Side-Quest: The Videogame Movie Conundrum

Yeah the Max Payne trailer makes it look "interesting" at least. If it turns out good, I'll be pleasantly surprised. If it sucks, oh well.

As for Bioshock, you're making the mistake of thinking that they won't completely butcher the story and rewrite it to fit some other writer/director vision. It could be set in space with zombies who shoot lasers from their eyes. Just look at Mario Bros. or Alone in the Dark to name a few.

You're right though, it will be pure luck if a video game movie becomes a blockbuster hit. I think the fans of the game are the worst people to rely on though. If the film changes one detail wrong, leaves out a character or ability, or adds anything that wasn't in the game, then they'll complain and boycott it.

Video games and movies are just completely different experiences and you can't force one thing to be something else and expect people to like it. It's why those old interactive movie games failed back in the 90s and it's why video game movies fail now. Why would i need to watch the movie when I played the superior game?

I think Bioshock will need to make a lot of changes in order to be an engaging film. You can have just one guy wandering alone in a city fighting splicers and occasionally a Big Daddy and I don't see the whole Little Sister thing working. The whole point A of a plane crash and discovering Rapter to point B: solving the mystery to point C: the end game sounds good on paper, but there needs to be a lot of padding in between.

A couple games I can think of that might actually make good movies are Grim Fandango... everyone wants to see Tim Burton get his hands on that. I think Shenmue might make a decent movie. And just looking at my game shelf, I'll throw in the Last Express and Sanitarium.