
Despite the fact that there has been no shortage of good films and television shows based on games released in the last decade or so, video game adaptations continue to have a negative image.
(Do you still not believe us? On Crunchyroll, you can watch Takashi Miike’s outstanding 2012 Japan-language translation of the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney games.)
The Last Of Us, on the other hand, was based on the hugely popular video game that debuted in 2013. For starters, it’s a fairly standard narrative told through two strong lead characters with minimum fluff and a real emotional gut-punch of an ending – making it perfect for adaptation.
And with Chernobyl designer Craig Mazin on board, as well as the game’s original writer Neil Druckmann, it has some real pedigree to boot.
For those who are unaware, the plot revolves around an epidemic that wipes off the majority of humanity. So far, so uncomfortably familiar.
To its credit, The Last Of Us offers a fresh perspective on the post-disaster genre, as its strain of humanity-ending illness is caused by a fungal rather than a normal cold.
It’s appropriately awful, lending a distinct aesthetic tone to the universe and its deformed hosts (you’ll never look at a mushroom tagliatelle the same way again). The breakdown of the world is played out in spectacular and dramatic fashion over the space of a barnstorming first 30 minutes.
A flash forward 20 years and we catch up with Joel (a supremely well-cast Pedro Pascal), who suffered a tragedy during the collapse of humanity and is now tasked with transporting teenager Ellie (Bella Ramsey, best known as Lyanna Mormont from Game Of Thrones) across a ravaged America because she just might be the cure to the infection the world has been waiting for.
The real heart of the story is the blossoming friendship between these two: the two performers have an instant father/daughter chemistry, and witnessing a cold, aloof Joel eventually open up to someone who has no experience of a world that hasn’t gone to pot is what makes all the bleakness worthwhile.
That, and some incredible action sequences. Not only do Joel and Ellie have to deal with swarms of infected humans (as well as those who have mutated in other terrible ways – yes, gamers, the terrifying Clicker is very much there), but they also have to deal with the military, which has fast turned fascist.
There are also liberation fighters/terrorists. Fireflies wreaking havoc while attempting to bring down the military, and your average scumbags out in the world looting and murdering. It’s riveting and violent.
This is great news for people who have never played the video game before: tune in and enjoy the trip, it’s a wild one.
But what about those of us who see the endgame? Is there anything new we can get our teeth into? Both yes and no.
It stays true to the plot of the game, which will no sure gratify those who regard the source material as sacrosanct rather than a jumping-off point.
There is, however, a stronger emphasis on the outbreak’s early stages in Indonesia, which explains why everything went wrong in greater detail.
The most significant alteration, though, is a daring third episode that completely rewrites the script of a supporting character and produces something wholly new.
The oppressiveness is broken to present a more plain love story in a destroyed world. It’s the kind of thing you rarely see in a video game (at least not in the big-budget gaming industry), and it demonstrates the power of combining mediums. It’s quietly lovely.
The Last Of Us is thus more than just a competent adaptation of a fantastic video game. It is, at times, a spiritual heir to Chernobyl in terms of demonstrating the harm humanity can do on one another.
It’s a little too long at nine episodes, and the pacing may be a little sluggish at times, but if this is a foreshadowing of what’s to come from video game adaptations over the next decade (and there will be a lot of them), then game on.
The Last Of Us starts Monday, January 16 on and NOW.