A little over an hour ago, the awesome three-part trailer for Grand Theft Auto V dropped, helping us get to know the three protagonists - each of who will be playable in the game - and showing off some of the film's narrative and gameplay treats. Can the next 4 and a half months just hurry up, please? The net nerds have already begun dissecting the intricacies to death - is that a Wii U controller that Michael's son is holding, for instance? - but here are five things that the trailer makes very clear to us, other than the fact that this game is going to
rock...
5. Michael Is Tony Soprano
Michael is the family man of the three protagonists, seemingly living a high life in a fancy home, but he faces existential issues over his future, wanting something more than his current life of crime and excess. However, as he notes to his psychologist, he also can't deny that he loves the thrill of a good heist, and so it's easy to see how Rockstar have been heavily inspired by James Gandolfini's indellible Tony Soprano character, whose outlook is almost identical. Right down to having two bratty kids, this follows the formula of the HBO show, though given Rockstar's record, it's reasonable to expect that they'll manage to take it in an unexpected direction. Still, the debt the GTA series owes to pop-culture at large is
exactly why a GTA movie wouldn't work, because it's
already holding its mirror up to the movie/TV world, and so a GTA film would seem highly derivative, because that's exactly what the games are, but in the best way possible.