10th Wreck it Ralph anniversary: an animated film who wrecks fences between the video game universe and cinema 

In 2022, Disney's Wreck it Ralph turns 10 years old! As for the arcade game Fix it Felix Jr! (imagined for the Disney animated film) which celebrates its 30th anniversary, this article celebrates the 10th anniversary of the Wreck it Ralph release. How did the director, Rich Moore (Zootopia, Ralph 2 .0), manage to link the video game universe to the cinema one? 

Wreck it Ralph is a Disney animated film with an original screenplay : it is not a video game adapted into a movie. It tells the story of the main character, Ralph. However, Ralph is one of the Fix it Felix Jr! arcade game character and, unfortunately for him, he is not the hero of this game but the villain. Ralph suffers of his status: he is always alone, forgotten by everyone. He also hates that other characters from the Fix it Felix Jr! arcade game ignore him. Even other video games or arcade games characters such as Bowser from the Mario saga, Clyde from the Pacman saga, Robotnik from the Sonic saga or Zangief from the Street Fighter saga don't understand how he feels. These characters were not invented by the director but they make the Wreck it Ralph storyline more realistic (Ralph is a villain like any other villain). As for Felix, he is the hero from Fix it Felix Jr!, and Ralph’s nemesis. Everyday he fixes the building that Ralph breaks several times a day. For Ralph, things have to change! He wants to win medals to prove to everybody and to himself that he is a good guy. He will win all these by crossing many other arcade games and he will meet the young Vanellope, who is actually a rider and the princess from the Sugar Rush, an arcade game which looks like to a Mario Kart video game, where the player has to create his/her own candy car (including a pilot) and win the race.     

When we observe the Wreck it Ralph dramaturgy, we discover the inspiration of video games and arcade games, including those of the Donkey Kong saga (like in the Donkey Kong video games, Ralph has to break everything).  Moreover, the world of video games appears as an interesting way to tell a story. The arcade game is a place where each character lives and works. At the end of the day, all the arcade games stop being video game characters and become alive, as real human beings. The hall of each arcade game looks like a train station and connects each arcade game to one another. After all, the imaginary world looks like our human world. The video game world is, in the end, ordinary. Another point leads us to believe the Wreck it Ralph video game world looks similar to ours. Indeed, in each book or movie story, the main character has difficulty fitting into the society he or she lives in: this is because the main character is different from others that he or she succeeds in overcoming obstacles. The path that the main character decides to follow will make it evolve but will also let the audience think about its actions. When the audience feels empathy for Ralph, this is because they feel close to Ralph. The audience shares common points with Ralph who is not only an arcade game character anymore. The director manages to highlight human feeling : this is this lack of love that Ralph feels that will set him in motion (and not the levers of the arcade game machine). 

What is more, the vocabulary used in Wreck it Ralph is specific to video games. The video game lexicon highlights some characters’ personality, such as for young Vanellope. In the middle of the animated film, the audience learns that Vanellope is a glitch, which means that she possesses many IT problems in her system. Vanellope becomes as rejected by the society of her arcade game as Ralph in Fix it Felix Jr!. In this way, the audience also feels empathy for her and appreciates her. The video game vocabulary is here a pretext to make the character of Vanellope more sympathetic. Moreover, the unique personality of each character from the Wreck it Ralph movie are complementaries. Ralph can destroy anything and Felix can fix anything. They will learn to work together to solve their problems. In the end, Ralph also understands his strength is not only to destroy everything he sees but he also to use his physical strength and his internal force to help his friends. Sometimes, we need to break walls to open people's minds.     

In conclusion, each extract and sequence of Disney's Wreck it Ralph movie shows that there is no real barrier between video games as a topic and cinema as a means of expression. Video games can become new subjects for screenplays and allow, as any other subject, to tell a story to the worldwide young and adult audience.

“If that little kid likes me, how bad can I be?” - Ralph  - Go read my article 10th Wreck it Ralph anniversary: an animated film who wrecks fences between the video game universe and cinema

A The Sims movie adaptation: is the story already old-fashioned?

Developed by Electronic Arts, the first The Sims pack was released in 2000. Nowadays, there are 4 different versions of the The Sims video game. The player can play on a computer, a Playstation or on an Xbox (Xbox 360, XboxOne). A fifth version of the video game has been announced and could be released as early as late 2022. The Sims became popular for its various possibilities to create characters and houses in an imaginary world (in the beginning it was a simple little town with ordinary characters,but it is now possible to play with witches, wizards and even fairies). Just like real human beings, characters in The Sims have fears and wishes. The Sims [characters] can also try new activities which they can become passionate about (going to the cinema, playing guitar, painting, preparing scientific experiments, gardening). Animals are also present in one of the The Sims packs. Thanks to The Sims, the player can create his/her imaginary world and stage his/her own stories. Some players also created their own contents which allow them to imagine new and sometimes unrealistic situations such as pregnant men or everlasting life.

Producers imagined an adaptation of The Sims into a movie. Brian Lynch, scriptwritter of Scary Movie 3, was chosen as the scriptwritter of the The Sims adaptation. The fact that a horror movie script writer has been chosen for this adaptation highlights the predominance of the horror genre in video games adaptations, as if it was an easier way for script writers and directors to easily please the audience. This statement has been justified by Brian Lynch’s explanations about a possible screenplay for the The Sims cinematographic adapatation, in 2008. According to him, the story could have been the one of a 14 or 16 years old teenager who buys The Sims Infinity Pack in a weird video games store, along with a friend. The two teenagers realize this game can scan their world and that they can interact with it thanks to the video game. However, strange and dangerous consequences are going to happen when they are not supposed to. In the end, the cinematographic adaptation project has been definitely canceled in 2019, without any real news between 2008 and 2019. This story left us perplexed about the future The Sims cinematographic adaptation: is the The Sims cinematographic adaptation already old-fashioned and better left behind? Can we imagine an interesting The Sims adaptation for the players and the rest of the audience?  

First impression: not necessarily. Indeed, The Sims players already create characters and build imaginary houses. They create the world they imagine as they like it. Sometimes, gamers also shoot their own The Sims films by themselves, and they share them on their Youtube channels. They write a script about a love story, or a whole new adventure never imagined before. Their characters are true adventurers, or live complicated lives (it’s the case, for instance, in societal stories between rich and poor families). All these stories are not necessarily inspired from horror movies, contrarily to what the Scary movie 3 scriptwritter Brian Lynch suggested. However, it seems complicated for a director to shoot a movie where each generation of The Sims players can find their own interest. The story and the screenplay have to be extremely original such as to successfully gather people around a similar way of thinking. 

Gamers appreciate playing The Sims by recreating their favorite TV series or movie characters and the universe in which they usually live. For instance, they represent, inside the The Sims video game, characters of their youth such as the Twilight saga characters in order to keep and remember a nostalgic phase. Youtubers also represent recent characters as those present in the Netflix series' Squid Game or popular characters like those from the recent Disney movie Encanto. By the way, these representations are so surprising and well done that they really look like the originals. 

Let's come back to our Brian Lynch's screeplay idea. If his pitch had to be adapted into a movie, the story would no longer be original at all. Indeed, this story about controlling the world through a video game is not new anymore. Over the past ten years, many short film directors, including Youtubers, have released short films on this subject. These stories relate the Sims' life  when they realize that their mind is controlled by human beings and subsequently manage to get rid of the green diamond that they have above their head. In 2017, French Youtuber Andy uploaded a short film inspired by The Sims 4 video game. In her short film, the main female character (whom she portrays) plays the video game and understands she can change every furniture in her house and the people's physique. The video is called “Si on pouvait tout contrôler” (literally “If we could control everything”). The ending of the short film shows the main female character being herself controlled by other players in the game, who are themselves controlled by the manager of the store where Andy bought The Sims 4 video game. If nowadays a director decided to get Brian Lynch's script back, the The Sims adaptation would not be one of a kind at all, and could even appear to some people as plagiarism of other short films which have been released in the meanwhile. 

However, according to the GWW, a website about movies and comics, Legendary Pictures is currently working on a The Sims adaptation. Legendary Pictures is the production company which worked on different video games movie adaptations such as Warcraft or Pokemon: Detective Pikachu. Will the The Sims movie adaptation have the same dramaturgical structure as Pokemon: Detective Pikachu? One thing is certain, adapting The Sims into a movie will always be a challenge, due to the video game’s premises. It is not simple for a director to direct a movie where all the possibilities of creation in the The Sims video game are almost infinite.

They look like us but they are not us - Go read my article about The Sims ! I will publish it soon on my Tumblr page. 

HBO trusts Neil Druckmann! [SPOILER ALERT]

Video game players are looking forward to 2023: 2023 is the year of the The Last of us series' broadcast (also nicknamed TLOU by fans) by HBO. The TLOU series is inspired by the eponymous apocalyptic video game created by Neil Druckmann. In the context of the TLOU series’ shooting, HBO has currently spent ten million dollars: the series is one of the most expensive series ever made. This series project looks promising and fanatics hope their audience's expectations will be up to it. Nevertheless, the risk remains significant for HBO: turning video games into cinematographic adaptations is not always well regarded by the audience and the critics. They are not always unanimous. The pressure is more strenuously felt by the producers and the HBO television channel, especially since the second installment in TLOU game series was the best-selling video game in 2020, when it was released. Its success has been gigantic, even if fanatics are still torn about Joel's death. But don't worry, fanatical audiences of the TLOU video game saga can count on HBO’s professionalism: their editorial line aims to offer its audience an original series, where the staging and the dramaturgy are very well crafted, like Succession, L'amica geniale, or Euphoria. All these aspects raise an important question: how can we explain that HBO is so confident in the TLOU series' success? 

Before reflecting further, here are a few things you should know about the creation of a video game such as The last of us (this information will be essential to understand the arguments in the following paragraphs). The animation technique used is motion capture, a process where the actor/actress is in a black jumpsuit and has many sensors on his/her body, from head to toes. The actor/actress must reproduce realistic movements in a movie studio. There is no scenery and accessories are made of plastic or metal. The motion capture actor has to interact with them. The motion capture technique allows to "capture" the actor’s facial movements and facial expressions. The motion capture process has already been used in several movies, like The Planet of Apes or Spielberg's Tintin and the Secret of the Unicorn for instance. 

The future success that HBO imagines in the TLOU series can be justified in several ways. Neil Druckmann, the creator of the TLOU video game, is also the creator of the eponymous series: he already knows the scriptural and graphical universe, as well as the TLOU fans’ expectations. The TLOU series casting is sought-after and most of the chosen actors look like the characters in the game. On one hand, Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal, respectively chosen to interpret Ellie Williams and Joel Miller in the TLOU series look like the characters of the video game saga (where Troy Baker stars as Joel and Ashley Johnson as Ellie). Fans were also very positively surprised by the announcement that Anna Torv would be joining the cast of Neil Druckmann's series. Known for her role as Olivia Dunham in the sci-fi television series Fringe, she will star as Maria. It seems that TLOU fans are on board with this and have immediately “adopted” her as a well-fitting Maria. I personally agree that her joining the cast is a good thing: she is a talented actress and bears strong physical similarities to Maria’s character. 

On the other hand, other characters do not look like their video game counterparts, at list physically speaking: it is the case for Nico Parker who will interpret the role of Joel's daughter, Sarah. The actress does not look like the video game actress named Hana Hayes. This casting choice is a way for Neil Druckmann to add novelty and innovation to his apocalyptic universe (2013-). However, this is not only the expression of his artistic point of view, but also a commercial choice. Neil Druckmann willingly chooses famous and popular actors. Bella Ramsey is already known for her role as Lyanna Mormont in the Games of Thrones (GOT) series. As for Pedro Pascal, he played Oberyn Martel in the same series. The actor also starred in the Disney+ series The Mandalorian. Lately, Pedro Pascal has become a symbolic figure of big-budget creations.

Plus, this HBO series intends to highlight its differences from the original TLOU saga. According to the Comicbook website, the series will take place in 2003, and not in 2013 as in the original video game. This choice of the timeline can make the audience curious and even more impatient to see the changes made by Neil Druckmann. Neil Druckmann also thinks he may not immediately create a third video game installment. The TLOU series can then become a new means of creation to complete the video game. All these news and expectations are enough to make fans curious and to encourage them to watch the TLOU series. 

One thing is clear, HBO does its very best to make the TLOU series attractive. The channel believes in the success of this creation; the fans and the targeted audience are faithful. All we have to do is make an appointment in 2023 for the TLOU series release.

Fans all agree: Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva is a masterpiece!

Before starting our article, I would like to share with you, my readers, a chronological list of video games related to the Professor Layton saga. This list is essential to understand the arguments I develop:

Professor Layton and the Last Specter (video game, European release date: 2011)

Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva (animated film, release date: 2009)

Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask (video game, European release date: 2012)

Professor Layton and the Arzan Legacy (video game, European release date: 2013)

Professor Layton and the Curious Village (video game, European release date: 2008)

Professor Layton and Diabolical Box (video game, release date: 2009)

Professor Layton and the Unwound Future (video game, European release date: 2010)

There also are other video games and cinematographic adaptations of the Professor Layton saga:

Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (video game, European release date: 2014)

Layton's Mystery Journey (video game, European release date: 2017)

Layton Mystery Tanteisha - Katori no Nazotoki Files (Anime Series, Japanese Release Date: 2018-2019, only broadcasted in Japan)

He stands out from other Londoners. Behind his brown and orange top hat, he  keeps a gentlemanly behavior and is always ready to solve the greatest mysteries of his century. Brave and intelligent, he is never destabilized by the most difficult mysteries. This man could be  a police inspector but is actually an archaeologist and a great lover of puzzles. His name is Hershel Layton! His assistant, the young Luke Triton, is always right by his side. Developed by the video game production society Level 5, the Professor Layton series includes 6 video games and an animated film adaptation (Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva). A sequel to the Professor Layton video games was also released on the Nintendo 3DS and the Nintendo Switch (Layton's Mystery Journey). In this new video game, the player follows the adventures of Layton's adopted daughter, Katrielle, a private detective. In the animated series adaptation of the video game Katrielle Layton and the Conspiracy of the Millionaires, we follow Katrielle in her investigations. Along with her official investigations, Katrielle investigates her father’s mysterious disappearance; he disappeared when she was only a child. A crossover video game was released in 2014 in France as well, called Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. It combines the worlds and features of Professor Layton and Phoenix Wright games.

In Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva (the cinematographic adaptation), Layton receives a letter from Janice, an opera singer who claims that her best friend named Melina died the previous year and was reincarnated into the body of a little girl. At the same moment, during the opera performance where Janice sings, a man announces that the spectators in the theater are the participants of his game: only one person will have the privilege to receive the gift of eternal life and the others will have to give their life in exchange. Layton, Luke and Janice are all prisoners inside the theater. They do not have the choice, they have to participate in order to discover who is the culprit responsible for this exuberant game. For Professor Layton fanatics, there is no doubt: Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva is visually beautiful and a well written adaptation. Together we are going to find out why the Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva cinematography please the fanatics so much.

The screenplay is as captivating as the others in the Professor Layton saga. In The Eternal Diva, as in every Professor Layton story, Layton and Luke have to face the most incredible investigations where the given facts are  scientifically speaking impossible. In the video game Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, Layton receives a letter from Future Luke. In the video game Miracle Mask , Layton has to face the Master of the Mask who manages to turn the Doremond inhabitants into stone sculptures. In The Eternal Diva, Melina's reincarnation into a little girl is also as surprising as Layton's other investigations. The ending of this cinematographic adaptation is equally very surprising and sumptuous. As for each of Layton's investigations, the outcome of The Eternal Diva is captivating and highlights sufferings felt by the good and mean characters involved in the investigation. Layton's opponent, as well as Layton, have known pain and injustice. This unfairness turns them into nasty people. The characters' stories and adventure times allow Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva to please the young audience as well as the adults. What is more, Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva manages to respect the graphic universe of the video game exactly as it was.

The characters are identical reproductions from those of the video games. Each of the characters appears for one moment on the screen (even if this moment is sometimes very short).The Professor Layton games are split into two big storylines: The Last Specter, The Eternal Diva, The Miracle Mask, and The Arzan Legacy come from the first storyline. In this first storyline, Layton's main opponent is Jean Descole, a great lover of archaeological treasures. He wishes just as much as Layton, and using violent techniques, to discover the places of the Arzan Legacy. The second big storyline from the Layton's saga includes The Curious Village, The Diabolical Box and The Unwound Future. Secondary characters are different from one storyline to the other. The fact is that the animated film The Eternal Diva presents all the characters from the two big Professor Layton storylines: they are mixed together in the same cinematographic space, which further increases the public's happiness. Being capable of investigating like in the video game is also one of the strong points of the Eternal Diva. Indeed, the spectator of The Eternal Diva can also solve puzzles, just as he did during video games. The “puzzle” moments are accompanied by original soundtracks which are similar to those present in the Layton video games. It allows the adaptation to find its place in the same universe as the video game.

To finish with, the story of Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva is linked to the first big story of the video game saga. Ambrosia, the city of harmony, is the place sought by Jean Descole in Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva. This place is one of the three places which belong to the Arzan legacy. The three places of the Arzan civilization are the Mistallery's Haven of blessings (Professor Layton and the last Specter), Ambrosia, the city of harmony (Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva) and Achavadon and its home of the infinite (Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask). This civilization created many archaeological and technological prowesses which, according to Descole, could change the world (we will learn in The Arzan legacy that these riches are technological weapons capable of destroying the world, if the heart of the one who discovers them is not pure). Without the presence of The Eternal Diva movie, the Professor Layton saga would not hold the same meaning. A part of the puzzle would be missing from the Professor Layton and the Arzan legacy video game.

In conclusion, Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva stands out from other movie adaptations of video games by its graphics and its soundtrack which look exactly like those in the video game saga. Its story is as captivating as those of the Layton games. The possibility for the public to solve puzzles is also a good point. Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva can not be dissociated from the video game saga Professor Layton because its story is one of the keys to understanding the Professor Layton and the Arzan Legacy video game. All these points make it a very successful adaptation as well as a fan-favorite piece of Layton storylines.

The Arzan civilization: the Mistallery's Haven of blessings (Professor Layton and the last Specter), Ambrosia the city of harmony (Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva) and Achavadon and its home of the infinite (Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask)

Go read my article! Fans all agree: Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva is a masterpiece!

Interactive video games are new inspirations for the creation of cinematographic adaptations!

Most video games suggest gamers to follow the story of the characters they play in a linear way and to go with them throughout their quest. This question aims to mentally speaking evolve interpreted characters. This dramaturgical construction is close to cinematographic dramaturgy and is also very present in video games played by children and teenagers. These games are globally adventure games (the Mario, Sonic and Zelda video games saga) and “creation games” (Imagine, Style Savvy…). The ending of these video games is the same for any payer. Other video games have a more complex “screenplay” where several stories get mixed together in the same video game universe: the player does not follow the journey of a single character anymore, but of several characters. The story of a character is linked to another one. In these same video games, the gamer can choose the actions he wants his character to execute. These kind of video games are called interactive video games and the main target audience are adults (PEGI 18 video games, PEGI 12 for The Sims). Sometimes, players' choice can be minimalist such as in Heavy Rain or The Sims. In the first part of Heavy Rain (PEGI 18), the gamer plays the role of young Shaun's father, Ethan. Shaun is home from school and Ethan has to take care of his son. The player can make the father cook Shaun's dinner, ask Shaun to do his homework or take him to bed. The player can also make Ethan drink a beer or some orange juice. These small actions which, at first sight, seem not to be very important to the progression of the story, let the gamer free to play as he wants until the end of the game. We conclude that Heavy Rain  gives the impression that the player is the scriptwriter of his own story. Then, choices become more complicated for Ethan; the player has to take good decisions in order for Ethan to save his son, kidnapped by the Origami killer. The characters' lifes in Heavy Rain depend on the player's game choices.

Until Dawn is a horror interactive video game. Joshua Washington invites his 7 friends to come back to the Washington family chalet where his two sisters, Beth and Hannah, died a year ago. The 8 teenagers will have to face a serial killer and the monstrous and heinous Wendigo: the player is also  here the only person capable of saving the life of each character. There is an additional difficulty in Until Dawn: the player has a time limit to choose one of two actions that his character will perform, which makes the situation more stressful. In the end, if the interactive video game is a form of creation for the player, it can also become another one for a film script writer. Let's imagine that a screenwriter decides to adapt a video game into a movie. Thanks to the interactive video game, the screenwriter would be as free as the gamer to choose the end that seems to him the most suitable for his adaptation.The video game appears as a kind of virtual storyboard where the possibilities of stories are multifaceted. The video game can be considered as a tool for staging a story. This situation would even give the scriptwriter the possibility of producing several possible endings for a same movie. In Until Dawn for instance, the scriptwriter can decide to let all the teenagers survive or to kill every one of them, or anything in between.

This situation can also exist for the video game Detroit: Become Human. In Detroit: Become Human, the story takes place in a world where droids live with humans. Droids are exploited and discriminated against by humans (droids also physically look like humans). During the entire video game, the player's choices will bring him to start a droid revolution which will destroy the entire world or to begin building a new egalitarian world. Interactive video games adaptation into movies with alternative endings would manage to play with the public's feelings and reactions.

In a situation where the director decides to adapt two endings for the same movie (the adaptation of an interactive video game), several questions would also be of importance, starting with the one of the movie broadcast. We can imagine that a same movie with two different endings would be broadcasted in two different cinemas. In theaters, the spectator would have no idea which ending awaits him, such as for the release of the horror movie Unfriended Dark Web (4 different endings). Thanks to these different endings, the spectator also uncovers new aspects of the characters.

Another question concerns copyrights. Will the director of the adaptation get copyright for one or two creations (because there are 2 endings)?

Go read my article: Interactive video games are new inspirations for the creation of cinematographic adaptations!

Uncharted: Two stagings which aim to bring the public/player at the the heart of the action!

In the second article I wrote on this blog, I shone a light for my readers about  the Far cry movie and its difficulties to please the spectators. When the movie was released in theaters, it received poor reviews because of its lack of common points with the original video games saga, including the  video game subjective view. 

Released in 2022 in theaters, Uncharted (Ruben Fleischer)  is a cinematographic adaptation from the eponymous video game saga (2007-2017). A barman in New-York, Nathan Drake (Tom Holland), awaits the return of his big brother Sam, who left him years ago, after being expelled from the orphanage where he lived with Nathan. Along with the treasure hunter Victor Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg), they go on an adventure to search for a hidden treasure which belonged to Magellan's crew. Contrary to the Far cry movie, the Uncharted one tries to attract the Uncharted players and fans by giving them landmarks. This short summary of the movie proves that the director takes over the  video games key moments in order to allow the spectator to enter the same universe as the video game.  Plus, Tom Holland and Mark Walhberg  look like Drake and Sullivan. Just like Drake in Uncharted 3 : Drake's deception, Tom Holland wears similar adventurer and beige clothes. In addition to these clothing and physical likeness, Ruben Fleischen attaches importance to the global video game staging. While using action cinematographic codes, he tries to reproduce, as much as possible, a video game atmosphere.  To what extent does the Uncharted movie staging resemble the one from the eponymous video game saga?   We will answer this question by focusing our arguments on the specific cargo plane fight sequence, approximately situated in the middle of the movie. A plane fight scene is also present in the third  Uncharted video game named Uncharted 3: Drake's deception. 

The staging of the cargo plane sequence in the Uncharted movie seems as classical as one in an action movie. The quick editing reveals that the characters' actions succeed: the main characters do not have time to think about the consequences of their actions. At the back of the plane, boxes, parachutes and a red car are stored. Drake (Tom Holland) tries to escape bullets shot by his enemies. Drake also  reaches to dismantle many parachutes attached to boxes; these boxes fly away through the  wide opened hatch of the plane. Shots and camera movements in Uncharted (2022) also remind the cinematographic staging of a Hollywood movie. There are close-ups which focus on the characters' faces. These shots highlight the characters' reactions when they are in trouble. The staging of characters allows the film audience to appreciate them more. In video games like the Uncharted saga, the player can only take the time to look at Drake's face during kinematics or/trailers, Drake being the character the players have to play. Moreover, the player of a video game is a physical and an active person; he/she has to make his/her character react quickly in order not to have it fail and die. During a screening, the public is physically speaking inactive and can not interact with the main character present on the screen: the cinematographic staging in the Uncharted movie does not have the intention to destroy the original video game identity, but it wants to enable the public to participate in the action movie: for instance, a close-up on Drake's foot stuck in a net shows us he is in danger. The movie Uncharted also stages many outlines. In this cinematographic adaptation, outlines allow the action to be more spectacular; just like in the video game staging, boxes hang one behind another and float in the air. 

However, the cargo plane fight sequence in the Uncharted movie is not only staged like a simple action movie. VFX are similar to those present in Uncharted 3: Drake's deception. According to the director Ruben Fleischen , directing a cinematographic adaptation does not mean it is not enough to get back to scriptwriting and dramaturgical video games codes. His way of thinking is justified by the role played by the camera in the cargo plane fight sequence. In Uncharted (2022), shots mean more than only filming characters’ actions:  the camera is a character in its own right. When we compare it with the video game camera, the player sees the video game action thanks to an omniscient point of view. Thanks to the joystick,  the player can rotate the camera all around Drake and his environment (360° rotary camera). As for Ruben Fleischen, he tries to reproduce the 360° camera movement on various occasions. When still in the cargo plane. Jo Braddock (Tati Gabrielle) hears a noise behind her and turns around; the camera follows her lead and rotates on itself at 90°, like in a video game. Drake appears in the shot. His blurred shape becomes distinct. The next shot announces the confrontation between Drake and Braddock. This video game homage in Uncharted (2022) shows the importance Ruben Fleischen attaches to the video game staging. Plus, this situation also proves that, according to the director, the cinematographic staging also has the possibility to please the public and Uncharted fans. The last shot of the confrontation inside the cargo plane shows the importance of the camera as a way of reproducing actions experienced by the characters. In Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, Drake gets ejected off the plane. In Uncharted (2022), Drake gets ejected too because of a red car placed in the cargo plane. Drake turns on himself in an empty space; the camera follows his movement. Spectators and fanatics of the Uncharted saga can appreciate the original staging of this last cinematographic shot, because it pays homage to the player's point of view in the gameplay. 

This sequence of the plane makes us understand something. A film may well use specific cinematographic codes (close-ups, a quick editing to insist on the accumulation of actions), but a director can draw his inspiration from a work as he/she wishes. The Uncharted movie is the proof that video games and cinematographic adaptations have complementary stagings. The plane fight sequence present in the video game and the one in the movie aim to put the viewer/player at the heart of the action.

Go read my article: Uncharted: Two stagings which aim to bring the public / player at the the heart of the action!

Go read my article: Uncharted: Two stagings which aim to bring the public / player at the the heart of the action!

Are the screenwriters lazy?

On the occasion of the upcoming release of Sonic 2, I want to come back to the first Sonic movie and analyze it along with another video game adaptation titled Pokemon – Detective Pikachu. These two movies are American-Japanese movies. Video games adaptations into films are often intended to stage meetings between iconic imaginary characters and human characters. This screenplay choice leads us to think about the screenplay’s worth: why do Sonic and Pokemon – Detective Pikachu reveal a lack of imagination from script writers and directors ?

Sonic is a movie that doesn't mainly take place in the same world as the original video game. In order to facilitate the meeting between imaginary characters and humans, the imaginary characters such as Pikachu or Sonic appear in worlds similar to ours (the Earth in Sonic, Ryme City in Pokemon – Detective Pikachu). When Sonic was released in theaters, children may have felt close to their favorite imaginary blue hero, but it was still difficult for fans to be entranced by the main setting. As for Pokemon – Detective Pikachu, the setting corresponds to the one in the original video game. However, the movie setting looks more like a “japanese Zootopia”, the city in the eponymous Disney animated film, where everything is crowded and disorganized. The cinematographic environment in Pokemon – Detective Pikachu doesn't seem new to the viewers.          

The dramaturgical drawing is always the same from one movie to the other. Sonic and Pikachu feel rejected from their own world or unfulfilled by the characters who surround them. For example, Sonic is forced to live on Earth with the aim of escaping enemies who want to capture him and take his speeding power. As for Pikachu, everybody finds him adorable, but no one understands what he says. Sonic and Pikachu feel lonely and without real friends on their side. Then they meet new human protagonists (Tom in Sonic and Tim in Pokemon – Detective Pikachu) who will become their respective auxiliaries. 

The human characters are very similar to each other. They feel apart from their ordinary world and have to make important decisions soon; thanks to the “magic” of the screenplay, the human characters solve their problems through their meeting with an imaginary character. In Sonic, Tom hesitates in leaving Green Hills, in Montana, and becoming the new sheriff of San Francisco. As for Tim, in Pokemon – Detective Pikachu, he starts out by hating Pokemons but he will learn to appreciate them, especially Pikachu. The meeting between Tom and Sonic and the one between Tim and Pikachu are presented in a similar way. After the exposing scene, which presents the characters, their qualities, their flaws and their inability to be integrated in their own world, Tom and Tim hear a noise in their respective house. They slowly approach and discover Sonic and Pikachu, to their amazement. The comparison between these two adaptation sequences, accessible to young audiences, highlights what I feel is laziness from screenwriters who develop stories that look strongly alike. It gives the impression that the two directors wanted to make as much money as possible simply by using the iconic figures of Sonic and Pikachu.

What is more, the female figure in these two movies is relegated to the sidelines. Indeed, there is only one “main” female character in each of these two films, and yet they are only present for a few minutes. They are introduced as independent women (Maddie is a hard-working vet while Lucy is a determined journalist's apprentice), but they never really bring much help to male characters. Maddie in Sonic and Lucy in Pokemon – Detective Pikachu bring nothing new during the heroes' quest.  

Moreover, we can notice that our two heroes, one blue, the other one yellow, have been designed to be as adorable as possible on screen. They have the same kind of fur and big eyes and they can feel human feelings. The importance of having a character similar to the one present in the video game is also essential for the public who was shocked by the first glimpse they caught of Sonic, in the first trailer for the film. The fans strongly asked for a new design for the blue hedgehog. This situation proves us the power that the spectators can have on a movie. 

The visual effects and the visual staging are more accentuated than the screenplay. Sonic and Pokemon – Detective Pikachu appear as two infantilising stories whose only interest is to accentuate the work on visual effects. This interpretation is confirmed with the release of Sonic 2 where we can read on one of the promotional poster "Welcome to the next level". This sentence only states that the characters go on an adventure and the poster shows that Sonic now has a new friend, Tails, who owns a plane. Together, they have to escape spectacular and explosive machines controlled by the evil Robotnick. 

However, we can imagine that a movie like Pixels (2016),  a cinematographic adaptation from the Pacman game and directed by Chris Columbus, is more straightforward and understandable in its screenplay. The Pacman wants to devour everything on its way.  The film can obviously displease the spectators, but we must admit one thing about it: the environment of the Pacman video game is only a black background where the character must swallow small colored dots. The cinematographic setting in Chris Columbus' s film will not enter into conflict with the video game environment.

Disappointment and underwhelming movie experiences 

Adaptations of video games into films are not a new phenomena. We can obviously count many videos games adaptations into movies since the beginning of the 2000's, like the first Tomb Raider movies where Angelina Jolie played the main character, a brave and independent adventurer named Lara Croft in Lara Croft : Tomb Raider (Simon West, 2001) and in Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (Jan de Bont, 2003). A reboot was released in 2018 starring Alicia Vikander as the title role in Tomb Raider (Roar Uthaug, 2018). 

Video games adaptations are big financial hits for video games companies. These adaptations are impatiently awaited by fans of the video games sagas. Although many partnerships are formed between movie production companies and video game companies, the opinion of the public on these video games adaptations into movies are regularly criticized and considered disappointing. Why then are these video games adaptation into movies not well received by the public, despite being highly awaited ? In this article, I will focus on Assassin's creed, adapted and directed by Justin Kurzel (2016) and Far Cry Warrior, adapted from the video games saga Far cry and directed by Uwe Boll (2008). 

No matter what kind of games they work on, talented video games animators succeed in creating imaginary worlds ; they manage to persuade the players of the game’s qualities and potential for gaming and exploration. Video games aimed for people 16 years old or more are often violent but also extremely realistic in their staging. There are details everywhere, in the scenery as well as in the characters' physical appearance for instance. The character’s movements and facial expressions make them pretty much life-like. The use of motion capture helps video games animators define every single physical part of the character's face and body. As for the sceneries, they have to be impressive, in order to let the player get immersed in the game. The final aim is to make an absolute visual masterpiece. 

In adapatations like Assassin's creed,  starring Michael Fassbender as Callum Lynch / Aguilar de Nerha and Marion Cottillard as Doctor Sophia Rikkin, the story may be based on an original screenplay, different from the ones already explored in the video games, the characters are still very much integrated in a cinematographic environment; the public expects impressive settings, amazing VFX and incredible stunts. And it is true, the stunts are substantial. “We just try to make all the stunts feel as real as possible and make you kind of believe in them”, highlights the director Justin Kurzel in a promotional interview for the movie. However, it is impossible for production designers to recreate the exact same environment as the one in the Assassin's creed video game saga. 

What makes the Assassin's creed saga so enjoyable for the players are the spectacular virtual worlds and the incredibly realistic movements of the playable characters. In the Assassin's creed cinematographic adaptation, the spectators were not surprised to see an actor walking realistically or speaking in a well-posed voice. In the end, the public and especially the fans can easily feel disappointed by the Assassin's creed adaptation. 

This situation exists for other video games adaptations like Far cry Warrior as well. While the Far cry saga is defined by its immersive display in which the player  plays a main character through a subjective view, the Far cry Warrior director, Uwe Boll, decided to rarely use this technique. Shots in Far Cry Warrior rely instead on basic cinematography such as outlines or close-up shots. These shots are not imagined with the aim of being impressive for the spectator's eye. For the fans, the movie doesn't reach into the same environment as the one they expected based on their game experience. What is more, if the screenplay is not deemed deep or interesting enough, it can easily lead to a new disappointment. Maybe it is too difficult for a spectator to watch a movie with only subjective shots  as seen through the eyes of the main character, but one thing here is clear: the director's vision doesn't seem strong enough for a public who is used to the original video game.

Video games, movies and more… welcome to my blog!

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Do you like video games ? Movies ? How about video games adaptations into movies ? Have you ever imagined there was  more to tell about this subject than people can think about ? If you are a curious person like me, if you appreciate debates, cinema and video games analyses and if you obviously want to read diverse input about video games and their cinematographic adaptations, you just came to the right place !

On this Tumblr page, I will write articles about iconic video games. I will mention the names of your favorite characters and I hope to open some people's minds about the abundance of aspects we can discuss on this topic. 

It is true that video games are omnipresent in the worldwide population's daily life. Many video game franchises are exported to the international scale. With the first aim of entertaining the player, video games tell different stories, often based on an imaginary world, where the main character, a hero or an anti-hero, experiences an extraordinary adventure. The main character meets allies and opponents on their way. After crossing each barrier  and difficulty, the character's journey will change their life forever. These games are appropriate for different age categories and are rated accordingly (pegi 3, pegi 12, pegi 16, pegi 18), and their staging seems to follow some cinematographic dramaturgic code. Other video games allow the player to create its own world like Minecraft or The Sims. Educational video games teach us to draw or to cook like Art Academy or Cooking Guide. Other video games such as Big Brain Academy enable us to evaluate our general knowledge. A majority of people believe that violent video games, and by extent their cinematographic adaptations, are a devastating threat for young people because they blur the limit between what is socially acceptable and what isn’t. It is true that we obviously need to be mindful about the evolution of video games, who become more realistic and sometimes more spectacularly violent, and about the consequences this evolution can have. Nevertheless, I personally think that it is also interesting to know how video games and their adaptations into movies establish themselves in our cultural practices and how they take part in the establishment of our modern behaviors.

Thanks to this blog, I want to give a rational vision of video games. I want to highlight their progressive anchorage in movies and series, no matter if their cinematographic adaptations aren't considered as classical or memorable movies per se.

To allow the debate to keep going, I'm asking you to refrain from hurtful or misplaced comments: feel free to give your opinion, but don't be mean to anyone!

Thank you guys and enjoy ! I hope you will like it !