March 2, 2007

Why Hollywood’s fascination with games is a double-edged sword and why Orlando Bloom is just so pixel-icious
By Angelina Sandoval

As a hot-blooded American gamer girl that still fits the 18-25 demographics for female moviegoer and games purchaser, I admit to having a monstrous, school-girl crush on actor Orlando Bloom. Who can blame me, right? He with the impossibly impeccable facial features, those eyes that are - no doubt about it - currently melting the polar icecap and that boyish charm Tom Cruise once had. So you can imagine my complete delight when Orlando Bloom’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” character, Will Turner, showed up in Kingdom Hearts II for the PS2 as but one of many Disney movie characters our hero Sora gets to interact with in the game.

Pictured here: The luckiest woman on the planet.

I have to admit that it was a bit jarring to see a movie character show up in a Final Fantasy-meets-Disney game but it goes to show that Hollywood can have a positive influence on games. I mean, where else can you see Sora, Donald Duck and Orlando Bloom share a single screen? Still, this isn’t about how cool it was to see hunky Orlando Bloom in a video game (we’ve seen him before as Legolas in the Lord of the Rings games), but rather this is about Hollywood’s insistence in playing a role in the video game market.

Of course, it’s not uncommon to see a game based on a movie nowadays. It seems that with every Spider-Man, Batman or Harry Potter film that’s released a game is sure to hit the shelves as well. For the most part, though, this doesn’t mean the game will turn out as amazing as the movies they’re inspired by and yes, even if the game does render Orlando Bloom perfectly or any other actor of equal or lesser hotness that doesn’t mean the game will be a good one. Why is that? This is the question Hollywood and game companies should be asking themselves.

Tobey Maguire returns in Spider-Man 3, Kristen Dunst named Second Luckiest Woman on the Planet.

Like any major merchandizing scheme, games based on movies are often rushed out to meet the release date of the movie itself because they believe moviegoers will rush out of the theater and into a store to buy anything related to the movie. Sure, they might use a movie’s set design specs, use the actors from the film or have the blessing from the movie director but that doesn’t mean they can skimp on creativity or originality. There was a time when Hollywood thought gamers would like to pick up a game and basically “play” the movie as the game recreated nearly every cool scene in a movie. Then there are the games that simply try to cash in by linking their game with a movie (e.g. Street Fighter featuring digitized Jean Claude Van Damme and the gone-but-not-forgotten Raul Julia).

Thankfully, there are games that don’t follow the “play the movies” mentality. For example, the flawed X-Men: The Official Game featured some back story that told a tale that not only connects the second X-Men film with the third (X-Men: The Last Stand) but also explains why a major character doesn’t make an appearance in the third film. Like Spider-Man 2, The Fantastic Four featured a story closely connected to the movie’s plot but took the story further by adding characters and situations that weren’t seen on the big screen. These games weren’t bad but they lacked their own personality.

No matter how awful the game, adding Hugh Jackman helps … a lot.

Hollywood’s influence on games isn’t an entirely bad for games. Case in point, Medal of Honor: Frontline for the original Xbox has a connection to filmmaker Steven Spielberg. Anyone who didn’t think about “Saving Private Ryan” during the intense opening sequence of Frontline didn’t see the movie (or was living in a cave). The Resident Evil franchise owes its existence to George A. Romero’s zombie movies and characters like Solid Snake and Sam Fisher each tip their hats to the James Bond films.

Oh James!: We love you Pierce but Sean is the hottest Bond.

Unfortunately, you will still find games based on movies that will certainly be stinkers thanks to rushed production values and no creativity. With the coming blockbusters like Spider-Man 3, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix or Ghost Rider, you can bet that there will be games released as well. Hopefully, game developers and designers can look past mass merchandizing and put out a quality product. It can happen; I mean, look at the excellent Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher’s Bay (a game that was even 10 times better than the movie). It can be done and they don’t even have to have a cameo from hunky Orlando Bloom (although, personally speaking, it wouldn’t hurt).

Share | Digg This | Glink It

---