Tomb Raider Gets a Movie Reboot, but Should It Just Be Left Alone?
Lara Croft has certainly seen a massive revival recently. Not only has she seen action in her critically acclaimed origin tale Tomb Raider, which was released by Square Enix earlier this month, but she has also been given a new lease of life in a reboot of her movie franchise. MGM and GK Films are partnering up to bring Miss Croft back to life on screen, beginning development immediately with Graham King (founder of GK Films) producing, The Hollywood Reporter details. There have been no announcements yet regarding actors or directors attached to the project.
In February, Deadline reported that the Hitman series was also to be rebooted on-screen (following the lacklustre 2007 installment starring Timothy Olyphant). This announcement came only a few months after the release of the long-awaited Hitman: Absolution (also released by Square Enix). With the Tomb Raider revivals – both in the release of the new game and announcement of the new movie – don’t these new film adaptations somewhat like cheap cash-ins? Whilst it makes perfect sense to strike whilst the iron’s hot, it feels like the reverse of a half-hearted game adaptation of a popular movie or TV show (which we’ve certainly seen a lot of since the dawn of gaming, from the infamous E.T. on the Atari 2600 to the recently panned The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct).
What adds to the sinking feeling regarding these upcoming projects is that to date, there have been very few enjoyable video-game adaptations in mainstream film (and even the ones we like are often guilty pleasures). The closest to a decent film version of a video game that has seen a Western release (allegedly Takashi Miike’s 2012 court drama Gyakuten Saiban – that’s Ace Attorney to us – is pretty good, but hasn’t yet seen a Western release) is probably Silent Hill, carefully and faithfully adapted from the original game series. However, the recent sequel Silent Hill: Revelation was so unspeakably awful it almost undid all the good work of its predecessor. We’ve only suffered otherwise when it comes to video game films, with the likes of Super Mario Bros., Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark and, of course, the Resident Evil franchise.
Can there ever be a good video game film? Is it a problem in the execution, or in the adaptation between different mediums? To some extent, it could be understood as both.
Many directors who adapt video game films tend to get too blinded by the source material, like a child in a sweet shop, and forget the basic aspects needed to make a decent film. Resident Evil: Retribution was a prime example of this, particularly in including characters like Barry Burton but not seizing a chance to create any emotional or dramatic attachment to the character whatsoever. In the original game, Burton tells Jill Valentine about his family but Paul W.S. Anderson completely ignored this opportunity to flesh out his movie version, including Burton in the film purely for the sake of it. In the end, films like this alienate both original game fans and newcomers to a franchise, achieving nothing but angry forum threads and mocking YouTube mash-ups.
It also hasn’t helped either that even with bad directors plaguing a project; video game movies have already lost so much of what was special about them just in the change of medium. The original Resident Evil was already a hammy, campy and absolutely daft tale, and gamers were all already well aware of that. However, it’s the experience that made us wet our pants at the sight of it. The excruciating frustration of low ammo that made us panic when we saw monsters dive our way, the fear of losing hours of progress since we last found a typewriter and ink, the camera angles devilishly placed so we were forced to confront our fears and head around a corner even though we could hear (but not see) a zombie and the devious puzzles all contributed to that experience, but disappear in a movie adaptation because Resident Evil then becomes a passive experience instead of an interactive one. Then all we are left with is a hammy, campy and absolutely daft tale. And if you entered into the Resident Evil world for the first time via the movies instead of the games, there would be no chance at all that you would find this aspect endearing. Just mostly frustrating. And this has occurred across video game adaptations, from the incredibly weird and creepy attempt to make Mario and Luigi work in real life in Super Mario Bros. back in 1993 to the awfully written and confusing Silent Hill: Revelation from last year. Even in the reverse, with games with film-like experiences such as Heavy Rain, there have been plenty of narrative shortcomings. Video game films have only seemed to work really well thus far when the video game aesthetic doesn’t hinder or overwhelm the story, as in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and Wreck-it Ralph. In these two films, the video game concept supports the central tales that have been carefully conceived and well written.
That said, however, perhaps a good director could turn Tomb Raider and Hitman around. If Christopher Nolan managed to turn as daft (albeit awesome, but still rather silly) a concept as Batman into an incredible, highly acclaimed trilogy, then there’s surely still hope for video game movies. Let’s keep our fingers crossed (when they’re not occupying controllers).
News sources – The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline