1. I agree
2. I think GoW will be a good single film, despite the borrowing aspect for virgins, and Halo will be an excellent film franchise.

1. Gears of War is a great game as is Halo.
2. Halo would make a better movie (in terms of original content.) Bear in mind, I’m thinking of this through the eyes of someone who has never played either game. If they were to watch GoW, they might start ticking off the cribbed references where I believe Halo offers a more original story to the virgin audience.

The bottom line is there is no defense needed. EGO – Everybody’s got opinions.

The only one that is absolutely correct is MINE!!!

Like the poster Baby Carrot said in a comment on my blog, I think GoW would probably be easier to translate to cinema. Halo has an epic, star-spanning scope that would require massive special effects. GoW is gritty, down-to-earth, and could probably be filmed on a leftover war film set with a few guys in latex monster outfits.

“I don’t bemoan any of these influences – in fact, the great melting pot of cinematic references is what makes Gears of War so fun. The problem is, by retelling these elements on the big screen, suddenly the cinematic forbearers look less like inspirations and more like the victims of highway robbery.”

The problem is – if these elements are retranslated back to the silver screen where they were cribbed from in the first place, then suddenly GoW looks like a Greatest Hits of sci-fi blockbusters.

All that said, Halo should be production right now and it is a crime that it isn’t. I can’t believe no studio is willing to grab what little take Microsoft will give them.

Ed’s got a new post about Gears of War’s recent movie deal. I wrote a pretty long response, so I thought I’d copy it here. —- I don’t make any bones about my preference for Halo over GoW, so I……

As I said in a post on Sean’s blog, Epic sacrificed a lot of the story elements to make room for graphics and gameplay. And Epic isn’t exactly known for its storytelling (their–former–most popular product, Unreal Tournament, doesn’t even have a campaign mode). Bungie, on the other hand, made their name with story.

I’m not saying GoW’s story isn’t interesting. It’s just a bit too derivative (really, what major sf franchise doesn’t it poach from?) and somehow manages to be both convoluted and thin. What bothered me most, though, was how little I cared about the characters, particularly Marcus–despite the fact he was voiced by Bender. The only characters I liked were Dom (“‘Sup bitches!”) and Cole (“The Train’s at home on the rails!”).

Somehow Bungie made me care more about a faceless guy in armor and an AI construct.