It looks like we’re getting another movie and TV show based on a video game. When was the last time that happened again? I do recall when Mortal Kombat attempted this, but I can also remember that neither one did all that great. The novelty of both wore off very quickly after a short while and was allowed to just kind of spool out over the short course of their run. In other words, the hype for Contra feels a little more contrived than realistic, but I am hoping I could be wrong. Video game adaptations aren’t the worst thing to ever come to the big or small screens, but unless they’re done right they just flop horribly.
I can come up with an entire list of films that were based off of video games that didn’t go anywhere. Assassin’s Creed, even though I thought was okay, was given horrible reviews. All but a few of the Resident Evil movies were given terrible reviews. Silent Hill, Far Cry, Max Payne, Tekken, and on and on and on. The margin of error for shows and films made off of video games is so horribly small that I would imagine that such a project would give many directors severe panic attacks when they’re attempting to get the thing done and edited. There are so many dedicated fans that want to see the game truly represented and not butchered and studio executives and producers to please, and on top of that the director must keep everyone working and reasonably satisfied if the project is to go anywhere. That seems like it might be enough to make someone panic from time to time.
Contra has a decent story to work with to be quite honest. It’s pretty straightforward in that two men that are both members of a specialist force are sent to an island to combat the enemy and discover just what is controlling them. It’s a humans vs. aliens type of game and offers an interesting and entertaining level of play that unfortunately didn’t last much past the gaming stage for a long time. With the competition in gaming however it’s not much of a surprise that Contra was only remembered by the most devout gamers for a while.
It would seem however that Konami, the company responsible for the game, is teaming up with Chinese Starlight Media to begin production on the film and the TV show, which will each begin streaming upon release. Unfortunately no one knows just when the release will be, but the expectations for this project are already quite high since as I said video games have a very tough time transitioning to the big screen for the one reason that they don’t often get handled in the right way. Fans tend to rip the movies apart and are merciless when noting which details are accurate and which are not.
There’s hope however since as of the past decade video game movies have at least been getting a little better.
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