Videogames are one of the best forms of electrical and digital stimulation. Watching movies is also one of the best means for such entertainment. Since the two forms of media are entertaining so why not combine both? There have been a lot of videogame-adapted movies and unfortunately, a large number of them are horrifyingly bad. It’s been a trend that video games turned into movies tend to be a disaster. That’s because some of the fans alienate these films especially if they’re done in a mediocre way. Just to be clear we’re talking about live-action and real-life movies and not movies made from CGI. It seems that there are a lot of videogame movies that leave a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths.
1.Street Fighter
The film was released in 1994 based on the popular fighting game and it was kind of decent but that’s not saying much. The film utilized the characters but not in a way that fans would expect. One thing is that it has Guile as the main character instead of Ryu. It makes sense as it was from Hollywood for a Caucasian actor to be the lead role rather than a Japanese actor. The film’s plot was at least bearable but strayed off far from the source. The film focused more on terrorism and the concept of good versus evil which was fine.
Then again the main concept of the games was the aspect of fighting in a tournament and that wasn’t highlighted much. It was more on the battle between Guile and Bison’s political and international hostage-taking. The movie at least had several ups and comedic relief and it’s at least watchable.
2. Super Mario Bros.
The film was released in May of 1993. The film was based on the successful 8-bit game the Super Mario Bros. for the NES. The game was successful but the movie flopped financially. The problem was that the story strayed far off from the source. The movie took place in Brooklyn New York which featured the real world. The games had no mention of New York or any other real-life location. The only thing the movie utilized from the games was character names and not even all of them were correct. Mario, Luigi, King Koopa, and Toad were there but Peach was never to be found.
The problem with the movie was that it was too close to reality. Aspects such as the Mafia harassing the Mario Bros. didn’t help as it was never really mentioned in the games. Despite its failure, the movie does have some memorable moment to those that appreciate it.
3. Dead or Alive
The film was released back in 2006 and it could have been a little better but it didn’t. The good thing is that the concept of the movie was similar to the source material but the only problem was execution. One of the problems that fans saw was that the characters were somewhat butchered in the film. Some characters only had a couple of minutes in the limelight while some didn’t even have any air time except for their names being on screen. Some characters were accurately depicted but around 70 to 80%.
The other thing that fans complained about was that the females in the film weren’t depicted correctly at least in the physical aspect compared to the games. Then again the fight scenes were alright and the film may have been a good fight movie but it didn’t have to have the DOA title in it.
4. Bloodrayne
The film was released in 2005 and it seems that a general rating for this film was really bad. The movie was based on the popular hack and slash vampire-slaying game. The movie was more on slow-paced action and some cheesy love story. The movie took place in the 1500s where vampires ran amock oppressing people during the night. The main character Rayne was the daughter of the Vampire King Kagan after raping her mother. The usual theme goes along as Rayne goes for revenge but encounters some unnecessary instances in the film.
Despite the film’s failure, it spawned two direct to DVD sequels with the first one subtitled Deliverance and the second one is The Third Reich. The sequels didn’t do any good either but at least the financial loss wasn’t that big.
5. King of Fighters
The film was released in 2010 and you think by now the videogame movie adaptations would be better but this one wasn’t any. The problem with the film is that it focused too much on history rather than the actual fighting. There was too much talking rather than fighting. The fighting itself wasn’t that much impressive and average at very best. The other thing was character butchering as one of the lead characters named Kyo Kusanagi who is supposed to be Japanese was portrayed by yet another Caucasian actor.
Mai Shiranui was also butchered at least in the physical aspect which a lot of fans didn’t like. The plot was at least somewhat faithful but not a lot of things save the movie from obscurity except that it was direct to DVD film.
It seems that video game movies have a reputation for being really bad. There have been some to appeal to fans and sell millions but it’s still a theme of how these films really are. Perhaps a day will come when these films will be good but they have yet to prove themselves.