Console to Screen: Gears of Wars

Gears of War has been in "development hell", but if
it wants to get to the big screen, it should do it right.

After writing “Why Video Game Movies Haven't Worked”, this series will explain what your favorite game franchises must do to avoid the Resident Evil quality... besides not hiring Paul W.S. Anderson. As explained previously, most movies adapted from the video games end up betraying the gamer's beloved story and action, only to fit a style that could have been any generic tale. This week, will focus on the popular XBox series Gears of War from Microsoft and Epic games. What pitfalls could this franchise encounter since the game is already a trilogy with three stories mapped out? Who could play the role of Marcus Fenix? What director can pull it off? How would it be presented?

Story: 

For starters, Gears of War is a trilogy that takes place on planet Sera, 14 years after “E-Day” (stands for Emergence Day, when the locusts surfaced). The Coalition of Ordered Governments send out soldiers to fight the locust horde called “Gears”. Marcus Fenix is a high member of the “Gears” soldiers that was imprisoned for insubordination trying to rescue his father. He was pardoned because the situation of the Sera is getting grim and given his gear by his friend Dom Santiago. As the story progresses, Fenix re-enters the fold of the Army and gets promoted for his good work, even after he has to return to his father's mansion to get vital information about the locust stronghold. On the way, he meets up with his old friend Damon Baird and the famous football player Augustus Cole “Train”.

After the three games, gamers got to care for the Delta Squad.
Hollywood needs to do them justice.

The first installment of the series was a more story driven piece that didn't flush out their characters enough. The second installment of the series did much better. Baird and Cole got more screen time, but the gem was the search for Dom's lost wife Maria. (Don't look below if you're trying to avoid spoilers). The story and gameplay kept gamers intrigued, but movie audiences will need to see the “Gears” soldiers become full characters right away. They can't wait until the sequel to do that. Fenix's quest to clear is family name is key in the series as well, but it wasn't a 100% clear what he happened until the opening of the third game. There were rumors of Kate Beckensale being attached as Maria, but that would be a waste of her time as character that had two scenes in the original story. Now, that's where Hollywood can make a Resident Evil mistake; make a character that isn't in the original story (see Alice of the RE series). There could be a call for a stronger female character in the story, but that develops as Anya (love interest to Fenix) gets more involved with the fighting and not just the look out. If this is to move to screen, it must develop the characters earlier. This series could be a quality trilogy if handled properly.

Who could pull of Marcus Fenix?
Tom Hardy would be a good choice.

Cast: 

Who would be ideal actors for these characters? They're not exactly hard characters to play, but not easy ones either. Baird isn't lovable until late in the series. Fenix has an attitude and Dom could come off as whiney if too consumed with his search for his wife. The look of these game characters are incredibly musclebound and scarred, but don't call in The Rock just yet. Sure the internet has an opinion from every one, how about these:

Marcus Fenix- Tom Hardy doesn't get the nod after playing Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, but after his performance in Warrior as a troubled marine who deserted his unit already makes him ideal. Hardy didn't say much in the film and yet, you felt the darkness inside of him. That's what Marcus Fenix is. John DiMaggio (Bender in Futurama) nailed it in his voice acting and the animators made his mannerisms so perfectly, you wish they could just put it on big screen. With his star shining brighter after every role, by the time Gears gets rolling, Hardy will be a household name.

Dominic Santiago- I'm not sure what actor can take on this role. Dom needs to come off as scared, but strong. A longing determined husband, but not a wimp. Eventually, he has to make a great sacrifice and it drives him into a deep despair. What actor can do that in an action film and look the part? If you can get over the age difference, Benicio Del Toro could be a possiblity.

Damon Baird- Karl Urban already is an underrated action star, but in Star Trek and Lord of the Rings, he proved to be a good supporting actor as well. Urban can lead, but he is also capable of not hogging the screen from the main star. He shared it well with Chris Pine. He could easily share it with Tom Hardy. His wit and charisma would serve best as Baird. 

Augustus Cole “Train”- If it was still the nineties, Michael Clark Duncan would be the perfect choice. Alas, everyone ages. If you scour around, Christopher Judge from Stargate SG-1 could be a viable candidate. Cole “Train” doesn't have to carry a film with his story or his acting. Unlike Dom, he's a secondary piece and can be pushed aside briefly in the first two films (again if this is to be a series), but who wants another face that can't act. Gary Oldman doesn't!

Story structure:

Gears of War is told in 5 Acts per game in the series. If you adhere to the traditional 3 Act structure, two acts would be cut immediately. Let's face it, half the time a video game wants to keep you playing with pointless missions and side tasks. Gears of War limited them, but they're still there. As in any video-game-to-screen transfer, there'll have to be plenty of cuts. However, cutting out sequences certain side sequences can lead to lost side character development like the Strandeds, who are settlements of humans that learned to fend for themselves in the harsh world of Sera. Often, Gears found themselves training with the Strandeds just to get ordinary items like cars. The Strandeds have more weight than a bum on the street and all Gears soldiers knew it.

You have to get introduced to the hierarchy of the COG and even the Locusts. Gamers learned of the Locusts' queen Myrrah well into the second game and only heard her voice at the very end of the first Gears of War. As for her top two Locust henchmen, General RAAM and Skorge, are just two bad ass characters without much substance in the first two games. They will need to be developed for a film to be successful as the “mute aliens” are rarely compelling.

There's an aspect of the Gears story which needs more explaining: the human experiments. It wasn't exactly quite clear in the Gears of War 2, whereas the Lambent Humans in Gears of War 3 were more acceptable. The human experiments drove Tai to kill himself and eventually led to Dom's difficult choice, but- I repeat this a lot- IT MUST BE EXPLAINED EARLIER IN A MOVIE SERIES.

What's already in place:

Gears of War has an outstanding soundtrack originally started by Kevin Riepl, but it has continued well on by Steve Jablonsky. A compelling score can keep people in their seats, get their blood going and hum the tune all the way home.

The game always had an excellent feel like you were living and action movie, but you're not going to watch a 10 hour action film. Most action films really on four action scenes (a first-ten-minute-eye-opener, a first act fight, a second act obstacle and a third act resolution), even the “action packed ones” have five scenes at most. If Gears sticks to their storyline from the first game, that gives you these sequences: escape from prison, evacuating Baird and Cole, the fight at the mansion and the “train ride to hell”. Perhaps, the movie can push for one more, but less is more unless you can find an Inception-style of blending several action sequences together. Now the direction of the action sequences and tone of the story will be important too. Will it he handled like a Sci-Fy movie or an authentic war-like story. That remains to be seen too. Perhaps, Neil Blomkampt can duplicate his successful tone he used in District 9.

Ok, so that's a brief outline of the first Console to Screen. Just remember, just because a game is played well, doesn't mean it'll be viewed well. Keep reading for the next one of this series in August.

Best Music in Gaming History

In the genesis of the video games, music wasn't needed to soothe the savage beast. Pong didn't have music, neither did Asteroids or Missle Commander. Hell, even Donkey Kong and many early Nintendo games didn't have music except a bit in the beginning. However, as games evolved into bigger experiences with better storytelling, a great score was needed. Some of these games have scores that blockbuster films would envy and set the mood brilliantly. Sometimes it wrenched your guts and sometimes it keeps you going to the next level. The music of these games inspired the constantly sold out show "Video Games Live", where fans get to hear the music of games they loved.

Let's take a look at ten: (will not include Mass Effect, Halo or Dead Space for lack of experience with them and all Star Wars games are out since their music comes straight from the movies.) 

Mega Man gave you a different
feel for every level.

Mega Man - The theme of different tones for different worlds and characters come up a lot and Mega Man was one of the first that used that tactic well. All of the worlds had a their own traits and their own music, but Dr. Wily's was always most ominous and frantic style. This would not be Capcom's only entry in this blog.

Ninja Gaiden's music was key for
the action as well as the cinema
scenes.

Ninja Gaiden (NES) - Probably the earliest game that used cinema cut scenes, but music drove the engine of Ninja Gaiden. Whether it was in the gameplay- where each stage had it's own identifiable music- or the cinema scenes that used the music to build the suspense during Ryu Hyabusa's search for his missing father. Throughout the game, Ryu encounters enemies, friends, counter-agents and even loss of those friends as they are captured or killed. The twists and turns of the story are all given extra juice by the score.

Arkham City put you in the
Dark Knight's skin.

Batman Arkham City - The Arkham games are the one place that DC Comics have conquered Marvel and it's music was a primary reason. Nick Arundel and Ron Fish create a score closer to the Danny-Elfman style, but it's used more like the Christopher Nolan movies that don't overpower the audience. During gameplay, the music stays in the background, but during fights or predator battles, the music leaps to the forefront as the panicking henchman desperately endure the Dark Knights tactics.

With a new techo-style, Metroid Prime
sparked gamer's adrenaline.

Metroid Prime - Metroid didn't use much music that would be memorable until it hit it's stride in Metroid Prime. With a more techno style by Kenjo Yamamoto, Metroid Prime created the style that made you listen to the game as well get your adrenaline pumping. Take the final fight of the first game against Metroid Prime or the battles with Dark Samus, you can't help but slide to the front of the couch as you attempt to destroy your nemesis. The series continued with great music in Metroid: The Other M and continues to reinvent itself all the time.

Resident Evil's score made you
live in a horror movie.

Resident Evil - The original installment relied on silence and mostly ominous tones, but hauntingly crept when the situation called for it. As the series progressed it used the music in the background effectively in a horror movie style. The music was appropriate; never overpowering and never letting you feel safe. Take the fights with Mr. X or Tyrant, where the music is absent and slowly builds to make you sweat. *Music by Akari Kaida, Makoto Tomozawa and Masami Ueda

The music in Street Fighter was
intricate for every stage.

Street Fighter II - The fighting game that spawned the craze. Sure Karate Champ was first, but this was separated from all others by it's music. Every character had their own home and their own theme highlighting the opponents personality. If you fought Zangief, the music would give you a more Russian flare. If you were in America, rock music would play and so on. Sure, some of these stories (PunchOut is also guilty of it) are comically racist, but that's not what we're talking about here. 

Final Fantasy VII was an epic experience
with an epic score.

Final Fantasy VII - Probably the best example of music enhancing the storytelling. From the into of the game to the end, the Final Fantasy series used music better than most other franchises. The composers didn't treat this like a video game- more like an opera. All the characters had their own music. You could have been blind folded and still known when Sephiroth comes on screen. You felt Cloud's decent into madness, when danger came to the group, or even when the members of the group had romantic feelings for one another (by the way, even Barrett could fall for Cloud). Perhaps on of the best moments in gaming history was the Aeis' death (FFVII), which was largely without music, but when inserted beautifully, made many gamers weep. The epic 60 hour experience was full of great music and few were better than it. *Music by Nobuo Uematsu

Who didn't hum the Mario Bros theme?

Super Mario Brothers - Possibly the most famous of all video game music, but it stuck in many gamers heads when they were done popping quarters in the arcade or when they turned off their NES consoles in 1986. The game had different music for the different worlds you'd visit, different tasks you accomplished (like warping: wa, wa, wa) and especially when you grabbed a star. That sounded like to composer took some cocaine and just went nuts. The only thing Mario didn't have was different music for Luigi...but at that time no one cared. This is the first mention of Koji Kondo on the list, but won't be  the last.

If Gear of War becomes a film,
it already has the perfect music.

Gears of War - Believe it or not, this series produced exceptional music throughout it's trilogy. Kevin Riepl's score made it feel like a blockbuster summer action movie. It made a fire fight with hordes of grubs engulfing and kept you fighting until it you heard that tone signaling the last locus had his head blown off. All that is good, but this series gave you fantastic music during it's cinematic scenes. Whether it was watching Kim get killed by General RAAM or the soul crushing scene of when Dom finds Maria in Gears of War 2, this series pulled you in with it's tone, heightening the peril, exciting you with the danger and even breaking your heart. The booming tones of the series echo in your brain hours after you shutdown the game. If you don't believe me, play the end of Gears of War 3 and try not to hum the theme in the end.

The Best of the Best when it comes to video game music.

The Legend of Zelda - The cream of the crop when it comes to video game music. Koji Kondo created the greatest of all video game themes and adjusted the music from game to game in a way that made every installment unique. In fact, the one time the music for the series was criticized was when they didn't include the famous Legend of Zelda theme in arguably their greatest game (Ocarina of Time). Still, every edition of this series has not just given fans good music- it's been great music. Every aspect of the music accentuated each main (and even most minor) characters, the story, the time of day, the mood and even broke you emotionally. Music has also been a weapon used by Link in every edition of this series. Whether it was saving Zelda, facing Ganon (or Ganondorf in later games) to surprise twists or that tone when you solved a mystery. Most people can tell you exactly what game it is from the first couple bars of the theme. It was so popular that Nintendo gave away a CD of the series popular themes. Most fans would agree that it was worth the extra money for the "special edition".

Why Video Games Movies Haven't Worked

Remember the days when playing a video game was just simply popping a quarter into a machine and trying to finish a level? Whether it was playing Donkey Kong, Spy Hunter or Arknoid, people had fun with arcade games before it moved in the home with Pac Man, Super Mario Bros and Sonic the Hedgehog leading the way. Let's just say things have evolved since then. Now video games are well-written narratives that engross their player into a story -where some even evoke an emotional response- all tuned to music from a full orchestra written by the same guys that write the scores for blockbuster motion pictures. Hollywood is trying to get more video games on bigger screens than your flat screen at home. However, these stories haven't been able to be adapted to the big screen. Why? Were their casts not good enough? Did they not have top notch directors? What went wrong?

For starters, look at the facts. Despite making about $678 million worldwide during it's series, the Resident Evil movies have been mediocre at best. Their Rotten Tomatoes score never broke 34% so critics and audiences didn't like it too much despite what box office grosses have to say. Part of the problem to the hardcore RE fans is that the addition of Alice changed the story completely. The RE game was about a special OPs team that was dropped into a strange situation, only to discover that one of their own agents assisted in creating the ultimate biological weapon. The movie... went another way. It begins with the incident and turns into a bizarre retelling of "Alice in Wonderland". Does that sound like the same story? Of course not, but somehow this spawned THREE more movies and a fifth coming in September. In spite of low quality of these films, it keeps making money. Guess that proves movies don't have to be good, just slapped with a brand name.

The fundamental part of the video game storytelling is gone when put on screen. Plug in your console and pop in a random action game. Usual formula now is cinema scene (tutorial maybe) and then a task that leads to the expanding story. A film needs to introduce the character and have an inciting incident to draw the viewer in. A video game already has the viewer and the experience expands the story, whereas a film has to tell the story. Hence why a game like "F.E.A.R." works well, but if made into a film wouldn't using the exact same formula would be dreadful. Take "Gears of War" (always rumored in production) uses a 5 act structure. There's only three acts in a movie. So right away there's two acts that needs to be removed and that's not including that the original Gears game focused on Marcus Fenix without explaining E-Day. It wasn't until the second story that Gears developed Dom's story and the history of the War. "Gears of War" cannot do that if they make a film, especially if the producers want the trilogy. 

Part of the problem with video game films is that the player is meant to be in a game for several hours. A film is meant to hold you for 2 hours. Now, how do you just remove bits of story without hurting the overall experience your audience has already enjoyed? Take "Super Mario Bros" -the first video game movie- which made up a story about plumbers who travelled to another dimension to take on Koopa, who is a crime boss and not a giant turtle-like creature. This film was doomed from the start. Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo as Italian plumbers? Really? None of the film embodied it's more successful namesake and what's worse is that it proved what not to do with a video-game-movie. At least "Double Dragon" didn't make the same mistake... oh wait.

The other way around is true as well, look at "Street Fighter" and "Mortal Kombat" which were two games that had minimal story and yet were expanded to make 90 minute movies. The result was two films with weak storylines and characters you weren't sure if you wanted to root for them in the first place. A fighting game doesn't really have a hero. It has heroes. So there's no clear person to root for and what if your favorite characters was Ryu and Johnny Cage and the film centers around Guile and Liu Kang. Seriously, did anyone think Raiden was a good guy?

Now, it is possible to make a good video game movie. If you consider "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" as one. Instead of making a film about their highly successful "Final Fantasy VII", Square Soft told another story with new characters. This film featured the voices of Ming Na, Ving Rhames, Alec Baldwin, Donald Sutherland, Steve Buscemi and James Woods. It was the highest rated video-based film... that was not based of a game. "Silent Hill" and "Prince of Persia" focused on their stories a little bit more and lead to a better product, but there still hasn't been a "Citizen Kane" for video game films. There were rumors of John Woo being attached to "Metroid", but there still hasn't been any activity from Nintendo with rumors that "The Legend of Zelda" will never find it's way to the big screen. One good thing came from the failure to make "Halo", Peter Jackson ended up using Neil Blomkamp to make "District 9" when they couldn't get a script for the game.

Maybe Hollywood gets it right sometime soon. They're going to have plenty of opportunities coming up.  Internet rumors have up 20 games being optioned to become features, but will they ever be the same quality as the comic book films that have come out in the last decade. Hard to tell, but don't let this ruin you from popping back in your favorite game and playing it again.