72 réponses à ce sujet

[DDK]

I dabble in screenwriting and writing in general as a hobby and as I've been replaying the series again I've been thinking about how I would go about writing such a movie.

My contention is that I don't think a movie can do the series justice because of why the series is popular in the first place. That reason being Shepard's conflict and relationship to the NPC's. The Reapers are pretty much just the McGuffin of the series rather than the central premise and without a TV series format, that simply isn't going to come across in a movie. Well, it can be done, but not without a bunch of cheesy exposition which will ruin the movie.

Without those conflicts and relationships, it's really just another sci-fi action movie. Not that that's a bad thing, but it's not what I believe is core to why so many people love the series.

What do you think?

[Hey]

absolutely. I don't know about mcmuffins or **** like that but I feel like it would definitely benefit from episodic content I would suspect. There is way too much there for a movie.

[NeroonWilliams]

I agree. This is one of the reasons that the fan community has been somewhat down on the JJ Abrams Star Trek films. The characters and relationships in that universe (as well as ME) are so much a part of the drama.

That and the fact that the stories and locales are so sprawling in scope. Even three 3 hour films would hardly contain the 100+ hours of gameplay and do it justice. The television medium gives you the time to present everything in a more natural way.

[Megaton_Hope]

I think that people are envisioning too ambitious a project. You're not going to develop the dozen-or-so characters in the same depth on a tv series, either; character development takes screentime, and it's mutually exclusive - you basically focus on one character at a time, or you're wasting all that time. What's worse, character development and action are often mutually exclusive. Just look at the second season of Walking Dead; all character, no show.

If you ask me, the first thing a person needs to recognize adapting Mass Effect to film is that the story and characters can't be presented in the same way, period. First, you can't walk around the Normandy or the Citadel having conversations for a half hour in a film. You MIGHT have Conrad Verner on as a gag. You WON'T be delving into Garrus's past frustrations at C-Sec and taking a long excursion into another star system to shoot somebody for him. (You could do this on a tv series, although...really, I wouldn't, at least, not the way it is now. A lot of build-up for no pay-off.) Overall, probably your best plan is to built up a central cast of about five people.

That is, Shepard (hero), Liara (hero's significant other), Ashley (hero's military buddy), Kaidan (hero's DEAD military buddy, whom we see a lot of before his demise, and flash back to after), and either Wrex or Garrus. I wanna say Wrex in a film, because the whole genophage plotline would provide something of a sequel hook, so long as it's allowed to simmer on the back burner. (I think I'd excise it from Virmire, though, because I bet movie audiences would be frustrated with the idea of Shepard finding a cure and destroying it, too.) Garrus in a tv show, because he's more man-in-suit and less weird alien. More or less.

And then, as for missions...well, might chop out Feros entirely, or rather combine Feros with Noveria, so that the settlement is threatened by the same thing unleashed in the lab. Therum is also more of a video game mission than a storyline; they could go look for Dr. T'soni, and find her in a plot-significant location which is significant for reasons other than her presence.

In any case, if you give each of five characters about ten or fifteen good minutes each, you're still only halfway through a film. Still time for some pacing to happen in there.

[Wolfva2]

I think Megaton hit it. Though I think a movie could have both Garrus and Wrex, or a TV show. I think a show could go more into the characters as well. After all, there's always the episode where the secondary character takes the lead and the protagonist is hardly seen, done to give some depth to said secondary character. Case in point (because I just watched it) the Doctor Who episode 'Turn Left' where Donna Nobles is forced to make a small decision that negates her meeting the Doctor, and showing how the world changes thereof. But yeah, any movie or show made on the game would deviate greatly from the game.

[MassivelyEffective0730]

As a poster already stated, I don't think it's really possible to take a 70-100 hour+ game series and do a good job getting down into TV series, let alone a movie.

And I don't get this hard-on for turning an RPG into a movie in the first place. I think the whole idea behind the film is a bad idea, and I'm disturbed that BW thinks it's a good one.

I hope it never sees the light of day.

[DEATH1945]

sci - fi , series

[Big Bad]

I personally think mass effect would be better as a video game.

[nos_astra]

MassivelyEffective0730 wrote...
As a poster already stated, I don't think it's really possible to take a 70-100 hour+ game series and do a good job getting down into TV series, let alone a movie.

Not without a massive rewrite and a significant jump in writing quality.

Especially the characters are way too underdeveloped to work in a movie or a tv series.

[l7986]

TV series would be much better in my opinion. But only if it was an HBO/Starz series and had good actors, not a Sci-Fi channel straight to the dumpster port with actors that should have stopped years ago.

A movie... honestly don't even know how they'd manage to do it without completely handwaving major portions of the game.

[Wolfva2]

MassivelyEffective0730 wrote...

As a poster already stated, I don't think it's really possible to take a 70-100 hour+ game series and do a good job getting down into TV series, let alone a movie.

And I don't get this hard-on for turning an RPG into a movie in the first place. I think the whole idea behind the film is a bad idea, and I'm disturbed that BW thinks it's a good one.

I hope it never sees the light of day.

I never really understood this concept.  "I don't like something, therefore NO ONE  SHOULD  EVER EVER  EVER have a chance to experience it because *I* don't like  it!"  If they made a movie, how would that effect you?  It wouldn't.  You don't HAVE to go see it after all.  It won't affect the game side of Bioware.  It won't change the game one whit.  If you decide to have another playthrough, you won't find the game has been updated to reflect the new cannon of the movie or show.  Nothing changes.  EXCEPT:  A movie comes out that some people may like, some people may hate.  A lot of people had this same opinion of yours when Marvel decided to make an Iron Man movie.  I remember some forums going up in flames when it was discovered that Robert Downey Jr. would be Tony Stark.  A lot of people thought that the movie would be horrendous.  Well.  I think Marvel is happy they made it.  I know I am.  And you know what?  The Iron Man comic book?  It hasn't changed to fit the movie.  It's the same Tony Stark with the same villains and alcohol problems and quirky sense of humor.  

[Wolfva2]

l7986 wrote...

TV series would be much better in my opinion. But only if it was an HBO/Starz series and had good actors, not a Sci-Fi channel straight to the dumpster port with actors that should have stopped years ago.

A movie... honestly don't even know how they'd manage to do it without completely handwaving major portions of the game.

Heh...if the Sci Fi channel made a ME movie...would anyone even know about it? <LOL>

"REAPER V SHARKTOPUS IV!!"

[Seboist]

MassivelyEffective0730 wrote...

As a poster already stated, I don't think it's really possible to take a 70-100 hour+ game series and do a good job getting down into TV series, let alone a movie.

And I don't get this hard-on for turning an RPG into a movie in the first place. I think the whole idea behind the film is a bad idea, and I'm disturbed that BW thinks it's a good one.

I hope it never sees the light of day.

ME is hardly 70-100 hrs in terms of story content. Like a lot of other games a good portion of the time is spent doing mundane things that don't much or any plot like moving around, shooting things or buying stuff. Then there's superflous things like side quests that can easilly be trimmed or removed altogether.

But yeah, a show or film can go 30 different ways and none of them good.

[NeonFlux117]

yes. With the right producer and directors it would be fantastic.

[Archonsg]

I personally think that even a 12 episode syfy port would be better than a 2hr+ movie.

[S.A.K]

Sure, if it is given a decent budget.

[Toolbox 24]

Big Bad wrote...

I personally think mass effect would be better as a video game.

+1

As a video game, you control it's content from the options Bioware gave us. As a TV series, certain things would be set as canon, from the way Shepard looks to deciding how to deal with the Reapers and the Catalyst.

I personally love being able to have a level of creative freedom in the way that Mass Effect plays out, a TV series or film would take that away...

Still watch it though.

[Nightdragon8]

its the same thing as books going to movie, I mean I suspect Ender's Game is going to be the same way. And trying to get hours of reading and detail down to 2+ hours is Impossable.

And here we have 60+ hours of gameplay going down to 2 hours... yea right. I mean Mass effect was pretty much a movie anyway. I think someone has already done it, pretty much play the game and edit it so you don't show the side quests and what not but the main missions and story, I think you can make a pretty damn good movie just out of the game from some ones playthough. And to think you can make multiple movies cause you can change how the actor acts.. I mean damn thats pretty much 2-3 movies for the price of 1.

[Argolas]

I think that the trilogy should neither be made as a movie nor as a TV series but both should be made merely based on the universe and on characters other than Shepard. They shouldn't force themselves to turn this video game plot into a movie and canonize a specific Shepard who does a specific set of things. Instead they should be creative and focus on a different setting with the freedom the tell their own stories.

[Helios969]

It would be terrible. Mainly because no network would invest the resources to do it correctly. It was difficult for scify to do BSG...and only fantastic writing and an incredible cast made it work. It would be ten times as expensive to produce a ME series.

[BronzTrooper]

Yes, but there is a movie in the works already. Hopefully, it's CGI so the VA's could be the same.

[Wulfram]

ME2 is more of a TV series, because the recruitment/loyalty quests make it rather episodic.

ME1 could work well as a movie if you cut the sidequests and merged some of the various planets.

ME3 I'd see as being it's own trilogy. Earth + Krogan part 1, Coup + Rannoch + Thessia Part 2, Cerberus + Earth Part 3, or something like that.

[NeroonWilliams]

Wulfram wrote...

ME2 is more of a TV series, because the recruitment/loyalty quests make it rather episodic.

ME1 could work well as a movie if you cut the sidequests and merged some of the various planets.

ME3 I'd see as being it's own trilogy. Earth + Krogan part 1, Coup + Rannoch + Thessia Part 2, Cerberus + Earth Part 3, or something like that.

This (especially the ME3 treatment suggested) sounds like it could be awesome.  And ME2 was what I was thinking of as far as episodic TV goes.

[Vargeisa]

I imagine a ME tv series would be a lot like Farscape.
That show was amazing, and still it was cancelled before the final season.
I doubt a ME show would have better luck.

Scorpius > Saren/TIM/Harbinger.

[TheMyron]

Considering how much ME2 is structured like a TV show....