Since like,
forever, I’ve loved movies. And pretty much the same time, I’ve loved
videogames. There’s a huge difference between them, but long time ago, people
have tried to get them along in both ways: take the game to the big screen, or
grab a movie and put it in a console. History has given us a few (or more than
a few) examples on how to blow it up, it cross to my mind that horrible Super
Mario Bros movie, it makes me sad just to remember. Tomb Raider wasn’t that bad
at all but not quite as perfect as the games. Going the opposite way, any
Avenger’s game is awful: Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Iron Man. Grosse. Oh my
god! Men In Black.
So, taking
that step, no matter which side you are, is gigantic. It is not an easy choice
despite all those videogames and movies made without truly awareness of the
size of the leap. And this is well known for Naughty Dog.
Last week I
got shocked with the news about The Last of Us movie. I never thought about
writing an article about my feelings for that Neil Druckmann’s twit, because I
said to myself: Who wouldn’t want to watch a movie of this game? Well, as long
as time passed by and I could think over and over again, I realize how wrong I
was, I mean, it isn’t like everyone in the world know this game, in fact, if we
compare the population who played TLOU against just the gamer nation, the first
one gets short in numbers.
Naughty Dog
decided to launch The Last of Us just for PlayStation 3 consoles, and of
course, Left Behind, the chapter that narrates the story before original game,
plays in this system. So, those who haven’t it, probably never be able to feel
everything we, the players, did.
Today I’m
not going to talk about how great The Last Of Us is, or how to play it, or not
even say how badly you must go and buy it. I think all of these have been told
countless times. Today, as a huge fan of the game, and movie lover, I’m going
to explain why the world need a movie based on The Last Of Us game.
STORYTELLERS
Great
movies not only have the best actors, or special effects; they are made out of high
quality scripts. The writers with a true commitment to their audience, reflects
every character’s feelings, on text. And the hard part is to understand it and
acting it. It’s a job of several people, including director, producer, actor,
camera man, editor, etc.
What
happens when your character has a human voice, and a body made of pixels? Well, it
might get difficult to express the sensations with this lack of human factor.
The Last of Us surpassed this difficulty and showed us a man and a girl with
enough flesh and blood. I remember the first time I finished the game, and as
days passed, I miss that couple: miss the escapes, the riddles, their games,
the long walks. But most of all, I missed the talks, how they hate each other
at the beginning, the respect they started to feel, their memories, the
sacrifices, and at the end, the selfishness.
So, if this
one game made me feel that way, I can’t imagine how a pair of humans would make
me experiment. The best stories make the best movies, right? I loved
Casablanca, and like many others, I think is one of the greatest romantic
movies. Nowadays there are several great productions, but Casablanca remains at
the top, thanks to the story.
The Last Of
Us isn't the best game of the generation for nothing. I’m putting away the
technical resources like playability, engineering, sound and edition. I’m
talking about the entire script: a grown man and woman who take care of a 13
years old girl, in a journey across United States, in order to receive guns and
ammo for this particular favor. It sounds simple and at first sight, I thought
this is going to be boring. The one and only thing that catch me at the
beginning, was the fact that I was going to fight zombies (or at least I
thought).
As I walk
through the game, my priority was to survive, no matter what, I had to survive
by killing and having fun. Because “having fun” is the objective of a game.
Well, this one isn’t that fun. The Last Of Us tell a story without caring about
the joy and excitement of the gamer, it makes us to continue fighting every
minute to find out what’s next. Because saving Ellie, turns out a great cause,
a just cause. Neil Druckman and Bruce Straley wrote a script beyond the game,
they achieve to makes us fall in love with not only a character, but a feeling
and a quest, a quest for discover the meaning of what is “a world” for
everyone. And they did it twice: the original game, and the DLC.
Both of
them finished in a very different way, in fact, one path leads to another, and
this is because Left Behind is the story before Ellie and Joel meet. It is rare
how Riley, Ellie’s former friend, and a firefly, hides her commitment to the
group in order to expose her feelings and enjoy the world as it is then, with
her true friend, and the one person she wants to spend the rest of her life,
once again, her “world”.
Now, seeing
the last chapter in The Last Of Us, fortunately we see Joel and Ellie in peace,
like the father-daughter relationship type we expect the entire game, with
confidence, but more important, with the fact that he wants her at his side, at
all time. Remember, this isn’t a love story, but Joel makes everything at his
hands to show how weird love can be. And once again, Ellie becomes “the world”
of someone else. Capturing the essence of this, and translate it to the gamer
with a bunch of gunshots, explosions, enemies and a great content of action,
this my dearest readers, is one the main reasons to make a movie out of this
great story.
PRODUCERS
I’m not
well aware of Druckmann’s thoughts. I’m aware of his work, his legacy in this
industry, and I put my hands to the fire about one thing: production.
Unfortunately, though years, videogames studios have sold their rights to any movie company, and by
“selling” I refer to names, logos, ideas, weapons, villains, story, and many
more things. The guys at movies decide what they want to write, film, edit and
show. The problem isn’t at the choices made, it’s in who decide those. People are interested in the profit, the merchandise, the money, and they never stop to
think what could be the best for the saga, the game, and obviously, the gamers.
We, the people playing a videogame, never want to see an adaptation, or a movie
about how the director or producers perceive the environment of the game.
Here it
comes my second reason. Druckmann and Straley belong to the production team.
Awesome.
Creative
director of The Last Of Us, master mind behind the game and writer Neil
Druckmann, knows exactly what he wants, what the movie will need, what the
world of TLOU embraces: situation, characters, nature of the dialogues, the
fungus, the runners and clickers, everything. It’s his baby, sort of.
The Last Of
Us set a standard in storytelling, animation, art direction, playability, sound
and music in the industry. Its quality is at the top level in 2013, and I’m not
afraid to say, it’s at the top in the generation of consoles. When you find
someone who put that amount of energy and dedication to a game, you know it
won’t be different in a movie. I mean, with all the awards won by The Last Of
Us team, “success” is one of the best words to describe it, reason enough to
believe in the imminent success at the big screen.
I can be
sure of Druckmann never letting others to destroy the hard work of 5-6 years. I
expect nothing less than respect and consistency of all elements. Or it is
accord to the game and the whole idea, or it is nothing. Period.
FINALE
Every year,
thousands of movies are published, and literally millions of people go to the
theater and watch hours of films expecting the next great story, the next
classic or the one that wins it all. People find in the movies, something to
relate with, like a place, an actor, or a phrase, something tiny or big, capable
of make them feel like nothing else, or something to identify themselves.
The world
needs a movie about The Last Of Us because it has all of this, because in times
without hope, faith in ourselves is the one thing that can save any life, not
just ours, but a friend’s, daughter’s, Ellie’s.
I’ll wait
as long as the casting, filming, editing and post-production takes to watch one
of my favorite games of all time, in theaters. I’m sure I’ll see it tons of
times trying to find that detail I missed the last time, and the last and the
last till I’m fully satisfied. And because I expected a little with the game,
and got the best, now I know I’ll get the greatest.
