Video game movies are only just escaping decades of the overwhelming stigma that marked them for death the instant that they were announced. The cultural imagination hasn't quite come full circle, however, and a savvy viewer can find the key element of video games that turns making movies about them into a bad idea.
Ghost of Tsushima is heading for a big-screen adaptation with John Wick director Chad Stahelski at the helm. This could seem like a good idea, as the game has a great story, but the long history of failed adaptations tells a story that wounds the perception of the potential adaptation.
Ghost of Tsushima made absolutely no secret of the fact that its presentation, storytelling, and general vibe were heavily inspired by the legendary filmography of Akira Kurosawa. Kurosawa's Jidaigeki films including Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and The Hidden Fortress, among others, are fundamental building blocks of how the world sees samurai. Almost any samurai story told for the benefit of a modern audience would take some notes from Kurosawa, but Ghost of Tsushima's allusions are more than skin deep.
The narrative follows many of the director's favorite themes, like the era's honor culture and the cyclical nature of violence. The game's world features a dynamic weather system, which delicately recreates many of Kurosawa's beloved natural scenes. Most obviously, the game features a mode in the menu called "Kurosawa Mode", which applies and black and white filter to make the action look like a playable version of Yojimbo. This is all great, people love playable versions of their favorite films, but when the gameplay aspect is removed, what's left?
Ghost of Tsushima without the gameplay is nothing but a poor imitation of films that have already been made better elsewhere. Of course, tons of movies are inspired by other movies, but the novelty added to spice up games like Ghost of Tsushima is the element being removed by bringing it back to the big screen. While the tale of Jin Sakai is a great example of this issue, it's miles away from the only one. This year saw the disappointing release of the film adaptation of Uncharted, which learned the same lesson the hard way. Uncharted was visibly inspired by the adventures of Indiana Jones or The Mummy trilogy, so when the studio took the intense shooting, driving, and climbing out of players' hands, all they're left with is a cheap imitation. Every critic took time out of their review to compare Uncharted unfavorably to Raiders or Last Crusade, and for good reason.
There are tons of video games that sell themselves off the idea of being playable versions of fan-favorite films, some more obvious than others. No one tried to make a movie about A Way Out, because they would've just been making a lesser Shawshank Redemption. Lara Croft's adventures take inspiration from Indiana Jones or the classic adventure serials that inspired it, so the film comes across as a lesser Temple of Doom.
The Resident Evil series borrows a ton from George A. Romero's zombie films, but all changes in the film adaptations only serve to make things worse. It can even work in reverse. The Need for Speed franchise started seven years before The Fast and the Furious franchise, yet when the film came out, it had been so tainted by the Vin Diesel vehicle that it became a lesser version. This problem is both very common and extremely predictable. The translation just doesn't work both ways. Creators have proven a hundred times that attaching controllers to a film makes something special, but removing them from a game just ruins the fun.
There are a few video game movies that completely evade this problem, largely by being interesting enough concepts on their own that the filmmakers can't just fall back on established films. Sonic the Hedgehog is fundamentally a video game story, which means adapting it into a film takes some extra forethought. There's no classic film about an alien mammal that runs extremely fast to rip off, Jeff Fowler and company had to improvise. Detective Pikachu takes inspiration from classic noir detective features but did so in a beautiful living breathing world based on the beloved franchise. The games being adapted are unique and interesting enough that they necessitate a strange and interesting vision to make the leap. This should serve as a lesson to the studios picking what gets the big-screen adaptation next.
Ghost of Tsushima could turn out to be an incredible film, but it either won't be much of an adaptation or it won't be very original. The film could be a great modern answer to Kurosawa's classics, Star Wars has been taking cues from the director for over fifty years now. But, even if the films are occasionally good, they won't beat the films that inspire them. The film adaptation of a game based on a movie isn't worth making, but that won't stop them from coming out.