Our Rapture
This image represents our little utopia as gamers. A secret world unto ourselves that the outside doesn’t understand and could never hope to. This picture in particular represents the potential of games to triumph in the art of story telling and leave its audience with a lasting impression. This picture represents progress for video games.
This image represents the destruction of our utopia– our Rapture if you will.
That’s Gore Verbinski, director of such oscar-worthy classics like The Ring and The Pirates of the Caribbean series. Now I must admit, I was a fan of the first Pirates, and the other two had their moments– albeit brief ones. But the Ring was garbage. Maybe the original was decent, but this hollywood remake was pure trash. So you’ll understand me when I emphasize just how terrible the next line I type is for our beloved industry. “…Verbinski has signed on for another oceanic epic with the big-screen adaptation of 2K Games’ award-winning action game BioShock.” As if the track record of game-movies wasn’t enough of an omen, now we have this guy heading up the project. Sure, he says, “Although it’s an adventure, its a dramatic adventure. I see it more along the lines of Blade Runner.” But can we really trust a poster-boy for hollywood thrills and spills to treat this project with the same dignity of such a thought-provoking and well-crafted work like Blade Runner? History says no. History says this guy is going to sell out the franchise’s meaning for big explosions and sexy girls on his way to a big box office hit. So I guess what I’m saying is, what makes a game movie successful? If it’s selling a lot of tickets then maybe this is the guy, but if it’s remaining true to the game and carefully converting that experience to film then I don’t really think Bioshock will change history. The sad thing is that most forums I’ve observed seem to lean heavily in favor of this project. By selling out our games we bring Rapture upon us, and as any theology major knows, that doesn’t work out so great for most of us. Let games remain games, untainted by the outside world. Let us preserve our utopia.
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