Hideo Kojima’s industry-shifting stealth-action game, Metal Gear Solid, is heading to the big screen. Following blockbuster video game adaptations like the Super Mario Bros movies, as well as flops like Borderlands and the horrifically awful Return to Silent Hill, MGS is being thrown to the Hollywood wolves to fend for itself.

I can’t be the only one who sighed when I saw the Deadline report of an actual MGS film. There’s been talk of one for some time, with a number of actors, including Oscar Issac, tied to it. Since the late 90s, numerous attempts have popped up and fizzled out, and nothing ever materialised, but the project is still very much alive and kicking, with indie-horror duo Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein, behind the fantastic Final Destination Bloodlines, attached to the project.

This isn’t anything against these guys, but do we really need a movie of a game that is already the perfect middle point between video games and cinema? I’ve probably spent more time transfixed by Hideo Kojima’s wonderful cutscenes in the original PlayStation game than I did playing the game. I often remember the experience as if I was watching a film: the battle with Metal Gear Rex, Solid Snake refusing to fire the Stinger missile at Gray Fox, the car chase finale. Kojima’s stunning cinematic presentation still holds up today, which begs the question what would a movie offer?

Be Careful What You Wish For

While the IP clearly has a ton of promise as a movie on the surface, namely a load of interesting characters, a decent, easy-to-follow plot (sort of) and a wonderful backdrop in Shadow Moses, it was the depth of Kojima’s writing that made MGS so special. MGS has cinematic flair, for sure, but it works because of its video game foundations, not in spire of it.

When I think of Metal Gear Solid, I remember hours of Codec conversations, slowly building emotional connections to Otacon, Meryl, Deepthroat, and more. I remember the backstory told over nearly four hours of static image cutscenes that painted the picture of Les Enfants Terrible, FoxDie and the origins of Rex. I remember how the game plays with the conventions of video game structure, how it toys with save files, how it transcends its own active medium, and I wonder how it could ever possibly work the same in a passive format. Combined with the ingenuity of its reactive gameplay, a film could simply feel flat by comparison.

A smarter move could be for the film to avoid going too deep into the rich lore altogether. The plus side? It opens up the MGS universe for more people than ever before – and allows them to dodge some of the more complicated narratives presented in the series. The downside? It risks alienating fans of one of the most revered series of all time.

Are video game adaptions really that good? Honestly?

Let’s be honest: the hit-rate of video-game-to-movie adaptations has not been particularly ideal, at least in film form. While TV adaptations are going strong (hey, even Twisted Metal was surprisingly decent), condensing hours-long games into two hour films only really works when adapting something simple, such as the skirmishes of Mortal Kombat or the fast-paced, tongue-in-cheek action of Sonic the Hedgehog.

There are a lot more poor video game films compared to good ones. While the recent Super Mario Bros and Sonic films have their moments, they’re based on games that have strong characters but not strong narratives, and they aren’t based in stories told over hours of cutscenes. The movies were perhaps a chance to explore these characters more, but with Metal Gear Solid what could be explored in a two-hour runtime? Not much.

Back in the 90s, you knew your game had made it when it was turned into a film. There used to be a legitimacy in making the jump from low-poly early 3D, or even sprite-based 2D, into a full theatrical film with Hollywood’s blessing. In 1998, Metal Gear Solid took gaming in a sharp direction that meant games could be something more than film, and could do so with the runtime it deserved.

Since 1998, Metal Gear itself has evolved far above what Hideo Kojima’s team could do on the PlayStation, and there’s nothing a film can do to eclipse what the games already have done, it can only replicate. At that point, is there any real reason for a Metal Gear Solid film to exist outside of brand identity?

The kid in me wants to like the idea of a Metal Gear Solid movie, but I just can’t. It could at least work as a TV series, giving the creators a chance to explore some of the characters that are arguably more interesting than Solid Snake himself (Ocelot, Mantis, Sniper Wolf). No matter who’s at the helm, it’s a game that is likely better left as a game.