July 2001 || Volume 01, Issue 12

From Games Into Movies

Movies based on games have a very bad reputation and most of the reviews that they receive are very negative. Their success is often attributed to those that liked the game because, as the story goes, no one else would watch those movies. I've always wondered why I could like these movies so much when so many other people in the movie watching industry had the exact opposite opinion. Am I biased or do you have to look at these movies in a different light? Specifically, I'll highlight the recent Lara Croft: Tomb Raider movie and another great movie, Mortal Kombat. A word of warning before I begin and that is there are some Tomb Raider spoilers. I don't give very many specific details, but forewarned is forearmed.

The Premise

A scene from Lara Croft: Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider, and Lara Croft in particular, are well-known even to people who have never even played one of the Tomb Raider games. However, many people just know that Lara Croft is a well-endowed adventurer who goes to exotic locations. I'm sure that many movie reviewers just know that and go in to see a typical action movie with the typical action movie cliches. The other movie reviewers have actually played the game and, based on their reviews, expect to see a movie where Lara Croft tells us all about her life and hopes and dreams and why she's doing something when she does it.

This is why I think that movies based on games need to be viewed slightly differently than other movies. Some of these movies are simply the game on the big screen, while other movies take the characters from the game and put them in a new situation. Mortal Kombat fell into the former because it took a lot of the plot and characters from the first two Mortal Kombat games. Mortal Kombat, by the way, is a great movie and should be seen not only by fans of the game but fans of action movies in general. Tomb Raider falls into the latter category and takes Lara Croft and puts her into a new situation. Therefore, you should view the Tomb Raider movie by asking yourself if Lara Croft would get involved in that situation and if she acts as she has acted in the games and if the plot is an interesting one. Of course, this requires that you have some knowledge about who Lara Croft is and what kind of person she is and know some of what she's done in the past. So if you are just viewing Lara Croft as some British babe then I can understand why you wouldn't really understand all of the hype surrounding the movie and end up by being underwhelmed.

This points out a fundamental weakness in all movies that are based on games. To get the most enjoyment from the movie, you need to have some knowledge of the game. Oh sure, you can explain some of the history of the game in the movie, but after a certain point that takes away from the plot of the movie. Plus, it's rather boring seeing people talking about their past, especially if the movie is an action movie. The best way is if an event in a person's past affects their present in some way because that can be shown and still have relevance to the movie. For example, in the Mortal Kombat movie, the three heroes' past affected how well they could fight in the tournament and so they each had a brief introduction. Along the way, they each grew and learned to overcome their fears and became stronger and wiser. In Tomb Raider, you learned just one thing about Lara Croft and that was her deep love and respect for her father and how much she misses him since he disappeared. Maybe this is why movie reviewers don't like Tomb Raider. Perhaps they wanted to learn more about Lara herself and why she travels around the world finding lost treasure instead of being an aristocrat and living the life of luxury. After all, her mansion has 83 rooms and it seems that she only uses two of them. Still, we learned a good deal about Lara and what her interests are by simply noticing what she does. You can either have someone say that Lara is interested in astronomy or have Lara use a rather large telescope and talk about an astronomical fact. I personally would rather have the latter in addition to or instead of the former.

Conclusion

Lara Croft, the astronomer

I fully admit that Tomb Raider didn't capture my imagination as the Mortal Kombat movie did, but that doesn't mean that Tomb Raider deserves a 0 out of 5 stars rating at IGN. Tomb Raider has a lot of interesting action scenes and I saw some moves that Lara Croft has in the games which was nice. The camera work was quite good and the set design brought me back to some of the rather strange places that are featured in the games. Could Tomb Raider have been a better movie? Of course, it could have! There is always room to become better in almost any movie. In particular, some of the deaths were a bit too graphic and I would have liked to have seen some more air time for the loyal butler and the wacky mechanical genius. In addition, there was that guy archaeologist who we never heard about at the end of the movie. If there is a second Tomb Raider movie, it would be nice if he made an appearance if not a larger role than in the first movie. Do I think there will be a second movie? Based on the dollar figures, I would say yes but based on the reviews, I would say no. I certainly hope that there is a second movie because Lara Croft is too interesting of a character to not delve into further.

Who is Erica? What is this column?

Hello everyone! My name is Erica J. Marceau and I am the resident Game Expert of the Mac OS Journal staff. When I'm not playing or thinking about games, I am looking for a job as an Electrical Engineer after graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University with a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering. My other hobbies include watching animé and reading manga, reading fantasy and science fiction books, role-playing, learning as much about technology as I can, and traveling in the lands of Puddleby in Clan Lord as Jeanne.

Every month I'll cover a different topic, from interviews with important people in the gaming industry to ideas for the perfect game, and everything in between. And if there is a topic of the Mac gaming industry that you'd like me to talk about or you want to be interviewed, please email me at: erica@macosjournal.com or use this feedback form.

Erica J. Marceau - erica@macosjournal.com
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