They're getting better, but we don't have a great video game movie adaptation yet. The upcoming Metal Gear Solid movie, starring Oscar Isaac and directed by Kong's Jordan Vogt-Roberts: Could Skull Island turn the tide? We wait in silence: Speaking in a new interview about his lead role as Solid Snake, Isaac certainly says all the right things to get us excited. "I loved the game," Isaac told Total Film when asked what brought him to the project. "I love the feeling the game gives me every time I play it. It's a strangely isolated, sad, lonely game that has these incredible moments of violence and terror, with these weird, villainous, psychedelic concepts. But, yeah, it's like psychedelic military terror stuff happens." And the truth is, underneath it all, there's an anti-war story. So I think those are the elements that I really like. And, like I said, I love the feel of playing it, and the big question of: can something carry over, or can these themes be explored in a really interesting way, in a movie? "
Analysis: a solid movie?
It's been a busy few years for video game movie adaptations, from the lighthearted Detective Pikachu to the bloody Mortal Kombat, and now we're looking forward to Tom Holland's Uncharted movie and the upcoming The Last of Us TV show. Movie adaptations like Detective Pikachu, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Mortal Kombat have pushed their weight, delivering movies that, while not all classics, hit the right beats to keep fans smiling.
So what's changed since terrible '90s adaptations like Super Mario and Street Fighter hit the big screen? I'd say it's a triple change.
First, we have a wave of young directors who grew up with games and have a reverence for the original material they're working on. In the case of the Metal Gear movie, Vogt-Roberts is only 36 years old and was a fan of Metal Gear games growing up. You don't need to be convinced of what makes the series special - it was right there with every other PlayStation gamer the first time around.
Second, in the case of games like Metal Gear Solid, they themselves were directly inspired by the movies and (compared to 8-bit and 16-bit franchises) relied on technologies that allowed for cinematic presentations. Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima has always been a movie buff, and Metal Gear Solid's stationary perspective has allowed him to mimic the drama that movie-style camera angles bring. It's something that Vogt-Roberts can basically pick up if he wants to.
Finally, there has been a power shift between the Hollywood studios and the game companies whose properties are in development. According to industry reports from Mordor Intelligence, the global gaming industry is expected to be worth €314.40 billion by 2026.
By comparison, 2020 saw a drop in global film industry revenue to €80.8 billion, no doubt a ripple effect from the pandemic, but it still exists as part of a trend that sees cinema slowly shrinking compared to the past. game growth. Hollywood needs the properties recognized by a generation of video game players, possibly more than the video game industry needs Hollywood. And gamers are a vocal bunch: if their favorite titles get slaughtered on the big screen, they'll let the studios know, so it's in the studio's best interest to provide faithful adaptations.
In Metal Gear Solid, we potentially have a star and director on the same page as fans of the games the movie is inspired by.