Reaching back, we find that I've already covered Street Fighter, focusing on the movie featuring Raul Julia in his last role. Instead of rewriting all the background, I'll just send you to re-read it if you want and then continue.
Done? Great!
The year 2009 had a glut of action movies. Not all of them lived up to the promise of the trailers. One such movie was Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li. The movie chronicles how the titular character grows from young girl to, well, street fighter. Essentially, an origins movie. Kristin Kreuk starred as the adult version of Chun Li as she struggled to find meaning after her father disappeared and her died. Her search took her to Bangkok to study under Gen, once a member of Bison's gang who now protected the downtrodden from the villain's schemes. He took Chun Li under his wing, teaching her new techniques and leading her to find a new balance and lose her anger*. In the meantime, Charlie Nash, an Interpol agent, also arrived in Bangkok to assist the local police, including Detective Maya Sunee of Gangland Homicide, in finding who was responsible for the deaths and beheadings of eight major gang leaders.** Nash had been on the trail of Bison for several years and is hoping to finally put him away. Despite having Chun Li narrate for most of the beginning, turning "show, don't tell" into "show and tell", the movie maintains a decent pace thriough the investigation by both Nash and Chun Li and has decent action sequences.
Overall, the movie worked as an action flick, something to watch in the heat of the summer in a cool, dark theatre with a large bag of popcorn and a soft drink of one's choice. So, why was there a problem?
It wasn't Street Fighter.
Oh, sure, it's there in the title: Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li. Kristin Kreuk played Chun Li; it's even there in the credits. And she took on Bison, Balrog, and Vega.
But, if the audience wasn't told that who the characters were, who'd notice the difference? None of the characters were in the costumes from the video game. Unlike Street Fighter – The Movie, where everyone eventually wore the trademark costumes from the game, outside of one scene in Legend of Chun Li, they could have been called anything else. The one scene? Featured Chun Li with her hair in the same style as in the video game wearing a short blue dress as she seduced Bison's henchwoman***.
I dare say that if the movie didn't have the Street Fighter character names and links (a couple of scenes, really), the movie might have been better. Expectations would have been different. Change Shadaloo to a generic Triad, Tong or even the Russian mob, change Chun Li to Suki or Mei Lin, change Bison to Biyall, and the movie still holds together. It's as if an existing script was taken and modified to slap the Street Fighter name on to draw in more people. From a marketing perspective, this makes some sense. Action movies in the summer have a lot of competition. Adding a familiar name can get attention far easier and potentially far cheaper than putting in an effort to tweak the trailers to maximize interest. Problem is, slapping a known franchise name can backfire when the movie has a fairly generic plot and characters that could be renamed without affecting the story, the case with Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li.
So, the takeaway here is that if one wants to put the name of a franchise on a movie, the writing has to add recognizable elements from the franchise beyond just the names. This may fall under the concept of caring for a property. Slapping a name on a product is easy; making sure that the product reflects the name takes a bit more effort. Thus is the case of Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li. A decent action movie with baggage that added expectations it couldn't handle.
Next time, a holiday classic.
*Apparently, anger not only leads to hate but to distraction.
**Yeah, guess who ordered the killings.
***Yay, fanservice? The fight in the washroom was just as fanservice-y.
Fairy tales have long been a core element of Western culture, a base of storytelling that many have built from over time. Many of Disney's popular movies were based on fairy tales, somewhat cleaned up for modern sensibilities. These are stories told as bedtime stories, told around campfires, adapted as plays and movies, and expanded to tell what happened after. The tales are so common that it comes to many people's surprise when they meet someone not familiar with at least one.
The 2011 fall TV season saw ABC air Once Upon a Time. As expected from the title, the series is based on fairy tales. (Why else would I start this entry off discussing them?) However, there is a twist. The evil queen, the one who poisoned Snow White for being the fairest, showed up at the wedding of Snow and Charming to give them an unwanted gift, the knowledge that the queen herself will get her own happy ever after and take away everyone else's. Meanwhile, in the now in our reality, Emma, the lead character, spent her birthday chasing after a bail jumper followed by having a cupcake at home. She made a wish, blew out her lone candle. Immediately after, there was a knock on her door; a boy, Henry, had found her. Henry claimed that Emma is his birth mother and that his home, Storybrook, needs her help. Emma, unsure of the boy's story, took him home, listening to his farfetched stories about how she is meant to save the fairy tales and restore their happy endings.
Back in the fairy tales, Snow and Charming did what they could to prevent the evil queen's happy ending. They even went into the dungeon to speak with Rumplestilskin to find out more. Snow, pregnant, was willing to pay Rumplestilskin's price to protect her unborn child, well aware of the consequences. She received a cryptic answer, enough to figure out what the queen's plan is and brought in her trusted advisors. Ultimately, it was determined that Gepetto can use the magic in an old tree to create a wardrobe that will protect one person.
Meanwhile, Emma has arrived in Storybrook. She stops to get directions from a young man who looks lost. When she and Henry return to her old Beetle, Henry explains that the young man is really Jiminy Cricket. Emma still dismissed the boy's claims and takes him to his home, the manor of the mayor. The rest… No spoilers at this time.
The writing of the pilot was strong. Pilot episodes have a difficult job; they have to introduce the show's premise, the show's characters, and tease viewers to keep watching while at the same time providing a story on its own. Backstory needed has to be brought out without going through an info dump. Once Upon a Time's pilot managed to do all that with aplomb. Henry's stories, bordering on fairy tales themselves, slowly are revealed as truth as the characters, such as Gepetto, Rumplestilskin, the Seven Dwarves, and Charming are revealed to the audience (though not to Emma). The casting is strong to match the writing. Gepetto comes across in the modern era as a lonely old man who desperately wanted a child with his wife. The queen oozes evil when needed. Little touches, such as the mayor offering Emma a glass of apple cider, add to the mystery and the charm of the show. It remains to be seen whether the rest of the show can maintain the promise, but the first episode of Once Upon a Time succeeded in adapting fairy tales into its own narrative.
Next time, experience only works if you pay attention.
George RR Martin is a prolific writer, having writen numerous novels, short stories, even teleplays. Along with writing, he has been an editor, notably on the Wild Card series of anthologies. In 1996, his latest work, A Song of Ice and Fire, was released beginning with A Game of Thrones. The epic story follows the upheavals of Westeros and its peoples as the status quo is once again upset with the death of Robert the Usuper, who had taken over the throne of Westeros after killing the previous tyrant. The books follows the politics, the maneuverings, the desires of the various pieces on the board, from pawn to queen, with chapters written from a different character's point of view. A Game of Thrones sets up the upheaval, showing how members of House Stark (led by Lord Eddard), House Baratheon (formerly led by King Robert the Usurper), House Targaryen (the family of the deposed King Aegon), and House Lannister King Robert's death. Allegiances are made and broken. Characters are promoted or killed. Script immunity is non-existant. There are children crippled, respected characters killed, and foul men who avoid karmic punishment. The plot and the characters pull the readers into the world and leave them wanting more.
In 2011, HBO takes a chance on adapting the novels. The cable channel's success rate with adaptations of late has been excellent, with True Blood, based on the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris, and Deadwood, based on the historical western town, having received critical and popular appeal. The TV series A Game of Thrones was no exception. The first season followed the events from the first book. The adaptation was relatively faithful. There were a few cuts of minor scenes, and several characters were aged up, notably the younger ones. The aging made sense, though – what was acceptable in the era portrayed in the book would result in serious criminal charges today. And, being an HBO production, a little extra sex and nudity was added, though nothing that wasn't implied in the novel.
So, was the first season a success? HBO believed so, enough to renew the series after the first episode. The minor changes mentioned above didn't detract from the story. Casting of the roles worked brilliantly from Sean Bean as Lord Eddard Stark to Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister. The format is perfect for the story – a miniseries format with no need to expand or contract to deal with the vagaries of a 22 episode season or a two hour movie. Successful, indeed.
Next time, could this be something recent?
Seeing a void left by Mattel, Hasbro introduced a line of toys as the boys' counterpoint to Barbie. G.I. Joe was a military-themed line of dolls, designed to let boys have adventures with them. However, reaction to US involvement in Vietnam resulted in reduced sales of a doll in army fatigues. An attempt to revive Joe as an adventurer with kung-fu grip in the 70s didn't pan out as well as expected, and the toy went back to the drawing board. In 1982, though, Hasbro saw the success that Kenner had with its Star Wars line of action figures and relaunched G.I. Joe as its own line, turning the doll into a secret organization fighting the likes of Cobra, a terrorist organization out to rule the world. The action figures were coupled with an animated series, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero.
In 2009, G.I. Joe The Rise of Cobra came out during a summer filled with reboots, remakes, and adaptations. The movie did not fare well critically. Or well at all. The movie showed the fight between the G.I. Joe organization, now a multinational special operations team made up of the best of the best of member nations' military forces, and Cobra, an unknown group headed by weapons magnate James McCullen (played by Christopher Eccleston). The movie started decently enough, giving some background to McCullen and his ancestor who was caught selling weapons to both the English and the french in the 1640s. It then went on to show the current generation of McCullen making a speech to NATO about his new weapon, nanomites – miniature robots that can be programmed to eat just about anything. (Also known as nanites.) The opening action sequence introducing Duke (played by Channing Tatum), Ripcord (played by Marlon Wayans) and the audience to G.I. Joe racheted up the tension, showing Cobra's capabilities and weapon technology far outclassing the US Army's. Only the timely intervention of Heavy Duty (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), Scarlett (Rachel Nichols), and Snake Eyes (Ray Park) managed to protect one of the four nanamite warheads, Duke, and Ripcord.
The movie broke down the moment the nanamites were weaponized. Naturally, to weaponize tiny, nanoscopic robots, one takes them to a particle accelerator lab to be spun. (I guess making the nanamites dizzy gets them upset.) The bounds of the suspension of disbelief shattered. The scene may have looked good on screen, but the average person could have thought of something more credible, like reprogramming them or introducing a computer virus. After all, nanamites are robots. Even switching the Good/Evil switch to the Evil setting would have been acceptable. The action sequence following, the chase where the above mentioned Joes go after the Baroness (Sienna Miller), Storm Shadow (Byung-Hun Lee), two disposable Cobra super-soldiers, and the nanamite missiles, carried on the problem. The CGI was noticeable. Sure, the accelerator suits (which, for a super-heroic-style movie weren't too farfetched) required CGI, since no human can run at highway speeds. Scarlett on a motorcycle and most of the traffic also appeared to be CGI animation, adding a disconnect.
From then on, the movie fell into a series of background flashbacks and action sequences that felt… borrowed. The big raid on the Empire'sCobra's Death Star underwater Arctic base by the RebelsJoes in their X-WingsSHARC attack subs felt familiar somehow. Worse, the ending left room, a lot of room, for a sequel.
What happened? At some point, scriptwriters started forgetting what they wrote earlier. The Eiffel Tower, McCullen's first target to show off the power of Cobra, was supposed to be evacuated according to the info Breaker received during the chase. Yet, when the heroes get there, there's nary an official there despite the throngs of tourists still there. Likewise, in Eccleston's first scene, McCullen specifically mentions that the nanamites can be programmed to eat anything, including metal. So why the spinning? Did the writers forget that the nanamites are programmable?
Not everything was a loss. Some of the action sequences and the training montage were well done. Bits of decent in a movie that discovered gravity on a slippery slope. Christopher Eccleston, like Raul Julia, seemed to know what sort of movie he was in and let loose his inner ham. (Mind, the villains seemed to get the better lines in this type of movie.) The Snake Eyes/Storm Shadow subplot held its own; Snake Eyes, for a character with no lines, had a strong presence on-screen. And, surprisingly, the presence of a Wayans brother didn't cause problems.
Still, the movie is, at best, forgettable. The plot was thin, and for a movie that seemed to be trying to set up a series, couldn't hold its own past the opening scenes.
Next time, adaptation is coming…
In 1934, Alex Raymond created a comic strip to compete with Buck Rogers in the newspapers. The strip, called Flash Gordon featured the titular hero, an athlete, caught up with reporter Dale Arden in an airplane crash caused by a sudden meteor showers, who is kidnapped by Dr. Hans Zarkov to travel by rocket ship to find the source of the meteor assault on Earth. The trio discovers that the meteors were sent by Ming the Merciless, rule of Mongo. Throughout the publication of the comic strip, Flash and his companions meet the peoples of Mongo and unite them to rebel against Ming to free the world from his cruel domination.
The comic strip had been turned into three serials, each starring Buster Keaton as Flash. The serials stayed to the core of the comic strip, though minor changes were made. Flash, originally a polo player in the comic, became a wrestler. Dale, originally a brunette, was played by Jean Rogers, who had her naturally dark hair dyed blonde to take advantage of the popularity of the hair colour in film. Still, the serials had a following and were the first science fiction serials produced.
In 1980, Dino de Laurentiis produced a screen adaptation of Flash, simply called Flash Gordon. Written by Lorenzo Semple and directed by Mike Hodges, the movie brought the comic strip to its core elements, showing Flash, Dale, and Dr. Zarkov uniting the peoples of Mongo to defeat the forces of Ming the Merciless. Flash Gordon didn't do well in its initial theatrical run. Several problems plagued the film, mostly related to executive meddling. Sam J. Jones was cast as the hero after de Laurentiis' wife saw him on a game show. At the same time, de Laurentiis himself worked out an arrangement with Bob Guccione of Penthouse to have some of his models as extras. A decision was made to use bright colours at a time when realism was the order of the day for films.
However, the movie is considered a cult classic. What saved the film from the millstone of mediocrity and being tossed into the fountain of the forgotten was director Hodges being able to cast the supporting actors. He turned to veterans of stage and screen, people who could carry the film while the rookie actor Jones learned the craft. (And, yes, you can see Jones's acting ability improve as the movie progresses.) Max von Sydow turned in an understated performance as Ming the Merciless, bringing a subtle menace to the role instead of chewing the scenery as Raul Julia and Jeremy Irons had. Topol, best known from the theatrical and cinematic versions of Fiddler on the Roof, played the indomitable Dr. Hans Zarkov, delivering lines that would be cheesy under lesser talent. Timothy Dalton, who would go on to be 007, played Prince Bain of the Treemen. Richard O'Brien, he of The Rocky Horror Picture Show fame, played Fico, one of Barin's men. And Brian Blessed, veteran of many British productions, played Prince Vultan of the Hawkmen, bringing a boisterousness that defined the Hawk Prince. ("What? GORDON'S ALIVE?!")
Coupled with the supporting cast was the soundtrack. Written and performed by Queen, the music provided a strong rock beat that mirrored and accentuated the action on screen. Scenes that would cause massive eyestrain from the eyerolls became fun, if still implausible; scenes such as the football fight in Ming's court. "Flash's Theme" reached Top-40 radio stations.
Overall, the movie should have been a disaster. Executive meddling created many hurdles for the director. The visuals of the film went in the opposite direction of other movies made at the same time. The special effects looked more like a throwback to the serials than the cutting edge pushed by Lucasfilm. Flash Gordon should have been MST3K fodder. Yet, the little things pull the movie up. The supporting cast was far better than the movie deserved. The soundtrack itself saved the film from being forgettable. Little details, lines added for humour (Barin to Zarkov while awaiting execution: "Tell me again about this man Houdini."), background gags ("All citizens will make merry upon pain of death" on a "space blimp" during the wedding), all of this added up to get people to watch the movie again. Success? Not really, few people go out to make a cult classic (Rocky Horror notwithstanding). Failure, then? Again, no, the movie is enjoyable and the problem spots start taking on their own charm. Flash Gordon falls into a gap between success and failure – the movie has a following, but not for what the creators had hoped. It is a cult classic.
Next time, from action figure to action movie.
Research in Motion Limited, aka RIM and the creators of the BlackBerry, has had several hard hits in the past year. The Playbook wasn't as accepted as wanted and had several shortcomings making it hard for the tablet to complete in the marketplace. RIM's stock took a hit and fell drastically in May 2011, forcing the cancellation of several projects. A global outage this month caused by a hardware failure in a BlackBerry server had RIM offering rebates. What happened to RIM?
It's starting to look (to me, at least) that RIM wasn't ready to expand into the consumer market. The demands of consumers are different from those of business and government, RIM's previous core user base. The company's signature device, the BlackBerry, was launched in 1999 as a personal digital assistant. By 2004, the BlackBerry, called "Crackberry" by users and detractors, had over one million subscribers worldwide. Many of the devices were in corporate and government offices. The various departments of the Government of Canada rely on the device. Who knows how many BlackBerries were taken to Khandahar, Afghanistan, by senior officers in the Canadian Forces? Suffice to say, RIM knows how to handle a client base consisting of large organizations.
Along comes Apple, first with its iPod, then its iPhone, and finally the iPad. Competing with Apple is the Google-created Android on a variety of hardware platforms. These are RIM's first real competitors, with Palm and their Pilots having been left in the dust due to lack of versatile functionality (no email, no wireless). The iLine of devices and Android storm the consumer market. RIM had some inroads to the consumer market, primarily through a userbase that were familiar with the BlackBerry due to work. But, now, there's a choice.
RIM's Playbook tablet would have been enough for the corporate and government sector where there is already a BlackBerry infrastructure set up. The users needing one would already have a BlackBerry, the main item needed to provide the Playbook with wireless and email capability. In the consumer market, though, a tablet that also needs a PDA/smartphone connected is a non-starter. The cost of both would not compete with the iPad, with everything needed all included. Indicative of RIM's current issues was the announcement of a new OS, BBX. Although the OS is a good step, users were also expecting a new device that BBX would be running on. This disconnect is a major issue.
There's two ways for RIM to go. The first is to focus on corporate and government contracts. The infrastructure, particularly the BlackBerry Exchange Server, is in place at many sites, including throughout the Government of Canada. Devices can be upgraded along with the OS. Apple and Android have made little headway there. The other is to find people with vision, technical and non-tech, people who can get a feel for the consumer market and determine what the large consumer base wants before the base itself does. The second choice is harder, but may be what keeps RIM as a technological leader instead of a specialist.
Sports movies have been around for almost as long as motion pictures have been enjoyed. All kinds of sports, from American football to, well, football (soccer) to hockey to even curling (Men With Brooms). However, it appears that one sport in particular has had more than its fair share of attention.
Popularly attributed to Abner Doubleday, baseball evolved from the British game of rounders over a hundred years ago. With its slow pace, the game could be enjoyed at the ballpark, on radio, and, once it was developed, on television. Many Major League Baseball stadiums have a charm of their own, from Wrigley Field and its unpredictable winds to Yankee Stadium, the House that Ruth Built. Numerous movies – comedies, dramas, biopics, even fantasy – have revolved around the sport and its mystique. Even television series, including such stand outs as The Simpsons, WKRP in Cincinnati, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, have featured baseball episodes. A baseball game builds up its own narrative, its own drama, its own comedy as play progresses. And despite the specialization of the various positions, each position contributes to a team's success, even the designated hitter*.
In 1993, Daniel Stern directed his first feature, Rookie of the Year, a coming of age fantasy comedy featuring Henry, a twelve year old boy who is recruited by his home team, the Chicago Cubs as a publicity stunt to get people into the seats. Henry had injured himself at the end of the school year, fracturing his arm and tearing his rotator cuff. The injuries healed, leaving his tendons a little tight and able to throw a baseball 103mph (165km/h). Henry's first outing is shaky, resulting in a lead-off home run, a hit batsman, and a wild pitch leading to the final out. His second appearance starts similarly, with another hit batsman, but after a confusing pep talk from his hero and reluctant mentor, played by Gary Busey, Henry settles down to get the next batter to ground into a double play and finally gets his first strikeout.
The movie goes on to show Henry as he is separated from his friends, getting caught up in the life of a major leaguer and baseball's business end. The glint of being a baseball player loses some of its lustre, but Henry's awe at being in the majors remains. After all, he is a twevle year old living out his ultimate fantasy.
Does the movie work in the terms of adapting the game of baseball into its narrative? Yes. Notwithstanding that the entire premise is built around a kid living a fantasy many boys, girls, women, and men have had, the story is written competently and directed well by Stern. A great movie, no, but fun and worth watching on its own merits. Helping with the getting the feel is filming most of the baseball scenes at one of the iconic parks of the sport, Wrigley Field. The climactic game builds, tying together several character arcs into the tension as the Cubs work towards getting into the playoffs. Thomas Ian Nicholas is believable as Henry, with sheer awe pouring from him. The supporting cast, though not A-listers outside Gary Busey, include Dan Hedaya, John Candy, and Albert Hall, with cameos by baseball players Bobby Bonilla, Pedro Guerrero, and Barry Bonds. Most of the plays on field are believable; baseball has seen stranger. The pitch used by Henry in the last at bat has also been used by Atlanta Braves pitcher Phil Niekro. Overall, the movie succeeds at adapting baseball for its story.
Next time, Klytus, I'm bored. What reboot do you have for me today?
*But in real baseball, the pitcher takes his turn at bat.
The first of this series (ignoring the introduction) focused on Star Trek: The Next Generation, a series that featured a new cast and even a new USS Enterprise. However, this wasn't the first attempt at a reboot for Star Trek. As mentioned in the first entry, the series made the jump from the boob tube to the silver screen in 1979 with Star Trek: The Motion Picture. This movie became the first of nine feature films, including a reboot movie in 2009. Each Star Trek movie had its strengths and weaknesses in varying amounts. Yet, it is Star Trek: The Motion Picture that had the highest gross at $$139,000,000 until the 2009 reboot. How?
As mentioned before, a new Star Trek series was being developed in the late Seventies. As the work continued, airing commitments fell through, though the door opened to turn the project into a movie. The original pilot script for Star Trek – Phase II got reworked for the big screen. The plot centred on an alien cloud making a beeline towards Earth. As Star Fleet worked to get a ship ready to intercept, a communication from the commander of a Klingon task force showed the danger of the cloud – three Klingon battlecruisers were obliterated one at a time despite their fearsome weaponry. Naturally, the job fell to Star Fleet's top vessel, an upgraded USS Enterprise.
However, the ship wasn't helmed by James T. Kirk. Kirk had accepted a promotion to Admiral after successfully completing the Enterprise's five year mission to find new worlds, seek out new life and new civilization, to boldly go where no man had gone before. In his stead was Captain Decker, a young man following Kirk's footsteps. Alas, for Decker, he got bumped from command when an admiral decided to get back into action.
After the crew, including fan favourites Bones, Scotty, Sulu, Uhura, and Chekov and new crew member, the Deltan Ilia, arrived (via shuttle, not transporter due to messy technical issues), the Enterprise left Earth's orbit to intercept the dangerous cloud. Along the way, a problem with the warp drive caused the Enterprise to enter a wormhole. The crew manages to escape it, but the imbalance in the nacelles makes even Warp Factor 1 a hazard. Fortunately, one man heard about the problem and arrived in a warpshuttle to assist. Mr. Spock, now retired from service to pursue the Vulcan state of Kohlinahr, docked with the Enterprise and provided his skills to get the ship warp-capable.
The Enterprise reached the alien cloud, who sent a probe to inspect the ship. During this, Chekov is injured trying to prevent the probe from downloading information on the defense of Earth and Ilya is killed, vapourized by a blast. Shortly, after a number of probes were launched from the Enterprise and lost, an intruder was detected in Ilya's quarters. Kirk, Decker, and a security team responded, only to discover a new probe taking the Deltan's form. The probe!Ilya explained that she was there to facilitate communications between the crew and the the alien cloud, now known as V'Ger. V'Ger's mission was to find the Creator and deliver all the information it had gathered.
After an unauthorized spacewalk by Spock, who used his trip to try to mind meld with V'Ger and got far more than he expected, a landing party consisting of half the ranking officers (Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Decker, probe!Ilya included) made their way to V'Ger's core. There, they discover that V'Ger was really one of the Voyager probes launched from Earth in the Seventies. V'Ger's plan was to become one with the Creator, and did everything possible to force the Creator to go to it. In an act of heroic sacrifice, Decker took the place of the Creator and received all the information V'Ger collected, combining with the probe and Ilya to ascend.
Ultimately, the movie consisted of an extended Star Trek episode, with starship porn to help stretch the time to over two hours. Kirk's shuttle ride from Spacedock to the Enterprise included a long fly-by past, under, and over the starship before docking. Interstitial footage between scenes included loving passes over the Enterprise, to the point where the starship should have gotten billing in the credits. Later Star Trek movies would have a more intricate plot, more action, more humour, even better scripts. So how did an extended television pilot with extensive filler become the most financially successful (before 2009) Trek movie?
The key to the movie's success may be just in the timing. In 1977, Star Wars tore up box office records with an action-packed plot. Star Trek, though, was always a more cerebral series, even when there was action or humour. ("The Trouble With Tribbles" was obviously a warning about removing a species from its indiginous environment.) Also, in 1979, the original series had been in syndication for ten years, far longer than anyone would have expected. (And still is in syndication even now. Not bad for a show that lasted just three seasons.) The fanbase grew as a result. Conventions, fanzines, fanclubs (official and unofficial), comics – the demand for more Trek was there. Thanks to Star Wars, people had a taste of science fiction and wanted more, and Star Trek provided. The idea of watching a movie multiple times in the theatre helped; video cassette recorders were rare at the time so the option of purchasing a copy of a film after its theatre run was non-existant. Thus, possibly the weakest entry in the Star Trek movies has the best theatrical returns, proving that, if the demand is there and effort is made, the fans will come.
Next time, take me out to the adaptation!
Lost in Translation 11 – Save Versus Illusion
Several weeks ago, this column looked at Dungeons & Dragons. During the 80s, one of the goals the creators had was creating a D&D movie. Gary Gygax, co-creator of the game, would mention the work being done towards this end in his guest column in Dragon, TSR's role-playing magazine. In 2000, the movie became a reality with Dungeons & Dragons.
The story revolved around two thieves who, while breaking into a wizard's lab to engage in some creative wealth distribution, ran into the mage's apprentice. She managed to stop the thieves; but, while doing so, overheard her master conspiring with the Big Bad of the movie to overthrow the queen. The three escape, running into a dwarf fighter (easily distinguished by his strength, armour, and lack of charisma). The foursome, who quickly become a quintet after a tavern scene, band together to thwart the villain and protect the wizard kingdom by going on a quest, gaining assistance from the elves. Alas, one of the thieves heroically sacrifices himself by fighting the villain's chief henchman (in a very one-sided battle) to let the rest of the party escape.
The main problem with converting a tabletop RPG to a movie is that the core audience may get several steps ahead of the heroes and can point out flaws both obvious and subtle in any plans they make. On top, the core audience will be expecting the story to reflect the in-game physics, the game's rules, accurately. Dungeons & Dragons tried hard to keep the game's mechanics in place, but rules designed to facilitate role-playing and problem solving don't always match up with the needs of storytelling and narrative flow. This became obvious when the party had to sneak past an eye-conic monster, the Beholder. For those not aware of what the monster is in-game, it is a challenge to medium level player characters (PCs), with eleven eyes, each capable of emitting its own effect ray, including an instant death beam. Assuming that the characters are the same level and taking an early scene where the mage cast a lightning bolt (a 3rd-level spell), the party is roughly around level five or six. (Higher, and the wizard would have tossed a more dangerous spell. Lower, and the wizard couldn't have cast the lightning bolt.) Five characters of fifth or sixth level would have been badly injured during a fight with just one Beholder. But, narratively, the monster has to be bypassed. The solution – an old trick; toss a rock past the guarding Beholder to make it zip off to go look. The patrolling Beholder was there to show how powerful the villain was, not to be fought, but the effect was the equivalent of the Dungeon Master (DM) realizing that he upped the difficulty too high and gave the PCs a chance to avoid getting killed when the quest barely began.
Related to the game mechanics is the setting. Technically, D&D can be used for any setting the DM creates. However, over the years, both TSR, the original publisher, and Wizard of the Coast, the company that bought the D&D property when TSR folded, have released various settings for the game, including Greyhawk (created by Gary Gygax for the original white box D&D), the Forgotten Realms (created by Ed Greenwood as his home campaign's setting), Krynn (created by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman for the Dragonlance novels), Dark Sun (a post-apocalyptic setting that started PCs at third level because of the lethality), and Spelljammer (D&D in space!). Choosing any one of these settings would have added familiarity to D&D players watching the movie (though not necessarily the general audience). The decision, though, was to create a new setting, one where wizards ruled, with no ties to any of the existing settings. There may have been a plan to release a setting to go along with the movie, though no such product was ever produced outside a few articles in Dragon.
Casting turned into another issue with the movie. The main character was played by Justin Whalin, whose previous work was the role of the replacement Jimmy Olson on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. He turned in a solid performance, though the script toyed with him multiclassing. His sidekick Snails was played by Marlon Wayans, and his death brought the wrong feeling to the audience. ("Yay, he's gone!" is not the emotion a director wants from an audience when a character important to the hero dies.) The wizard apprentice was played by Zoe McLellan, who also turned in a solid performance. The main villain was played by Jeremy Irons, who seemed to know just what sort of movie he was in and chewed the scenery. (He may have been channelling Raul Julia during filming.) The supporting cast did what they could for the most part, with Tom Baker (the fourth Doctor) playing an elven elder cleric. However, Thora Birch… Wooden is a good word. Whether it was from not having experience acting to a green screen or having problems with her wardrobe (her shoes looked difficult to move around in), her acting was stiff, reminicent of a high school play.
Did the movie succeed? Not really. Between some of the casting, the lack of familiar setting, and the difficulty of replicating game mechanics* and the necessity of game play to a different format caused several problems that couldn't be overcome. The cast all seemed to be in a different style of movie, from epic fantasy to fantasy comedy to B-movie serial. The early CGI effects were noticeable and could detract from the action. It's hard to tell if the people involved cared; there were attempts at bringing out iconic elements of the game and Gary Gygax had a cameo. Overall, the movie fell flat. A direct-to-DVD sequel that came out in the Oughties resolved many of the problems, though had a low budget to add a new issue.
(Anecdata time. I showed the movie on DVD to a friend who happily watched bad movies and MST3K and owned a copy of the Hong Kong live-action Dragonball movie with the reusable grenande. He couldn't get through it; the movie didn't fall into the so-bad-it's-good range he preferred.)
Next time, a reboot train to the stars.
* This isn't to say that all game mechanics aren't realistic. Avalon Hill's James Bond: 007 RPG reflected the action in the movies well and still holds up with Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. Other RPG designers have worked to have their mechanics reflect their subject (as the Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG did successfully). D&D, however, evolved from tabletop wargaming and still has artifacts from its heritage.
A brief look into the making of an entry
Inspired by Rob's "Launch or Lunch" series and needing some filler, I've put this together to show the thought processes (or lack thereof) into the "Lost in Translation" series.
The first step is brainstorming, either to get ideas for future entries or to place ideas for a specific subject down. I have a list of entries with one liners to remind me of the basic plan, and keep adding as I run into more adaptations, remakes, and reboots. In general, I try to limit myself to those that I have access to, either in my own collections or those that are easy to acquire; this holds for both the original and the remake since I compare the two. I also try to have a mix of well known and obscure so that readers don't lose patience when I indulge myself from time to time. I usually try to refresh my knowledge by reading/watching/listening/playing both to keep comparisons fresh. One of the best things about DVDs over video is the commentary track; a good commentary will include insights from the participants about why decisions were made.
From brainstorming comes the decision; which reboot to examine. This can be one of the toughest choices. Sometimes I have ideas for multiple entries and can only work on just one at a time. (I'd try multiple entries at once, but I'd need a second set of arms to work the second keyboard.) Once that choice is made, I mull over the approach I want to take. A typical entry includes the history of the original, sometimes the background of the creator or creators, what happened with the original material, when the adaptation/reboot/remake (ARR from here on), the problems the ARR faced, and whether those problems were resolved, avoided, or appeared. The first draft can have some tense issues as I jump between past and present, and will have question marks throughout as I mark the text for later fact checking.
Once I'm satisfied with the first draft, I go through it again, cleaning grammar and spelling and noting down in a separate file what details need to be clarified. I usually let the first draft sit for a bit so I don't gloss over errors by accident. (That's right; all errors you see have a matte finish!) Oh, and I check for inappropriate humour. An entry about a comedic subject, like The Naked Gun, will have comedic asides and a lighter tone than a more serious subject, like Battlestar Galactica.
The fact checking is mostly to confirm dates. Any other details are taken either from the source directly or a reliable secondary source. When either the ARR or the original is hard to track down, I do rely on Internet sources, but backed up by my existing knowledge to avoid embarassing mistakes, like saying The Blues Brothers came out in 2008. I am well aware of the problem of wikiality. Fortunately, most of my list can be verified easily. An odd case coming up is the BattleTech animated series, where, because the series isn't readily available, I'm relying on a sourcebook produced in support of the show for the original game. Another case, also to come eventually, is the Heavy Gear animated series, where it's easier to ask the members of Dream Pod 9, the publishers of the wargame, and the Pod Corps, their demo team, about the series. Networking – good for blogs, good for me!
Now I've come to the hardest parts of the entries – the title and the tagline. I'm regretting the cliffhangereque approach I've taken, laying down a hint of what's next instead of just saying it outright. It's easy to use "boldly go where no reboot has gone before" and still expect people to realize what's next. Coming up with a tag for the BattleTech and Heavy Gear adapations will be harder due to their relative obscurity. The titles aren't much easier. Some are fairly obvious, such as the Casino Royale entry, "Number 007 – Licence to Reboot". Others, not so much. Hindsight being 20/20, I probably should have thought this through a bit more. C'est la vie.
The last thing I do before scheduling the post, after all the read overs, fact checking, corrections, corrections of corrections, and questioning myself for starting this, is figure out a decent order. I want to make sure I don't do too much the same over and over, like two Star Trek entries in a row, or two RPG adaptations one after the other. Variety is the spice of life. I want to make sure failures are examined as well as successes, as long as the sanity loss isn't too great. In my to-do file, I keep a list of what I've done, what's in draft, what's on deck, and the untouched. By examining the completed entry list, I can tell what I've focused on too much or too little and use that to pick what to write about next.
Finally, the scheduling. I take this as one last spellcheck, though I sometimes disagree with my browser on spellings; tends to be a grey area. I add bolding and italics as needed, add hyperlinks, fix formatting, generally use the posting to administer final touches. Then I schedule and ignore the entry until it appears on its appointed date. Or panic if the system messed up and posted immediately. Mainly ignore.
I am trying to create a buffer. It's very useful and prevents a panic when a Saturday approaches and there's nothing. I'm a bit remiss, but life events tend to trump the entry. The main buffer I'll need will be in November, where NaNoWriMo will eat my brain like a zombie ninja. Maybe a zombie pirate T-rex ninja. Anyway, yeah, buffer. The more, the better.
For those wondering what I use to write the entries, well, brace yourself. Notepad. Yep, a basic text editor. It opens quickly, doesn't have formatting issues when doing a copy and paste (except for weirdly placed carriage returns/line feeds, which is easily fixed after the paste), and forces me to make the final read through to catch all the markings I made while typing. And part of it is force of habit from writing fanfiction in the Usenet days. Text-only was the default then.
And, before I end, a note about success. I've realized that I haven't really defined what a successful ARR is. There's the obvious – the ARR made money. The Phantom Menace definitely qualifies there. Then there's fan approval; fandom accepts the final product as being canon. The Phantom Menace, not as successful there as hoped, but Serenity definitely qualifies. So, what would a successful ARR be? Is it one that gains fan acceptance despite a poor general reception? One that is immensely successful in either ratings, sales, or box office receipts but is derided by fans? A mix?
And there you have it, a look behind the scenes. This way to the egress.
Next time, back into the dungeon.
