ashecitism
Member
Precisely.
I guess people could watch the Mist. HL was inspired by the novel.
VR stuff, Dota stuff, Steam stuff...
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J.J. Abrams: A Portal Movie Announcement Is Coming Soon
- Thread starter Nzyme32
- Start date
Precisely.
I guess people could watch the Mist. HL was inspired by the novel.
VR stuff, Dota stuff, Steam stuff...
Eh, the twist is interesting in a Truman Show way, and it has trippy visuals, so sure, why not?
brandonh83
Banned
"This <NaughtyDogtitle> feels like a movie and has film-like production value, cinematography and performances but I'd still like a watered down 2 hour version of it for reasons I can't quite pin down"
Fahzgoolin
Banned
Portal being a movie weirds me out, but Half Life 2 has potential in my mind.
We received two new sticker capsules and new pins last night, don't be so entitled.
Didn't Portal games establish that you are just one of the many test subjects that Aperture Science and GLADOS ran tests with and on? What Chell goes through in Portal 1 & 2 are her tests and her story in very specific places of Aperture Science labs, we are talking Black Mesa scale of structure afaik if not bigger. They could easily build another character into the world of Portal and give him or her their own narrative in relation to Aperture Science and GLADOS.
Coffee Dog
Banned
Portals are an interesting gameplay mechanic.
A film has no need for gameplay mechanics.
A film has no need for gameplay mechanics.
Galactic Specter
Member
'member when valve made videogames?
Good thing Portal also has a very simple narrative you can adapt. Or one you can completely ignore and just use the setting and make your own original story with those elements.
Why do people have such a hard time seeing it? No, it doesn't need to be an experimental movie to work. It can be a simple movie with characters and dialogue and a simple structure and if it happens that is what it will probably be. Will it be a great movie? I mean, maybe not, but it's not because "you can't adapt gameplay mechanics" or nonsense like that.
Rexatality
Member
Man, I don't know how to feel about this. I don't like JJ Abrams very much
afternoon delight
Member
Notice how your one shitty example is a video game and the other two examples are books that have sold multiple millions of copies around the globe in how many languages?
Go away
Coffee Dog
Banned
There isn't much point to adapting something when you don't actually adapt any of it but its most superficial elements.
The bolded, where you're saying that Portal could work as a movie if you throw out 95% of it, is exactly my point.
My first thoughts on the Co-op bots and the ads they were in, is that they were straight out of a Pixar movie. Wouldn't be surprised if that is the direction this goes in, or rather that's the only thing I think makes sense. TF makes more sense for a movie after seeing Expiration Date
Galactic Specter
Member
The only way I could see a Portal movie working is if it's about Doug Rattmann.
Why do you ignore the part where I also said you don't need to do that? It was the first part of my post too.
And Adaptation is not and doesn't have to be literal to be effective. It's versatile and complex and it's the reason plays adapted into movies are not in fact just a video of a play being performed on stage.
Sure. What I mean is that, to me, Portal is interesting because you are a part of the story. The relation with Glados is cool because she tells you what to do and you have to do it. There's also a meta aspect with you, the player, being the test subject of the game developers (Glados) who want you to stay on rails, and you wanting to escape the corridors and see what's behind. Instead of that we'll just see a guy who want to escape an IA. At best it'll maybe look like Cube. That's not a bad thing, but to me a lot of the substance that made Portal interesting will be lost.
poppedcollar69
Member
Oh really? I thought it was referring to this http://teamcoco.com/video/andys-new-comedy-bit
Though I thought it was very odd that people started to reference it two years after the fact
Empyrean Heaven
Member
MEMBER CHEWBACCA?!?
Hobbit movies respected source material very little and really stretching it and making up shit just to force trilogy. Harry Potter movies are one of the better adaptations, but they had to cut material because there was just too much in books to make for compact movies. Movies based on Dan Brown novels really didn't need to happen and as result are extremely mediocre, if not even trash that you forget 5min after credits start rolling.
Movies based on DC comics are still stumbling around and trying to find their footing while movies based on Marvel comics keep making insane bank and drawing huge audience. That doesn't mean Marvel comics are somehow that much superior to DC comics, but people handling that transition from one medium to another have better handle on it in Team Marvel.
WarCraft movie even with all its shortcomings is still quite well made movie based on game franchise. It shows that when talent is there you can transition game world into movie format and tell its story. Resident Evil movies show what happens when talent behind movie don't really get what franchise as games is.. well used to be about. Instead of trying to tap that horror angle that RE games used to have they went for super mediocre action approach.
All that ramble done I would say that my point was; Did anyone actually ask for or even want to see e.g. Harry Potter books as movies around when first movie was announced? It was just money grab that was intended to ride on success of books, but project also got talent it needed to become really good movies based on books. It could have very easily become Resident Evil movie of its time and be really miss handled. With right talent behind it this Portal movie project can be something awesome.
Demon_Stephen
Member
I am sick of video games being adapted to movies. Video games are good because of the interactive experience, and movies can't replicate that. You can't translate the feel of great mechanics, like using portals to solve puzzles, into a movie. Just stop already, this doesn't make any sense.
I'm of the opposite opinion in a sense. I think for video games in particular, you don't want to regurgitate a game verbaitim or even adapt that into a film through a bunch of edits. Rather explore aspects of the lore / world / universe or whatever you want to call it, and tell a story that relates back into the games and beyond them to expand on them. The coop bots and personality spheres, rat man etc are all interesting characters, sure, but there is no reason not to introduce new characters as well and more narrative ideas that are suitable to film.
I would hate to watch a Portal film that throws out literally 95% of it (at which point it likely wouldn't relate enough to Portal to consider it such) and equally I don't want an adaptation directly of the games. Expand on new things while grounding in what is already Portal rather than having to redefine everything.
Galactic Specter
Member
Foldedpencil
Banned
I can't think of a game that I don't want to be a movie more than Portal, the narrative structure is so cool because it evolves out what first appears to be a simple puzzle game. the entire effect rests on subverting expectations in the medium of gaming. The reason it is so revered is because it built a new narrative structure out of and around an established trope. Next are going to make a Stanley Parable movie?
Oh wait, I can think of a game that is worse fodder for film, Tetris. What times we live in.
Best of luck JJ, I'm about 50/50 that I'll be eating my words when this comes out.
Oh wait, I can think of a game that is worse fodder for film, Tetris. What times we live in.
Best of luck JJ, I'm about 50/50 that I'll be eating my words when this comes out.
Coffee Dog
Banned
Because if it's faithful, then that would leave us with a movie where a mute protagonist solves puzzles and traverses through test chambers. Even the eponymous Portals have no deeper significance than a gameplay mechanic to solve those puzzles with. I say it would be a poor adaptation because there is nothing to adapt. There is one character (glados), no character arcs, discovering Ratman dens (a player driven action, mind) are the only non glados moments of storytelling, and the test chamber structure is entirely pointless when removed from a video game "win/lose" context.
Adaptation does not have to be literal to be effective, but when a play is adapted into a movie it likely uses a similar script, with similar characters, and similar songs. It resembles its original form in some way. A Portal movie, comparatively, would have to be almost entirely something original just because of the barebones source material.
Candescence
Member
To elaborate on what I said earlier, J.J. Abrams is a fantastic technical director who can really nail a specific style if he really puts his mind to it (The Force Awakens being a particularly good example) but needs good people working with him to steer him in the right direction and actually provide good material to build on in the first place. The biggest and most obvious example of where his talent is paired up with the wrong people is evident in his Star Trek films, the first one being kinda meh and the second being an absolute travesty, in large part because the writers were fucking hacks. Star Trek: Beyond, on the other hand, was handled by a director who actually seemed to actually get Star Trek.
If he's paired up with good people who know what the fuck they're doing, though, I think there's a lot better chance of this turning out fine.
If he's paired up with good people who know what the fuck they're doing, though, I think there's a lot better chance of this turning out fine.
I wonder if this means Valve will couple the announcement with an announcement that they still have a game development department.
Three zeros..
Three zeros..
There's a lot to tell of the events/history of Aperture (or it's competitor, Black Mesa), pre-GLaDoS or during her making, or the making of Portal guns/other technologies etc. etc.
Coffee Dog
Banned
I agree that there could be an entertaining film set in the universe, and I think that's the route that the filmmakers should go if this gets off the ground. An adaptation is what wouldn't work, but an original story set in the universe and planned from the jump to be a 2 hour movie could be fine.
Necromanti
Member
What people don't understand is that the movie is Half-Life 3.
Portal 1&2 definitely need to be a single movie, they could do a timeskip halfway through and get to Portal 2.
SciencePilot
Member
Portal would make a great movie. But actually I think it could work better without portals. I feel like just the Aperture setting and the characters is enough for a movie. The portals are a great gameplay element but not really necessary for narrative.
Robot Pants
Member
I vote no. Please
You agree with me it doesn't have to be literal, but then you propose it has to be or then it doesn't resemble the source material anymore. You say you know adaptation is flexible, but then you qualify it as poor when the adaptation strays from a rigorous path.
I just disagree. Adaptation is not a 1 to 1 translation, it's a change from one art form into another art form and it's not judged in terms of good and bad just because it's close or not. In that process you use the tools of your medium to make up for the things you are losing (and you do it effectively if you understand both of them, you don't introduce a PoV shot into Doom and pretend the movie is a FPS), and with those tools you are allowed to give your main character a background, and arc, dialogue and depth. It will still resemble the original in some way, in the sense that the character goes through a process, is given a certain tool, discovers a different path and probably has a confrontation with a machine/AI that is in fact not quite what it seemed to be at first. It won't stop being "Portal" for that.
And then we can't forget that a "Portal" movie doesn't necessarily mean they are hinting at a 'Portal 1' story beat by beat, which is apparently what everyone is thinking for some reason. They've expanded the world, the characters and the story in Portal 2, and even if they choose to go a different way with different characters, it will still "resemble the original in some way" (your criteria, again), because if you are here trying to tell me that just because you don't have a mute main character it is not longer Portal, then you've missed the point entirely. There are many elements to Portal, I disagree that the source material is as barebones as you are hinting. Everything from the test chambers, to the AIs, to the turrets, to the facility, to the people behind the facility, to the materials to all the storytelling done around it and the gun contributes. Take most of those elements away, sure, maybe it turns into a different thing. Take one or a few and change them, it will still be "Portal".
He's just producing, I think. But his influence should shine through the project nonetheless.
I agree, but you were saying that it shouldn't be faithful because of the barebones source material, which was not true as there's a lot more in the universe than the main story of the two games (like the bits and pieces of environmental story telling about Aperture, the comic, arts, Wolpaw and Faliszek's interviews). There are many interesting topics to talk about Aperture and they wouldn't be completely new/original or wouldn't have to.
