The thing you have to know about video game adaptations is that Uwe Boll was allowed to make three different Bloodrayne films. He somehow managed to convince Sir Ben Kingsley (the ‘Mandarin’ from Iron Man III) that starring in the first one was a good idea.
But that’s about the size of it. Turning a video game into a movie is always going to be a difficult endeavour. Turning one into a series — like the just-launched The Last of Us — might prove to be a little less horrifying. And yet Hollywood (and game publishers) keep trying. There are some examples of video game adaptations out there that didn’t suck immediately. We’ve collected ten of them below. But there’s a short disclaimer for you to read first.
This list wasn’t selected on the merit of these productions as movies. That would be silly. Some of them are terrible movies. Instead, it was selected based on how true they stayed to the spirit of the games they were based on. And some games, like Dead or Alive, are very thinly justified indeed. Which is fine. So is the movie. But we’ll get to that.
Doom (2005)
Karl Urban (Reaper) and Dwayne Johnson (Sarge) star as space marines — more or less — in this adaptation of Doom. You know, the game that runs on everything? The plot is almost entirely similar to 2004’s Doom 3, only with an added MacGuffin supplied by Romasund Pike’s Samantha Grimm that eventually explains how her brother (John ‘Reaper’ Grimm) is able to overcome the forces of hell single-handedly. That’s not important now. What is important is how the film tried (and more or less succeeds) to recreate the feeling players had when stepping into a UAC research facility on Mars for the first time. There are easter eggs everywhere for players (Dr. Carmac, for one) and the high-speed first-person sequence toward the end of the film is worth watching on its own.
Mortal Kombat (1995 and 2021)
Yes, there are two films that were just titled Mortal Kombat. You’re watching them for entirely different reasons, though. The first film, 1995’s Mortal Kombat, is constructed almost entirely from cheese. Raiden is portrayed as a very snarky deity by Christopher Lambert, Robin Shou is Liu Kang, and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa is Shang Tsung. That’s about it for recognisable actors. But the fate of the world was at stake, there was a moderate budget, and Napalm Death was on the soundtrack (as part of the introduction to the arcade game’s sub-boss Goro).
2021’s Mortal Kombat, on the other hand, had the benefit of experience behind it. Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano played Raiden, Hiroyuki Sanada was criminally underused as Scorpion, and this version of the film was about as violent as you can get without actually killing a member of the cast on camera. It was packed to the ceiling with notes and references to previous games, events, and characters in the series. If you can get past the blood and guts (blame Netherrealm’s X-Ray attacks for that), it’s a solidly enjoyable take on the franchise. Or, at least, the plot makes about as much sense as the average game does.
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)
Hang on, hear us out. Yes, the Tomb Raider films starring Angelina Jolie get a lot of flack but they were a product of their time. And at the time, Lara was a rather buxom, violent treasure hunter with a few issues and a propensity toward shooting endangered animals. Not for fun, obviously. This film sees Croft head out after a very specific relic while also searching for information about Richard Croft, her missing father. We’ve seen the plotline turn up in a couple of games and the 2001 film is structured almost exactly like one. You can actually picture each scenery change as a Crystal Dynamics cutscene if you squint hard enough. The highlights here? The action, the outfits, and general attitude, and the ponytail. It’s all par for the course for Lara Croft from about 1998 to 2004.
Tomb Raider (2018)
Yes, there’s another Tomb Raider on here. This one’s entirely different, however. Based more or less around the 2013 video game reboot of the same name, this film sees a younger Lara (Alicia Vikander, who looks a fair bit like her video game counterpart) in search of… her father, Richard Croft. Eventually, anyway. It also concerns itself with the plot of the 2013 video game. The Sun Queen, Himiko’s tomb, the shadowy organisation Trinity… it’s a whole thing. The story beats play out much the same way. The young explorer learns how to use violence and lose friends (in that order), about betrayal, and the best way to shoot a soldier in the chest. It’s a solid film on its own merits. Like a few others here, this one suffers because it’s a video game film. A straight-up adventure film with the same cast might have garnered more attention.
Resident Evil (2002)
Was the first Resident Evil film any good? Oh, absolutely. But it helped if you only had a passing idea of what Resident Evil was all about. This video game adaptation spawned numerous sequels, despite being ravaged by critics, but the first film in the series was a solid starter. It collected elements from the first three games (which first launched on the PlayStation One) and introduced Alice (Milla Jovovich) as a new character being stuffed down the Umbrella rabbit hole. There’s a mysterious mansion, the shambling dead, a hidden facility deep underground, and the introduction of the Nemesis program. On its own, it would have been an average zombie film but dressing up in Capcom cosplay, it turned out… all right, actually.
Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)
The second film in the Resident Evil series didn’t do too badly either. Mostly drawing inspiration from Resident Evil 3, our protagonist Alice wakes up in a hospital in a deserted-except-for-zombies city that she — and a bunch of others — must escape from. Director Paul W. S. Anderson even manages to work in the Mercenaries minigame introduced in Resident Evil 3 as a plot point. As far as the series goes, this film was the last to stick really closely to the Capcom formula. Seeing Nemesis hunting down STARS (Special Tactics and Rescue Service) members at the behest of Umbrella villains is a pleasure. Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory) is just incredible. Jovovich kicks an appropriate amount of zombie backside as well. You know what? Go and watch the other… four Paul W. S. Anderson films as well. They’re entertainingly brainless.
DOA: Dead or Alive (2006)
This particular video game adaptation might prove to be controversial. Well… good. If you don’t know what you’re getting into when a film has Eric Roberts as the main villain, you shouldn’t be allowed to watch movies. DOA: Dead or Alive is an attempt to make the game franchise of the same name into something approaching a film. The plot is the same as Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon, but with added nanobots. The primarily female cast (who, yes, tend towards skimpy attire and play a round of volleyball) smash their way through a fighting championship on a secluded island while Victor Donavan (Roberts) steals all the fighters’ skills via injected nanobots. These nanobots also allow the event organisers to display health bars on the streams of each bout. Sure, why not? Jaime Pressley is hugely entertaining, Eric Roberts chews on any scenery he can reach, and Pressley, Devon Aoki, Sarah Carter, and Holly Valance all (eventually) team up to bring down… well, everything.
Ratchet and Clank (2016)
It almost feels like cheating to include this film on the list. The only animated feature we’ve chosen (there are many great animated films. Most of them are about Street Fighter) is based on the 2016 Ratchet and Clank game reboot. The game series has always been wacky and its mix of weird storylines, weirder gadgets, and excellent animation lends itself to movies. The 2016 film and movie use exactly the same visuals — the cutscene animation, not gameplay — and most of the same actors for the lead characters like Ratchet, Clanks, and Qwark. Since it’s Hollywood, there are a few more popular actors filling out extra roles in the film. As animated adventure films go, this is a decent entry. It’s the most like its source video game, because… well, we’re pretty sure Sony just got its game developers to bang this one together.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010)
Ooh, this film is gonna be divisive. Prince of Persia (the movie) is based on Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, a 2003 Ubisoft game. But since the film was given to Disney, only the really broad strokes are in place. There’s a princess looking to preserve the world, the evil presence of Ahriman is a potential threat, and everyone is suitably attractive. But there’s quite a European cast to the cast. It makes a kind of sense in the case of Prince Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal) since he’s an adopted street rat (that totally isn’t named Aladdin). Gemma Arterton, Ronald Pickup, and Richard Coyle, though? Still, what we’re looking at here is a solid period adventure film. As with some other licensed game movies, the fact that it’s based on an existing property actually seems to hold it back. Letting Alfred Molina and his ostriches chew a little more scenery would have been great too. But the time-turning mechanic is excellent, Gyllenhaal actually makes a believable wall-running, sword-swinging prince of Persia (by adoption), and… come on, it’s a Disney adventure flick. Even the crappy ones are fun.