Paul W.S. Anderson, Movie Designer
Death Race is the best video game movie ever made, it doesn’t matter that is not directly tied in to any actual game title. A mix of Twisted Metal, F-Zero and Smash T.V., the story follows a race driver framed for his wife’s death. He’s sent into a prison so that he can race in a new sport streamed online for millions of people: Death Race. The movie stars Jason Statham, probably the best pure action actor around, Joan Allen in her weirdest role ever, and Tyrese Gibson in the most puzzling gay role in recent movie memory.
The movie is structured exactly like a game: the first scene is a tutorial on the rules of the race and the design of the track; the three races portrayed in the game are called “stages”, and in any stage some of the characters is eliminated. In order to win the race, the cars have to activate some power ups scattered in the track: some trigger offensive weapons, other defensive weapons, one even lets out a terrifying speared obstacle that can destroy a car in a split second. It’s what Mario Kart would be like if Ed Boone designed it.
In between stages, we have cut scenes with questionable dialogue, a true staple of great games, and before any race we are treated with pre-game animations that look exactly like game menus. It could be considered lazy filmmaking: Paul W.S. Anderson has never directed a masterpiece, but he’s quite competent at crafting good action flicks, and he already made what can be considered the best video game movies ever made, Mortal Kombat and Resident Evil. A fact that, alone, explains the state of video game adaptations in cinema.
But Death Race works. The races are very well design and choreographed, a result of the way the game is designed: we know the rules, we know what can go wrong, and each time there is a problem with our hero’s car, the tension builds up and we get to feel the heat of the race, and we cheer when he/we wins.
There’s a moment in the game/movie where Allen’s character spawns a gigantic truck to wipe out all the cars from the track. It’s the prototypical final boss: big, heavily armed, seemingly indestructible with normal weapons. It’s the climax of an hybrid that goes beyond most movies of its genre, and the fact that Roger Corman is behind it it’s only fitting: videogames are very often great b movies, and Death Race is both a good game, and a good exploitation flick.
