Accentuate The Positive

Now that I've trashed every video game movie ever made--and believe me, I didn't even mention the very worst ones--I should say that I think that computer & video games are just as valid a source as books. There's no reason, for example, that Lara Croft couldn't have carved a name for herself alongside of Indiana Jones (whom she was obviously based on). Especially with Jolie in the role.

A good example would probably be the Mortal Kombat series. All things considered, they did all right by the property: 2-3 movies and a television series, if memory serves. And that's some thin gruel to work with.

I've played some games with good plots, though, and settings and characters that would be entertaining if brought to life on a movie screen.

The original Adventure game would be fun, and is based on a real place. It would have to be fleshed out.

Starflight had one of the best twists of any game I've ever played. It could be a good mix of Sci-Fi action clichés with some real originality to it.

Another single game with a great story is Planescape: Torment. However, this is a very D&D oriented game that might not be translatable to a general audience.

The Heroes of Might and Magic series has a great many quasi-medieval plot lines. The setting was supposed to have been that of a far future world that has collapsed into a barbarous ruin that looked very fantasy-ish. Fans ultimately killed an add-on that would've overtly introduced Sci-Fi to the game however. As a setting, and with a great many characters developed over many years, it could be well done.

Blizzard puts a lot of care into their stories, for guys who write games where the stories really aren't that important. Diablo, StarCraft, WarCraft--all fairly well developed.

These are just a few games off the top of my head, most of which would be at least fresher than what has been done. They'd all be expensive though, to do any sort of justice to.

I do think that we'll, eventually, see a great video game-based movie. The stories are not, in the big picture, so alien to the usual narrative ideas we see. But with the badness of what has come so far, it's going to be hard for anyone to take future endeavors seriously.