Breaking Bad‘s Bryan Cranston is set to lead Valve’s Half-Life live-action movie concept? Not really. It’s just a very clever AI concept we really love. Just imagine this epic adventure through the Black Mesa Research Facility!
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Developed and published by Valve in 1998, Half-Life is a first-person shooter game that uses a combination of combat, puzzles, and scripted sequences to tell its story. After inspiring several games and having several others cancelled, it seemed like Half-Life had reached the end of its lifespan in 2007 with Half-Life 2: Episode Two. Then in 2020, Valve released Half-Life: Alyx, in which they controlled Alyx Vance, the main character’s ally.
Recently Hugo Haken Besik used Midjourney to create a live-action movie rendition of the Half-Life world, and while some fans loved the AI-generated live-action interpretations of the characters, most felt like nothing had stayed true to the games.
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Who Could Play Live-Action Renditions of the Characters
Not all the cast actors match the design of the game characters.
Dr Gordon Freeman is the silent main protagonist of the game series. Shortly after the Black Mesa Research Facility hired him, his experiment went wrong. It triggers a Resonance Cascade, which ruptures the space-time continuum and allows hostile aliens to enter the facility.
AI was used to portray the silent, glasses-wearing playable character, and many agreed that he was the perfect choice for the character. The actor looks quite similar to the character and could definitely pull off the mute saviour who will go to great lengths to ensure the safety of those he cares about.
Steven Yeun seems to have been cast as Eli Vance, a former Black Mesa Research Facility employee who was one of the first humans to make peaceful contact with the alien Vortigaunts and a founding member of the Resistance. While leading the Black Mesa East, he raised his daughter Alyx, designed the Gravity Gun and rebuilt Alyx’s Scout Car.
A model of Sigourney Weaver was used to portray Gina Cross, a Research Associate and Hazardous Environment Supervisor at the Black Mesa Research Facility. Her character model is also used as a Holographic Assistant in several Half-Life games. She’s proven to be calm and pragmatic even in relatively stressful situations.
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Memorable But Inaccurate Alien Design
Many different aliens are found in Half-Life, from the flesh-looking Headcrabs to the green Tentacles to the bipedal, four-eyed, three-armed Vortigaunts. Unfortunately, the aliens designed by Midjourney looked nothing like the aliens seen in the game franchise.
The Headcrabs look like uncooked chickens with spindly red legs in the game series. They can leap long distances and let out sharp screeches when aiming at their prey. They latch onto their victims’ heads and create zombies.
The AI rendition of the alien looks like an actual crab with two mismatched eyes on its front. Unfortunately, the zombies look no better, looking more like stereotypical zombies than humans whose nervous systems were hijacked by a Headcrab.
Some alien creatures shown don’t look remotely like any of the creatures introduced throughout the game and look like they were just added to the lineup for fun.
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TL;DR
- A fan used the AI Midjourney to see what a live-action movie rendition of Half-Life would look like, and the responses were mixed.
- Many of the chosen actors didn’t look anything like their assigned characters.
- The aliens, while cool looking, looked nothing like those that featured in any of the games.
