SAVAGE PIXELS #19: Colonial Marines and Gaming’s Hollywood Complex
Movies, into games, do not compute... often. As Aliens: Colonial Marines arrives after a protracted gestation - given its license, you might have thought it'd be bursting to get out there - Savage Pixels looks at tie-in hits and misses, and remembers some awful movies based on (actually pretty decent) games. Oh, and a Fantastic Five from the awesome Chipzel, who soundtracked Super Hexagon. Game on... over... on... over...

man aladdin
stone cold classic
Great column Mike
This is what the Halo test footage that became District 9 was looking like when they axed the project.
I've no idea WHAT they were expecting, given how wicked some of this test footage is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BaVb2TlWb0
Just ordered Alien: Ressurection on PS1 off amazon for £3
I only have a PSone in my bedroom so that'll be nice.
It's hard
As in, proper 'fuck me, games used to be this difficult?!' hard.
Got to one point in the game with so little ammo that I had to restart the whole thing from scratch. the fact I did though is testament to how much I liked the atmosphere.
you didn't mention the good movie based on a video game (mortal kombat)
!!
Good
Hmmm... Certainly not as bad as its sequel. Turned a profit at the box office too.
Watched Prince of Persia over Christmas (when it was on the telly). Apparently it's the highest-rated movie to be based on a videogame. It was complete toss.
I think the first Mortal Kombat is a genuinely entertaining film
a slightly hokey mix from tropes from 70s martial arts films and hints of fantasy and classical influences but as iffy as some aspects are, it looks solid, the plot is as coherent as you could possibly hope and it captures the spirit of the game whilst being something you could probably watch without knowing the games beforehand.
captures the spirit of the game
Something that so many of them do wrong. The FPS section in Doom? Mmmmnaaaaah.
there's a difference between feeling right
and just trying to copy something from the game and cram it into a film with no regard for the fact that the two mediums have different conventions and tropes.
Mortal Kombat is the right side of the line, Doom's FPS section the wrong.