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Is this the worst idea for a video game film since 'Street Fighter'?

This is either the worst or the best idea ever

Is this the worst idea for a video game film since 'Street Fighter'?
Tom Victor
04 October 2018

The first rule of filmmaking is that if a thing exists, there will be someone trying to make a film about it.

When that rule was restricted to adaptations of plays and novels, it was relatively normal. Even when comics entered the mix we saw no problem.

Films based on real people? Fine, nothing to get worked up about here. Video game adaptations? Okay, now we’re pushing it a little, but we’re still listening.

It’s one thing if the game in question has a solid narrative arc to the point that it could already be a film. However, this does not apply to Dance Dance Revolution.

Now, we’ve had adaptations of quite the range of games in the past. There was Dead or Alive, the Holly Valance film we had to double check wasn’t just a fever dream, and of course the Street Fighter adaptation with Kylie Minogue.

However, our instinct is that Dance Dance Revolution will not have quite as many set pieces to work with as the fighting games. Not that this has stopped content creation company Stampede and video game giants Konami prepping a movie which has a very bizarre premise.

According to Variety, “The project will explore a world on the brink of destruction where the only hope is to unite through the universal language of dance.”

Sure, it sounds like something someone suggested in a pitch meeting as a joke, but we’ve heard worse ideas.

Oh, hang on, one second *picks up phone* I’m reliably formed we have, in fact, not heard worse ideas.

Is it an attempt to capitalise on Dance Dance Revolution as a concept being fresh in our minds thanks to the dance troupe ‘Dance Dance Resolution’ in The Good Place? Possibly?

In a sense, though, the idea might not be quite as ridiculous as it seems at first glance. Yes, using dance to save the world might feel bizarre, but throughout the history of apocalypse movies, where unlikely characters are tasked with saving the world, they come up with stupid, stupid, stupid plans all of the time – and some of them even work.

David Duchovny killing the aliens in Evolution by making a knight’s move on the periodic table to determine he can destroy them with shampoo? Dumb as hell, but if that can succeed then why can’t someone save a crumbling world with the unifying power of dance? No, you’re right. It’s a silly idea.

As you were.

(Images: Flickr)