Perfect Dark: Film or No Film?

Movies based off video games can sometimes be a risky move as there are even chances of flops and success generated from these text transformations. Not only would it depend on how much a game's content can be condensed within a two hour time-space, but it is also the matter of how well the filmmaker in charge of the project transfers the virtual reality to the big screen.

Super Mario Bros (Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel, 1993) is probably notorious example of a cinematic failure in bringing some of Nintendo's own iconic characters to the screen, mainly down to the film's script which contained more than enough pitfalls than Swiss Cheese and the Great Canyon combined (not to mention some contradictions within the portrayal of Mario and Luigi's character development). I know I am being incredibly biased about this, but in all honesty I do not know many successful film titles based on video games. 

There is at least one video game I think could work as a feature film. If not, then at least a trilogy of feature films. Some people of my generation would recognise this, but others may not have this ring a bell of familiarity. Therefore, I will go through a brief rundown of the plot so that you can get the gist of it.

Perfect Dark, a game made by Rareware for the Nintendo 64 in 2000, is essentially James Bond placed into the future. Specifically, a "Blade Runner" esque setting in the year 2023. The basic plot line has the protagonist, Joanna Dark, sent to investigate the headquarters of a rival weapons company who is suspected of conducting... well, "suspicious" activities. There, she recovers a defecting scientist who holds information about the company's plans, and Dark has to unravel other aspects the rival company's plot while simultaneously discovering other secrets before their ultimate plan is put into motion. 

Recently, this decade has seen several successful spy-fiction films which have proved their feat very well within this contemporary century. This include "Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy" (Tomas Alfredson, 2011), based on John Le Carre's spy novel and boasting and incredibly strong cast, and "Skyfall" (Sam Mendes, 2012) which was a hugely critical success relieving Eon Productions and MGM from the past financial trouble. Science-fiction works such as Gravity (Alfonso Cuaron, 2013) and "Guardians Of The Galaxy" (James Gunn, 2014) have also met with positive critical acclaim. So does this mean that both spy-fiction and science fiction are still holding out well in the current day? And if so, how might a game such as Perfect Dark perform on the cinema screen in this current century if the two genres were to be combined? 

Joanna Dark, the game's protagonist

Considering how the two genres are performing, and the fact that we are now living in a very modern world, I personally think that a film adaptation of such a game might be successful as well as interesting. Technology has been evolving over time, and we currently sport many ways of communicating to others, even if it does involve one ending another's life through technological means. Political events are (and have always been) ongoing, even as far as the recent terror and revolt attacks in France, Ukraine, and the Middle East for example. With all these elements combined considering the world is currently experiencing, and since that the game is very tech-based in terms of mise-en-scene and involves several political and terror elements, I can imagine a film based on the game would be well-suited in this current decade. 

The game's storyline consists of twenty-one missions, four of them being bonus stages for extra story development, and completion time for levels on older consoles tend to span around at least ten minutes at the most. That would make at least two-hundred-and-ten minutes if you multiply twenty-one levels by ten. But if there is plenty of action within these twenty-one events, then that would mean that by spreading them across two two-hour films, you would only get fifty-five minutes of story and character development each. But then again, it depends on how the action in each of these twenty-one stages is depicted, whether some will be evenly paced with stealth and suspense or quickly paced with intense battles. The most I would expect from this would be at least three ninety-minute films if one would want plenty of story development. That way, the storyline would not be stretched out too much and a fair balance between action and development can be conducted. If it were to be three two-hour films, then one is really asking the cow to milk out the cash. The Hobbit trilogy (Peter Jackson, 2012-2014) probably fulfils my doubts about this; sure, they may be entertaining to watch, but there are limits as to how far a story can be spread over a select quantity of films to the point where one would question the move and would wonder if it should have been one less film in terms of story telling. Each to their own, I guess.

Bladerunner? Or something else...?

My faith in Perfect Dark being adapted into a film is, overall, down to brining it to life within the worldwide ordeals and technological evolutions that are going on, providing that one would take the genre into account and the type of story it tells. If directed, produced and paced well, then I think we could be given a set of entertaining and interesting on-screen fictions to satisfy our escapism.