MOVIE NEWS – With the dismal results of Sony’s latest TV experiment, Twisted Metal, what are their prospects for the future?

Days after the release of Peacock’s classic demolition derby franchise Twisted Metal, the series seems to have been forgotten. The video game adaptations are being met with terrible expectations from the moment they are announced. But modern examples have changed the narrative. As Sony pushes hard to dominate the video game movie market, every misstep threatens to upset the company’s plans.

A Super Mario Bros. movie should change how video game adaptations are made. It is the third highest-grossing animated film. Arguments about the quality of the film can be put aside. The film should be the latest target of Hollywood’s perennial “follow the leader” mentality.

The lesson is indeed that audiences want to see their favourite toys played on blockbuster budgets and with plenty of wacky fan winking.

Judging by Twisted Metal’s Rotten Tomatoes score, you’d think it would do well. Critics gave it a 69% positive rating, while 98% of the audience enjoyed it. Metacritic was less kind, giving it a score of 53 out of 100. It is generally regarded as silly freewheeling entertainment. The brutal violence, grim humour and constant detours into half-hearted side quests seem somehow dated. The soundtrack is built on early 2000s nu-metal. The scripts would feel more at home in an old Newgrounds animation. The large-scale action sequences are as impressive as senseless car crashes can be.

The exciting thing about the series is that it seems to have come and gone without anyone saying a word. A week after its release on Peacock, the series has just 42 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. To put that in perspective, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem has received over 130 in just under 24 hours. The series didn’t make a splash. Its search terms trended on Google for roughly 24 hours. It did not go viral on social media, and there seems to be no controversy surrounding it. Even the Wikipedia article on the series stops giving episode summaries after the fourth entry.

The biggest wave seemed to be triggered when the first trailer was released, which led to a slight trend of Twitter users dipping into the dialogue.

The problem with Twisted Metal as a series is that every meaningful aspect of the franchise requires a game format. Anyone can assemble a few unlikable characters, write many tasteless gags, and crash a million cars. Adding the name of an IP that hasn’t published a game in a decade adds nothing to the game. Arguably, the series would have done better without the expectations. Future PlayStation Productions films must understand what makes a video game adaptation worthwhile.

Source: Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic