10 Movies Which Tried To Capture The Essence Of Gaming

4. Avalon

Mamoru Oshii is best known to Western audiences for his animated classic Ghost in the Shell and the follow up, Innocence. In 2001, however, he converted briefly to live action - albeit of a visually highly stylised kind - for Avalon, named after the illegal simulation game capable of leaving people catatonic in their desperation to beat the high score. At times, Avalon's plot can feel about as confusing as playing a Japanese import Super Nintendo RPG, but the arresting visual style makes up for any shortcomings in the narrative (and, you could argue, give it more of a video game feel, given that plot coherence isn't always a strong point in games). Shooting Avalon in Poland brought with a number of advantages for Oshii and his team, not least free access to the Polish Army's tanks and attack helicopters - still a long way off the kind of access to expensive toys Michael Bay is used to.