PaigeFTW: Too Much Game, Not Enough Movie
It’s been well established that Hollywood has not — and may well never — make a good live-action video game adaptation. OK, but how about CG movies commissioned by game developers? Don’t they stand a better chance? Nobody knows the game better, right?
Don’t feel bad if you’ve never seen of these direct-to-DVD duds before. Particularly famous infamous titles include Tekken: Blood Vengeance, Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker or the most recent, Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV. Movies made with the creative control of developers – what could go wrong?
Well, these movies look great. Trust me. Square-Enix in particular knows how to commission some gorgeous CG action cinematics that look picture-perfect at any given second. Individual strands of lovingly rendered hair blow lightly in the breeze. A light dust adds an elegant touch of reality.
But the plots, ye gods.
Dawn of the Seeker revolves around an oft-mentioned pre-game incident that involves Cassandra Pentaghast saving the Divine from a dragon attack. None of Dragon Age’s signature thoughtful dialogue (or attention to detail) makes it into the script, which makes the whole movie a cliché slog of fantasy tropes that barely reference the games.
Blood Vengeance takes place in an alternate Tekken universe, which is supremely unhelpful considering that everything in Tekken is kind of happening in an alternate universe. But this fanservice-friendly film (which, of course, had to include Nina and Anna Williams, as well as Lee Chaolan in an uncharacteristically heroic role) takes pains to introduce a warm friendship between Xiaoyu and Alisa that has no bearing on anything.
Kingsglaive seeks to explain what was happening in Insomnia after Prince Noctis and company set off at the start of FFXV. The movie has to explain this because the game sure doesn’t. Both entities are barely coherent on their own, and together … they are still incoherent (unless you’re very attentive to the lore).
Spot the trend? These are films that center on side stories that obstinately supplement games, not works capable of standing on their own without that context. Until developers can break this habit, the CG movie will not be their cinematic salvation.
