A Portal movie is getting closer: Backrooms director Kane Parsons visited Valve. All the facts about the possible film adaptation of the science fiction classic.
I’m conflicted. It has the potential for some of the best visuals and comedy to ever come out of a video game movie, but part of me also struggles with how they’re going to not make the portals feel like too much of the focus.
Chell and Glados both find the portals relatively unremarkable in context, but if in the movie the whole time they’re like “😱PORTALS?! Look how cool they are!!!” I think it will ruin the vibe.
It has to acknowledge the portals and then immediately move past them to focus on the story. Otherwise it’s just going to be a bad visual treat with no substance.
I don’t really see how this game is a good premise for a movie. Portal is very funny and entertaining, but there’s plenty of funny and entertaining content out there. And the story isn’t special enough that losing the interactivity and the fun puzzle solving of the video game would make seeing a live-action Chell worth it. I’d much rather play Portal 3
Agreed. A funny and entertaining story in one medium does not necessarily translate 1:1 to a different medium. However, there are things that cinematic storytelling does differently (arguably better, though that’s a personal preference) than experiential storytelling. One area that an adaptation of Portal could focus on which was (intentionally) de-emphasized by Valve is the potential for mind-bending visual trickery and bonkers shot compositions. Not that these things were totally absent from the game, but Valve’s longstanding refusal to move away from a limited first person perspective put a hard ceiling on what they could accomplish visually. A filmmaker who doesn’t have that same bugaboo could probably do some pretty cool stuff with the concept.
Of course, interesting visuals don’t mean the adaptation will be good, but at least there’s an avenue for doing something with the property that the games did not explore.
I feel like you could make a decent to good mini/series about Portal. There’s plenty of lore, and if whoever made it tied into Half-Life somehow, that would be even cooler (it could probably literally just be a quick mention of Black Mesa or something on a whiteboard somewhere).
Each episode could be a “test chamber” or two, and each episode ramps up the action, stakes, and questions.
Tease Ratman; maybe the Cake; make the turrets extra little characters (kinda like the Battle Droids in TCW); maybe even have some Personality Cores to provide some extra opinions/dialog about what’s going on, like Wheatley, but more than just him.
Edit: I bet J.K. Simmons would be up for coming back for more Cave Johnson shenanigans. Idk about live action, but some more recordings would be fun.
I’m conflicted. It has the potential for some of the best visuals and comedy to ever come out of a video game movie, but part of me also struggles with how they’re going to not make the portals feel like too much of the focus.
Chell and Glados both find the portals relatively unremarkable in context, but if in the movie the whole time they’re like “😱PORTALS?! Look how cool they are!!!” I think it will ruin the vibe.
It has to acknowledge the portals and then immediately move past them to focus on the story. Otherwise it’s just going to be a bad visual treat with no substance.
I don’t really see how this game is a good premise for a movie. Portal is very funny and entertaining, but there’s plenty of funny and entertaining content out there. And the story isn’t special enough that losing the interactivity and the fun puzzle solving of the video game would make seeing a live-action Chell worth it. I’d much rather play Portal 3
Agreed. A funny and entertaining story in one medium does not necessarily translate 1:1 to a different medium. However, there are things that cinematic storytelling does differently (arguably better, though that’s a personal preference) than experiential storytelling. One area that an adaptation of Portal could focus on which was (intentionally) de-emphasized by Valve is the potential for mind-bending visual trickery and bonkers shot compositions. Not that these things were totally absent from the game, but Valve’s longstanding refusal to move away from a limited first person perspective put a hard ceiling on what they could accomplish visually. A filmmaker who doesn’t have that same bugaboo could probably do some pretty cool stuff with the concept.
Of course, interesting visuals don’t mean the adaptation will be good, but at least there’s an avenue for doing something with the property that the games did not explore.
I feel like you could make a decent to good mini/series about Portal. There’s plenty of lore, and if whoever made it tied into Half-Life somehow, that would be even cooler (it could probably literally just be a quick mention of Black Mesa or something on a whiteboard somewhere).
Each episode could be a “test chamber” or two, and each episode ramps up the action, stakes, and questions.
Tease Ratman; maybe the Cake; make the turrets extra little characters (kinda like the Battle Droids in TCW); maybe even have some Personality Cores to provide some extra opinions/dialog about what’s going on, like Wheatley, but more than just him.
Edit: I bet J.K. Simmons would be up for coming back for more Cave Johnson shenanigans. Idk about live action, but some more recordings would be fun.
“Speedy thing go in, speedy thing come out.”
You’re conflicted over zero substantive details? How?
This is known as “speculation”