Thursday, June 19, 2008

Len Wiseman Gears Up for Gears of War

Posted by Ashley Demma (ashley@filmschoolrejects.com)

Video-gamers are in for some interesting news. Len Wiseman, director of the Underworld movies, is going to direct the highly anticipated Gears of War movie. While some of you might be cringing right now (and I wouldn’t blame you), hear me out.

In recent years, a lot of video game movies have quite frankly sucked. (Doom and Bloodrayne, anyone?) Whether the reason was bad adaptation, unfaithful storyline, poor graphics, or general lack of interest…something came up short. A lot of these movies, however, were quite successful amongst die-hard fans (Mortal Kombat, Tomb Raider). Still, there seems to be a curse placed upon these adaptations. Let’s consider the good news:

1.) Underworld focused primarily on an advanced, developed history that we can likely see duplicated for the backstory of GoW.

2.) Writer Chris Morgan (Wanted) can apparently write action movies. Wanted is already one of the most anticipated movies of the summer.

3.) GoW has a strong fanbase and the potential for mad marketing money, (action figures, comic books, soda endorsements…), which hopefully New Line Cinema will bank on.

I myself know next to nothing about Gears of War, besides what my guy friends have rambled on about between games, but I understand the gist of it: Marcus Fenix is a Delta Squad soldier, whose home planet of Sera has been ravaged by an enemy known as the Locust Horde. He and his fellow soldiers plan to take back their home and destroy the Locust Horde. Other than that…I don’t really get it. How is this any different from Halo or any other futuristic, other-worldly, shooter game? While the graphics are pretty dark and creepy, and the content is certainly for a mature audience…is it really that special?

I’m sure at this point, every guy 14-28 with an X-Box wants to stab me. So help me understand, boys. Why should someone like me, a chick who isn’t a GoW fan, see the movie version? Why should anyone?

Original here

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