Castlevania, Detective Pikachu, and Breaking the False Prophecy of Bad Game-to-Screen Adaptations
Videogame characters have had a rough history of jumping to the big screen, but it’s possible that’s about to change.
Benjamin Franklin was once famously quoted as writing “Nothing in this world can be said to be certain, except death and movies based on video games being bad”. Lay off your keyboards, I know that opening sentence isn’t entirely accurate. Franklin actually lifted it from the author of Robinson Crusoe. However, Big Ben Franklin is on the $100 bill, while Daniel Defoe is as far as I know depicted on no forms of currency anywhere in the world, so in this case the plagiarism may well be justified. The important thing is that since the time of giant powdered wigs the announcement of a movie that is based on a video game has been met with cynicism. Video game movies, according to common knowledge, simply cannot be good.
Looking at the history of films based on video games, low expectations are well-earned and also frequently missed. In terms of critical appraisal, they are almost all complete flops. The only two game adaptations to ever break past 50% on Rotten Tomatoes are 2018’s Rampage and Tomb Raider (which scored a tepid 53% and 51% approval rating, respectively). If a true review aggregate is more your style, the only game adaptation to break past the 50% mark on Metacritic is the original Mortal Kombat movie. In terms of critical success, these three deeply flawed films are the best and brightest the world of video game to film adaptations have to offer. Add to that a smattering of subpar live-action and animated series and you almost can’t blame people for thinking that video games are a cursed source material for adapting to the screen.
Hollywood has a long and storied history of mining literature for movie material, and many of the resulting films are now timeless classics. Comic book movies dominate the current blockbuster and television landscape with both critical acclaim and fan praise for their comic book accuracy. Meanwhile, in the 25 years since the Super Mario Brothers movie first oozed forth into the world as a dark omen of the future, Hollywood has failed to produce a nugget of bronze out of any part of gaming history (much less gold).
We are instead left pining for the video game movies that were never to be. Instead of John Woo’s Metroid, we got the career of Uwe Boll. Instead of Peter Jackson’s Halo, we got a parade of middling Resident Evil sequels with little connection to the games. Instead of Gore Verbinski’s Bioshock, we got forgettable projects like Hitman and Assassin’s Creed. Instead of Duncan Jones’ Warcraft, we got… well, we got Duncan Jones’ Warcraft, and nobody will ever understand how that career turned sour so dramatically. James Wan was attached at various points to film adaptations of both Castlevania and Mortal Kombat, with neither project seeming to be anything more than the ghost of a good idea by now.
It feels like we are waiting for the floodgates to be broken, for the first truly great movie based on a video game to suddenly lift the veil and be followed by dozens more. We are waiting for video game movies to have their Spider-Man: a truly great film that shows reverence for the source material, true passion for the art of filmmaking, and proves these films are worth doing right. If you ask me, we won’t have to wait long for studios to take notice (if we have to wait at all).
The first trailer for Warner Brothers’ live-action Pokemon movie, Detective Pikachu, dropped earlier this week and set social media abuzz. Reaction to the trailer was surprisingly positive from series fans and the general public. Even enthusiast social media circles and message boards, famously hyperbolic in their collective criticism, seemed to largely consist of people who were confused at how much better the movie looked than their expectations. This refreshing initial reaction, combined with reports of very satisfied audiences at early test screenings, has quickly become a small beacon of hope for the future of gaming on the big screen.
However, and not to diminish the potential importance of Detective Pikachu, we’ve already SEEN the first truly great game adaptation. Netflix’s animated Castlevania series may not have been a big Hollywood film, but the recent release of its second season was highly visible on one of the world’s most popular content services. Even better: it was extremely good. Well-written, critically acclaimed, and featuring one of the best depictions of Dracula ever in film or television, Castlevania is the first piece of popular media to adapt a video game and break that quality barrier (and there’s another season on the way, at the very least). If you’re a believer in the idea that one adaptation had to be that vanguard and lead the way, you already have it.
I’m in a different camp, myself. I believe that, rather than one amazing high-profile movie or show, it’s going to take a handful of at least moderately successful and critically lukewarm adaptations to change the momentum in Hollywood. While a “silver bullet” approach could work, it’s just as likely that a string of consecutive soft hits would as well. If video game properties are to be handled with more care in Hollywood, they must be seen as having the potential to actually deliver both praise and box office returns.
Thankfully, conditions are right for this to happen within the near future. Two of the three “best” (though the term is used loosely) game adaptations were both released this year, with both achieving at least modest success at the box office relative to their budgets. Castlevania has been a runaway success for Netflix to the point of helping revitalize interest in the property within gaming culture (surely helped by the inclusion of Castlevania in the upcoming Super Smash Brothers Ultimate). Last but not least, Detective Pikachu is building a lot of buzz (pun half intended) among general moviegoing audiences and gamers alike. If that isn’t enough, there’s quite a bit on the horizon worth having hope for.
Blumhouse Productions and Chris Columbus are currently working on a film adaptation of virally popular game series Five Nights at Freddy’s, with the direct involvement of series’ creator Scott Cawthon. That is a frankly stunning combination, a potentially perfect storm of production company and director for this particular adaptation. While the movie has moved slowly through the pre-production process, Blumhouse has publicly shown much excitement for the project and Cawthon himself has been transparent in their attempts to make the right movie rather than rushing it out the door. It is oddly somewhat promising that this film is in the works now, after the franchise’s popularity has slightly waned, rather than being rushed out while it was still an active phenomenon.
On top of that, there are several tv series adaptations in the works that could help move that needle. As already mentioned, Castlevania has been the first truly great game-to-screen adaptation, and a third season is on the way. Castlevania producer Adi Shankar has also recently announced an animated Devil May Cry series, which given the reception to Castlevania should inspire hope on its own. And while The Witcher is originally a book series, in terms of western public perception it is as much a part of gaming if not more, and Netflix’s live-action Witcher series is at this point yet another x factor (vocal criticism to a rough makeup test aside).
Ironically, the project most worth some early excitement could come from the same game that started this whole trend: Mario himself. Universal Pictures’ animated film workhorse, Illumination, is working on an animated Super Mario Brothers movie to be released in the next couple of years. You should stow away any trepidation at the idea of another Mario film after the legendarily bad 1993 original… Nintendo has famously been far more protective of their properties as a result of that disaster, and their involvement with Universal on a new film after all this time is a sign of confidence in this particular project. The house of Mario is famously protective of their mascot, and it should not be assumed that is changing anytime now.
For fans and enthusiasts, this should be an exciting time. Silly as it seems to celebrate it, we’ve had two of only three critically mediocre gaming adaptations in the last year in the form of Tomb Raider and Rampage, and both more than made their budget back. Castlevania has proven to be a runaway success, with Devil May Cry on the way from the same producer. Detective Pikachu’s first trailer looks far more promising than any of us dared hope. There are crack teams working on adaptations of both Super Mario Brothers and Five Nights at Freddy’s. Last but not least, the live-action series adaptation of The Witcher is a wild card we can’t count out.
The momentum has already shifted, with so many different promising projects on the slate for the next few years alone. Even if any one flops, there are several others ready to help pick up the slack. The shift in public perception that will cause more talent to approach gaming properties for adaptation (and for studios to feel comfortable putting more money into them) can occur if even just a couple of these are only moderate successes. Cross your fingers; we may already have entered a critical turning point in the history of video game to screen adaptations. We just may not know it yet.
