The Hitman cometh!

With the recent success or failure - Depends who you ask around our offices - of Doom and other Video game based films, we knew there would be more. A lot more! Some games just scream out loud to be made into a feature film and others, well they shouldn't even be video games. Look at the list of flops in this genre and you will know what I mean; Mario Brothers, Double Dragon, Street Fighter, House of the Dead... etc, etc.

I will admit not all of them were bad, there are a couple that I enjoyed a good bit for one reason or another. Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil 1 and 2, Tomb Raider 2 and Doom were all pretty cool movies and stayed true to the theme and pace of the games. My problem with making a video game into a movie is very simple, it spoils the F'N game! The game is a movie! It has a beginning, a middle and an end (unless it is being designed with a sequel in mind) and 9 times out of 10 the writing in most games is superior to that of the movie it will spawn. So why do it!

'Artists' in film-making will claim a video game's depth and tone can never equal that of a film due to the fact that the sprites on screen aren't real people and can't tell a story with their emotions like a real 'actor' can. That used to be very true, the voice acting for video games used to be the wet drizzling sheeots, but lately it's as good as you will find in some documentaries. Why? Because actors all over are making the conversion from screen to voice work, especially if your star isn’t quite as bright anymore, and it is working for both parties involved. Just ask Ray Liotta.

Enough droning on about Hollywood picking the bones of more successful forms of media to continue its failed attempt to entertain, let's get to why I am so irritated today. One of my all time favorite titles in the console PC gaming world is Eidos' Hitman series. It has everything, creepy storylines, gore out the yang, guns galore and an anti-hero as cool as the other side of the pillow in Agent 47. This is a game that was born to become a movie so now it's going to happen. Vin Diesel will wear the black suit and get his head tattood to become 47 and although other sites are bitchin' and moanin' about it I think it's a good fit. Heck the guy has his own video game company so you know he will understand the character and will play it as it was originally written. If you saw Pitch Black you know he can be dark if he needs to be and this character is darker than any other in video games. I say if the story is good and director doesn’t scuk the movie might be pretty good.

Games like Hitman, Halo, V for Vendetta (almost here and will probably suck) and Spy Hunter will all be brought to life on the big screen in the next year so whether we like it or not the trend is going to continue. I say stop now, just leave it alone because just like readers of novels... The game is always better than the movie!