Stop Moaning About Video Game Movies
Why the new era of studio filmmaking might be better than the last
The video game era is here. All hail the video game era.
Don’t just take my word for it. Here’s newly minted Filmstacker Sean Fennessey:
Speaking of video games, that was my overwhelming takeaway from CinemaCon—they’re not only the new superhero for studios, they’re the new Everything […] This is not only the vanguard of studio filmmaking, it’s easily the most untapped resource given the 40-plus-year history of gaming.
Sounds grim, right? Just as superheroes hit the limits of their powers, studios find another source of IP to shove through the sausage factory. There is the unmistakable stench of butts-in-seats cynicism to the whole affair. One Intellectual Property After Another.
It’s less bad than you think. Actually, that’s a hedge. I’ll rephrase. It’s good.
Studios have always followed the money. Westerns, musicals, slashers, historical epics, young adult dystopias: Hollywood history is littered with the bones of genres once enthusiastically embraced by the industry’s powerbrokers.
Today, the pivot revolves around IP and brand identity rather than story and genre. Hence the cynicism. But that’s the world we’re stuck with. Rather than comparing this latest development to a mythical ideal of artistically motivated studio filmmaking, isn’t it better to compare it to, I don’t know, the world we’ve actually been living in for the last 10+ years?
If I had to choose between a world where superheroes are the “vanguard of studio filmmaking” and a world where video game movies fulfil the same function, I’d choose the latter.