August 12th, 2004

Filed under:
Movies
3 Comments »

I am Jack’s Bulging Wallet

The titles to this entry keep coming to me:

“All-singing, All-dancing Crap of the World Releases Version for XBox”
“Are You Tyler Durden? Play the Game and Find Out”
“Is That What a Real Game Looks Like?”

As reported by the unsafe-for-work Fleshbot, (who rightfully argues that the trailer looks like a whole bunch of CG gay pr0n), Vivendi Universal Games is releasing Fight Club, the video game. Here’s the trailer, which, if there’s any confusing, is safe-if-violent for work.

This is bizarre on a number of levels. First, the movie is five years old. Yes, it probably has a decent cult following and strong ongoing DVD sales, but is that really enough to build a game audience around? Additionally, it looks more or less like a suped-up version of Street Fighter. If there’s any plot beyond kicking the other shirtless guy’s ass, the trailer doesn’t show it. Which is odd, because I’d imagine that the film’s cult following doesn’t revolve around its figh scenes, but around its themes of anarchy and male emasculation. It’s also disappointing that there’s no “spend quality time with Marla” segment in the game.

The further irony is that the film was virulently anti-consumption. Its anarchic message was, I thought, admirable for a Hollywood film:

Deliver me from Swedish furniture. Deliver me from clever art.

Yet here comes the productization. Why did they wait so long?

Comments: 3 Responses so far

daryl
August 13th, 2004
1:27 am

i played this game at e3 (industry trade show) in may, and concluded at that time that it was indeed, nothing beyond a straight up toe to toe fighting experience.

i work in the game industry, (incidentally, as the art director on the direct competitor to this product) and some argue that games/interactive entertainment is currently in the process of overtaking film to become the dominant art form of our time. (we’ve already overtaken box office financially). but whoring out a movie license in this fashion does a disservice to the art form. in my opinion, this behaviour pushes our industry a step in the wrong direction.

i’m so glad that you said exactly what i wanted to say: the way the game is being marketed shows that it offers nothing to honor the film and touches on none of fight clubs original themes. in fact, the entire game production is counter to the point of the film, so you couldn’t possible dishonor it any worse. -!-

yes, action is our medium, but it is possible to solve this problem without degrading yourself into a gratuitous cartoon; it’s high time the public demanded more.

Reply

Rob
August 13th, 2004
8:56 am

I think that it took this long to come out specifically so that the main messages of the movie were “forgotten” or at least muted in people’s minds. I saw Fight Club in the theatre and found it very impactful. I recently watched it again after several years (on a flight to LA – the old lady behind me was not impressed :) ), and I was surprised by how many of the messages I had forgotten over time.

So, my point is that:

a) people who remember the movie and play video games may buy it for the movie reference, and
b) kids who have never seen the movie will think it’s cool as a new fighting game

But then again, I never play video games, so what do I know?

Reply

Paolo
August 13th, 2004
9:43 am

Here! Here!

This reminds me of the follow-up to Starship Troopers. To the more savvy the movie was very much an anti-war film and yet everything that followed it up seemed to support the very idiots the movie was bashing.

Recently I’ve been trying out America’s Army, the free FPS game released by the good ol’ US of A’s military. The game is meant as a recruiting tool and you cannot actually begin online play until you complete and pass basic training. Basic training consists of actual seminars and multiple choice questions, field training and exercises and parachuting out of a plane. If you don’t score well you don’t play. The game is quite realistic and is a nice change from most first person shooters BUT the one thing you don’t see is consequences of war. You don’t see gore, severed limbs, pooling blood, shock, pain, or any injury. You certainly don’t see civilians either. Why? Because quite simply that wouldn’t incourage people to join the Army.

Reply

Add a comment