Half Life Movie

[Sitten_duck]

@Piefish

Ok so pretty much everyone has seen Escape from City 17 now, if not then where have you been living for the past few months!? Anyhoo it has proved you can make a half life movie as long as you don’t do it about Gordon Freeman :freeman:.

Um… What? How did city 17 prove that a HL movie could be made as long as Gordon could be left out? Answer, it proved nothing. The Truth is that all Escape from City 17 demonstrated is that fans can make a nice short, and that the fans might enjoy a HL movie IF DONE CORRECTLY.

@Piefish

So imagine someone were to make an actual half life movie. You wouldn’t be able to have rebels running around black mesa shooting at combine that aren’t even there yet so who would you do it about? The answer is eli vance, dr kleiner, Magnusson, barney etc etc.

Well, yeah, there weren’t rebels or combine. If I recall correctly, Half-Life did have a story of its own, one does not really need to synthesize too much of a story.

@Piefish

We have never been shown, or really told how they got out of black mesa so why not have a movie showing how they got out of that damn place? Of course you will have to have freeman in it at some point but not for too long that the viewers get bored of the silent protagonist solving puzzles in third person (unless you do it in first person but that might be a bit nauseating for viewers as it was with cloverfield:fffuuu so yeah basically, whoever wants to make a half life movie do it about the main characters excluding freeman.

Huh…? I’m not sure from what you have posted where you derive this anti-Gordon logic. Who on earth ever said that Gordon has to be silent, that he has to solve puzzles, or have “Doom vision” shudders. In my opinion, Gordon is essential in making a true HL story. I get that he is supposed to be a conduit for the gamers’ interaction in the HL world for the games, but this doesn’t mean that he has to be an empty character in a movie. As long as you have an excellent script, a solid actor, and a director who gets HL and knows what he’s doing, there should be no real problems. Sure it would be a little difficult to implement, but it wouldn’t impossible, or bad for that matter.
People have fallen under the false assumption that game-to-movie adaptations will always fail; that it’s impossible to make the leap. The truth is that it can, the only reason why so many have been crappy, is that Hollywood is trying to exploit the gamer market, trying to make a quick buck off of fan boys. I believe Gabe Newell said that

I think there’s also this element of financing in Germany where they don’t really care how profitable the movies are either, so you have this collision of people who are not long-term stakeholders who just think ‘what are the next five movies I can crank out before the German government closes this tax loophole?’ and 95 per cent of the gaming movies are being made specifically for those reasons.

It’s not that good movies can’t be made, it’s the people who are making them. Get a good cast, a good script, and a good director who cares about the work his name is being put on, and I believe that many titles can make the leap, and some have the potential to become amazing movies. Doug Lombardi said himself that although it would be difficult to accomplish, that if VALVe worked on it that they could do it. (I don’t have the quote)

Newell also seems to have faith that it can make the leap, why else has he looked at Hollywood offers (turned them down), hired his own writer(s) (turned them down), and looked towards VALVe writing the script themselves. I actually wrote Newell a few months ago about it, and he said they are actively trying to teach themselves how to turn a game into a linear narrative. Therefore, he hasn’t given up on the idea himself yet. He said their attempts can be seen in the TF2 shorts and the L4D intro video. Notice how the characters in those games, merely conduits for the player’s interaction in the world, have been given personalities in the videos. Fans that freak out at even the slightest hint of a movie (I’m looking at you John Killer118 ) should remember that Gabe Newell said that either a good HL movie gets made, or it won’t get made at all. That VALVe will be actively involved with its creation. In anycase, there is no need to fret. Besides, except for really long production times, has VALVe ever really let us down (HL: S does not count, they made it clear that they were only trying to prove that it could be ported)?

Prior to the crash, this topic had been debated at great length by myself and others in possibly the longest posts this forum has ever seen. In the end, we arrived at a stalemate. The only way to come close to even semi-proving one way or another is to write an entire script and see how it all pans out. But none of us are willing to do that, so it is unlikely we will ever find out unless VALVe makes a Half-life movie.

[Dias]

@Sitten_duck

He said their attempts can be seen in the TF2 shorts and the L4D intro video. Notice how the characters in those games, merely conduits for the player’s interaction in the world, have been given personalities in the videos.

That’s the big problem with having Gordon in a Half-Life movie. Gordon has always been a (fairly) personality-free character for players to interpret as they see fit. If an official Half-Life movie is ever made, it’ll make a permanent impression on Gordon as a character, and forever change the way Gordon’s personality is in the eyes of players. And anyone who doesn’t agree with the way he’s depicted in the movie will feel ostracized.

[targ]

A good movie based on Half-Life is very unlikely but possible in theory. The HL world has a distinctive style and feel beyond the interactive elements that could be translated to a movie. Also seeing some specific HL stuff like the gravity gun in action in a movie could be interesting, but they’d have to be careful not to overdo it. I think valve would need to be involved in almost every aspect of production for it to be done right.

It shouldn’t be about Gordon. I always thought he was silent because the player is supposed to imagine their own responses, although his quietness has been referenced a couple times. Using an actor for Gordon would defeat the purpose of letting you define his personality. In fact the most logical choice for a movie would probably be to set it during the period when he’s in stasis.

Anyway I don’t expect this to ever happen.

[Reaper1020]

Well also what someone said before if you had a decent director good casting a HL movie could be decent and to who said that Gordon is able to “telll” people to hide near a wall or move somewhere… he could jsut be useing sighns and pointing technecally

or this… think about Escape from city 17… that was good… now jsut add a first person veiw to it with a crowbar/weapons in the corner and someone adressing “you” every now and again and it would be pretty decent id think, and it dosent have to revolve around the first person… person…(what?) but with it jsut in there it would seem pretty cool… and you can take the music streight from the game if valve allows it

[mark84j]

Regardless of who the director could be, I wish it would be the same format of the game. Take the ending of HL2 for instance - end with Gman walking away from you, into the blackness, only to open the white door and step through. End movie.

I feel that if there ever was a HL movie, people would remember that for a long time. I’ll never forget the feeling I had after finishing HL2, just saying, “wow.”

[Reaper1020]

WOW is all you can say after HL2 the game just leaves you stunned at how uber it is XD

[mark84j]

Right.

[iKy]

@mark84j

Regardless of who the director could be, I wish it would be the same format of the game. Take the ending of HL2 for instance - end with Gman walking away from you, into the blackness, only to open the white door and step through. End movie.

I feel that if there ever was a HL movie, people would remember that for a long time. I’ll never forget the feeling I had after finishing HL2, just saying, “wow.”

i actually said " damn… "

the guy that made the movie should be the guy that made equilibrium , or the sixth element , or goddamn george lucas , but ain’t gonna happen , that kind of uber-ness can’t be achived with today’s simple minds

[Reaper1020]

the only good game-movie movies are ganna be fan made ones… with some computer and video editing knoledge ofc but still big time directors are retarted when it come to game-movie stuff… 99% atleast

[Paul]

@Reaper1020

the only good game-movie movies are ganna be fan made ones… with some computer and video editing knoledge ofc but still big time directors are retarted when it come to game-movie stuff… 99% atleast

I actually might do that when I get into 3D animation. All I need is some voice actors and sound directors. I might actually get the two voice actors for Kliener (Harry S. Robins) and Aylx (Merle Dandridge). Here is a video of them

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B-ZiQGPDdw&feature=channel_page

[blue]

i fucking love Geoff Keighley, he knows more about games than me, just crazy O_o
Also he looks so young here ;D

[Fuglypump]

Adventures of DOG!

[Ramirezoid]

Harry S. Robins looks like Doom from Who Framed roger Rabbit.

[Unknowncode]

Like a lot of other people, I don’t think it should be a movie. Whilst the story is good, transferring it to the screen is a bad idea. There’s already been many video game movies :Resident Evil, Doom etc. but most of them have failed miserably. They’ve already announced movies for Bioshock and Halo however, so who knows, although they’re likely to not be any better. In my opinion, if they were to make a film. It should be about the 7 hour war and the rise of the combine, as thats a more cinematic part of the storyline.

[chipstix4]

I would think that Half-life 1 would be the better option for the movie. Think of all the explosions and special effects…and xen! If they do decide to make more then they can go to half-life 2.

[Floyd]

@Sitten_duck

Um… What? How did city 17 prove that a HL movie could be made as long as Gordon could be left out? Answer, it proved nothing. The Truth is that all Escape from City 17 demonstrated is that fans can make a nice short, and that the fans might enjoy a HL movie IF DONE CORRECTLY.

No, I think it simply proved that a good Half-Life 2 film could be made, not necessarily provided that Gordon be left out. But it certainly proved to me and I would guess the majority of other gaming fans that the existing story and features of the Half-Life 2 world transfer with surprising ease to film. Where you are in danger of cocking up is with the characters. I think Escape from City 17 played it safe by not putting Gordon in, and instead concentrating on more flexible characters.

@Sitten_duck

Well, yeah, there weren’t rebels or combine. If I recall correctly, Half-Life did have a story of its own, one does not really need to synthesize too much of a story.

True, but Half-Life seemed to me to be a fairly one-dimensional story. You had aliens coming in and a struggle for survival. There have been films that portray that and do it well, but it seems hard to pull off. I think Half-Life 2 has a much greater chance of being successful and being taken seriously. Its story is widely considered to be far more gripping and the atmosphere, setting, designs and creatures were reviewed as being some of the best features of the game. We’ve already seen that these can be transferred to film with incredible ease and still look good, so I’d say go for the easier option which is more likely to be taken seriously. The story of HL1 can easily be filled in within 30 seconds or so, if at all.

@Sitten_duck

He said their attempts can be seen in the TF2 shorts and the L4D intro video. Notice how the characters in those games, merely conduits for the player’s interaction in the world, have been given personalities in the videos.

But those characters aren’t necessarily conduits for the player in the same way as Half-Life. Firstly, both HL and HL2 are far more serious than either TF2 or L4D. More effort and thought have been put into the story, setting and other features and the games themselves are more three-dimentional. Secondly, all of the characters in the videos you speak of are capable of speaking and there are cutscenes and dialogue. With HL it’s not so easy. Gordon is already a conduit for the player and the whole point of him not speaking is so that players can become the character. As Dias says, if you make Gordon speak, you not only ruin 99% of people’s images of Gordon but, even worse, you ostracize them too.

@Sitten_duck

Prior to the crash, this topic had been debated at great length by myself and others in possibly the longest posts this forum has ever seen. In the end, we arrived at a stalemate. The only way to come close to even semi-proving one way or another is to write an entire script and see how it all pans out. But none of us are willing to do that, so it is unlikely we will ever find out unless VALVe makes a Half-life movie.

Hell, I’m working on it but it’s taking a long time. I’m sort of writing it as a novel in my spare, spare, very spare time and in my own, slightly different vision of it.

I’ve never been convinced of Gordon’s importance to Half-Life 2. In my eyes he’s utterly expendable because you are him. You have the whole ‘messianic complex’ that surrounds his character, but this is simply a ruse to embue the player with a feeling for their mission and an idea of their progress. It doesn’t seem to be key to the story in any way.

There’s also the problem of the suit, and this is a real bastard to deal with in terms of a film. The suit clearly gives the reasoning behind Gordon doing the things he does and not dying, but the tension is gone. You could argue that he can die and that the suit allows for more extreme action, but if the man can take a rocket and survive then it starts to get a little ridiculous. The point of a good main character is that they are human, and their weakness is what makes it so tense and exciting.

If you make the plot around other characters, then you have freedom and ease to make them how you wish. I’ve always thought that splitting Freeman’s character into two, neither of them related to him in any way, would be the best solution. You can still allow for the same sort of action, but with the added benefits of dialogue, tension and real acting that come from having more than one person in the lead role. Yes, you could have Freeman interacting with rebels or have another character, but with that bastard suit all they’d be is a sidekick and the tension would be absent or much reduced.

[iKy]

it’s hard to put a personality on a character that went thouth so much , you can’t fully understand his feelings ,that’s why he isn’t described in games

[mancubus133]

Ok, so this thread has been pretty much about bashing movies made off of video games, but what about a movie based off a mod of Half-Life? Counter-Strike anyone?

I think that we should start thinking of ways that a Half-Life movie would work instead of finding numerous faults with the idea, like, how would the movie open, or which characters should be focused on during the majority of the movie?

I personally think that the movie should focus on characters other than Gordon such as Adrian Shepard and Barney, but still have Gordon there, mainly in the background notsaying anything. Also have the two people from Decay, which would prevent the problem of lead female characters (a point made in the thread somewhere), and also take some slack off Freeman being the only one in an HEV suit, making the idea of him being a regular scientist more natural (Floyd made a point about the suit above).

I also think that it should be done more like Alien in that you don’t really know who is going to be the hero who does the amazing things until closer to the end of the movie. It would help keep some suspense up for audiences not familiar with the game. Instead of being the military badass (Adrian) or the security guard (Barney), its the scientist who happens to get his hands on a crowbar and some guns who goes to kill the giant alien in the amazing finale.

Thoughts? Flames? Other various rants?

[mark84j]

I respectfully disagree. If there is a HL movie, it’d have to be mainly about Gordon. Switching back and forth between so many characters woul exhaust the audience and cause confusion as to who is doing what.

As for how the movie would open, I mentioned (b4 the crash) how it would be so nostalgic to just have the HALF-LIFE plaster on the screen, then have it lift up to have us travel through the outer rim of Black Mesa while the credits roll. Pan back slowly an you have Gordon Freeman sitting casually, watching everything pass by outside.

[TheOneAndOnly]

…That description brought tears to my eyes. Beautiful.