Film Friday: "Watch Dogs," Could Actually Work Quite Well as a Movie

I remember back when the first (surprise) trailer for, "Watch Dogs," dropped. June 4th, 2012, at the now-defunct E3. It was an intense cinematic that showed us a weird near-future with a cell phone that could hack almost anything. The trailer was intense, had amazing visuals, and oozed with style. Then the game itself came out and was...well, perfectly fun but not absolutely amazing. There was a solid sequel and, "Watch Dogs: Legion," which was passable but lacked much of any spark. That debut trailer for the first game, though, it just had something special and made me wonder once or twice, "Would this concept actually work better as a movie or show?" Now I have my answer as a, "Watch Dogs," flick has been announced with Sophie Wilde to star as the protagonist/main character. Here is a YouTube video I found of that original trailer, by the way:

The, "Watch Dogs," game gave you power but couldn't give you too much power lest it breaks the game. You could mess with stoplights, gain mains, have brief blackouts happen, tweak cameras, and more but it was all within the technical limitations of your gaming console and to a degree where you still faced a challenge within the game. The plot also was a bit drab in the first game as the main character (a man named Aiden Pearce) was basically out for revenge against a big corporation to avenge the death of a loved one and oh look, my own eyes are glazing over at this potboiler setup. The games had a vibe though, just like that first trailer, and if the movie can nail that vibe of being a techno-thriller where all our information is at the hands of corporations and hackers, that would be fun. 

Plus, all this is even less far-fetched than when, "Watch Dogs," was first announced way back as I mentioned in 2012. Now our entire lives truly are on our phones and computers with it easy for nefarious forces to access us. What's to stop corporations/politicians/or rebels from taking advantage of literally everything being interconnected? One just hopes whoever has this power doesn't also have nefarious goals. This was all just announced so we are a long way away from even a movie trailer let alone a concrete release date. That said, with the right vibe and a halfway decent story (plus a hefty enough budget for cool technological effects) I'd wager a, "Watch Dogs," movie could be very enjoyable.