Video game adaptations have been one of Hollywood’s hardest nuts to crack. You would think they would be money in the bank along the lines of comic book and young adult novel adaptations. Like those mediums they already have built in audiences and stories that are right there for the taking. But for whatever reason every time a new video game movie comes out it gets killed by critics and doesn’t do anything to make up for that at the box office with a few exceptions. Angelina Jolie’s ‘Tomb Raider’ at least did well enough for a sequel and Resident Evil has had a nice little run for itself. It started off on the wrong foot with ‘Super Mario Bros.’ being so different than the source material and so ridiculously bad. It feels like since then they’ve tried to make up for that by attempting to mimic the games style and story as close as possible which doesn’t usually work either, especially when you half ass it. Not to mention video games are meant to played, not watched so the stories are mostly generic as a way of stitching levels together. I think this is a problem that can be resolved if they figure out a way to make a movie version of a game that takes the essential elements of what makes it special but also gets treated as a film first.

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‘Warcraft’ hits theaters this weekend and based off of the early reviews it doesn’t appear to have accomplished the rare feat of being any good. Based off one of the highest selling video game franchises of all time, it tells the story of a battle between Humans and Orcs that becomes a fight for survival. Or some such nonsense. I’ve never played the games but the original Warcraft was a highly rated RTS and of course we’ve all heard about World of Warcraft taking loved ones away from human interaction for large chunks of time in its MMORPG world. Sitting at 22% on Rotten Tomatoes and 31 on Metacritic it looks like its going to land in theaters with a thud as it faces two sequels, ‘The Conjuring 2’ and ‘Now You See Me 2’. The bad news is the $160 million budgeted film will come and go without much impact in the US but the good news is its already made $168 million overseas and is already turning out to be a huge hit in China. In honor of its release I tried to come up with the five best video game adaptations.

Mortal Kombat – This is mostly nostalgia talking but hey, theres not much to choose from and I loved this movie as a kid. It was one of the first movies I saw in theaters and I re-watched it a couple years ago and still enjoyed it. Obviously its not a good movie in any technical way but its fun in a cheesy way. It manages to do a pretty good job of translating the ridiculous story of warriors from all different worlds coming together to fight in a tournament to the death. Classic lines like “get over here!” and “those were 500 dollar sunglasses asshole” and familiar faces such as Veronica Vaughn and grown up Mogli help keep your attention if you grew up in the 90’s. When our heroes finally cross over into Shang Tsung’s otherworld it gets weird but presents the film’s best action.

Resident Evil – Its really no surprise that ‘Resident Evil’ is the most successful franchise based off of a video game, despite none of the movies being very good. Horror movies have thrived on low quality for a long time. All you need is some nudity, gruesome deaths, and some jump scares to make most horror aficionados happy. I’m honestly surprised we haven’t seen more movies based off horror tinged games. I could imagine Left for Dead doing well. But Resident Evil brings that trinity to the table and was rewarded for it. I still think its overrated (as overrated as a movie with a 33% RT score can be) but there are some cool scenes. The laser hallway death stands out. ‘The Final Chapter’ comes out next year.

Silent Hill – What do you know, another horror video game adaptation. Like I said these are easy to do because they generally don’t cost much and will get enough of an audience to justify a sequel, which this movie did with ‘Silent Hill: Revelation’. The theme of the movies on this list not actually being very good continues here. The plot is practically incoherent, the dialogue mostly terrible but it looks great visually. Some good imagery and practical effects it tends to be actually creepy at parts. I remember seeing this in theaters and being pleasantly surprised but also remember seeing the sequel and wishing I was actually a character in a Silent Hill movie instead.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time – Again, don’t kill me for this list. I know this isn’t a very good movie either but you try to come up with any good video game adaptations and see what your list looks like. Jake Gyllenhaal does his best to bring this game to life with an earnest performance as he does with most of his roles. The big conceit of the game was that when you were about to die in the game you could rewind time and try again. They do a decent version of that here and come up with some good set pieces. Its really no worse than any movie from ‘The Mummy’ franchise or any sand based adventure outside of the Indiana Jones movies. 

Assassin’s Creed – Yup, thats how bad this list is. I put a movie on here that hasn’t even come out yet. To be honest the trailer that came out a few week’s ago alone is better than most video game adaptations. Look at this cast: Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons, Brendan Gleeson. The trailer makes it look dark and gritty with great action and maybe even good performances. Director Justin Kurzel has a good albeit limited track record as well with last year’s Macbeth (also starring Fassbender and Cotillard) earning an 80% on Rotten Tomatoes. Even if it doesn’t live up to expectations it’ll probably be the best video game movie ever made.

Bob Phelan
Bob Phelan

BSL Analyst

Bob is a co-host of ‘On the Verge’ an Orioles podcast focused on the O’s farm system here on BSL. He used to run the baseball blog ‘The Oriole Report’ before transitioning to podcasting about movies, TV, Video Games, and MMA. ‘The Redbox Report’ movie podcast was started in 2013 followed by ‘The Redbelt Report’ MMA podcast in 2016. Bob has also written for Konsume.com and BaltimoreSportsReport.com and delivers mail for a living in Baltimore County. Follow him on Twitter @TheOrioleReport.

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