This just in: Video
Games are popular.
This just in: Video Games feel more like movies now.
This just in: Hollywood is getting in on the video
game industry.
This just in: The following for video games are
rampant.
This just in: Video Games are being made into
movies, and vice versa.
Let me know when I say
something you haven't heard since 1995. Richard
Roeper (who is looking more and more like a
Backstreet Boy, these days) hosts the hour long
special "Hollywood Goes Gaming," an inside look into
the video game industry and how Hollywood is
marketing on that. We get to see video game movies
like Super Mario Bros. and Tomb Raider, and we also
get a glimpse into video games that feel like
movies, like "World of Warcraft." The latter
information is the interesting aspect about this
program, in the end. Because I have to tell you, the
professionals who seem excited that movies are
imitating video games really fills me with no hope,
because the video game industry is a completely
different industry that should stay in its own arena
and while it's often interesting to see a video game
Godfather, I don't want anymore movies like "Hitman."
This is of course
just an objective documentary. The folks behind this
program never examine how most if not all of the
video games turned into movies are absolutely awful,
nor does it attempt to find out why it's seemingly
impossible to turn a video game into a great film.
"Hollywood Goes Gaming" veers in all directions. It
harps on the popularity of the new consoles and next
gen video gaming, it discusses the industry of
Hollywood and how they're cashing in, and it
explores the history of video games which I've heard
again and again. Spoiler: It began with Pong, and it
continues with World of Warcraft. Did I spoil the
ending? "Hollywood Goes Gaming" has the potential to
look into this curious anomaly of Hollywood now
respecting the gaming industry as a viable resource
for profits, but it doesn't. It's just stating more
of what we know. I wish that wasn't so.
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