There's a whole side-benefit to adapting video games into movies that no one has really explored yet, namely filling in the many narrative gaps and creating a new story based on the scraps from the original game. But most game adaptations want only to please the fans, so they cobble together a narrative that closely replicates various scenes from the game, never realizing the result won't make a lick of sense to someone who doesn't know how to use a Playstation controller.
And I'm not saying this with any hope that Universal's planned adaptation of The Shadow of Colossus will do anything to change this. Variety does note that it's being written by Justin Marks, who is suddenly writing every new adaptation in the business, including McG's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, so that might be promising. But Marks has his work cut out for him to build a narrative from the video game's story, which involves a warrior named Wander faced with defeating 16 colossal monsters to save the woman he loves.
When reviewing the game in 2005, 1Up noted that the narrative is deliberately vague: "What is the relationship between the wanderer and the girl he is trying to save? Where do they come from? Why, exactly, is this world so empty? You'll have to draw your own conclusions, because the game won't tell you." To me, that's an intriguing prospect to build a story into this world, and use the video game as a starting point rather than a Bible. But if previous video game adaptations are any indication, that won't be what we get. Come on, Justin Marks! Be up to the challenge!
