[Brad]

"Stupid." That's my reaction. I came across a link outlining some recent discoveries about the "Doom" movie while hunting down some Doom III screenshots in another thread.

You know that movie they're making based on Id Software's hit game series Doom? Well, if you don't, now you do. You can read the story behind the Doom game here, but here's the abridged version:

In the future, mankind has colonized space, including Mars and its moons. The military and a big conglomerate (UAC) start experimenting with inter-dimensional space travel on the moons, but something goes wrong. Demons and beasts pour from the new gateways, and it's your job as a marine to clean up the place and stop the invasion.

Doom III has basically the same plot as the original Doom. Doom II was a sequel dubbed "Hell on Earth" where the demons had starting appearing on, you guessed it, Earth, and you end up going through a portal to fight the demons on their own turf.

The idea is also that the monsters are demons from Hell itself. If you play the old games, you'll find them littered with pentagrams and other demonic symbols associated with Hell. I can't speak much for the new one because I haven't played it.

Now you know the story behind the game.

So, someone picked up on the idea that Doom's plot would make for a cool action/sci-fi/horror movie. Sweet! Under the right art director and writers, it could be an incredible movie adventure.

Alas, it is not so.

The link I mentioned earlier is this blog from Dark Horizons. Apparently, the Doom movie is shaping up to look nothing like Doom at all.

1. It has nothing to do with Mars or its moons.
2. The good guys aren't marines but more like a SWAT team.
3. There's no secret inter-dimensional research and the bad guys aren't from Hell. In fact, there are zero references to Hell in the movie.
4. The bad guys aren't demons; they're mutated humans infected by a virus.

Umm, why call it "Doom" at all, then? Doom is Hell. You can't just remove all references to the original and give it the same name. That'd be like making a movie about The Legend of Zelda and giving Link a Walther PPK and making Ganon into an international terrorit.

A virus that mutates people into zombies? That sounds a lot like Resident Evil. Wrong game, morons!!

The movie is scheduled to be released in the sumer of 2005.

[Wrao]

I'm reminded of the final fantasy movie, everyone was really excited when it was announced, but then as details emerged people were like "what the heck is this?" and when I finally saw it, I must say, it's as unlike final fantasy as I could possibly imagine. Sure, a couple of final fantasy overtones are there, but other than that, it's a big WTF?

I don't get why they feel the need to doctor and modify the story line so much, last I checked doom wasn't exactly a theme based story that's really open to much interpretation. I guess the demographics like viruses more than demons

[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..

As for making any game into a movie... I think HALO would be great as one... You could tie a little of the ideas in from Larry Niven's Ringworld and Ringworld engineers too...

I am not sure that DOOM and the whole Virus / Things from Hell type scenario hasn't been a bit overdone, so it would probably make little difference what they did to the plot as it has all been done before... even aliens warping in from different dimensions and having origins in hell!!

[Luca]

I seriously don't understand Hollywood. Who makes these decisions? Do they realize that when they made the decision to leave Hell out of it, they killed any dismal chance they had to make a profit? I swear, there are so many movies that are just so mind-bogglingly worthless... it's like everyone in the McDonalds-eating, Fear Factor-watching populace is smart enough to pick up on that before the movie is even released, but somehow the guys in charge remain blissfully ignorant. Retards.

[Brad]

Ah! Final Fantasy! I knew there was another game-to-movie that was very poorly executed.

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.

[Wrao]

I dunno, the Super Mario Bros. Movie, as peculiar and fun to watch as it was, really had nothing to do with mario either. I mean, it was a pretty liberal adaptation of the game. General premise intact but all the fine details screwed to wonksville.

regarding Final Fantasy movie, I did enjoy the movie, but not when I thought of it as a Final Fantasy movie, As brad mentioned there are a lot of things that make a final fantasy game a final fantasy game, the movie had a couple of them, but even then they were muddled and weird, but mostly the movie might as well have just been some ridiculous side project with the square team.

Have there really been 19 FF games? I'm trying to tally it,
we're at 12 in the primary series(comes out soon)
Then there were 2 tactics games
Crystal Chronicles
Mystic quest(about as final fantasy as super mario bros 2 was super mario bros)
Oh yea, then there are the 3 new Final Fantasy 7 games(before crisis, Dirge of cerebus, and Crisis Core)

If you count the remakes of 1,2 and 3 then that's 3 more, also there were those weird black and white ones for gameboy(I think) that I never played, but I think they were called FF unlimited or something, I don't know how many there were, 2 or 3 I think..

Sorry... back to the thread

[Brad]

Originally Posted by Wrao I dunno, the Super Mario Bros. Movie, as peculiar and fun to watch as it was, really had nothing to do with mario either. I mean, it was a pretty liberal adaptation of the game. General premise intact but all the fine details screwed to wonksville.

True, but at least they got the characters right! (for the most part)

[Wrao]

I think it'd be pretty awesome if they made a new super mario bros movie and made it .... a side scroller.

[Brad]

On a loosly related note, you have seen Mega 64, right??

I absolutely love the Tetris and MGS skits.

[thegelding]

my gawd!!

i am....surrounded by geeks

can't believe i just read this whole thread

can't believe i know nothing about what you are talking about

missile command, tempest, centipede....that is the depth of my gaming experience...don't think any of them would make a good movie

g

[psmith2.0]

Don't feel bad, g. I'm right there with ya.

I didn't get Brad's "Doom" comment in the other thread...

[Brad]

Originally Posted by thegelding missile command

Ever seen "War Games"?

[Wrao]

In other Doom Related news, the Mac version is in beta, and it's estimated to require a 1.5 ghz g5 processor.... I certainly hope apple has some good stuff coming in jan, lest many of their current systems won't even be able to handle it.

[Wrao]

Originally Posted by Brad Ever seen "War Games"?

I was thinking the same thing, but I couldn't come up with anything for tempest(last starfighter maybe?) or centipede(um... catch me if you can? I dunno )

Hey brad, do you remember the old atari game(I think it was atari, might have been amiga) called 'Awesome'? I think that was the first game I ever really played, man, it was, for lack of a better word... awesome. I wish I could find some way to emulate it or something.

[Moogs]

Movies based on video games suck, movies based on old cartoon characters suck. When are people going to learn?

The only video game movie that was ever worth a damn (for its time) was Tron, and that's because the movie came first, the video game second.

Resident Evil
Final Fantasy
Doom
Scooby Don't
Flintstones
Jetsons (coming this winter? coulda swore I saw a preview for it earlier this year)

...they all blow / are likely to blow. And you can bet your ass that whenever the inevitable "Halo" and "Grand Theft Auto" movies come out, they're going to suck too.

[psmith2.0]

That's because Hollywood is lame. Out of every 50 movies greenlighted, there might be three or four that are truly worth anything, and are actually unique and meaningful and stand on their own as just a great story.

The other 47 or so are just shit-awful exercises in stunt-casting, sequel idiocy, trendy rip-offs, the aforementioned video game/cartoon adaptations (which always, always suck), manipulative "feel good" crap, retreads, remakes, A-list ego projects, two hours of Meg Ryan scrunching her nose, unfunny four-minute SNL sketches made into REALLY unfunny 90 minute feature films, teen angst dramas with Freddie Prinze, Jr., mismatched "buddy movies", desperate men who "fights the system to clear his name and save the woman he loves", sappy road trip movies where put-upon women discover themselves and drive with the top down to a Carly Simon song, etc.



Did I leave anything out?

[Brad]

Originally Posted by pscates2.0 Did I leave anything out?

This guy?

[psmith2.0]

...and that guy.

[autodata]

Originally Posted by Moogs Movies based on video games suck,

I kinda liked those movies based on the lord of the rings video games.

[Koodari]

The PennyArcade strip says all that needs to be said.

Indeed, if no one gets eviscerated and nailed upside down into a cross by demons, it's not Doom.

And yeah, I recall seeing that or something very much like that in one or two spots in Doom2. I think Doom3 did away with a lot of the (over the top) occult/demonic imagery already, and I can understand that the creatures don't need to fiddle with that stuff since they are already demons.. but if you take away the fact they're demons who have a PO box in hell, you might as well let Disney produce the movie. It won't get any worse for that.

[Luca]

Originally Posted by Koodari Indeed, if no one gets eviscerated and nailed upside down into a cross by demons, it's not Doom. And yeah, I recall seeing that or something very much like that in one or two spots in Doom2. I think Doom3 did away with a lot of the (over the top) occult/demonic imagery already...

Really? I think otherwise.

[Koodari]

IMDB page has a bit of info:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0419706/
Note the character "Dr. Carmack".

It's rumored that Dwayne Johnson aka "The Rock" is involved in some capacity. The only thing I like about the film so far is that Karl Urban is definitely in some role, which might be The Doom Guy's.

I agree that Doom movie done right would have potential. If the script remained approximately true to the original games and the director was even slightly decent at action/horror, it'd be a better-than average movie at worst, great one at best.

[Koodari]

Thanks Luca.

FYI: THG blocks the image from being shown if the referrer page isn't the review page, but I tracked down the image from Tom's review. The correct way to link there is to link to the article page. You missed this because the image was in your browser cache at time of posting.

[Luca]

Ah, okay. I'll fix that now.

[psmith2.0]

Ooh, that's a bad pic.

[Moogs]

John Carmack is a sick fuck, that goes without saying. He may be a great programmer, but you don't come up with the kind of stuff he does without having a twisted mind / dabbling in the occult (I would guess).

[Luca]

Eh, I don't think so. You don't have to be messed up in the head to come up with something like that. You just have to have a very open mind and a finger on the pulse of society. He knows that something like that will cause major controversy and thus increase the appeal of the game.

[Brad]

Originally Posted by Moogs you don't come up with the kind of stuff he does without having a twisted mind / dabbling in the occult (I would guess).

I disagree. I'd say he's a social genius. He made a product that became an instant hit and is still revered by gamers around the world. For several years Doom was the game that all other FPS's were judged by. Sure, part of this was for its technical accomplishment, but not nearly as many folks would have played it if instead of demons you were shooting pink bunnies.

Putting the player as a lone hero up against the very legions of Hell raises the game's status to "epic" proportions rather than "some dude shooting stuff." It puts you against the ultimate, unrelenting enemy that is evil through and through. If that's not a good game setup, I don't know what is.

It's like Wolfenstein and the Nazis. The bad guy is an ultimate evil that has no good traits. Again, perfect setup for a game where you go around killing bad guys left and right. No remorse. Are the guys at Id that came up with Wolfenstein sick fucks for plastering swastikas everywhere and making a game out of a tragic period in our history that took millions of human lives?

By the same accord, if Carmack is twisted, what do you say about the people that make horror movies? They have to come up with some really sick, gory ways of mutilating people physically and psychologically. Does that make those writers equally screwed up in the head? Or does it make them really smart for knowing how to push the viewer's buttons and illicit just the right kind of response?

[psmith2.0]

Probably all of the above, a little of each.

[scratt]

Originally Posted by autodata I kinda liked those movies based on the lord of the rings video games.

Yeah but the books were a blatant rip off of the screen play and just didn't do the movie or the game justice...

That Tlokin guy should be ashamed of himself!