AdapNation: Metroid

In which I make the case for film and TV adaptations, sequels and remakes.

You had to have figured that it was only a matter of time before I returned to potential video game adaptations.  The medium is a vast and virtually untapped source of any number of movie franchises, shied away from by studios because of how God-awful initial attempts at adapting them panned out.  For every somewhat decent Silent Hill or Tombraider, there seem to be a dozen more Super Mario Bros and Resident Evils.

Video games are ripe for adapting right now.  There haven't been any especially good adaptations of them yet, and only a scant handful even worth choking down.  And while several promising projects dangle just beyond the horizon, it's going to be years before the first of them hits theaters, and years more before studio executives catch on that it was more than just a fluke.

Starting in on a big-screen adaptation now would get the franchise in ahead of the curve.  A Metroid movie would face far less competition when it comes out than it likely will in a few years, meaning that it can establish itself as a must-watch franchise long before Halo and Bioshock attempt to do the same

Hell, we're getting an Adam Sandler movie where Pac-Man is a bad guy.  Samus has a far larger profile and fan base than a hungry, hungry hockey puck, especially when you consider that video game nostalgia has already shifted away from arcade gaming and into early console gaming (ie, NES and Super NES).

In a day and age where gender representation is becoming a big enough issue that studio executives are actually willing to greenlight a Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel movie, Metroid would fill a specific demographic need.  And besides, between the Terminator and Alien franchises, science fiction has a long history of badass women shooting scary things.

Consider the plot of the first game (thin though it is).  A group of alien pirates steal an monstrous-looking bio weapon that is highly intelligent, can reproduce a-sexually, can effortlessly fly and is capable of draining the life force of any living creature within a matter of seconds.  While this could play out like a fairly straight-forward action piece, it doesn't take a lot to imagine it as an action-horror film (like either of the aforementioned series to which I compared it to already).

The Space Pirates themselves are already a pretty gruesome sight: equal parts human and reptile, often colored dark green or red, with toothed pincers for hands that can discharge electric bolts.  The Metroids themselves are even worse: embryonic spheres with rows of gnashing, over-sized teeth.  Going into her mission, Samus is already outnumbered, outgunned and in unfamiliar territory.  All you'd have to do is lower the lighting and show her fear and you'd have moments of drawn out tension punctuated with high-end action.

Besides, look at her power armor.  It would unquestionably be the coolest piece of cinematic hardware since the Iron Man suit: probably even cooler.  Combine that with its wide variety of built-in weapons and Samus' natural combat abilities and you'd have something to write home about.

With action movies increasingly going toward superheroes, a futuristic bounty hunter in deep space would fill a largely unaddressed niche for something different.  Sure, Guardians of the Galaxy kind of struck that nerve already, but that's one franchise out of Marvel's current eleven MCU titles, and DC doesn't have anything even remotely similar lined up.  The market is wide open for what Metroid would be selling.

Then when you consider just how many games there are to adapt (or how amazing the first three in the series really were), you realize that there's an awful lot of potential in the franchise.  After all, "if a raccoon can carry a movie, then [...] maybe even a woman can."

So what would you want to see in a Metroid movie?  Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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