We dug up adaptations that even their creators don’t remember.
Squadron Commander (1999) – Wing Commander Series
Let’s start with something relatively mainstream.
$ 30 million was allocated for the project, which even by the standards of twenty years ago is damn little for cosmos. For comparison, “Lost in space” cost 80 million, and “Fifth Element” – 90 million. It is not surprising that special effects in Squadron Commander sometimes openly hurt the eye. But then there was enough money to take on the leading roles the idols of teenage girls of the late 90s – Freddy Prince ml. and Matthew Lillard. True, according to the recognition of the actors, they signed the contract after reading one scenario, and on the site they were presented with a completely different, much more dull. Maybe this explains the complete woodenness of the Prince and the total replay of Lillard, who grimaces in the film more than in Creek and Scooby-Doo put together.
As a result, no one liked Wing Commander – neither the fans of the series, nor film critics, nor random viewers. The film collected only 11.5 million, and then partly thanks to the trailer for the first episode Star warsthat was shown before the session. Roberts tried to shoot a military drama in space, a kind of sci-fi Top Gun, but it turned out “Star landing” without satire and without action. Rare fights do not catch because of the quality of the effects, the characters do not cause sympathy because of the acting, and the plot is difficult to keep track of due to an overloaded scenario. The Squadron Commander quickly sunk into oblivion – and, unfortunately, dragged Wing Commander along with him.
Street Fighter: Legend of Chun-Lee (2009) – Street Fighter Series
About “Street fighter” 1994, you can say anything, but he certainly was not boring. Dumb, absurd, childish – yes, but not boring. At the very least, Raul Julia brilliantly played his last role in it, and only for his sake it is worth the time. But restarting 2009 is another matter. The brightest thing in The Legend of Chun-Lee – This is the name written in the company font.
The film was staged by Andrzej Bartkovyak, director of the first film adaptation Doom, and he, apparently, has a unique ability to deprive the original games of any personality. Forget about colorful arenas and heroes you know from childhood Street fighter. Bison joined the ranks of faceless criminal bosses, Charlie Nash turned into a tired cop, and only Balrog resembles his prototype, because he is now played by the late giant giant Michael Clark Duncan. Well, at least the action really takes place on the streets, justifying the name of the film. Rather, the first part of it, because the wanderings of the local Chun-Li are not drawn at all to the “legend”. Rather, it’s a series of passable brawls hastily connected with a banal scenario about revenge. Better a circus with Van Damme.
Tekken 2 (2014) – Tekken Series
The first cinema Tekken was bad enough to be on a par with The Legend of Chun-Lee. He rightly got his bucket of slops from critics, collected ridiculous money at the box office and added to the already long list of failed game adaptations. Who and why decided five years later to release a prequel to him is a mystery.
In the center of the plot is a man who comes to his senses in the slums near the borders of Tekken city (do not ask). He suffers from amnesia and is immediately taken hostage by a local cult led by Boris “Razors” from “Big jackpot”. Now the nameless one works for cultists, and simultaneously tries to unravel the secrets of his past. True, the viewer does not care. Firstly, the original subtitle of the film, “Kazui’s Revenge,” breaks the whole intrigue. Although you will not see any revenge: in the finale, the younger Mishima will just meet his father, he will explain to him who he is and everything will end. But secondly, “Tekken 2” was dull to the ugliness. For an hour and a half, Kazuya just loitering in the slums, catching flashbacks, sometimes chatting with someone and even less often fighting with someone. Well, as an adaptation Tekken in principle, a film cannot be considered. His only connection is not even with games, but at least with the first picture – this is Carey-Hiroyuki Tagawa, who appears literally for five minutes. And then without makeup Heihati. In general, a predictable failure on all fronts.
King fighters (2009) – series The king of fighters
However, Street Fighter and Tekken are still very lucky compared to the franchise. The king of fighters. Her so-called film adaptation is something beyond the comprehension of even inveterate trash fans. The film was released in 2009, and looks like a pilot of a series of the late 90s. Moreover, the rejected pilot. It would be a shame for costumes even for novice cosplayers, as arenas – gates and storage rooms, and it is better not to recall special effects at all. With this budget “King of Fighters” amounted to 12 million dollars – these are two “Upgrade” or ten “Raids”.
The story revolves around the tournament in a parallel dimension, where the fighters hit with headphones that are tuned to the waves of ancient artifacts. Yes, it’s still about The King of Fighters, just the creators decided to add more urban fantasy. But this did not help: the presence of a variety of magical Pribluds expanded the plot holes to cosmic proportions.
An acting game to match everything else. Special mention should be made of the main villain Rugal in the performance of Darth Maul from “Star Wars” – Ray Park. He is certainly an outstanding stuntman and martial artist, but giving him a role with words was a big mistake. Basically, this whole movie was a big mistake.
Risen Dead (2015) – Dead Rising Series
But it’s time to get out of the compost pit already, since sometimes you can find if not diamond, then at least nice jewelry among the piles of garbage. This category may well include a film based on Dead raising, which was filmed specifically for the stream service Crackle. Everything that can please the fan base of the series is in it: the Zombrex drug, the insidious military, the gang of loonies, and even Frank West – the most famous character in the franchise. He acts as a guest expert in local news and periodically dilutes what is happening with greasy jokes. And most importantly, in the picture there are many zombies that are chopped, sawed, drilled, burned and spread on asphalt by any means at hand. True, from time to time, all this is interrupted by a banal plot about another government plot.
Nevertheless, if you like the genre, love the franchise and do not mind such a budget Zombielandthen To the Risen Dead you can even give a chance. Judging by the fact that just a year after the premiere, the film got a sequel, he went to someone.
More on review
Red Faction: Origin (2011) – Red Faction Series
The action takes place between Red Faction: Guerilla and Red Faction: Armageddon; revolutionary hero Alex Mason grew old and turned into Robert Patrick. But here he is a supporting character, while in the center of the plot is his son Jake – a young soldier who is trying to return his long-abducted sister and prevent another war for Mars.
The main trouble of the film is its easily explainable cheapness. Because of it, the red planet shrank to two plants, and there is practically no action, and the schedule is at the level of “Squadron Commander”, which was released twelve years earlier. And most importantly, almost the only feature of the Red Faction series – destruction, did not get into the film adaptation. As the history of the franchise has shown, you can do without even Mars, but not without a local apocalypse. And in the “Origin” there is only one single explosion, and even that at the end. So, rare fans of the original source have practically nothing to catch here.
Hero Squad (2012) – Company of Heroes series
However, Red Faction was not the only THQ franchise that managed to get a low-budget film adaptation before her death. Someone clever decided to exploit the brand Company of heroes. It’s to exploit, because the very idea of filming a strategy about the Second World War seems rather absurd, especially since the game quotes about a dozen films. However, the second part was just on the way, and the first managed to earn cult status. So the office Destination Films quickly removed a cheap military action movie and acquired the rights to the brand from THQ. In exactly what order this happened, it is not known exactly, but it is possible that it is in that. In addition to the name, theme and episodic appearance of Lieutenant Conti, the protagonist of the first part, the film with the game does not make anything related. With the same success, it could be called “Call of Duty” or “Medal of Honor.”
As for the quality of execution, then “Squad of heroes” runs along the lowest line of watchability. There is always the charismatic Vinnie Jones and the colorful German Richard Zammel, who played the Nazis with Tarantino and del Toro. And also a peppy hand-to-hand fight under the verses of Mephistopheles from the opera Faust. But the pluses end there. Anyone who has seen at least “Save Private Ryan”, not to mention the classics of Soviet war cinema, it is unlikely to be able to withstand the “Squad of Heroes” to the end.
Heavenly Sword (2014) – Heavenly Sword
However Heavenly Sword – This is not just a “game film” like the ones that are collected from cutscenes on YouTube. Although its plot follows the general outline of the Heavenly Sword, it allows itself a lot of liberties. So, the warrior Nariko had a brother, and the crazy girl Kai suddenly became her sister. New locations appeared, the old ones were transformed, and some scenes acquired an additional context. In general, this is a completely independent fantasy epic – but there are a couple of nuances.
Firstly, with all the efforts of the animators, the cartoon still looks like an hour and a half cutscene of the PS3 era. And secondly, the game is still better. The role of the main villain, King Bohan, in it was played by the magnificent Andy Serkis – he, incidentally, was engaged in directing scenes, which is why they turned out to be very lively and full of nuances. But in the cartoon Bohan voiced Alfred Molina, and the character lost all charisma. So the film adaptation, sewn from almost the same elements as the original source, still turned out poorer.
However, Sony’s experiment seemed successful, and Blockade Entertainment made it possible to adapt the adventures of Ratchet and Clank in the same way, and for large screens. But that cartoon failed miserably, and then the planned adaptation was frozen Sly cooper – and for a couple of years now nothing has been heard about Blockade.
Siren (2006) – Forbidden Siren Series
At first, the film really pretends to be an adaptation of Forbidden Siren, with the second part. Night, storm, remote island. A rescue team inspects the small village and discovers that all the inhabitants have disappeared without a trace – only one man, who has gone mad from fear, mutters something about the siren. A great start, which gives hope that the picture will be true to the spirit of the original. Alas, the hope turned out to be false: after the prologue, the action takes place mainly in the daylight, and the main character, the young girl Yuki, is slowly investigating the mystery of the island settlement and its gloomy inhabitants. The familiar sibito players appear only in the finale itself … to be a hallucination. Yes, the creators did not hesitate to use the hundred-year-old cliche “it’s all in her head.” Moreover, in the context of the film, this is not only a spit in the face of the fans of the series, but simply an elongated turn over the ears.
In the end “Siren” – This is a mediocre Japanese horror and uniform mockery of Forbidden Siren fans.
Like the Dragon (2007) – Yakuza Series
And we will complete the selection with the most controversial film that we managed to unearth. The fact is that sometimes, in separate episodes, “Like a dragon” 2007 is the best film adaptation Yakuzathat you could wish for. Despite the fact that, of course, Yakuza does not need any film adaptation – it is already cinematic to the fullest. Nevertheless, the picture perfectly conveys the atmosphere of the series, its pathos-ironic tone, and the characters resemble themselves from the games. Especially the madman Goro Majima. But here’s how a self-sufficient crime drama or the comedy Dragon-Like Comes to pieces.
A personal acquaintance with any of the listed films will confirm a simple truth: good movies are not forgotten. Any of these adaptations to one degree or another is worthy of oblivion, although a couple, perhaps, can be watched just for fun. But maybe we missed something? What little-known adaptations have you come across? Write in the comments!
More on review
