Not knocking this movie, though. It's incredible. Better Shadow than Wii Sports or Gears of War.

bobtheduck

(oops! I got so involved, I forgot to put "entry" at the start". Sorry if this causes a double post. I hope not ...)

I'm just happy to see one of the most overlooked games in history getting some love. Even if it seems just a little like nepotism.
I don't care to get into an argument comparing Ico and Shadow of the Colossus.
Both share a real sense of fantasy brought to life. Their epic scale, amazing art direction, the mysterious slowly revealed.
Great stuff.
But mostly, they shared a common exception to the standard video game formula.
Love.
That, my fellow gamers, is the currency that these two titles trade in. And sadly, its so rare in games that many didn't recognize it for what it was. Deep, to die for ... love.

Doctor88

Doctor88

philipkd

paulmd

coolyfooly88

I can understand why the game was chosen. It is an immersive game. The post traumatic stress victim of 9/11, Charlie Fineman, can certainly relate to the isolation of the main character in Shadow of the Colossus, and fighting the colossi is an outlet to fight and conquer his inner demons while escaping the reality that haunts him every day.

The game selection was perfect. It would have been strange indeed if a MMO game was chosen for this, as it's really the opposite experience. Even if you choose not to participate socially in an MMO it's difficult to escape it, and an escape is what Fineman sought.

However, it felt like the game was featured a little too much in the movie. The pace of the movie was slow enough as it was, and the cuts to the Colossus battles didn't add much. It felt as much of marketing tie-in as the Barq's root beer that was flagrantly featured throughout the movie.

The movie itself was very mediocre. Like I said, it was very slow paced, but still engrossing enough to keep you interested. This captivation was mostly from the ready-to-snap Fineman, which Sandler portrayed quite well. However, I don't think Sandler will ever shake the stigma of his "immature" days. There were several serious scenes where he was shouting at Don Cheadle's character, and I was half-expecting him to break into his old "GIMME SOME CRAZY CANDY" SNL schtick. If you have never known Sandler from those earlier movies or bits, you'd probably think he did a fantastic job with the role.

2.5 out of 5 stars

Kdawg

manaknight

PS: I'm currently playing through SotC for the first time. Graphics being a little dated aside, it's amazing.

PetiePal

Oh and it's great that SotC is getting into the spot light for a little longer, I absolutely love that game- even though the actual graphics weren't that great, the art direction and scope are truly magnificent, so much about that game....

Top 5 on my best games ever list.

Wernstar

Ok, I'll admit that it's nice to know that Sony gaming didn't force the title onto the movie. But I'll be honest, if that was the metaphor they were trying to go for, I don't think they did a good enough job making it click. To me it just felt like the character was a video game fan and they needed to show a game. The movie though, is really good and I would recommend it, and after this good feature, I think most of the readers here will end up enjoying the movie more.

MDomangue

GrenadeMcKnife

I'm pretty hot for Shadow of the Colossus, though, just like I was hot enough for SMB3 to see The Wizard. Twice. Tragic...

Baramos

more like this please

Ca1amity

seasponge

fecalchaos

joelface

modifiedbears

RRHood

Great article, one of the better pieces of journalism I can recall reading here. Definitely an interesting story.

f4nt

v8isme

Pheonix Gamma

Paroxysm

sxp151, the happy-headed nose

cowbell

XgamerM

Turning a kids film into a game is a good idea (eg Cars, Happy Feet) and you don't even have to make it a good game - it's just obvious business practice.

Turning a game into a film is harder. Which games do you pick? Tomb Raider? Bad choice IMO. You need a game with a structure or story basis that works as a movie plot. Zelda? Halo? Not good movie plots.

The hardest one is taking a film and turning it into a good game. This doesn't mean taking a good film and hoping it works. I doubt anyone has ever watched Reservoir Dogs and thought "wow, this would work really well as a game". You need to take a film where the events would work alongside gameplay.

Collins1990

okay, but now that you know the game wasn't in the movie just for a marketing tie-in, but that it was actually there for well thought-out reasons in the storyline, doesn't that give you a new perspective on it?

SquirrelPhister

The game worked for me because it was the most *immersive* experience I'd had in videogaming; when you were up on the ramparts, dragging Yorda along, you could stop and look out over the sea, feel the glare of sunshine on your face and feel the wind blowing.

The game kept me sane. A couple of years later, I was in Tokyo, and got to meet Ueda and his COLOSSUS team at Sony, even to play the first level. That man will never know how grateful I am to him, even though I tried to explain how much ICO had meant to me.

I guess I'll have to see REIGN OVER ME; I loved COLOSSUS, though not as much as ICO. And one thing I didn't like about it was that it was a bit more HUD-y - your grip strength meter appeared on the top of the screen, and what not. For me, the great thing about ICO was that it didn't have any meter onscreen that would distract from being *in* that world.

I actually asked Ueda about that, and he grinned and said, "Yorda was the health meter."

Jaze

Kdawg

Barbara

Gus Mastrapa

minor_problems

timebombtimmy

That's funny. You're a funny guy. You should have a blog.

snahfu

Sharpless

Gaming is not going to be a mainstream part of culture like movies are for a long time. And you'd damn well better hope that movies and other forms of popular entertainment DO embrace gaming more, because the gaming industry has done a shitty job of bringing it to that level themselves thus far.

I find it hilarious that you are seeing Hollywood as this terrible thing that is long outdated and "sucks now" though, when gaming has EA's business practices, MS/Sony/Nintendo PR reps force-feeding us nonsense on a constant basis, and very little worthwhile innovation.

If anything, the gaming industry is like Hollywood Jr.

Like father, like son.

KaneRobot

XsTatiC

xerxes7

It's good for gaming to be seen in more mainstream places like Hollywood in the way Reign seems to present them: healthy outlets that have good and immediate benefits for people. Otherwise, all they hear about is Hot Coffee, and we all know where that goes. It isn't that we as gamers want approval from society, but that we want to correct the misconceptions that many people seem to have.

Regardless of sales in movies and gaming, Hollywood still seems to have more people interested than those who will admit interest in gaming. And for people who don't game and only watch movies or read the paper, some healthy game interaction is just what they need. Instead of stupid "Save the Children" rhetoric they get "Games can help." Too bad you think that's a negative.

Here's hoping the movie doesn't suck.

Luke

This feels like a good step in the right direction for video games.

phinehas

But again, we can only just wait and see.

Ape.of.Gods

burgerdog

I say they go over the top and make it so Cheadle brings Sandler Katamari Damacy later in the movie to try and show him that destruction can bring creation! Oh God... talk about giving a morose movie an injection of childishness and "WTF". I think that would make me see this movie, hehehe.

DaveKap

ladeeda

Nitemare1

It's days are numbered, and if not, it's a matter of time.

No movies OR games for you until you can tell me what's wrong with that sentence.

Film has survived Television; Film has influenced Television, television has influenced film, and in the longview both media are better for it. We are seeing the same thing happen with games. Films such as 300, Children of Men, and Zodiac are visually and structurally influenced by video games. Three very different films with disparate casts, settings, and stories.

Nothing, not the latest game, not the newest show, not the smashingest home theatre system, is ever, ever going to replace staring at a gigantic screen in the dark with an audience.

The game industry is a part of showbiz, whether you like it or not.

StratfordX

moltarman

I do hope the game gets some limelight after this, it is far too under-appreciated. And the $20 Greatest Hits pricetag will most certainly help convince new people to buy it.

Archetype

Khaman

Z-Word

Mav

If the film was about a guy who attempted to recover from his 9/11 grief by scaling Everest himself, the film following him from his training to his practise (with emotional pitfalls on the way) to the climb itself, would that still be tenuous? (Hi, would anyone like to buy a screenplay with that idea? I'm available.)

Personally, a mix of the two SOTC themes would have been better. Could have at least mentioned the lower-keyed resurrection plot in the film and firmed up the film/game connection.

Khaman

PlayerX

The Break-up had Vince Vaughn playing San Andreas and ignoring Jennifer Aniston. Wonder if that was written in the story or if it was on set because the movie sucked ASS!!!

minor_problems

Reign Over Me looked like an interesting movie, I think I'll have to go see it. Jeremy Roush seems to have a very good story to tell.
I just bought Ico yesterday I'm really impressed with the sound in it. I've already decided I want to play Shadow of the Colossus.

Kinburn

Um, no, actually, every year we see a decline in movie attendance/sales and a rise in gaming.

I'm also pretty sure game sales have exceeded movie sales at this point, and this with the rapid pirating going on in gaming. (granted movies are pirated just as much, but I am pretty sure more gamers dont pay for their games to the average of movie watchers who do pay to see their movies)

It's days are numbered, and if not, it's a matter of time. So I don't see why we still gaze into an industry full of BS, stupidity, and terrible quality as some sort of aspiration.

Why are we looking up to "big brother hollywood" when they really just produce crap and has a terrible business model? Why do we have to feel that a game is justified if it's turned into a movie or displayed in a movie, suddenly it means it's worth something to "regular people" and we can feel good about ourselves. It's product placement, it might be intelligent product placement, but it's placement all the same.

Games/Gamers should stop feeling the need to be justified by mainsteam, hollywood, or whatever because all it's doing is ruining gaming. But again, that's a debatable opinion.

Ape.of.Gods

MonkeyBiz

Frodo

It's all about the Colossus of Rhodes. I got all up in it and kicked its ass.

br549

CTD

Adam Frucci

axiomatic

RRHood

it is very important what the mainstream thinks of games- and hollywood is way more mainstream than the videogame community right now.

=O

nerfgun

3inst3in is all up in your relativistics.

You ARE right - the death and rebirth of her is the more poignant aspect of the game's story, but it won't work for the movie. The visual impact of the Colossi can.

SOTC sequel - sequel - sequel!

(total shameless statue-owning SOTC whore)

Khaman

moltarman

bubuli

Do I care if a video game is used as a plot device in a crap movie? Not really, do I care how these poor assholes had to get an audiance with king washed up actor to do it, not really.

Ok, being a little harsh, but in the age where 99% of movies blow I think we can stop trying to seek the approval of Hollywood.

Ape.of.Gods

Lider

RRHood

dkmfr

Smart move!

Jabbertrack

I have ico, i played it for an hr or so one day about 2 yrs ago. too slow.

shadow was 100x better...especially at keeping my interest

dh4645

I don't get this shit, the little paragraph that I did read like they were showing this game, which has already proved itself a year ago, to the king of all video games to see if it gets to be released.

Ape.of.Gods

I think Reign Over Me looks interesting, but I'm in no rush to see it in the theater.

Erec

Batmundo

Camperton

goodbadorugly

Sandler: STOP LOOKING AT ME SWAN

KaneRobot

Dan Zuccarelli

jackal888

sxp151, the happy-headed nose

chronubis

Oh, and the movie has blatant shots of Barq's root beer every time they need something to drink.

MDomangue

snahfu

I'm looking forward to watching any movie where someone doesn't mash wildly at the controller while acting like they are playing a video game.

I'm looking at you, 40 Year Old Virgin

Jabbertrack

jackal888

This entire scenario makes me very happy as a gamer and movie-goer.

Thanks for the info.

William of Spain

Geoff

dh4645

dh4645

GoofyCheddar