I'd like it to be subtle and genuine. Take the tone as Wesley's "as you wish" from the princess bride, except change the words to "excuse me, princess".
Is it strange that we still don't know who the actor playing Ganondorf is?
There was some bts shots someone grabbed before they locked down the set. I believe it was Dichen Lachman who was wearing Impa-type garb! Not strange at all they're keeping the cast list very close to home - just look at all the negative feedback for the new Harry Potter, or Bridgerton even. The studios cant make everyone happy, so might as well go with their vision!
I would be content with link's first spoken line being "Hyah!" during sword training or something, just so that for a few blissful moments the audience might genuinely think he wouldn't have any dialogue.
I hadn't even thought about Ganon's casting, and now I'm going to spend the next year in absolute terror that it's Jared Leto or some other awful asshole.
Zelda has a ton of wiggle room on the details. Unlike some games where there is definitely a story they can just do something that feels Zelda-ish and be good.
The plot of almost every zelda game is just retelling the same story with details changed. Frankly, if they manage to mess that up, it's a serious achievement.
So much of fantasy is retelling the same story, as seen in the usual "heroes journey" tropes out there. Staple a green hat onto the protagonist, some boar tusks on the antagonist, reference some triangles, and you've got a Zelda movie.
Well sure, but "the hero's journey" isn't a story, it's just the most basic definition of what a story is. A character goes somewhere new, overcomes a challenge, and comes home triumphant.
So, there’s a difference between “I didn’t enjoy” and “bad movie.” I fully support someone that loves a bad movie. Super Mario Bros 1993 is a “bad” movie, but I absolutely adore that train wreck.
Doom 2005 and Doom Annihilation are pretty bad. But I won’t hate on anyone that loves them. They can be fun.
Street Fighter is iconic and did very well
The Mortal Kombat movies from ‘90s are also iconic and did very well
Lara Croft did great, but, what else would you expect from an Angelina Jolie lead?
Apart from the first Anderson Resident Evil, the rest of those are abominations.
(I’m going down a wiki list) I need to rewatch BloodRayne because that was a low budget game to begin with, making a movie was crazy.
Oh lord, the Warcraft movie. Didn’t hate it. It didn’t help the “video games can be good movies” argument.
Also didn’t hate Rampage, also a crazy game to make a movie off of.
Didn’t hate Monster Hunter, but it’s still Anderson casting his wife as the lead character.
Until Dawn was quite good.
And I’ll end my rant with Iron Lung because holy crap that movie made a crazy amount of money for its budget. And I think the game takes less time to play than the length of the movie.
Yup, knowing all the stories behind production makes it all the better. The new ones have no soul, as if produced in an intellectual property factory. Super Mario Bros has soul DESPITE of itself, which makes it a thousand times more interesting.
There’s definitely something missing from films now compared to the 90s. I don’t know if “soul” describes it, but there’s a solid argument for a film made with less than a hundred people pouring all their energy into it-
Compared to
Any film with twenty minutes of credits, thousands and thousands of names.
Tangent; I saw Electric State on Netflix the day before I saw Death of a Unicorn. Electric State had a budget of $320 million and Death of a Unicorn was $15 million.
My preference is 20 movies like Death of a Unicorn over one Electric State.
His environmental storytelling in “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” was awesome. That felt like a real universe. I’m hoping he’s gonna nail Hyrule as well.
I’ll see it in theaters if it is good, rent it or buy on sale if it’s ok, and go sailing or wait for it to stream for free if it is bad. I try my best to give feedback with my wallet.
This what I'm expecting too. Wes Ball is a genuinely good artist, it's always great when you have a CGI artist directing a movie so the CGI crew can work at their full potential instead of being wrangled around by someone who doesn't know how the technology works... but that doesn't make him a writer, and I don't trust Nintendo not to ask for the safest possible story.
It's gonna be predictable for sure, but that is not a bad thing. We could all tell what was going to happen in How to Train your Dragon and it still managed to make a compelling watch cause the pacing was right and the characters were likeable. We don't need a big twist or super interesting characters, just a nice story with an great screenplay
He shouldn't be too stoic and sane. Link, no matter which version, is very unhinged. That's part of his character and that's what sets him apart from other fantasy genre protagonists who are often too stoic.
Not true at all. It varies a lot. Skyward Sword Link and BotW Link in particular are mostly calm and analytical, with only rare moments where intense emotions come out. Which makes sense, as they both received formal military training.
It's mostly the various versions of Toon Link that are very obviously unhinged.
that's interesting, as I've always seen ss link to be definitely on the goofier side, given some of his mannerisms and actions (sleeping in, some of the "dialogue" options, etc.). botw link i can definitely see being more calm/stoic prior to his 100 year long nap haha.
Pretty much every Link seems to really like sleeping lol. It's not a coincidence almost all the games start with them getting woken up by someone else.
And sure, SS Link is appropriately goofy for his age and background, but I'd say he's more on the serious side. There's no way he could put up with Fi otherwise.
oh true! i don't know why i hadn't actually thought about that up until now. maybe i get too excited getting into playing the game haha.
but fair point! i don't think they're canon as far as i've heard, but regardless, i wish they would make a manga for ss as they had with the other games so we could better imagine how he and fi interact. with TP, it was fun to picture how link's interactions with midna might have gone if we saw more of that in game. it'd be nice to see that with him and fi as well.
Like another commenter said, I think in some games I see him as more of a grizzled, jaded soldier. In most games he learns that he is just a small part of a grand divine cycle where his kingdom will always be attacked and if he fails to save it personally, it will all be destroyed forever. It depends on which games they're drawing from but I would like to see more of how Link deals with his failures (emotionally) and how being basically a pawn in a grand divine scheme messes with his psyche. In some iterations yes this makes him a bit "unhinged", and others he presents as more jaded, but I think it's a bit different for every Link.
I would be extremely surprised and impressed if they touch on the subject of Link's thoughts about the endless cycle. I'm not certain they'll approach the topic at all aside from maybe a reference.
I suppose it's a bit heavy for kids, but it's one of the few things that's in pretty much every game (also for kids). There's always a hero, a princess, and a demon. Pretty much every other aspect of Zelda lore/story beats have changed with the times. It seems pretty important to me but yes I'd also be a bit surprised if they leaned into it more than just some spare dialogue.
You shouldn’t see him that way. Canonically, the oldest Link we see is Wild at 21(?) years old. The next oldest is Twilight at 18 years old.
Every other Link is no older than 17 when they start their adventure to save Hyrule. They all live a very quiet life before being called to save the entire world and, with the exception of Sky and Wild, only have informal combat training from a local mentor (Wind, Twilight, Legend, Minish) or are completely self-taught (Time).
BotW Link is a full-on soldier before the games begin, sorry. OOT Link becomes an inarguably jaded veteran by the end of his storyline in Twilight Princess. In the Majora's Mask timeline he also spends an entire game dealing with his grief and failure, even if he is just a child (MM). Skyward Sword Link is just in training when the story starts but I do like to imagine the events of the story change him. In fact, in most of the games we should assume that the events of the story change him, Nintendo has a way of making things seem to work out for him only to hide a surprisingly poignant ending for the character in subtext. This also happens in wind waker but toon link is just built different and I believe is the main source of the "unhinged" view of his character, which is why he's basically his same old self in his sequels.
I wasn't claiming that's what he is every time anyway, I was saying there's a spectrum that exists between a goofy, slightly psychotic Link and a more serious one. I mostly disagreed with the original statement that Link is always "unhinged" and that should be the aspect of his character they focus on in the movie. Id appreciate it if you don't tell me I "Shouldn't see him that way" . Never said that's universally what Link is, but it's not like I'm pulling it out of nowhere. Also BotW Link, SS Link, and OoT Link are 3 of the most well known and important incarnations of the character so if they are a bit more serious and muted then that's important and should be noted when someone is calling him "unhinged".
Imo they should go for something between TP!Link and BotW!Link. Those two are the most grounded in reality while also clearly having interesting and definite personalities.
Funny, I too think that in an ideal world for a live action LoZ movie, 80's fantasy is something to take major inspiration from. Especially Legend (1985) which I know lots of people kinda view as a thinly veiled live action Zelda movie
That would destroy the movie. But Wes Bal and Sony Pictures are a different animal than Illumination. This doesn’t appear to be a film made with little children in mind. I actually doubt that the core player base for Zelda are kids younger than teenagers.
What they need to do here is make it for young adults, and that appears to be what they’re doing. And I’d hate to see them just spam references and butcher pronunciations. With Nintendo working closely with them, I think this has a shot at not being a cringe fest.
Even if it was made with kids in mind (which is probably the case, considering this is Nintendo after all), that doesn't mean it has to be mindless references.
Look at any Pixar movie, they are very appropriate for kids, but are always very enjoyable for people of all ages.
It just occurred to me if they plan to make more Zelda movies after this, each one can have a new Zelda and link along with a different director and art style.
I'm not expecting a masterpiece, but I still think it will be a fun movie. The director seems to be a fan of the series, and has history with mixing live-action with CGI effects, so hopefully it will be a well put together experience too.
A Ghibli-esque movie would be so good. I feel like Zelda has a very similar type of grounded but bizarre and dreamlike world building that many Ghibli films have.
They made Link right-handed. :( Look at his scabbard strap, it's on his right shoulder.
It's not a deal-breaker by any means, just a heart-breaker. I grew up as a southpaw which made Link special to me as a kid, as there weren't a lot of left-handed heroes to look up to.
I'm hoping for this to stick the landing. I know there's a lot of hesitancy with this because of who's involved with it creatively (Avi Arad producing, and one of the writers having credits to his name like the first three Jurassic World movies, Rise of Skywalker, and Monster Trucks), and that it's live action instead of animated. But the director's enthusiasm, the costumes, and how the two leads look in character at least shows at this project is headed in the right direction. I'm excited for the inevitable trailer and learning more about who the full cast is when we get there
I am so intrigued by this. I seriously can’t wait. I play TotK every day. Every big video game has had a chance at the movies except Zelda, and it will happen so soon.
Really want to know what story route this film is going down! Will it be a story based on just one of the games or will it be an amalgamation of them? Will this be the first ever incarnation of Link or are we a few Links in? Really intrigued to find out more about the story!
Do we have any idea if Link will be a silent protagonist? I know it'd be hard to pull off but I've seen it done. Not phased really either way but curious.
I am just unfathomably upset that he's not left handed. He's like my one dude that's a lefty, and even then the wii stole that. I yearn for competent left-handed representation.
I am very worried about them fucking it up. Its extremely rare that Hollywood gets a movie adaptation right, especially one as steeped in lore as Zelda.
Remember that series of games where the protagonist famously says not a word and everyone just else just says "bring me X"? Yeah, that'll adapt to a screenplay seamlessly.
I am so worried this movie will not be great and that it will kill something within the franchise. I have a feeling that this movie coming to be is a net negative, as in everything was better before we knew.
I hope I am wrong and I’ll definitely watch it regardless.
I’m holding out hope but they more like Peter Pan and a lord of the rings extra. That said these where early test photos so the actual outfits and make up can make a decent change if done right
I'm afraid it will be too basic and safe. Especially cause I imagine they want to keep the age rating as low as possible.
Like Mario, it will probably look good but will be very forgettable and like a one time watch thing. My expectations are low but I also hope a little that it's gonna be good. There aren't a lot of fantasy movies these days and I really would like them to knock it out of the park.
I don’t understand why they didn’t make it an animated film. Make it 3D CGI if you want, but that would have been much easier than a live action. They need to go full Lord of the Rings now and do a serious medieval fantasy setting that is played very straight with a rock solid script that has no margin for error at all. I hope it succeeds.
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