Why a ‘Mass Effect’ Movie is a Bad Idea

Why a ‘Mass Effect’ Movie is a Bad Idea

by Brandon Alexander

As the film industry is in the height of campaigning and marketing toward people who are part casual movie-goers and part casual fans of something else (comic books, sports), I’m certain we’ll see a rise in the production of movies based on video games.

For a while now, it seems that video games and film, especially live action, have been struggling to find a way to merge. While their comic book counterparts have steady raked in the dough with their big-screen adaptations, video games have failed to gain traction in that realm.

They should never have killed off Johnny Cage

Sure, there have been anomalies such as the Resident Evil series and those that do well in box-office sales like The Prince of Persia: Sands of Time; but for every one of those successes, there are ten Super Mario Bros., Double Dragons, and Mortal Kombat: Annihilations.

I’m not saying that I wouldn’t want to see Altaïr jumping off the top of ancient Near-Eastern buildings, or Solid Snake adeptly evading being caught by a guard; it’s just that not all video games will make great movies. While there are many that fit into this category, the Mass Effect series stands out as one that stands the best chance of being unjustly produced.

If you’re unfamiliar with Mass Effect, it is a three-part story that spans the entire Milky Way Galaxy. You play the role as Commander Shepard -a fully customizable avatar- as they pull together with other species to save the galaxy from a plethora of threats.

Main hub for all of the Mass Effect species, “The Citadel”

This sounds like a phenomenal idea on paper: a war veteran interacting with various species flying around the Milky Way; but digging deeper, there are several issues with this idea:

The main detriment in producing Mass Effect lies in the customization that the game allows. In Mass Effect you make nearly every decision that a character can make. This type of interaction is one that is very personal and really is the deciding factor that makes a game for one person and breaks it for another. It is representative of all of us, we are each presented with similar life choices, yet we may make different decisions. Different relationships cultivate and people may live or die, it’s all up to the user and the world in which they live. Shepard could be a griseled veteran with heart of gold, or a boy scout who always does the “right” thing; that is what Mass Effect is about: not being limited or scripted (in a sense).

Some of the species in Mass Effect

Another concern is fitting the grand scale of the Mass Effect world into (more than likely) three films. To put it in so many words, this game is massive. There is so much to explore and many things to learn about you can forget about the main mission.

In a movie, the insane details the creators put into this world would be seen in passing or as Easter eggs. You’ll never snoop Miranda’s personal emails or the rifts in various characters’ relationships with their families. That is what makes this experience almost exclusive to the video game medium. You are able to embody and see things you’ve never seen and don’t necessarily have to be driven through plot.

Mass Effect features dozens of species and even more planets to explore and discover, each of them having their own history. It would be a severe disservice to fit these complex characters and places into a short scene or a line of dialogue.

While there are vital points against it, I could still see Mass Effect being a box office success. There is depth to pull a great story from and the visuals would be otherworldly. The strength of this series is the world building that was done (which may or may not surpass many of the other Science Fiction epics that currently exist).

Mass Effect contains many stars which have many planets, the possibilities are endless.

The literal worlds created give way for an opportunity to explore more alien species that the user was left to wonder more about.

In many cases, Mass Effect is a story that needs to be told (which is why it was), the overarching themes of the negative effects of holding grudges, love that breaks tradition, and the idea that together different cultures can do great things, drive home points that are relevant in today’s society.

The best way to detract a story from such a large scale universe is to focus on the micro. It’d be interesting to see the events of a 300-year old Asasri transitioning from her wild Maiden years to the Matron stage of her life, or to see how the Prothean- Reaper war actually happened. The benefit of Mass Effect is that it provides a buffet of characters, creatures, and calamities that occur in its universe.

This is probably an unstoppable force that will happen, hopefully Hollywood does the series right.