The big video game news yesterday actually came from the Hollywood circuit. Apparently there’s a Shadow of the Colossus movie underway. The gaming blogs are all a-twitter because the writer attached to the project is Justin Marks, who wrote “Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li.”

The nicest thing you can say about any given video game movie produced so far is that it’s “watchable.” The second-nicest thing you can say about any given video game movie is that it’s “so bad it’s good.” The Legend of Chun-Li was neither of these.

If bad game adaptations are a dime a dozen, why does this one have gamers groaning like they’ve been gutpunched for their lunch money?

Mostly it’s the choice of Shadow of the Colossus itself. There’s plenty of games that have good graphics. There aren’t many that are beautiful through and through.

SotC is a proof-of-concept for the medium of gaming. You can always return to it to remind yourself that games can be experiences that aren’t possible in other formats, no matter how many steroid shooters with Bruckheimer-esque cutscenes get made.

Indeed, making a Shadow of the Colossus movie seems impossible. It takes the storytelling maxim of “show, don’t tell” seriously. The total amount of spoken dialog can’t be more than a few minutes over the course of ten to fifteen hours, something they apparently plan to toss out.

I understand the folks working on the project are planning to have some of the characters who appear only momentarily in the game, such as those who try to track down and stop Wander, play bigger roles in the film. And despite the game’s somewhat “artsy” cred, they’re hoping “Shadow” will be a “Lord of the Rings”-style fantasy tentpole.

A bad film adaptation wouldn’t destroy the original, of course, but I’d be sad if this was anyone’s first exposure to SotC.

At least Team Ico is still hard at work on their next game. It’s good to know there will be something new to enjoy.

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