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Brad
Selfish Heathen
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
 
2004-12-09, 07:43

Ah! Final Fantasy! I knew there was another game-to-movie that was very poorly executed.
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Originally Posted by scratt
I haven't played Final Finatasy at all so perhaps that is why I didn't have a problem with the plot.

I have to say I thought it was a brilliant movie.
On its own, Final Fantasy wasn't a bad movie. It was certainly a technical feat, if nothing else. But it shouldn't have been named Final Fantasy. If you're going to make a movie based on a game, stick to its roots or give it a different name.

The Final Fantasy games (all, what, 19 of them?) each have a unique plot, but they all contain similar themes:
  • They all take place in a setting where something "bad" happens on a global scale.
  • Many of them take place in a mix of medieval and modern setting, with castles and knights but also with advanced technology.
  • They all have a lead character who has some unknown past or special undiscovered ability. That character has a moment of self-discovery and deep change.
  • They all have a band of heroes that must fight a god-like, power-hungry foe to save the world/universe.
  • They all have characters with magic "elemental" abilities, using fire, water, and earth at their whim.
  • They all have characters that can summon "espers" or spirits of the aforementioned elements.
  • They all have lots of fighting, usually with some medieval weapons like swords.
Gawd, I can't believe I know all that. I'm sure there are more, but it's been a while since I've played these games.

Anyway, you can see that the movie touched on some of those themes, but left out a whole lot.

I think it's certainly possible for games to be made into good movies. Resident Evil, of course, comes to mind. Older movies like Super Mario Bros. and Street Fighter may have been campy and weren't box office cash cows, but at least they made sense (for the most part) and fans could follow along.

The quality of this board depends on the quality of the posts. The only way to guarantee thoughtful, informative discussion is to write thoughtful, informative posts. AppleNova is not a real-time chat forum. You have time to compose messages and edit them before and after posting.
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