Video game adaptations are notorious for struggling to become great movies. This is mainly due to the fact that a video game is an active experience where the audience participates, as opposed to a neutral experience where they sit back and watch the story as a sideline.
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The best video game adaptations are those that have a strong foundational story apart from the gameplay. But that often comes with a price: corruption of the source material. Many attempts to bring video game concepts to the silver screen have struggled, and only a few have succeeded in making it happen.
10) Assassin’s Creed
Source: Assassin’s Creed, 20th Century Studios
Immediately, Assassin’s Creed is a difficult game to adapt. The main storyline isn’t even the setting for the gameplay, as it’s set in modern times, and the game is mostly historical in nature. There are also many different eras in which the games take place, which makes it even more difficult to pick a specific era.
Overall, the film did a good job of both creating a new era and trying to make the property fresh and relevant to a movie audience. However, it fell short in capturing the magic and essence of the game series, so there probably won’t be a sequel.
9) Street Fighter
Source: Street Fighter, Universal Pictures
Though often held up as an example of what not to do during a video game adaptation, street fighter is still a remarkably entertaining movie when viewed through a campy lens. It has a pretty impressive cast putting on an over-the-top show, almost knowingly.
Add some crazy action scenes and accurate costumes, and street fighter is still mentioned among notable adaptations. Despite everything it did wrong, it still did a few nice things right, like capturing the insane incredibility of the video game series.
8) Uncharted
Source: Uncharted, Sony Pictures
From the beginning, not mapped would be a difficult movie to adapt, especially since the video game has such blockbuster scenes to begin with. Even A-list names like Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg won’t top the action of the video game classic.
While it was a fun spectacle, the movie got off to a rough start because not mapped is quite thin in the storyline department. The film more or less forges its own path, which, while entertaining, doesn’t quite achieve the magic of the video game series.
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7) Super Mario Bros.
Source: Super Marios. Bros, Hollywood Photos
Super Mario Bros. is another example that is considered a complete flop of an adaptation, but it has since gained a cult following in recent years. The movie is so over-the-top that it’s hard not to feel nostalgia for it, even if the method of adaptation is completely different from the games.
It tries to incorporate various elements from the franchise, such as the use of mushrooms and even a Super Scope 6. The story goes in incredibly crazy directions, but it’s still a pretty fun, if not absurd, popcorn movie. Plus, it never really gets old to see Dennis Hopper munching on the scenery.
6) Warcraft
Source: Warcraft, Legendary Images
An adaptation of the RTS series warcraft has been in development for a long time. After all, the series has an incredibly rich mythology and characterization that almost begs for a film adaptation.
The movie told more or less a decent story and had some great fantasy action. From a fantastically adventurous point of view, the film was rather disjointed and average. However, from a video game adaptation point of view, it was quite successful.
5) Mortal Kombat
Source: Mortal Kombat, New Line Cinema
When Mortal Kombat was released, it had little plot or characterization. It was just an arcade brawl that put more emphasis on gory fatalities than the backstories of its eccentric cast of characters. The first Mortal Kombat movie adaptation told a compelling story that rooted the audience for the characters, and was rich in mythology.
The combat was also good, although it has aged a bit badly since its release in 1995. Between the costumes, the settings and the music, this first Mortal Kombat gave fans hope that video game movies could be adapted with some semblance of skill and creative vision.
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4) Resident Evil
Source: Resident Evil, Sony Pictures
Resident Evil as a video game series has evolved a lot over the years, but its status as a horror franchise has not. The same goes for the movies, which ranged from science fiction to outright action.
The first Resident Evil took a lot of liberties with its story and characters, but the spirit of the original was there in the end. With great effects and a great score by Marilyn Manson, the first movie still stands as a culmination of video game adaptations.
3) Rampage
Source: Rampage, Warner Bros.
on its surface, rampage was a simple arcade game without much story. Players took control of giant monsters that eventually wiped out entire cities until they took so much damage that they turned back into regular pipsqueak humans.
Coming up with a storyline for this simple game seemed like an uphill task, so the filmmakers wisely shifted it in favor of spectacle. They delivered massive monster fights starring The Rock and created a very entertaining movie in the process.
2) Sonic the hedgehog
Source: Sonic the Hedgehog, Sega
Sonic has seen many successful cartoon versions, but it seemed difficult to use him as a live action character. This is mainly because the idea of a talking hedgehog running very fast is crazy at first.
In the end, the writers managed to create a plausible story that befits a very nice Sonic against a wild and crazy Jim Carrey. The result is a surprisingly fun film that did even the unthinkable – listening to fans’ criticisms of the titular hero’s design, taking notes, and flipping it in spectacular fashion.
1) Detective Pikachu
Source: Detective Pikachu, Toho Co.
The thought of making a live action pokemon film has always felt appealing, but just out of reach. It seemed impossible to create the right tone for a version of the property that appealed to both young and old audiences.
But somehow, Detective Pikachu knows how to finish it. Even more insane is the fact that it did it by telling an original story where Ryan Reynolds voiced the iconic character as a real witty detective. Unexpected, sure, but certainly not unappreciated.
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