,
Jamey
Jamey K » The movie was ok….maybe 6/10.