Mass Effect universe discussion thread

[The Mighty 6 platoon]

While I can understand why Bioware have agreed to a movie deal, shedloads of cash presumably being involved (and hey worst comes to the worst we get a crappy movie but better games thanks to the money that Bioware got from selling the rights for the movie which they can invest in their games) I’m not hopeful in any way about this movie.

Mass Effect is a 30 hours game at least, as is Mass Effect 2. How the hell are you supposed to cut down the story from that to a 2 hour movie? Yes a lot of the game was driving round planets in the Mako and side quests, but there will still many hours of main story. Besides some of that side quest stuff is pretty important, Cerberus is set up in Mass Effect, you remove them from the story then suddenly you have these mysterious group pop out from nowhere in the sequel. Also I imagine just about every single character will lose characterisation due to time restraints, and say goodbye to characters like Dr Chakwas. I think even if you went cutting out every extraneous part of the story your left with enough story to make 3 movies at least from the one game. Look at the plot, you go from Eden Prime to the Citadel, to Feros, the planet where you pick up Liara, Virmire, Noveria, Ilos and back to the Citadel. Good luck trying to fit all that into one film.

There will also be the awkward fact that there is no set canon in the Mass Effect universe. In fact there’s a good chance that whatever the plot of the movie, it will not resemble the plot of the game I played in any way. When Shepard can be male or female, can have a number of different backgrounds, characters and whole races can live or die, to be honest the plot would be an absolute nightmare to adapt.

In all honesty I wonder whether anything will come of this, we’ve heard rumours about a Mass Effect movie before, but the shear difficulty in adapting the plot and in filming the movie (lets be honest they’ll have to throw Avatar levels of money at it to make it work and have stuff like numerous cgi characters)makes me wonder whether this will ever see the light of day. If that does happen I must admit I will not be upset.

To contiue my rant

Mass Effect Heading For The Cinema

Legendary Pictures has nabbed the rights to turn critically-acclaimed console game Mass Effect into a movie.

Mark Protosevich, who wrote I Am Legend and worked on Thor is in talks to script the movie, which will be produced by fromer Marvel Films head Avi Arad and his son Ari Arad alongside Legendary’s Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni. Warner Bros will distribute.

Tull reckons that Mass Effect is “ripe for translation,” saying it has “depth, compelling characters and an engaging back story.” Arad describes the game as “a parable whose conflicts mirror the ones we currently face in our own world. This story emphasises the need for all cultures to learn to work together.” SFX says “Space opera! Space ships! Aliens! Battles! Yay!”

http://www.sfx.co.uk/2010/05/25/mass...or-the-cinema/

The bolded part also pissed me off. Aside from Digifluid’s good points the bolded part shows that the guy has no idea what they’re talking about and really should stay away from Mass Effect. Sure if you play paragon the story is about races coming together, play renegade however and the story becomes more about humans becoming self reliant and muscling their way on to the stage. And neither of those outcomes, or anything in between is deemed official canon, it all makes up your play through and the story can change drastically as a result.

[Replicator Todd]

Mass Effect Heading For The Cinema

Legendary Pictures has nabbed the rights to turn critically-acclaimed console game Mass Effect into a movie.

Mark Protosevich, who wrote I Am Legend and worked on Thor is in talks to script the movie, which will be produced by fromer Marvel Films head Avi Arad and his son Ari Arad alongside Legendary’s Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni. Warner Bros will distribute.

Tull reckons that Mass Effect is “ripe for translation,” saying it has “depth, compelling characters and an engaging back story.” Arad describes the game as “a parable whose conflicts mirror the ones we currently face in our own world. This story emphasises the need for all cultures to learn to work together.” SFX says “Space opera! Space ships! Aliens! Battles! Yay!”

http://www.sfx.co.uk/2010/05/25/mass...or-the-cinema/

Awesome! Hope its done right. I love the Mass Effect universe, but i'm not much of a gamer anymore () so I will take any other form the universe can take.

[The Mighty 6 platoon]

Awesome! Hope its done right. I love the Mass Effect universe, but i'm not much of a gamer anymore () so I will take any other form the universe can take.

If it’s an adaption of the main games plotlines, then there’s about as much chance of it being good as there is of getting Nelson Mandela membership of the KKK.

[DigiFluid]

If it’s an adaption of the main games plotlines, then there’s about as much chance of it being good as there is of getting Nelson Mandela membership of the KKK.

I would've gone with a potshot at Uwe Boll, personally.

[Replicator Todd]

If it’s an adaption of the main games plotlines, then there’s about as much chance of it being good as there is of getting Nelson Mandela membership of the KKK.

Um....wow.... No trust in Hollywood at all huh! They do good adaptations.....sometimes....as in once every bazillion years.

[Replicator Todd]

I would've gone with a potshot at Uwe Boll, personally.

Please don't say that name....

[DigiFluid]

Mass Effect could probably lend itself pretty well to a more episodic approach. A season for ME1, made up episodes of the major missions, a season of ME2 doing the same, some supplementary episodes/mini-sodes to fill in other gaps; that sort of thing.

[Replicator Todd]

Mass Effect could probably lend itself pretty well to a more episodic approach. A season for ME1, made up episodes of the major missions, a season of ME2 doing the same, some supplementary episodes/mini-sodes to fill in other gaps; that sort of thing.

Or someone make a film or series that has nothing to do with the games main storyline. As in new characters but same universe leaving the games stories intact. I like the idea of having the games existing on screen while not being erased. If that....makes any sense.

[DigiFluid]

Or someone make a film or series that has nothing to do with the games main storyline. As in new characters but same universe leaving the games stories intact. I like the idea of having the games existing on screen while not being erased. If that....makes any sense.

Perhaps an adaptation of one of the tie-in novels could work. I have them, but haven't gotten around to reading them yet so I don't have any suggestions....

[The Mighty 6 platoon]

Um....wow.... No trust in Hollywood at all huh! They do good adaptations.....sometimes....as in once every bazillion years.

Yeah they’re good at adaptations of books and comic books, not videogames. I mean they managed to screw up an adaptation of Max Payne, a game which if they had trimmed out a bit of the extra action, they could have recreated scene for scene from the actual game.

Or someone make a film or series that has nothing to do with the games main storyline. As in new characters but same universe leaving the games stories intact. I like the idea of having the games existing on screen while not being erased. If that....makes any sense.

That could work and I’d have much more confidence in that working. Now a film about the First Contact War would be exciting.

[Replicator Todd]

Yeah they’re good at adaptations of books and comic books, not videogames. I mean they managed to screw up an adaptation of Max Payne, a game which if they had trimmed out a bit of the extra action, they could have recreated scene for scene from the actual game.

Although the game is superior, I quite enjoyed the Max Payne film, especially compared to other video game adaptations out there. I'm hoping the Prince of Persia film begins a trend of good video game films. I really hope.

That could work and I’d have much more confidence in that working. Now a film about the First Contact War would be exciting.

Yes, yes it would. But that might work better as a TV series.

[The Mighty 6 platoon]

Although the game is superior, I quite enjoyed the Max Payne film, especially compared to other video game adaptations out there. I'm hoping the Prince of Persia film begins a trend of good video game films. I really hope.

The thing is those games were easy to adapt, short simple linear stories, everything that Mass Effect isn’t. Hopefully realising this and how deep the Mass Effect universe is they’ll make a story set in the universe but not an adaption. I’m still wondering whether this will ever get off the ground, the amount of money needed to sink into this, aside from all the cgi for alien worlds and spaceships, your going to need a lot of cgi for the aliens. Maybe the Asari and the Drell could be played by people in prosthetics but a lot of the aliens, no way. Some like the Hanar, Rachni, Thorian and Elcor are totally inhuman, and while theyre are plenty of humanoid species like the Geth, Turians, Krogan, Vorcha, ect, they’re body structures are still very different from humans.

[Eternal Density]

Part of the problem is that Mass Effect is not one story, but rather a twisted rope of parallel branching stories chosen by the player. If they do make a movie about Commander Shepard, it's not going to be any one player's own Shepard. People who are invested in the game are probably less likely to connect with such a movie. And I have a feeling that Female Shepard is going to be left in the cold.
On the other hand, they could alleviate the 'not my Shepard' problem by focusing less on the hero and more on the team and the events, but then there's the issue that the plot - including order of events, whether many events occur at all, and what the outcome is - also depends a lot on the player's choices.

Also, what exactly is there to be gained from using film as a medium? (Apart from the obvious cash.) Mass Effect is already 'a movie that you can play'. Sure, if they throw enough money at it, they can make the graphics look a lot more real, and if they get the right actors they can make the characters seem more real, and they can make the battles and trips through the galaxy look more cinematic (or they can make it look horribly cheap and lame), but at the expense of there being a whole lot less of it! If you take out all the side quests, all the walking, all the waiting in elevators, streamline the conversations, and fast-track the combat, you've still got far too much material, which means simplifying the plot a lot. I don't know if there's a way to win and if there is I really doubt the people responsible will actually find and implement it.

Now, if they instead made in-universe movies that covered parts of the story from other points of view, that might work out a bit better. Then it's adding something rather than redoing what we've already done but with a lot missing. Or maybe they could pull it off by cutting it up into several movies, though I'm not sure how you could for instance split Mass Effect 1 into 3 parts and have them all be equally exciting throughout. A miniseries might fit better?

What I will say is that it might be good to be able to use many of the voice actors from the games if possible. And if they're suitable actors have them portray their characters (Yvonne Strahovski for Miranda! Though I wouldn't want to take her away from Chuck. Definitely would not want that ever)

Hmm, there are a few potential pros: seeing a mass relay and biotic powers on the bigscreen could be great (if done right). And then there's Tali.

It's a big risk. But the priiiiiize...

[edit]Paragon/Renegade and Male/Female questions aside, there's also 3 different origins and 3 character backgrounds (which tend to be associated with para/rene/neutral) and more importantly 6 different classes.
Male Para Spacer Warhero Soldier is the most likely bet.
Though they could surprise us all and go for a female hero... nah I bet they'll decide there's enough heroic action girls on the team already.
(Fun variation: they make two movies with diametrically opposite Shepards)

[Stewart5]

Perhaps an adaptation of one of the tie-in novels could work. I have them, but haven't gotten around to reading them yet so I don't have any suggestions....

Now we are on to something!

A movie on the novels, or like M6 says, the First Contact War, would be brilliant! As stated by the Writer, the novels try to stay away from the main events as much as possible, reffering to only the broadest happening that don't really change in the game, because they don't wish to ruin the game's content. Hence dealing with events that are spoken of in game, without going into the game

Part of the problem is that Mass Effect is not one story, but rather a twisted rope of parallel branching stories chosen by the player. If they do make a movie about Commander Shepard, it's not going to be any one player's own Shepard. People who are invested in the game are probably less likely to connect with such a movie. And I have a feeling that Female Shepard is going to be left in the cold.
On the other hand, they could alleviate the 'not my Shepard' problem by focusing less on the hero and more on the team and the events, but then there's the issue that the plot - including order of events, whether many events occur at all, and what the outcome is - also depends a lot on the player's choices.

Also, what exactly is there to be gained from using film as a medium? (Apart from the obvious cash.) Mass Effect is already 'a movie that you can play'. Sure, if they throw enough money at it, they can make the graphics look a lot more real, and if they get the right actors they can make the characters seem more real, and they can make the battles and trips through the galaxy look more cinematic (or they can make it look horribly cheap and lame), but at the expense of there being a whole lot less of it! If you take out all the side quests, all the walking, all the waiting in elevators, streamline the conversations, and fast-track the combat, you've still got far too much material, which means simplifying the plot a lot. I don't know if there's a way to win and if there is I really doubt the people responsible will actually find and implement it.

Now, if they instead made in-universe movies that covered parts of the story from other points of view, that might work out a bit better. Then it's adding something rather than redoing what we've already done but with a lot missing. Or maybe they could pull it off by cutting it up into several movies, though I'm not sure how you could for instance split Mass Effect 1 into 3 parts and have them all be equally exciting throughout. A miniseries might fit better?

What I will say is that it might be good to be able to use many of the voice actors from the games if possible. And if they're suitable actors have them portray their characters (Yvonne Strahovski for Miranda! Though I wouldn't want to take her away from Chuck. Definitely would not want that ever)

Hmm, there are a few potential pros: seeing a mass relay and biotic powers on the bigscreen could be great (if done right). And then there's Tali.

It's a big risk. But the priiiiiize...

[edit]Paragon/Renegade and Male/Female questions aside, there's also 3 different origins and 3 character backgrounds (which tend to be associated with para/rene/neutral) and more importantly 6 different classes.
Male Para Spacer Warhero Soldier is the most likely bet.
Though they could surprise us all and go for a female hero... nah I bet they'll decide there's enough heroic action girls on the team already.
(Fun variation: they make two movies with diametrically opposite Shepards)

[The Mighty 6 platoon]

Let's look at this shall we, because 1 its an awesome battle scene and 2 it illustrates a point.


That's the battle for the Citadel, just the space battle and the ending scene. And it runs to about 10 minutes. Now add to that the parts with Shepard fighting his way through the Citadel and its lots longer. Now if you were making a movie you'd cut out a lot of that combat but you'd still need to leave some of it in. Add to that the fact you'd some time for Ilos and the Vigil scene and you've probably got at least half an hour devoted to the climatic ending of your Mass Effect movie. Ok problem is that's a quarter of the movie gone, and before that to fit all this in you need to fit in Eden Prime, the Citadel, Noveria, Feros, Virimire. Good luck with that.

[Daedalus-304]

I don't know how they are going to fit in even the most important parts of the game, even if they do a Peter Jackson-style 90 minute longer special edition. It's story would better be done through a mini-series or something. The books could be used, but in my opinion they are mostly story set ups, there's not a whole lot of action there compared to the games.

My guess for Shepard: Male, looks like default, Sole Survivor, Earthborn, A Soldier but with Biotics, and Ashley romance.

[Eternal Density]

Yeah you've got to wonder whether they can fit it into 3 hours in the cinema without butchering the story. Even that video had a lot of important stuff cut out (like the final combat scene) so... well it's going to take talented writers, director, editors, etc, to properly capture the full story, and even if they get that right, if the have the wrong actors or mess up the visuals it could still be awful.
But they're more likely to make it look and sound good but brutally violate the story...

[The Mighty 6 platoon]

Yeah you've got to wonder whether they can fit it into 3 hours in the cinema without butchering the story. Even that video had a lot of important stuff cut out (like the final combat scene) so... well it's going to take talented writers, director, editors, etc, to properly capture the full story, and even if they get that right, if the have the wrong actors or mess up the visuals it could still be awful.
But they're more likely to make it look and sound good but brutally violate the story...

I see this going one of two ways. One is the Max Payne route, as with that adaptation, they made a big budget movie, it got released, panned and forgotten about, everyone goes back to the games, and like Stargate Infinity is to SG, the movie would become the Mass Effect franchise dirty little shame, hidden away and never spoken of again . Or two Bioware, being the geniuses they are, manage to keep creative control and make a movie which fits into the universe, but is a separate story.

Of course there is option three, the Mass Effect movie never gets off the ground. While Mass Effect has been optioned and Avi Arad is supposed to be developing it, it should be noted that Arad bought up the movie rights to just about every other game made recently with a decent plot. Seeing as how Mass Effect would be the hardest to make its much more likely we’ll be seeing an Uncharted movie long before a Mass Effect movie.

[guppy338]

i think it will not get off the ground its just going to be like halo

[DigiFluid]

New ME2 DLC announced today at E3, "Overlord", will introduce 5 new areas and two new achievements. They also plan to release a demo, for some reason.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/109/1096980p1.html