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Hideo Kojima is a huge cinephile and that love permeates his work. This love for one medium while working in a completely different one has polarized critics. Dissenters might go as far as to deem the elements of his games such as the Terminator-esque robots from Snatcher or the grizzled morally grey mercenary called “Snake” as plagiarism. Others might call those elements a loving homage.
A proposed Metal Gear Solid film has been in the talks for some time with Kong Skull Island director Jordan Vogt-Roberts voicing enthusiasm for directing the film. Though this film could be truly entertaining, certain elements from the game won’t translate to a non-interactive medium.
10 Kojima’s Author Filibusters Can’t Eat Up The Runtime
Films have a much more restrictive runtime than books, comics, or games. As such, precious screen-time will have to be used wisely and frivolous scenes that lecture players on the nature of nuclear proliferation, privatized military companies, and memes will probably have to be left on the cutting room floor.
Audiences who go to the movies might check out once they’re getting a huge speech with stock footage playing in the background. To be fair, these themes are important to the franchise and they can still remain intact, but they have to be weaved organically in the narrative.
9 Medium Awareness Has To Be Less Gimmicky
One of the more previously interesting aspects of Metal Gear was how characters seemed to be aware of the medium and would even address the player. One famous scene from Metal Gear Solid has Psycho Mantis prove their psychic abilities by accurately telling them what games they like to play and shaking their controller.
It’s not unlike how early talkies would have characters address the audience in the theater for a joke. Nowadays, breaking the fourth wall in films is not that much of a novelty and if done wrong, can take a viewer out of the story.
8 In-jokes Might Alienate Newer Viewers
In every Metal Gear Solid game, there is a character named Johnny who shows up in the story to serve one purpose- to defecate. That’s literally the only role he serves in the story. It’s one of the many in-jokes that span throughout the series.
In Metal Gear Solid 2, there’s a scene where Snake points to his beret and says “Infinite ammo.” This makes sense only to players who got the ending from the first game where Meryl survives. A longtime Kojima fan might be amused by these jokes, but they could prove extremely alienating and tonally out of place to an uninitiated viewer.
7 Tonal Shifts Have To Be Less Abrupt
The mixture of player freedom and the medium’s priority to be fun pretty much mandates that players be willing to forgive the game when the mood shifts from dark and gritty to wacky and over the top farce. Fans have grown accustomed to these shifts and regarded them as something that players just have to accept.
The series deals with some very heavy themes and tends to do so in a way that comes off as exploitive at times. This is not at all helped by the awkward attempts at toilet humor that feel completely out of place.
6 The Cast Of Characters Might Have To Be Reduced
A lot of the characters in Metal Gear Solid aren’t really that crucial to the story and mainly serve the purpose of providing players with a creative boss fight. In a game, that’s perfectly fine as boss fights provide players with an exciting test of the mechanics that they’ve learned.
For a fight scene in a film to work, there has to be emotional stakes, otherwise, they risk leaving the audience cold. It’s crucial to get to know characters to build concern when their lives are on the line. Because of that limited runtime, some characters might have to get the Decoy Octopus treatment.
5 The Exposition Has To Be Leaner
There’s a lot going on in the world of Metal Gear. There are so many characters with different agendas, many different entities who are vying for power, and a lot of backstories that has to be told to the player. Unfortunately, this is done by having players sit down and listen to long-winded stories that aren’t helped by the protagonists’ tendencies to repeat other characters’ statements in the form of a question.
There’s an old adage “show don’t tell” which prioritizes letting the viewer experience events through actions and visuals rather than telling them what’s happening. This is especially crucial for a visual medium such as film.
4 Ending Fake Outs Might Annoy Viewers
Anyone who complained about the ending fake-outs in Return of the King has no idea what they’re in for should they play Metal Gear Solid 4. The ending cutscene ties up every single loose thread throughout the series, as it serves (or did serve until Phantom Pain) as the grand finale for Kojima’s run.
It spans about a little over an hour. The very idea of putting the controller down that long for a game is absurd, and it would be doubly so to expect audiences to stick around in a theater for an epilogue that lengthy.
3 Audiences Might Tire Of The Absurd Plot Twists
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty was supposed to be the final game with his involvement and as such, it ends with a cliffhanger that he never intended to resolve. However, problems arose with the development of subsequent entry, so Kojima was forced to return.
In what seemed to be an attempt to troll fans, the next installment was a prequel that left a lot of the questions from the second game unanswered. Kojima’s tendency to “retire” from the series and leave plot threads dangling resulted in some contrived storytelling.
2 Certain Visuals Would Look Absurd In Live-Action
Metal Gear Solid features a boss fight with a cyborg ninja named Grey Fox. If players attempt to shoot him, he deflects them with his sword. In a game, this serves as a puzzle of sorts for the player to solve, adding to the challenge of the fight. In a movie, something like that would look ridiculous.
As the series progresses, the fights just get more outlandish. Even the remake of the first MGS has a scene where Snake literally kicks a missile. Fans may be willing to look the other way when it’s animated characters, but it’s much less palatable when they’re actual flesh and blood.
1 Certain Plot Points Might Be Too Much For Movie Audiences
Liquid Snake, the main villain of the first Metal Gear Solid, comes back from the dead in the sequel, but in a different form. When Revolver Ocelot loses his arm during the events of MGS1, it’s replaced with Liquid’s. This causes Liquid’s mind to take over Ocelot’s body and even change his voice to the former’s.
Some might already question whether or not this works in a video game, but it almost certainly would not work in a film adaption. Certain plot points in the series would test or even break the suspension of disbelief.
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