Since the beginnings of the personnel computer there has been a close link with the world of film and videogames, in the early 80’s we had films like The War Games, which yes was more about hacking and the backlash caused by such a pursuit, but it all boiled down to Matthew Broderick thinking he was playing a game rather than potentially launching nuclear strikes. Later as technology advanced so did the world of video games, and saw the emergence of virtual reality, an arm of gaming which has since been severed, but at the time seemed like the next leap, and spawned its own movie in The Lawnmower man. Where a pre-Bond Pierce Brosnan attempts to develop the mind of a man with learning difficulties using VR, with disastrous results, and an even more disastrous sequel.
As movie land dabbled in the world of computers and gaming, video games where becoming more and more of a phenomenon, which today would seem somewhat strange, as videogames are now such a part of everyday life, but as the popularity grow, so did the medias interest in gaming, with various programmes and publications emerging on the subject, as well as programmes dedicated to the two main figureheads of the revolution , Sonic & Mario, both being made into several animated series.
So given the rising popularity of gaming, it was certain sooner or later Hollywood would start to cash in, adapting several of the most popular titles into movies. Starting with Super Mario Bros, starring Bob Hoskins as the moustachioed Italian and the late great Dennis Hooper as his arch enemy King Koopa. The film was released the same time as Jurassic Park, a film most people would consider superior, but to me, seeing them a week apart from each other, thought Mario was the mightier beast, as I honestly found Jurassic Park boring.
Unfortunately the worlds of movies and videogames have never produced the most beautiful of offspring, rather hideous mutations, because after Mario came the adaptation of Streetfighter, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, which could have worked if it had decided the kind of movie it wanted to be, failing primarily because it never knew whether to take itself serious or not, whereas it’s anime counterpart took itself wholly seriously and was brilliant as a result. Then we had Mortal Kombat, directed by Paul W S Anderson (who would later direct both Dead or Alive, and the Resident Evil Franchise) a far more successful gaming franchise spewing fourth two movies, and both a live action and a animated series. The first movie worked, but it was the sequel Mortal Kombat: Annihilation which in my opinion worked much better than the first outing, because it amerced itself fully into the world the game inhabited, rather than to try and base these unrealistic stories in reality, like Mario and Streetfighter, and much like recent comic book movies such as Spiderman.
This initial surge fizzled out somewhat when none of the aforementioned films made much money, but there has still been interest in computerland namely Dead or Alive, which like Mortal Kombat, took the ridiculous and ran with it in a slightly tongue-in-cheek manner, and while not being exactly Oscar worthy is at least quite entertaining. Then at the other end of the scale, you have Streetfighter: The Chun-Li story, which I can honestly say is one of the all time worst films it has ever been my mis-pleasure to sit through.
Hollywoods most recent videogame date rape, comes in the form of the Disney backed Prince of Persia, a swash buckling adventure clearly trying suck more milk from the cash cow that was Pirates of the Caribbean, which was by no means a bad film, perfect to wile away a few hours on Sunday afternoon, there are some good action sequences and a story with some interesting ideas, the main problem I have with the film is there is a serious lack of interesting or likeable characters, with the exception of Alfred Molina’s Sheik Amar and his knife throwing comrade (Steve Toussaint) both of whom occupy far to little screen time, Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Atherton are a rather generic bickering hero/princess duo, something much better portrayed by Harrison Ford & Carrie Fisher in Star Wars, and Sir Ben ‘Ghandi’ Kingsley takes on the position of generic villain, in a total what were they thinking role.
The greatest film about a video game, revolves around a made up game, and that movie is Tron. A film of unrivalled imagination, a film which until now was a stand alone work of cinematic art, that was until Tron: Legacy. A sequel almost thirty years in the making, lets hope it doesn’t go the same way as the Lost boys 2: The Tribe.
