MW2 killed the action blockbuster?

BlitzKrieg

havnt seen any sales figures yet.

But I was sitting here at work, thinking of all the bits that nod to action films during mw2, the green flare and shower scene of The Rock, the airplane junkyard of con air, the aliens like motion sensor having Hans Zimmer doing the score and so on and on (Lance Henrikson's voice aswell ).

And then it hits me. This year critics wrote that the big blockbuster of the year transformers 2 was an ungodly mess that was nothing but load noise like a child high on sugar who has combined his love of his father's hammer with the sound of his mother's pots and pans constantly bombarded on the viewer for 2 hours. Some have written that it signifies the decline of the blockbuster that the route it has gone since Jaws has peaked and that transformers signifies it cannot go any further and in fact any more pushing in that direction will just result in crappier and crappier films.

last year movie studios complained that titles like GTA 4 and the year before Halo 3 were stealing the thunder of blockbusters.

And then we get Modern warfare 2. Essentially it is all noise like *a child high on sugar who has combined his love of his father's hammer with the sound of his mother's pots and pans* but unlike transformers 2, we are not some poor victim forced to listen to the racket...We are the child, we hold the hammer and we make the noise. Its our noise and thus it is no longer pointless chaos thrown at us. The result is all the entertainment and spectacle fun that was meant for transformers 2 but failed to be delivered can be achieved by MW2.

I know many would point out that pretty much everything that MW2 does, was done by COD4, but equally alot of what Jaws and Star Wars had done to start the blockbusters had already been done...what changed were structural elements, a diluting of the process to its core. And MW2 has done the same, everything that was COD4's single player has been diluted down to a tighter more set piece oriented single player and co-op mode.

The only reason MW2 hasnt put people like Micheal Bay out of work is that the video game peak season does not coincide with the movie blockbuster season instead its the down season, giving movies much needed breathing room.



discuss?

Victor

Is the Terminator 4 game out yet? The whole film reads like a game and I presumed they would cash in on it with a game release, but I ain't seen it yet.

BlitzKrieg

it was out and its meant to be crap...

Retr0gamer

Videogames can also get away with a dumb over the top nonsensical plot as long as the action is good, movies can't. Unless the game tires to be a movie and fails on both counts *Cough* MGS 4

Steffano2002

I don't think games will be "killing" movies any time soon... Not all gamers are movie-goers. Not all movie-goers are gamers. There might be a slight competition between the two industries but I don't believe they are in direct competition. So no, MW2 didn't kill the action blockbuster.

brendansmith

You must be joking?

People can do both you know!

wandatowell

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

its meant to be crap...

Nonsense........ easiest 800 points my gamescore ever got, fantastic game.





cough.........cough

BlitzKrieg

I don't think games will be "killing" movies any time soon...

I wasnt refering to movies in general, but to action blockbusters, ala micheal bay films etc, hence the title.

I dont believe for a second games will kill movies, but I do think the role of the action blockbuster and its market is the same market games like MW2. THe critical response to the biggest action movie to date was imensely negative and while it did amazing sales, the response from cinema goers has also been very negative and it had been a reoccuring comment on the film that as a blockbuster it overreached itself as a rollercoaster sfx driven behometh and the the returns are lessening.

MW2 is in almost the same situation, its the next big action fps, its single player is a sfx/set piece driven rollercoaster and its a behometh of a gaming title. It has an equally absurd over the top premise as the blockbuster.

The response though critical and from fans to both titles are opposite, while transformers 2 got slated, MW2 is scoring in the 9's and 10's and fans are for the most part giving thumbs up.


Do I think this is a good thing? Yes actually I'd like to see a decline of the stupid sfx driven action film, not completely gone, but like how film responded to tv I want to see them expand and make better films, action films that use more then sfx to drive it (say like the dark knight which was wildly successfull) And leave the sfx driven action to a media that can handle it better.

People can do both you know!

I know but the incentive to go watch a film full of the exact same stunts and explosions you can do at home on a 360 (and is more entertaining cause you have an element of control) is gone. people might rather go see a film that has I dont know...a plot?

Mossy Monk

wandatowell wrote: »

Nonsense........ easiest 800 points my gamescore ever got, fantastic game.





cough.........cough

So much pain to get it though. Absolutely woeful game.

mossym

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

havnt seen any sales figures yet.

But I was sitting here at work, thinking of all the bits that nod to action films during mw2, the green flare and shower scene of The Rock, the airplane junkyard of con air, the aliens like motion sensor having Hans Zimmer doing the score and so on and on (Lance Henrikson's voice aswell ).

crossing the bridge bit at the start is straight from generation Kill, 12 part series on HBO. so are the comments like "xxx are oscar bravo" and " stay frosty"(i'm sure these are actually used by soldiers though)

maybe it's killing tv series as well?

NotorietyH

The Dark Knight was the most second most successful film of all time this time last year. More importantly it actually had a script as opposed to the collection of random bits of toilet paper that Transformers 2 had. Next year there could be a big, intelligent, well made blockbuster that is hugely successful too. Transformers 2 was just a sh*t movie and I think everyone who's into movies would agree that this summer was a really bad year for Blockbusters.

They're differeent mediums too, I don't think there is a competition. Games require much mroe of an investment in both time and money to enjoy than going to a movie. Going to a movie is usually a more social experience as you physically meet up with friends or whoever to go to. Also it's a passive experience, so is generally more relaxing but is also the reason story is more important as they can't distract you as well as games can. The plot of CoD MW2 is grand, and servicable in that it provides enough of a context for you want to do the next mission but if it was a movie or tv show, it's a generic overwrought mess that's sub-24. Don't get me wrong I really enjoyed the game, but bar a few set-pieces, the story was drivel.

There's no competition, movie studios just wish they could have the numbers that Halo 3 had or MW2 is going to have. But it's all relative. If MW2 has $600 million worth of sales, it's for a more expensive product. Roughly €40 compared to €10 for the cinema. I enjoy both going to the cinema and playing video games, I've never once sat down playing a game and thought "Well there's no need to go to the cinema this weekend, this is giving me the exact same experience,".

The fact that MW2 had to steal so much from big blockbuster movies just shows that movies are still hugely influential and that they couldn't come up with anything new in terms of plot or set-pieces that really defined video games over movies. Games need to think about how to tell a story in a way that only video games can, not try and mimic movies. Though saying that, Uncharted 2 did it brilliantly.

Also the

snow-mobile chase was a rip off from True Lies

Actually thinking about it, the most frequent criticism of Transformers I remember hearing, and in fact I Said it myself, was that it was too like a video-game or watching someone else playing a video game. So maybe video games have killed the blockbuster, but for an entirely different reason. Movies are too often trying to imitate video games these days.

speedboatchase

NotorietyH wrote: »

The Dark Knight was the most second most successful film of all time this time last year. More importantly it actually had a script as opposed to the collection of random bits of toilet paper that Transformers 2 had. Next year there could be a big, intelligent, well made blockbuster that is hugely successful too. Transformers 2 was just a sh*t movie and I think everyone who's into movies would agree that this summer was a really bad year for Blockbusters.

They're differeent mediums too, I don't think there is a competition. Games require much mroe of an investment in both time and money to enjoy than going to a movie. Going to a movie is usually a more social experience as you physically meet up with friends or whoever to go to. Also it's a passive experience, so is generally more relaxing but is also the reason story is more important as they can't distract you as well as games can. The plot of CoD MW2 is grand, and servicable in that it provides enough of a context for you want to do the next mission but if it was a movie or tv show, it's a generic overwrought mess that's sub-24. Don't get me wrong I really enjoyed the game, but bar a few set-pieces, the story was drivel.

There's no competition, movie studios just wish they could have the numbers that Halo 3 had or MW2 is going to have. But it's all relative. If MW2 has $600 million worth of sales, it's for a more expensive product. Roughly €40 compared to €10 for the cinema. I enjoy both going to the cinema and playing video games, I've never once sat down playing a game and thought "Well there's no need to go to the cinema this weekend, this is giving me the exact same experience,".

The fact that MW2 had to steal so much from big blockbuster movies just shows that movies are still hugely influential and that they couldn't come up with anything new in terms of plot or set-pieces that really defined video games over movies. Games need to think about how to tell a story in a way that only video games can, not try and mimic movies. Though saying that, Uncharted 2 did it brilliantly.

Also the

snow-mobile chase was a rip off from True Lies

4th best actually. I completely agree with what you're saying - Aliens, Red Dawn, The Rock, Tropa De Elite, Bond movies - i think IW really wanted to up the ante but it sometimes felt like they had pinched their favourite bits from various movies and jumbled them into a threadbare narrative. Personally I think the storyline and locations were a lot more focused in CoD 4

NotorietyH

speedboatchase wrote: »

4th best actually. I completely agree with what you're saying - Aliens, Red Dawn, The Rock, Tropa De Elite, Bond movies - i think IW really wanted to up the ante but it sometimes felt like they had pinched their favourite bits from various movies and jumbled them into a threadbare narrative. Personally I think the storyline and locations were a lot more focused in CoD 4

Oh, damn I thought it was 2nd, it was well on the way at one stage. Thought the re-release on IMAX in January might tip it over. Alas no. But I stick by my point anyway. I don't think the movie studios are quaking in their boots just yet anyway. I don't see why both can't co-exist peacefully (like people and fish as George Bush one day dreams.)

That their peak seasons are different helps anyway with the summer and winter seasons. Though that's starting to change, with a lot of AAA titles coming out around March these days in terms of video game. They still drop off during the summer though.

I think once both mediums stop trying to copy each other, we'll be better off and enjoy them both for their unique experiences rather than saying "Oh that's just like the bit in...,"

That's why I'm interested to see Heavy Rain on the PS3, to see its approach on story-telling in video games.

speedboatchase

NotorietyH wrote: »

Oh, damn I thought it was 2nd, it was well on the way at one stage. Thought the re-release on IMAX in January might tip it over. Alas no. But I stick by my point anyway. I don't think the movie studios are quaking in their boots just yet anyway. I don't see why both can't co-exist peacefully (like people and fish as George Bush one day dreams.)

That their peak seasons are different helps anyway with the summer and winter seasons. Though that's starting to change, with a lot of AAA titles coming out around March these days in terms of video game. They still drop off during the summer though.

I think once both mediums stop trying to copy each other, we'll be better off and enjoy them both for their unique experiences rather than saying "Oh that's just like the bit in...,"

That's why I'm interested to see Heavy Rain on the PS3, to see its approach on story-telling in video games.[/QUOTE]

Completely agree

Vegeta

The first thing I said when I saw the "Launch Trailer" for this was that the SP looked like a bad action movie. Just look at the back of the box, tells you all you need to know

The huge reliance on scripting in this series means I will probably never play through the campaign. CoD4 on the hardest difficulty really showed the weakness of the formula used. Dying is not uncommon and you see exactly how poor scripting can make the experience. TV station anyone?

It feels cheesy, forced and as cliché as it gets.