Whenever a well-known game is adapted into a movie or TV show, there’s always the possibility that it will go totally nuclear.
“Fallout”, a TV adaptation of the popular game series by the same name, is set to be released on April 12, and fans are hoping it doesn’t bomb because of the high demand it’s experiencing.
“Fallout” is a series of games set in a post-apocalyptic future where nuclear war has decimated the world as we know it. It began in 1997 with the release of “Fallout” and has continued ever since, with its most recent title being “Fallout Shelter Online”, a mobile game released in 2019.
The series’ art style and overall aesthetic are based on retrofuturism, a style inspired by retro depictions of the future, as well as wartime and the 1950s post-war culture of the United States.
Starring Ella Purnell, who has appeared in “Arcane” and “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children”, as the protagonist, “Fallout” will follow an original story set in the same universe as the games instead of adapting the plot of a specific entry.
The show will also include performances from Walten Goggins (“Justified”, “Tomb Raider”, “Predators”) and Aaron Clifton Moten (“Disjointed”, “Next”, “Native Son”).
“Fallout” is next in a long run of video-game-to-movie/TV adaptations, and it’s a genre that is overrun with subpar installments.
While there have been few, but notable and life altering exceptions such as “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” or the “Sonic” trilogy, studios tend to drop the ball when it comes to adapting video games.
Movies based on video games fail to adapt the intricate lore and hours of effort devoted to the story they follow. Games that take hours, days, maybe even weeks to finish are compressed into two-and-a-half hours of content, skipping over many of the details and much of the charm of their source material.
Take “Silent Hill: Revelation’’ for instance. Despite adapting one of the most well-written horror games of all time, “Revelation” is filled to the brim with weak characters, little to no suspense, and an incomprehensible plot, with critics giving it a whopping 8 eight percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
For a more recent example, look no further than the 2022 Netflix show “Resident Evil”. While not as egregiously bad as “Revelation”, it was still a subpar zombie show with little of the charm of the beloved “Resident Evil” games, which are adored by the public.
There are countless other examples too. What do “Tomb Raider”, “Assassin’s Creed”, “Hitman,” and “Mortal Kombat” have in common? They’re all extremely successful game franchises that have been butchered by studios because of the disconnect with the original source.
This pattern brings up the question of why so many successful games become awful movies and shows.
Writers seem to lose sight of what they’re adapting when making the jump from game to screen, a challenge which is made even harder due to the difference in the two mediums. A video game’s story is bolstered by its gameplay, and when there’s no gameplay, the story has to be strengthened to compensate.
It shouldn’t be hard for studios to create a good screen adaptation when the source material has such a strong fanbase.
“Fallout” no doubt has a loyal fanbase, albeit one that’s been let down by Bethesda in recent years. The most recent mainline title, “Fallout 76”, had one of the worst releases in the franchise’s history. And with no new releases since 2018, aside from “Fallout Shelter Online”, fans are hoping that the show can bring “Fallout” back to it’s glory.
All hope for a good adaptation is not lost for “Fallout”. The 2023 Max series “The Last of Us”, adapting the game of the same name, received glowing reviews from critics and audiences alike for its inaugural season and was even awarded eight Emmys.
Hopefully, the very highly anticipated “Fallout” will surpass the bar set by “The Last of Us”, “Sonic”, and even “Detective Pikachu”, creating an era of adaptations that reach a new level of success.
