1. Grand Theft Auto
Another series that seems to be losing it's way in the "satirical look at a genre" sector is the GTA series. The best loved games of the series such as GTA III, Vice City and San Andreas work well because they stradle the line between homage and parody of various sub-genres of crime flicks such as The Godfather, Scarface and Boyz N Da Hood. As games they're great at deconstructing the tropes of the Mafiosa, Tropical and Gangsta sub sets of crime stories and showing how blessedly ridiculous they can be. They also give the player a chance to feel what it'd be like in those life styles. Put all that onscreen even if you avoid the risk of coming off like a Freidberg/Seltzer "Crime Movie" lame fest, you'd end up with a kind of amusing imitation of better movies. That's what the GTA series is by the way, at least plot wise. They're the best proof of the classic saying that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, because they flatter the hell out of their inspirational sources. Then there's GTA IV which has a much more serious approach, but is still imitating other stories that have come and gone before. It's the "fresh off the boat, immigrant trying to make a new start" story told for the Nth time. Then there's the dialog. If you really look at what the characters say to each other with a critical eye, GTA IV is a fucking mess. Not only is the voice acting decent at best, but the actual content of the words are pedestrian even at their best. Even in the "let's go hang out Niko" scenes, the characters are following a pattern. They're painting by numbers to create a muted palate rendition of a mathematical formula. Everyone fits into a stock archetype moving the conversation into a very clear direction. Then there's the final twist, that as a game makes GTA IV a bit brilliant. The final few missions determine whether Niko loses a potential love interest, or his dearest family member. It's a great game mechanic because it leaves you screwed either way and communicates the idea that a life of crime and violence ultimately yields negative consequences no matter what you do. Once again, by taking the controller out of the players hand the plot must collapse into one path or the other. Either path comes off being cliche as hell in movie terms. How cliche you might ask? Well there's a page
on tv tropes (note: do not click on this link unless you have
a lot of time to kill) that shows just how over done the side character getting killed thing is. Killing off the best friend or the love interest is one of the laziest ways to 'develop' a character while also giving them a semi-acceptable reason to go on an unrestrained rampage and kill everyone that they can.
Conclusion
The biggest and most recurring problem most of these properties would share if adapted to, is also one of their greatest strengths
interactivity! It's inside the space created between the controller, the screen and the mind of the player where the real magic happens. Think of all the novels based on movies, and no I don't mean expanded universe stuff from Star Wars or Star Trek. I'm talking about things like "Back the The Future part II: the novel". Now ask yourself how many of those books are considered modern American classics? If you answered none, you now have an intellectual map of why most videogame based movies keep fumbling. When you take away a key element of a medium like moving pictures or interactive plot, you strip out a core element that makes the finished product what it is. That isn't to say that no videogame can ever be made into a good movie, merely that it has to be the right kind of game with the right kind of film makers at the helm.