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The HELLDIVERS 2 Movie Will Be Weird

The HELLDIVERS 2 Movie Will Be Weird

Recently announced at CES, Sony is producing a HELLDIVERS 2 and a Horizon Zero Dawn movie and I’m not sure how to feel about it. Videogame adaptations have a shaky track record, and for good reason. Games rely on player interaction to evoke emotions, subtly or not, and with AAA games focused on narrative, like Horizon, it’s difficult to condense a 20+ hour game into a two-hour film, so they have to get pragmatic with the story which doesn’t always work out. I will not forgive what happened to Monster Hunter, thinking it was a good idea to make it an isekai plot.

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Please don't screw this up.

However, we’ve seen great things come out of these adaptations in recent years. The Sonic the Hedgehog films have made a billion, the Super Mario Bros. movie made $1.36 billion itself, and most of the recent TV adaptations please both fans and newcomers like Arcane and Fallout. We’re currently in a golden age of videogame adaptations… which makes me a little worried about the HELLDIVERS 2 movie.

It’s not like we haven’t seen our expendable heroes outside of the battlefield before. Helldivers were featured in the show Secret Level, but they feel more like a cameo, only espousing words like “Freedom” and “Liberty” as they futilely chase the protagonist. They don’t even cause horrific amounts of collateral damage. But as of right now, there’s not a lot of info about what a HELLDIVERS movie will entail. There’s not even a clear statement yet that the developer Arrowhead Studios has a say in the project. The writers for the game are great, with plenty of jabs at real-world politics in their various messages, and know how to write by the seat of their pants given the player-driven narrative. And let’s not forget Sony's track record with the not-Spider-Man movies, with quite a few of them downright sucking and bombing at the box office.

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Will they include all the factions? How far will they go to display the glory of Super Earth?

Personally, I want a Michael Bay-esque movie, full of explosions and destruction, showcasing the absolute might/insanity of Super Earth. But I also want a protagonist who doesn’t last more than two minutes in a fight. Show that even A-List celebrities are just meat for the meat grinder under Super Earth’s regime. Build up how much of a badass they are, show their preparation for the mission, fire them out… and kill them in the most comical way possible. Possibly (or almost guaranteed) by their own teammate. That’s how it usually happens in my games.

However, I do see that it might get a little too expensive for constant explosions (depends on if it’s live-action or animated), so there’s probably going to be a significant chunk of the runtime dedicated to the quieter moments such as life on Super Earth, the interaction of the crew of the Super Destroyer, or maybe even make the Helldivers mythical figures who only show up a few times. I’m just rambling here, but a movie’s story, a videogame movie especially, heavily relies on its budget.

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Animated or live-action?

Then there’s the critical reception. Yeah, I know I should use my own judgement but reviews do get people to watch the movie, and I don’t want it to fail. It could very much be a repeat of what happened to Starship Troopers where critics will take the “glory of Super Earth” at face value and say that the makers are too high off their own product to understand how horrific the world is. Now, whoever will be making the film now has the power of hindsight to maybe avoid this pitfall. However, the worst critics will be the fans. I’ve seen the constant “We’re Back” and “We’re So Over” lifecycle when it came to the game’s events and content, and if the film isn’t up to snuff… it’s back to calling the game dead. We also have to consider that there is a chance that the movie will run into problems like delays… or cancellations. I don’t want to wait five years for the film, I’m already suffering through that with Kingdom Hearts IV and the drought of info.

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You don't feel like you're about to die when watching a movie (most of the time).

Does HELLDIVERS 2 need a movie? No, playing the game itself creates some of the best cinematic moments I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing, enhanced by the fact that I’m the one causing them (sometimes due to my hilariously bad driving skills). But will I watch it? I haven’t gone to a physical cinema in years at this point, but I’m definitely going to see it. However, as Kratos of God of War (2018) said: "Keep your expectations low and you will never be disappointed."

If all else, it's just going to be Starship Troopers again.

Dylan Pamintuan

Dylan Pamintuan

Staff Writer

An Australian-born guy whose trying to show everyone why games are awesome.

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