Metroid Movie (1 Viewer)

[Marshall W. Carter]

If they want this movie to be successful, they'll try to go for Aliens with exoskeletal armor. There's plenty there to go for the same kind of atmosphere of the Alien films, though of course you couldn't be quite so graphic with the violence (not Nintendo's style).

I also think it's a mistake to get too far away from the game itself when making the movie. You only need to look back to Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within to see a game-based movie that really had nothing to do with the games that inspired it, aside from some flashy CG and the Gaia subplot. Considering how well the fantasy genre has done since, you'd think that sticking with something closer to the games (swords, sorcery, Espers and the like) would have been far more successful than the half-rate Starship Troopers meets Ghostbusters drivel it became instead. In short, it needed Moogles, Bahamut & the Atma Weapon.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Considering how well the fantasy genre has done since, you'd think that sticking with something closer to the games (swords, sorcery, Espers and the like) would have been far more successful than the half-rate Starship Troopers meets Ghostbusters drivel it became instead. In short, it needed Moogles, Bahamut & the Atma Weapon

Honestly, I think it would have done MUCH worse if they had gone with things like that. But, that is for a different thread.

For a Metroid movie, they need to do what they always do in the games. Multiple environments, big bad guys, Ridley, Metroids, things exploding, and Samus. Unfortunately, the games aren't really story-based, so making a movie with a story will be really difficult.

 

[Marshall W. Carter]

The question is, considering how poorly its theatrical release did, how could it have been any worse (particularly from Square's viewpoint)? It couldn't have. In trying to come up with something more acceptable to "Western moviegoers," they ended up coming up with something no one wanted to watch, including fans of the games. It's been argued that this was due more to moviegoers not being willing to accept a realistically CG-rendered movie (as opposed to what Pixar has been doing), but ultimately, I still believe it has more to do with a story that was really never worth telling. And there is another thing the games have in common: all take place in fantasy settings, places or magic, swordplay (Gunblades count) & beasts, not a post-apocalyptic Earth overrun by what are still alien invaders (no matter what 'spiritual' connotation is granted them).

The same would hold true with a Metroid film. If they change things too much, it won't really be Metroid, but a standard, run-of-the-mill science fiction movie that just happens to have the name and a passing resemblance to the game. If someone would spend some money to hire some talent instead of hiring some two-bit hack to come up with a proper storyline derived from the actual games, it stands a chance to be something decent. On the other hand, films derived from popular culture (comic books, video games, etc.) tend to either die in development hell or get twisted in some way that will displease most of those actually excited about it (largely due to the hiring of people that have no real passion for the subject matter at hand), so I guess it's likely much ado about nothing at this point...

 

[Morgan Jolley]

If they change things too much, it won't really be Metroid, but a standard, run-of-the-mill science fiction movie that just happens to have the name and a passing resemblance to the game

And therein lies the problem. Metroid games have always been gameplay-focused, not story-focused (Metroid Fusion being the most storyline-based on them all). Making a movie of Metroid would probably end up either really boring or, as you said, a run-of-the-mill science fiction movie that just so happens to have the same name and passing resemblance to the game.