By I do a lot of things in my spare time, but reading fiction is not really one of them. I don’t hate fiction or anything, I just don’t read it. Metro 2033 is no exception to that rule. The Russian sci-fi novel by Dmitri Glukhovsky seems pretty interesting, but not like anything I have to read. So why did I decide to write about it? Because Metro 2033 the videogame is one of the most tense and atmospheric games I have played in quite some time. So tense, in fact, that I realized I was completely out of breath after about 30 minutes of playing and had to rest for over an hour before I really settled down.
I don’t want Metro 2033 the movie to be Metro 2033 the game, but I want MGM to look at what the property has already done in the audiovisual space. The suffocating feeling that comes from wearing the gas mask, the eerie sounds of the barren wasteland, and the monsters… oh, those monsters. Whoever ends up turning this thing into a movie should play through Metro 2033 the game (and its upcoming sequel, which will presumably arrive before the movie does). There is a bar already set for that narrative, and it is a high one.
If this movie can match that level of tension and isolation, then we’re in for one hell of a ride.
[Via FirstShowing]