Branch Out with Your Movies
Look, Square Enix, we understand why you’d want to make more Final Fantasy movies. The games have reached the point where their graphics look like real films in and of themselves, they’ve got pretty good voice acting, and some wicked fight choreography. Kingsglaive was a bit of a mixed bag, and Spirits Within was…a thing that happened, but Advent Children is still a damn good time. But there is more under your belt than Final Fantasy that could benefit from a good movie.
Hitman may not be the golden goose that you’re looking for — that may actually be better suited to TV — and we won’t know how Tomb Raider shakes out for another year or two. However, there’s other franchises that you own that could make for compelling films. Dragon Quest has a cutesy, almost Studio Ghibli-like feel that would enrapture kids. Just Cause could draw in the crowd who loves the over-the-top action of the Fast and Furious movies, and when you add in grappling hooks, that just increases the fun.
This also allows you to court an audience that you normally don’t. Not that there’s anything wrong with appealing to just fans, which the Final Fantasy and Hitman films have certainly done, but their core concepts also seem to require you to have more than a passing familiarity with the source material. Something like Just Cause doesn’t really need an explanation beyond “a guy stopping an evil regime in a foreign country,” and Deus Ex is literally just Blade Runner with sharper angles and sunglasses. There’s plenty for you to work with here, you just have to embrace it.
