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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