Let’s be honest most video game movies suck. While gamers can list many reasons why they suck, one of the big ones is that often the team behind the movie don’t understand games, and most importantly, the game the movie is based on.
This won’t be the problem when it comes to the Ratchet & Clank movie based on the games from Insomniac. The director of movie is Kevin Munroe. He is not just a gamer, he has also worked in the game industry. His first job after studying animation in the Toronto area was with Shiny Entertainment, the studio behind the Earthworm Jim games. (One of our all time favorite games here at ToT) He later worked at Midway Games, before he transitioned into film. He has worked on animation projects for the likes of Disney, DreamWorks and the Jim Henson Company. After paying his dues, he got to be the director and screenwriter for the reboot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 2007.
For the Gramercy Pictures’ Ratchet & Clank movie he again filled the dual roles of director and screenwriter. The world of Ratchet & Clank has been around in game form since 2002 and the games have sold over 27 million copies to date. So many of the rules of their world have been set and fans of the game have a solid vision of what they think the world should be and how the gang of characters should act in it. This where Kevin was smart! He knew this going in and worked within that world than trying to change it to his likes and story ideas.
As Kevin said to a fan after the screening, “I was lucky Ratchet was one of few games where gamers wanted to actually watch the cut-scenes.“
His work on the film took a cue from that core idea. He worked with the folks at Insomniac closely. Because of trust between all the players, the film and upcoming game were able to share things, such as paintings for backgrounds. Plus, some of the animations and character models featured in the movie were based off of ones originally created for the game. Munroe did point out the models needed some more details added to them since they were heading to the big screen. For those of you that don’t follow video games movies, the collaboration between the film team and Insomniac is something rare. Did it make the movie better? Come back later today for the our full review to see!
Now for those you jaded movie fans out there. Kevin took time to come down from Vancouver BC to Seattle to do the screening at 10 AM on Saturday! He spoke to movie goers, most of whom were not press, and signed posters until everyone had left. All of this while he he was going to have a day with his kids. He showed trust and respect to the fans.
