Hollywood.com Staff
Two celebrated video games have just been released as movies, Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. We sat down with our intrepid reviewers Kit Bowen and Noah Davis to find out how these two compare, and whether to expect more video game movies in the future.
Hollywood.com: So, now that Final Fantasy has come out, how does it compare with Tomb Raider?
Noah Davis: For me, the main thing lacking from Tomb Raider was a sense of wonderment, of golly-gee-this-is-fun. And while Final Fantasy hasn’t completely captured that part of the video game aspect, it certainly does it a lot better than Tomb Raider.
Kit Bowen: It seems like the filmmakers for both concentrated mostly on the look. Tomb Raider had very little in the way of narrative. It was all show. Final Fantasy certainly had a story, although it’s a tad convoluted.
Hollywood.com: Despite your mediocre reviews, it seems people will go to watch these movies. Is there enough quality in these movies to start an avalanche of other movies made from video games?
Kit Bowen: I don’t know about an avalanche. All I know, is next time, they should try to come up with a good story. Noah here is the video game nut, not me.
Noah Davis: Clearly Kit doesn’t know a thing about video games, and probably hasn’t played one since Pong. The look and feel of a particular video game sets it apart from the next. And Final Fantasy (the movie) has that look and feel. This was a great starting point–the next one will be even better.
Hollywood.com: What about the differences between live action and animation?
Noah Davis: Animation rules. Again, one of the compelling components about video games is that they transcend reality. Despite the wonderful (computer-generated) effects and stunts seen in recent movies like The Matrix, it still doesn’t add up to what you can do with animation. And with the great leap forward in hyper-realistic animation that a film like Final Fantasy makes, how could you even think of making a video game into a movie using live characters?
Kit Bowen: Well, I have to agree with my colleague here. Animation allows for all the cool special effects without harming the actors. Still, Noah, you have to agree Angelina Jolie brought a certain je nais se qua to the whole Lara Croft thing.
Noah Davis: No, I don’t have to agree. The only thing I thought Jolie brought to Lara Croft was a white trash element.
Hollywood.com: Easy, you two. No fisticuffs, please. We all know that kids play Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy. But is either of these movies really geared toward the kiddies?
Kit Bowen: Tomb Raider had more of a thrill ride feel to it, while Final Fantasy is slower and more methodical. I don’t think it’ll hold a kid’s attention as well.
Noah Davis: Maybe teen-agers, if they have the attention span, could follow both plots. Both are kind of convoluted, and neither one was really explained well. The one element that these video-game movies are missing is a coherent, well-told story that has intelligent dialogue. Neither flick really had enough action to cover those shortcomings.
