Metal Gear Solid, Oogieloves, and interactive cinema

The big news in the geek universe this week was the announcement of a Metal Gear Solid movie. Talk of the movie threatened to envelope threads in every message board as fans of the franchise began talking about the games and how they are beyond the normal video game and become a truly interactive experience. The main point many of them rightfully attest is that it will be difficult if not impossible to duplicate the anything can happen as the fourth was is shattered to dust feelings as you desperately try to piece together what is going on and what crazy thing you will have to do next. Cinema is largely a one way interactive environment, what happens on screen will happen whether you are paying rapt attention or are dozing off or making out in the back row. I see you back there. Continue making out.

Aside from a few random films mostly on DVD (or that Futurama episode where you can watch Calculon double-check his paperwork!), what happens next is largely out of your control. There are no buttons to push, and no matter how loud you yell at that dumb girl in Friday the 13th Part 17, she’s going to take a shower in the haunted cabin built on the zombie graveyard. All that means is, can Metal Gear Solid survive if it’s not the type of story telling device people expect from it? Sure, many video game to movie adaptations have largely ignored key parts of the original game in order to tell a tale in a new medium (read: graft the franchise onto an existing mediocre script in an attempt to save money!), but most of them are terrible. Metal Gear Solid is one of those franchises that if it is screwed up, whoever directs it will be the new Uwe Boll, even if they go on to direct Gone With the Kane. Hideo Kojima is a literal rock star, I’ve personally seen people wait all day in lines to briefly see him (I saw him get out of the limo and everyone screamed and cheered!) He will not be blamed for it if it fails. That blame will fall on the eventual director and the producer Avi Arad. Arad already appears as an executive producer on all of Marvel’s films due to his ties to the company’s movie studio’s beginnings. He’s running his own production house now, and he has multiple projects in development, including films based on the video games Mass Effect, Uncharted, and inFAMOUS.

Making a Metal Gear Solid movie is not that difficult in theory, the Metal Gear franchise openly borrows from cinema and actors. The key problem arises in making a film that has the same type of feel as the original games. Regardless of how well the eventual film (if any) does, you can be sure people will complain about the smallest details imaginable.

Interactive film does have one more entry, a recent entry. As in this week is the opening weekend entry. And it’s making cinema history! Because it’s bombing so bad! Yes, we’re talking about the Oogieloves! The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure opened Wednesday in 1,500 theaters and made $60,000. Total. That’s $40 per screen. Ouch. Excuse me…Oogieouch! The reason I bring up the Oogieloves film (aside to join in the pile on!) is that the film promotes interactivity among its target audience of 2-5 year olds, having sections where they are prompted to get up and dance and talk to the screen. So there is interactivity in cinema, even if the kids can’t change things. And while it’s occasionally funny wo watch productions of Peter Pan where the audience doesn’t clap for Tinkerbell and she dies, the Oogieloves will never die, and they’re coming for you. With their balloons! The prior record holder for worst film for a major release is Creature, which opened on 1,507 screens for a $220 average.

Could the Metal Gear Solid flick feature sequences where you have to get up and dance? I sure hope so, because I want to read people arguing about it on the internet. Come on, Avi Arad, don’t let me down!

via G4TV