J.J. Abrams teleurgesteld en ‘emotioneel gekwetst’ door slechte Star Trek-game

Filmgames zijn vaak erg slecht en helaas vormde Star Trek: The Videogame geen uitzondering op deze regel. Het spel rammelde aan alle kanten en werd door vrijwel alle pers, waaronder GamersNET, slecht beoordeeld. J.J. Abrams, de man die de veel succesvollere Star Trek-film regisseerde, vindt dit ontzettend erg.

Abrams laat weten dat de filmmakers aan het begin betrokken waren bij de ontwikkeling van de game, maar na verloop van tijd zijn ze ermee gestopt omdat ze zagen dat het de verkeerde kant op ging. Helaas besloot Digital Extreme om de ontwikkelaar voort te zetten, zo vertelt Abrams:

The last game, which was obviously a big disappointment to me, was something that we were actually involved in from the very beginning and then we sort of realised that it was not going in a place where we were going to get what we wanted, so we dropped out and they continued to do it despite… y’know.

Abrams laat weten dat hij emotioneel gekwetst is door het spel. Hij vermoedt bovendien dat het slechte imago van Star Trek: The Videogame een negatieve invloed heeft gehad op de film:

To me the video game could have been something that actually really benefitted the eries and was an exciting, fun game with great gameplay, and instead it was not and was something that I think, for me emotionally it hurt, ‘cos we were working our asses off making the movie and then this game came out and it got, this isn’t even my opinion, it got universally panned and I think that it was something without question that didn’t help the movie and arguably hurt it.

Dit betekent echter niet dat Abrams plotseling een afkeer heeft gekregen van videogames; hij houdt nog steeds van dit medium:

I think that, we all know is that anyone who loves video games and loves movies… very, very rarely does a movie based on a game, or a game based on a movie, really work. It usually ends up being something that everyone that goes to play feels like this was a marketing decision made by a room full of people that wanted to capitalise on a title. That’s no way to make a game and no way to make a movie.

Abrams werkt momenteel aan verschillende projecten voor Valve en wil daarmee bewijzen dat games en films heel goed samen kunnen gaan:

The dream is – we’re working with Valve right now on a couple of projects – is to say okay, despite its existence as a game, despite its existence as a movie, what makes this great? And starting from scratch, let’s make this from the ground up great, regardless of what’s come before. And that’s me, whether it’s a video game or a book or a movie or a song. Anything that is based on something else, it needs to exist on its own terms. And a lot of times these seem to exist as an ancillary product, in which case it will suck.

Onze Valentijn ging eerder dit jaar met Star Trek: The Videogame aan de slag en “beloonde” het spel in zijn review met een pijnlijke 4,5.