Pikachu 1, Sonic 0
Games writer Keza MacDonald on what we can learn from
Detective Pikachu’s success (and one hedgehog’s failure)IT’S BEEN A whirlwind few
months for cinematic video
game adaptations. On the one
hand we havePokémon
Detective Pikachu, thought by
some to be the best video game
movie yet made. On the other,
we have the upcomingSonic
The Hedgehog, the trailer to
which was mocked so loudly
that director Jeff Fowler
scrapped his design completely,
tweeting, “The message is loud
and clear... you want changes.”
People who love video
games are used to being
disappointed when a beloved
series makes it to the cinema.
Video game movies have only
recently made the transition
from “universally awful” to
“sometimes okay”. Last year’s
RampageandTomb Raider
adaptations weren’t bad, but
Pokémon Detective Pikachuis
still the only video game film to
go ‘Fresh’ on Rotten Tomatoes.
Video game films have
historically been so awful
because it has been a meeting
of two almost totally separate
worlds: directors, actors and
producers who didn’t play
games, and video game
executives who knew nothing
about what makes a good film.
If the licensors have too much
say over the adaptation, you
usually end up with a boring
movie; when game-illiterate film
creatives go totally their ownway, it results in something that
either abandons or bastardises
the source material (like 1993’s
Super Mario Bros.movie).
So why the recent
improvement? In the 1990s,
games were played mostly by
children and teens. Now almost
everyone under 40 has grown
up with them. This has happily
led to an emerging wave of
video game movies made by
directors and writers who
actually play them, and who are
arguably better able to translate
the core appeal of something
likePokémonorTomb Raider
— the fantasy of it, the soul of it
— into a different medium.
Pokémon Detective Pikachumay
be only loosely based on the
3DS game, but it nails the feel of
a world inhabited by Pokémon.
It’s clear these films will only
work when the people making
them have a passion for them:
Pokémon Detective Pikachu
director Rob Letterman and lead
actor Justice Smith both love
Pokémon, and even co-star Bill
Nighy developed an unexpected
obsession with it during filming.
For game publishers and movie
studios looking to follow
Pokémon Detective Pikachuin
breaking the curse of the video
game movie, perhaps it’s all
about hiring the right people.SONIC THE HEDGEHOGIS IN CINEMAS
FROM 9 APRIL, 2020IT’S RETHINKING WHAT A FEMALE-LED ACTION MOVIE IS
Kristen Stewart, who has stepped away from
big studio movies since Twilight, was enticed
back by the opportunity to make something
that wasn’t simply a classic male action
movie with the genders switched. “It’s really
important to have women as characters who
don’t feel like they’ve just had their name
changed from a male character,” she says.
“These girls have their strengths and a lot
of them are quite delicate strengths. Women
are team players, naturally. We understand
how to be greater in larger numbers.”
OLLY RICHARDSCHARLIE’S ANGELS IS IN CINEMAS FROM 14 NOVEMBERAbove: As many
a wise person
has said, size
doesn’t matter.Clockwise from
left: Jane (Ella
Balinska), Sabina
(Kristen Stewart)
and Elena
(Naomi Scott)
in the Charlie’s
Angels reboot;
“Look, another
sexist troll on
my Insta feed”;
Sabina, Bosley
(Elizabeth Banks)
and all manner of
spy-friendly tech
and gadgetry.PLANET PHOTOS