• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.

How a Metroid Movie Could Work - PREVIEW (GameXplain Video)

MouldyK

MouldyK

Prophet of Truth
Banned
Nov 1, 2017
10,118
Derrick Bitner from GameXplain posted this video, which is his view on how a Metroid Film could theoretically work.

I actually think a Metroid could be decent if done correctly and with care.





Hopefully he gets the okay to delve deeper into what his ideas are.


But how would you make a Metroid Film? Horror or more Actiony?
 
butalala

butalala

Member
Nov 24, 2017
5,267
I like gamexplain and I like the idea of a Metroid film, but I don't think starting with exposition/backstory of young samus is the way to go. I loled at the idea of "Rodney Aran." Where does that name come from?
 
dodo

dodo

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,997
i admire the dedication to this idea but i question if leaning really hard into the comic/instruction manual lore is the way to make a film work.
 
Lady Bow

Lady Bow

Member
Nov 30, 2017
11,285
Not a fan of Ridley speaking, sounds pretty corny. They should just keep him silent or limited to some incomphensible space pirate language. Actions speak louder than words and all that.
 
Nessus

Nessus

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,907
MouldyK said:
Derrick Bitner from GameXplain posted this video, which is his view on how a Metroid Film could theoretically work.

I actually think a Metroid could be decent if done correctly and with care.





Hopefully he gets the okay to delve deeper into what his ideas are.


But how would you make a Metroid Film? Horror or more Actiony?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I'd go with horror, minimalist with very little dialogue and lots of silence and an ambient soundtrack with splashes of intense action, possibly a few flashbacks that hint at her past, and sticking very close to the (minimal) story in the first few games.
 
Lucas M. Thomas

Lucas M. Thomas

Editor-in-Chief of Nintendo Force Magazine
Verified
Oct 30, 2017
2,290
Kentucky
I've seen enough hero origin stories, and particularly enough that focus on the hero's parents dying in front of them. If it were me, I'd skip all that noise and jump straight into Samus as a fully confident and capable butt-kicking bounty hunter from Minute 1.
 
Durden

Durden

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
12,511
Yeah, I'm sorry but I don't agree at all. I truly hate for exposition for Samus beyond what she's going through immediately (and even then it's extremely touchy for me. I feel like Fusion pulled it off well and that's about it). The more attempted/forced background/story she's given, the worse her character is. She should be defined and analyzed purely from the situation on the mission she is currently on, and that's it.

That's what the entire Metroid series is about, defining yourself through a mission. And that's what Samus's role is and always should be. You can give her a voice, but not in any way that detracts from that.

Which means that Metroid will probably never truly work outside of the video game medium. And that's ok, and kind of the point.
 
Last edited:
Listai

Listai

50¢
Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,660
After watching the entire thing, they missed the point of Metroid entirely. I think it's cool that they're passionate enough about the series to go ahead a pitch this, but this is awful.

What kind of empty pop-culture diet do you need to be on to think its a good idea to shoehorn in a stupid familial connection to the creation of the villain? and then rob your character of any intrigue or ambiguity by painfully subjecting us to their entire schlocky origin?.

To make matters worse the entire thing has this dull pedagogical tone, most of it is either narration or boring expository dialogue.
 
Procheno

Procheno

Alt Account
Banned
Nov 14, 2018
2,879
I love that others have such passion to make a Metroid movie

Not sure how this could be considered a Metroid movie though. A movie is something that moves. This is just concept art with music and a book type narration. I do pursue him to keep going with it though!

It is my dream to write and direct a legitimate feature length Metroid movie. I've been working as a filmmaker for years and have been directing many projects. I'm building up my experience and credentials to potentially direct an official, theater released Metroid movie. One aspect of Metroid that I love is that it's not a constant action type generic sci-fi franchise. It can be slow, it is extremely atmospheric, it can show a lot with very little words, it heavily let's the world and the music be the experience. Of course there would be integrated ways to make it not come off as "slow as a crawl", but I would make sure it stays true to the tone that Metroid has established and deserves. There are a lot of movies that are slower paced but feel fast because of the suspense and tension established with the circumstances. Same can be done easily with Metroid! And the existing story, dangers, and bosses would make for some amazing set pieces and action scenes if done right. I personally would even go with the official 6 foot something amazonian type build if I could to match the character like in the original artwork. Someone intimidating, but can be gentle. Can kill you if she wanted to, but won't. I probably wouldn't focus on it being an origin story though. I'd personally rather just jump into it like most Metrood game intros. Metroid, Super Metroid, Prime, Fusion, etc. Let the audience learn about her through her adventure at that point in time rather than going back to her beginnings. I loooove the intro to Prime 1 with the space station that's abandoned/broken down. Such tension with so little information.

One day I hope to make this dream a reality
 
Last edited:

ZiggyPalffyLA

Banned
Nov 2, 2017
4,504
Los Angeles, California
Lucas M. Thomas said:
I've seen enough hero origin stories, and particularly enough that focus on the hero's parents dying in front of them. If it were me, I'd skip all that noise and jump straight into Samus as a fully confident and capable butt-kicking bounty hunter from Minute 1.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Well said and I agree completely. I love Derrick and admire his passion for Metroid but he can do better than this. Make it less cliche and more sci-fi horror. We don't need the Batman origin story for the 50th time, it's why modern superhero movies tend to skip those.

Super Slamicom said:
After watching the entire thing, they missed the point of Metroid entirely. I think it's cool that they're passionate enough about the series to go ahead a pitch this, but this is awful.

What kind of empty pop-culture diet do you need to be on to think its a good idea to shoehorn in a stupid familial connection to the creation of the villain? and then rob your character of any intrigue or ambiguity by painfully subjecting us to their entire schlocky origin?.

To make matters worse the entire thing has this dull pedagogical tone, most of it is either narration or boring expository dialogue.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Like the namesake of the series, this sucked the life out of Samus. This has none of the atmosphere, none of the mystery. This is a straight to DVD B-movie. It's getting almost exclusively positive feedback from what I've seen on Twitter and YouTube but I know Derrick can do better. The artwork is great but he needs to scrap this idea and make something as unique as the series itself.

tl;dr more Metroid Prime 1 and less Prime 3
 
Last edited:
Stay Up Be Easy

Stay Up Be Easy

Member
Dec 31, 2017
1,724
-The first 3-10 minutes establish the Federation constantly getting fucked up by the Pirates. They put up a fight but it's clear they're at the disadvantage of like 65/45.
-The Metroids (don't even have to namedrop them just say a secret weapon) is are discovered. That could lead to the extermination of the human species.
-Samus is introduced in full suit while everyone else is wearing setting appropriate clothing.
-Make her alien. She either doesn't respond when talked to. Or minor details catch her interest. Blunt but not exactly rude.
-GREEN HAIR!
-Horror/action 50-50. More Aliens than Alien.
-Ridley is unmistakably intelligent. Hint there is a past between them.
-Follow the main beat of the first game.
-Fully reveal her at the end. Face/ hair and all. Something like "Job Finished make payment out to Samus Aran" as the last line.

Basically make Riddick a woman. And if Pitch Black, Aliens & The Martian had a 3 way baby, THAT's the Metroid movie.
 
Bard

Bard

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
12,430
That scene where Old Bird talks to young Samus was really awkward, how he just starts spitting out so much exposition like that.

I agree with others that the movie needs to have as little dialogue as possible and be mostly just ambient and atmospheric shots with a heavy focus on horror and some action. Isolation is what Metroid is all about, so it needs to have a lot of aspects that just make it feel really alien in general. Samus' reveal should definitely come at the end, where she could say a few lines even. Ridley shouldn't really speak, but when he meets Samus it should be possible to hint at a past between them without much in the way of dialogue.

Basically get Genndy and George Miller together and they would knock this shit out of the park.
 
Skittzo

Skittzo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
41,037
The first 30 or so minutes of Riddick is always how I imagined a great Metroid movie could work. Protagonist completely on their own, learning about their environment, using resources they can find, learning about a hostile alien creature and finally figuring out how to defeat it.

Just do that but make it three times longer and there's your Metroid movie.
 
oliverandm

oliverandm

Member
Nov 13, 2017
1,177
Copenhagen, Denmark
A movie about anything can work, so long as the plot is entertaining, the story is good, and the characters intriguing. Get good people and anything works. Look at Pixar, and how they take seemingly odd ideas and smash 'em out of the park everytime.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.