Film-making is all about finding a common interest or entertaining story and capitalizing on it. One of the trends that’s has been occurring more and more often over the years are comic book and video-game based films, but which of the two are real successes and which sink to the bottom of the clichéd “failure bucket”?

Video-game based films offer such comforts as being able to see your favorite game come to life right in front of your eyes without having to feel overwhelmed by being sniped every five seconds because halopwn3r657 decided to let his monkey play while he went to the bathroom, but is really such a good idea? During the mid to late 90’s, video games started being adapted to film. Movies such as “Street Fighter” and “Mortal Kombat” were the talk of the town because they introduced new and interesting ideas for filming, but otherwise were failures. Without their loyal fans to hold them up, they would have been completely forgotten.

But the tale of tragedy does not end there. Though there were a few breakout movies such as “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” and the “Resident Evil” series, video-game films only lessened in profit and overall appeal. Films like “Bloodrayne” and “DOA: Dead or Alive”, which only grossed $480,314, made the stories and adventures that started on console games a joke.

Senior A.J. Parker, avid gamer, shares his thoughts on the matter of game based films. “The best thing about video games is playing through them,” Said Parker, “A movie about a game is like watching someone else play through it for you.”

Joseph Akin, a sophomore, finds some positive of video-games. “They’re original which makes the experience better since you don’t know what will happen next,” said Akin. Still, he admits, “Videogames should be their own story lines.” Results such as these give little hope to the highly anticipated “Halo” and “Gears of War” film franchises.

Comic book based films are another story altogether. The idea for comic based films started with the very successful Superman franchise, and went on to the Batman series. For a long time DC comics stood alone in the film area, until the late 90’s when Marvel comics took the box office by storm with their film adaptations. Unlike the game’s steady decline in profits, comic book movies built up.

Humble movies such as “Blade” set the stage for the break-outs “X-Men” and, more notably, “Spider-Man”. Our favorite web-head created profits that shot through the roof with a $403,706,375 debut.

With the new competition, DC Comics began revamping their Superman and Batman franchises. “Batman Begins” grossed a great profit of $205,343,774 and had great reviews. “Superman Returns” also grossed an impressive profit of $200,069,408, but had a shaky story line, which made it the brunt of many jokes made by its viewers. But all of DC’s worries were cast away when its sequel, “The Dark Knight”, made $530,723,626 and created uproar from critics and fans alike.

There is no doubt about it, video-game based films have a ways to go before reaching the critic acclaim and success that comic book films have. It is especially going to be more evident with Marvel’s highly anticipated “Wolverine: Origins” and DC’s “Watchmen” coming out in the near future. Perhaps Halo and Gears of War can be the two paddles that shock the life into the video-game group.