Lusipurr.com – Presenting the Sundry Opinions of Lusipurr and Friends

I heard some terrible news yesterday.

Sony’s critically acclaimed masterpiece, Shadow of the Colossus is officially being made into a movie.

I have to admit that this makes no sense to me. While it is one of my favourite games of all time (following only Final Fantasy 9 and Ocarina of Time), it is absolutely the last game I ever wanted to be made into a movie.

This was not always the case, however.
When I first bought and completed the game about three and a half years ago, I remember raving about the title and saying that I would love for a movie adaptation. The gorgeous soundtrack, the vast landscape, the intense battles, the epic scope, they all seemed like they would lend themselves perfectly to a movie.
I brought up that idea to a good friend of mine, and a fellow fan of the game and he instantly disagreed. He stated that Shadow of the Colossus would actually make for a terrible, boring movie. Although slightly offended at first, I mulled it over and found that he was absolutely correct.

Think about it.

Get away!

The strongest argument for the game is its lonely and hopeful mood and how all the elements come together to compliment said mood. What contributes strongly to this mood? Riding around on a horse for hours with nobody to talk to. As a game, this works very well. Since I am the player, I connect to this exploration. I decide where I want to go and how quickly I want to find the next Colossus. Most of the satisfaction I got from the game was figuring out how to get to the next Colossus and then figuring out how to beat the giant once I got there. That is why the game has been, not inaccurately, called a puzzle game on occasion.
Who would want to watch Tetris: The Movie?

Okay I would, but only for comedic value, and Shadow of the Colossus is not a comedy game.

Essentially the point is this: to make an entertaining movie out of the game, the makers will need to take away most of the elements that make it a good game. They are doomed from the beginning, no matter who they get to make it.

But I want to end on a optimistic note so I am going to play devil’s advocate to myself and make a few points in this project’s favour.

First off, I Am Legend was able to portray just Will Smith and his dog with only enemies for the vast majority of the film, and I think it was very powerful. Wander has a horse in Shadow of the Colossus, and a good actor could potentially pull it off.

The Colossi battles will likely be badass. And there is no necessary significance to having 16 of them, so cutting a few to give time to Wander and the empty world wouldn’t be a bad thing. And, admit it, there were a few duds in there worth cutting.

With movies like 300 and Sin City, I believe there is hope for how the studio approaches this film stylistically to capture the dread and wonder the landscape evokes.

But I have gone on long enough. What are your thoughts? Lusipurr mentioned on a podcast that Advent Children is the only good video game movie and I absolutely agree. Does that scare you as much as it scares me? I did not mention the writer or other announced crew, because that is not the main issue in my opinion. Do you disagree?
I look forward to reading your comments below.