Days after the release of Peacock's take on the classic demolition derby franchise Twisted Metal, it seems the show is forgotten. Video game adaptations are burdened with terrible expectations as soon as they're announced, but modern examples have changed the narrative. As Sony makes a hard charge toward dominating the video game movie market, each misstep threatens to upend the company's plans.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie should change the landscape for video game adaptations. It's the third highest-grossing animated film ever released. Arguments about the film's quality can be pushed to one side. It should be the latest target of Hollywood's eternal follow-the-leader mentality. Surely the lesson is that viewers want to see their favorite games play out with a blockbuster budget and plenty of goofy fanservice nods. That treatment doesn't work for everyone.
Why was Twisted Metal so poorly received?
To look at the Rotten Tomatoes score of Twisted Metal might suggest that it's doing well. Critics gave it a 69% positive score, while 98% of audiences enjoyed it. Metacritic was less kind, with a 53 out of 100 score. It's generally seen as dumb escapist entertainment. Its brutal violence, grim sense of humor, and constant diversions to half-hearted sidequests feel somehow outdated. Its soundtrack is built from early-2000s nu-metal. Its writing would feel more at home in an old Newgrounds animation. Its large-scale action scenes are as impactful as meaningless car crashes could be. In short, it's a streaming television series about Twisted Metal.
The interesting aspect of the show is that it seems to have come and gone without a word being said by anyone. A week after its release on Peacock, the show only has 42 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. To put that into perspective, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem has been out less than 24 hours at time of writing, and it sports more than 130. The show didn't cause a stir. Search terms surrounding the series trended on Google for roughly 24 hours, it never went viral on social media, and there seems to be no discussion surrounding it. Even the Wikipedia article on the series stops providing episode summaries after the fourth entry. The biggest wave it seemed to make came when the first trailer came out, leading to a small trend of Twitter users dunking on the dialogue. With a show that delivered on its promises before opening to an empty audience, where can Sony go next?
What other PlayStation projects are coming to the screen?
PlayStation Productions launched in 2019 to facilitate Sony's dreams of big-budget video game adaptations across the big and small screens. Its first project was Uncharted, which brought home a tidy profit despite its poor critical reception. The studio then moved to TV with Craig Mazin's The Last of Us, which immediately became the most celebrated video game adaptation of all time. That's two massive success stories for PlayStation Productions. Twisted Metal is a weak third outing, but the studio seemed to know what they had on their hands. Gran Turismo was set to drop only two weeks after Twisted Metal but was pushed back an additional two weeks. A savvy studio might have intentionally lined up a second project in case the first bombed. Either way, they have much more to come.
PlayStation Productions has announced a cinematic adaptation of the open-world zombie game Days Gone. Almost a full year has gone without a mention of the project. PlayStation Productions' next big idea is a film based on the samurai epic Ghost of Tsushima. That project seems more promising, with John Wick director Chad Stahelski attached and rumors of an all-Japanese cast circling. Music video director Anna Mastro was said to be directing a Gravity Rush adaptation for the studio last August. On the small screen, PlayStation Productions has a series lined up for God of War and Horizon. These projects remain in limbo, without any visuals or teases available to the public yet. Twisted Metal's presence in their catalog will likely fade as soon as the next project drops. However, it should stay in their minds as a lesson.
The problem with Twisted Metal as a show is that every worthwhile aspect of the franchise requires hands on a controller. Anyone can assemble some unlikable characters, write tons of tasteless gags, and crash a million cars. Adding the name of an IP that hasn't released a game in a decade adds nothing to that pitch. Arguably, the show would've done better without the expectations. Future PlayStation Productions films need to understand what makes a video game adaptation worthwhile. Not every project can provide what a series needs to survive. Not every idea works across mediums. If all a game series has to offer is a playable version of popular films, the movie about that game will be boring. Asking Sony to understand the problems with slapping marketable brand names onto every project is like asking the sun not to shine, so rest assured that these lessons will go unlearned.