Greetings fellow Bitmobbers and welcome to the very first instalment of Controller Cinema. This is a new film review series that attempts to answer the question; “Do good video game film adaptations exist?” This is a question that every gamer has been asking themselves ever since classic franchises began to hit the silver screen. I have decided to take it upon myself to answer this question by watching every video game film adaptation I can get my hands on.

So grab yourself a bucket of popcorn and watch that sticky floor, tonight we start things off with a fan film that received Capcom’s seal of approval.

This is Eddie Lebron’s Mega Man: Get Equipped.

The story begins with the Noble prize winning Dr. Light, revealing his latest project, the DRN series robot masters, six robots built for the betterment of mankind. Even with his success, Light doesn’t seem truly happy, at least until he begins his newest project, a second lab assistant robot (or should I say human android) named Rock.
     
However, this new project does not sit well with Light’s confidant and co-creator of the robot masters, Dr. Albert Wily. Wily wants to use the new technology for weaponry, as well as exploit it for fame and profit. Because of these creative difference, Wily finds himself unemployed.

Once Rock is activated, the film then centers around his search for a purpose in life. He enjoys being alive and living with his father Dr. Light and sister Roll but thanks to his natural curiosity, he begins to question the validity of his existence since he isn’t human. But this gets interrupted when Wily takes control over the robot masters and orders them to attack the city. Rock than decides to be converted into a fighting robot to stop Wily’s plan.

The plot is very similar to that of the games and is perhaps more faithful to its original source material than any other video game film adaptation. The basic plot of the movie and the plot of the games are actually almost a dead on match. I don’t want to spoil anything but there are some things that are explained about Dr. Light’s motivation for creating Rock and Roll (as well as Blues. Yeah they call Proto Man Blues in this movie which is awesome), which aren’t explained in the games making them non-cannon but it actually works very well and actually makes sense. Wily’s motivations for turning on Dr. Light are also explored in a fair bit of depth but even though it is explained more so here than in the games, not all of the blanks were filled in which leaves me to believe that the creators have a sequel in mind.

The acting isn’t the best around but as a group of dedicated fans they do their best. Rock/Mega Man plays things just a tad too stiffly and is at times overly serious. Dr. Light has the same stiffness problem. Roll plays the cuteness factor ten fold in a way that is incredibly cheesy. Although now that I think about it, Roll is a pretty damn cheesy character in the games so I guess it was a pretty accurate portrayal. Speaking of accurate to the games, whoever played Wily, was awesome. The voice, mannerisms and the facial expressions all scream Dr. Wily. This dude is hilarious and is by far the best part of this movie. His angry disposition and his pure hatred for Dr. Light and perhaps humanity as a whole is acted out perfectly. I also think the guy who played Proto Man was also pretty good. He managed to pull off the character’s mysterious nature without coming off as too broody, pulling off the performance perfectly. The robot masters were also pretty good although, Guts Man, Cut Man and Bomb Man were digital effects with voice actors. The voice actors were solid and sounded professional, the guy who played Elec Man was best of the six, Ice Man was also solid and Fire Man was ok.

One last thing, the special effects. Are they the best? No. But you have to keep in mind that this is a fan film and considering that this was made with a limited budget it looks fantastic. In fact, even with the cheesyness of things like the appearance of the Mega Man’s armor, the CGI versions of Guts Man, Cut Man, Bomb Man and Wily’s fortress it is still on par with any special effects done for Canadian TV and film. Thanks for cutting funding for the arts Prime Minister Harper. As I was saying, yes the CGI looks rather corny but it does share a resemblance with the games and again, with the limited budget it looks very good.

When all is said and done, this is an enjoyable film, not on par with the razzle dazzle of Hollywood standards but it has the heart and passion of loving fans behind it. And it is because of this that the movie was both entertaining and faithful to the source material. This doesn’t mean it was perfect. It has its faults and isn’t an instant classic but considering the writing of the film, it is a step in the right direction for game to film adaptations. Thank you Capcom for allowing this film to get made and Hollywood I hope you were taking notes on how to write a video game movie.

Check it out now for free at Screwattack.com.

Score: 3 out of 5.

Coming Attraction: Super Mario Bros. The Movie.