Troperville
Editing Help
Tools
Toys
|
Metacritic's best video game film adaptions of the decade, OF THE DECADE!
Hollywood doesn't make good video game movies for the same reason General Motors doesn't make motorized unicycles: they're stupid ideas, there's very little money in it and it they aren't very good at making their regular product to begin with. They're not adapting the license to tell the epic story on the cinematic field of wonder—they're doing it because they are literally out of ideas.
"Didn't you just greenlight another movie based on a video game?"
For whatever reason, video games and movies don't play well together. Every so often, someone with dollar signs in their eyes will try to make a movie based on a video game franchise, only to run into this unscalable wall: Video Game Movies Suck.
It's kind of hard to say why. Some would say that video games are essentially just movies that have showmanship sacrificed in favor of control, so sacrificing the control leaves you with a bad movie. Others would say that video game plots are just bad, existing just to give the player an excuse to go out and fight things.
The reality? Well, it tends to vary — Platformers tend to not have enough plot within the games themselves (maybe a three-paragraph setup in the manual and a two-minute ending), so the writers need to improvise, resulting in either Adaptation Decay or Pragmatic Adaptation — and so far, it's usually the former. Fighting Games tend to have a different, but flimsy plot and endings depending on the player's character, and the writers have to mishmash these various plot threads into a coherent whole. The only video game genres that pay much attention to plot — RPGs and Adventure games — tend to have far too much plot to squeeze into a two-hour flick without leaving a ton out.
Add to that the facts that too many plot changes risk alienating the carryover demographic, and that what plot less cerebral games do have tends to be on the level of, well, to quote the Doom comic:
"DYNAMITE! I'm cooking with gas! I've gotta handful of vertebrae and a headful of mad! Yeah, that's your spinal cord, baby! Dig it! Who's the man! I'm the man! I'm a bad man! How bad? Real bad! I'm a 12.0 on the 10.0 scale of badness!"
So far, no one's nominating video game movies for Oscars. If you hear new, exciting rumors about an upcoming film (like the rumored John Woo-directed Metroid movie), tread carefully, or you may be crushed beneath the Descending Ceiling of bad writing.
Often (although less universally) the reverse is true, of course, which is The Problem With Licensed Games.
For some reason, Dating Sim movies seem exempt from this trope, although as with anything, there are exceptions.
Note that all these entries are pretty subjective. If you object to one, you should probably mention it on the discussion page.
See also Uwe Boll, but please don't see any of his movies. For your own sake.
open/close all folders
Flat-out bad
- Wing Commander: Frankly, it's probably best you not think about this one at all. It ignored virtually everything about the popular video games except the most basic concepts, even changing the Kilrathi from feline humanoids into some sort of strange lizard creatures, with truly bad rubber masks, and added a ton of weird metaphysical junk never seen in the games to make the hero into some sort of piloting Ubermensch. Also, sonar in space.
- On the other hand, Maniac was as much an asshat in the movie as in the game. So it was true to one thing. Inevitably, one of the things everyone hates. Go figure.
- Strangely enough, Wing Commander III, IV and to a lesser extent, Prophesy were all notable games in that they depended on actors in full motion video sequences to move the plot along. Many fans argue that the games have more well-known and better quality actors (Mark Hamill, John Rhys-Davies, Malcolm McDowell, Ginger Lynn) than whom got signed up to do the "big budget" movie.
- Anyone find it odd that the 'Wing Commander' starring Mark Hamill ISN'T a big fat 'Star Wars' ripoff, while the one WITHOUT him is?
- He gets to do the Death Star bit at the end of the game, and Tom Wilson lampshades this in an outtake that was used as a stinger.
"Isn't that the guy from Star Wars?"
- According to at least one interview, the Kilrathi costumes were actually accurately designed, and truly menacing in appearance — but due to the sets' low ceilings, the costumes could not stand at full height.
- Even more bizarrely, the movie was co-written and directed by Chris Roberts, who was the Lead Designer of the games.
- A lot of the suck factor is rumored to be due to good old fashioned studio interference, being forced to cut out several major subplots and the budget being slashed part-way through filming. The result was bad enough to make Chris Roberts cry the first time he saw it.
- Proving that even if you had the creator of the game making a video game movie it won't be an instant success.
- Having seen the Kilrathi, they still look very much like feline-aliens... The film just made them more "realistic" by making their feline-qualities less apparent. Basically, they're now hairless-cats rather than the fuzzy ones from the game, which isn't necessarily a bad thing when you're trying to present them as villains. Also, a type of SONAR is used in space. You just Did Not Do The Research.
- A lot of anime OVAs based on Fighting Games tend to land on the bad end of the scale, partially because the plot to most fighting games is pretty thin to begin with, making it hard to write a decent script. (A major example: Tekken: The Motion Picture, which is actually an OVA)
- Everything and anything Uwe Boll has turned his hand to from House of the Dead (which shares one character name with its source, used clips from the games and featured no houses at all) onward. A running joke in the industry is that you've made it when Uwe Boll asks to make a movie of your game. Hideo Kojima refuses to speak to him. For any reason at all.
- Uwe Boll is particularly noteworthy — and reviled — because many gamers believe that the games he adapted could've made good movies if they'd been handled by the right people, rather than someone, who, despite his denials, seems to be out to make tax breaks for rich Germans rather than watchable films.
- That, and he has stated that he sets out to make bad game films on purpose as a 'fuck you cunt' to video gamers, who he absolutely reviles. He says hes willing to fight any gamer who criticizes him, that's how much hatred and loathing he holds. Of course, if you're not a pasty thin skinny guy then he'll back down, further confirming him to be an out and out douche.
- One of Boll's more recent projects is Postal, a Dead Baby Comedy based on the darkly humorous shoot-em-up from Running With Scissors. From what this editor has heard, the film takes Refuge In Audacity just so it can Anviliciously snipe at the War on Terror and just about everything else that's wrong with 21st century America, as well as the hordes of angry video game nerds who despise Uwe Boll's existence. But since a few people seem to be entertained by the film, and not just in a So Bad Its Good way (it even won "Best of Festival" at the 2008 Hoboken Film Festival), Postal may be Boll's best film yet... which isn't saying much.
- This troper (and at least one other person
 ) find House of the Dead to be a comic masterpiece rather than merely awful.
- It's a frickin' laugh riot. I honestly cannot stop laughing when ever I watch it, and I've watched it plenty of times.
- This troper is of the opinion that Uwe Boll is getting better at filmmaking as time goes by, and this makes his films MUCH less watchable, thanks to smoothing over everything that made his movies horribly hilarious and leaving nothing but boring mediocrity behind.
- Whether or not these entries were written by Herr Boll is currently under investigation.
- In the Dungeon Siege movie, the nameless farmer main character was actually named "Farmer", he had a Precision Guided Boomerang, and the movie looked a little too much like Lord Of The Rings. But he said it's nothing like Lord Of The Rings because, and get this, the movie isn't about a ring so it's okay. But he gains points for having the movie just as non-interactive as the original game.
- Funnily enough, this trope is starting to work backwards for Boll, with the movie (and game) 1968 Tunnel Rats.
- This SequentialArt page.
- Double Dragon: Moved to a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles for no apparent reason, replaced the Big Bad with a Corrupt Corporate Executive, and generally kept nothing of the games' plot except "Brothers who use martial arts and wear red and blue". Alyssa Milano's ass in denim short-shorts makes a sterling effort to save this film, yet still fails.
- There are a few good things in the film, once you get past the jokey tone and ridiculous plot. Robert Patrick chews the scenery with gusto as the villain and gets all the best lines. Martial artist Marc Dacascos does his best in the action scenes. And of course, the aforementioned part of Alyssa Milano's anatomy. The dead weight in the film is definitely Scott Wolf, who can't act, fight, or evoke any emotion in the audience outside of annoyance.
- No wonder they had Billy Lee (played by Scott Wolf) turned from just about as skilled in fighting as his brother into a wimp who is more into the brains than brawns.
- It's even more ironic when you realize Jean-Claude Van Damme's Double Impact was a better Double Dragon movie than the actual movie. Bolo Yeung (yes, the same one from Bloodsport) was in it and more an Abobo than the film version. He even threw oil drums.
- Maple Story is another example, take away the classes and heroes that made Maple Story the game it is and replace it with a beginner class brat whom runs around with a rock to train with a lousy wooden sword. A Half Human Hybrid magician and several furries joining them in an adventure with little relation to the mainline plot? Well we got ourselves one of the crappiest animes known to man. And to think they were going to do a parody version similar to 8-Bit Theater.
- Although this one was thankfully cancelled, it still definitely belongs here. A few years ago, a Soul Calibur movie was in the works, but it had ABSOLUTELY NO CHARACTERS OR SETTINGS OR PLOT POINTS FROM THE GAMES, and the holy spirit sword Soul Calibur was to be portrayed as the evil blade instead of the demonic Soul Edge. Perhaps the production's cancellation in 2007 was the result of someone finally looking at their horrible attempt at a game-to-movie adaptation and realizing, "Wow, this really does suck".
- To be particularly specific, the movie's plot went something like this: The Shaolin monks choose a handful of warriors to go to Europe and destroy the demon sword "Soulcalibur" before the generic villainous prince who currently wields it can use its dark powers to open the gates of Hell and take over the world. Yeah.
- Street Fighter The Legend Of Chun Li. Alright, this one makes the Jean-Claude Van Damme movie look like cinematic gold. The whole thing focuses around Chun-Li, who wanted to be a concert pianist . Gen is almost the same age as her . Ryu and Ken don't appear at all, Ryu only on a poster near the end , and neither do nearly all of the Street Fighter characters , the only ones appearing being Chun-Li, Gen, Charlie, M. Bison (who is now a rich Irish gentleman ), Vega, and Balrog (who is the second-in-command of Shadaloo). Worse, none of them have any of their characterization or plot from the games. It's definitely So Bad Its Horrible.
- Two characters you forgot to mention. You know Charlie's partner, that FBI agent or whatever? That was supposed to be Crimson Viper. Then they screwed up Rose (who happens to be my favorite character) by turning her into Bison's defenseless daughter. And she's not Italian. At least give her her scarf!
- This troper especially feels that Vega got the shaft in this movie. The character is supposed to be in essence, a Spanish Ninja, who mixes bullfighting with more traditional martial arts techniques to create his own unique blend and is generally considered as one of the deadliest fighters in the series. Moreover, he is extremely vain and wears his iconic mask to protect his good looks. In the film, he gets his ass kicked in less than 2 minutes by Chun Li, is portrayed by Mexican actor/rapper Taboo and apparently wears his mask not to protect his good looks... but to stop people from viewing his ugly mug.
- This is made even more degrading to the character after watching Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, in which an experienced Chun Li is almost killed by Vega and barely manages to hole her own against him (she slips into a coma from blood loss afterwards) in a fight that lasts a considerable amount of time, when The Legend Of Chun Li has the title character as a rookie being able to beat Vega quickly and without a single mark on her.
- The movie is awful, but in it's defense, Michael Clark Duncan did the best he could, and gave an alright performance as Balrog. The smile says it all. And I know I am not the only one who yelled "HOLY CRAP IT'S LIU KANG" when Robin Shou showed up on screen and played a decent Gen. Still, I'll be the first to admit the movie was very poorly cast. Kristin Kreuk, you are no Chun-Li.
- Fun fact: Michael Clarke Duncan is a Street Fighter fan, and his favourite character is Balrog. This is why he didn't take his role in the film seriously—even he thought it was an insult to the franchise.
- Speaking of plot, why the HELL didn't the writers stick with Chun Li's actual story of being an undercover Interpol agent? Come on, it's not hard. Father dies, girl becomes cop, learns to kick ass from a mentor, and then kick's Bison's ass. It would have been stupid wirefu fun for everyone.
- Even worse, Chun-Li delivering the coup-de-grace by snapping Bison's neck, RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIS INNOCENT DAUGHTER!!! What the fuck kinda hero does something like that?!?!
- This troper believes that M. Bison was actually the hero of the movie, and Chun Li was the villian. All Bison wanted to do was clean up the slums, and give his daughter a good life that she deserves. Yeah, he had ruthless methods, but he would still ultimatly do more good then harm. Chun Li, on the other hand, kills Bison out of petty revenge instead of using her assumed massive wealth to help the people of Bangkok What a bitch.
- I could've forgiven not giving Bison his Komissar uniform (could you have at least given him a red suit to wear?) but why the hell does he have a beard?!
- Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. The first one was decent (or, at the very least, So Bad Its Good), but this is an EXTREME case of Sequelitis. Firstly, only Liu Kang and Kitana's actors appear, the rest being recast (Raiden, especially, suffers for this). Everyone was wooden as hell. There was very little plot to speak of, consisting either of an Info Dump or mindless fighting. To the detriment of what little plot there was, they tried to cram in far too many Mortal Kombat characters like Baraka and Nightwolf, just to please the fans. It looked extraordinarily cheap, special effects-wise. Scorpion and Sub-Zero were inexplicably resurrected. And Johnny Cage, one of this troper's favourite characters, gets killed off in five minutes. Boo.
- Technically it was the second Sub-Zero from the second game onwards that appeared in this movie, not his brother, who dies in the first movie. And since Scorpion is an undead hell spawn, I don't think his return really needs much of an explanation.
- Invariably, the announced adaptations of The Sims, Asteroids, and Spore will be at least mediocre, since nobody could wake up in the morning and honestly say to himself "I think I have a good plot in mind for Asteroids!"
- The upcoming movies based on Tekken and King of Fighters. One look at those and it's incredibly obvious that no one working on them really knows or cares anything about the source material, and it feels almost as though they're trying to piss fans off. These haven't even been released yet and can already be accurately summed up as generic, weird, overly dark, low-budget martial arts films with popular names slapped on in the hopes of making more money.
- As if the Tekken movie's plot and characters weren't already FUBAR enough, it's been revealed by the webmistress of the official Luke Goss forum that Eddy is a background character {and it turns out his name is spelled wrong}, Dragunov is a taekwondo artist and gets killed by Bryan Fury, most of the fights are gory, there's plenty of heavy cursing, Nina and Anna are incestuous bisexual twins who engage in a threesome in one scene, and Christie Monteiro, now white as Wonder bread being eaten by a conservative congressman in the middle of a snowstorm and wearing a more modest {by comparison to her in-game design} outfit, is Jin Kazama's secondary love interest, with Jin's canon schoolmate and fangirl Xiaoyu omitted in favour of Christie and original character Kara. Yeah. And yet it still looks like The Dark Knight compared to...
- King of Fighters, which is shaping up to be complete suck. Just wait until you see the picture of Ray "Darth Maul" Park as Rugal...looking absolutely nothing like the videogame version of Rugal.
- What they did to Rugal is nothing. Just look at what they did to Iori Yagami, one of the most popular characters in the franchise. He loses his brooding personality, is turned into a good guy, is portrayed as a Korean with slicked-back black hair, and, as the ultimate insult to the character, is seen wearing full hockey attire and using a hockey stick during one of the fights.
- Additionally, Terry is now a short-haired 40-year-old CIA agent in a cheap pleather vest, Kyo uses a flaming katana instead of actual pyrokinesis, Mai—who's gone from incredibly busty to embarrassingly flat—never once wears her trademark outfit, instead wearing pleather bodysuits and cheap thrift store blouses that make her look like a $2 hooker, and Vice and Mature—both of whom are also dressed in pleather, Vice looking like a pathetic goth loli wannabe and Mature looking like a Nina Williams clone and wielding tonfa that are STRAPPED TO HER ARMS—apparently have lesbian feelings for each other. WHY? And what's with all the pleather?
- The real kicker here is that they actually had reference for the character designs. From the newest game too. So someone actually had to toss that stuff aside and say, "Screw it, we're doing it however we want." And the actors seem to like pretending they're true fans as if the real fans are stupid enough to believe it—nice try, Bernice Liu, but there's no such game as "King of Fighters '93", and Vice most certainly has not been in every game in the series, considering she debuted in King of Fighters '95 and was killed by Iori after '98. And Maggie Q, no one who pronounces Mai's last name as "she-ruh-noo-ee" and hasn't played any of the games has ANY right to proclaim that this film is true to the franchise.
- Let's not forget that the plot is also ripped straight from Mortal Kombat.
- Or the lily-white men's clothing model playing Kyo (all the while his father is played by an asian actor), because there's no way America can accept an ASIAN protagonist!!
Partial Exceptions / So Bad Its Good
- Doom: On the one hand, the plot didn't make much sense, the "science" made even less, and the violence was silly and gratuitous. On the other hand, some would argue that that's exactly what a Doom movie should be like. The really good music probably saved the film. Thumbs-down for inexplicably changing the monsters from Demonic Invaders to genetic experiments, though. To be fair, this seems to be an irresistible pull for Derivative Works; the Novelization of the games deviated from the demonic nature of the monsters, as well.
- There's also the excellent subversion of The hero succumbing to The Virus and becoming the Big Bad.
- Actually one of the most frequently issued complaints about the movie (besides the You Fail Biology Forever part) is that there is not enough senseless violence reminiscent of the original Doom and too much Stock Scares in Dark Tunnels reminiscent of Doom 3 instead.
- It should be mentioned that The Rock, star of the movie, apparently doesn't agree with it being somewhere in the middle; while inducting his father in the WWE Hall of Fame, he went off on a tangent mocking John Cena's film The Marine, after which he apologized by saying, "Don't feel bad, John. I made Doom!"
- Hey, at least the credits sequence was awesome! It was all in first person and involved a lot of cool guns and stuff... yeah.
- Pokemon. Being based on the Anime adaptation instead of directly deriving material from the games themselves helped the movie series avoid the pitfalls of needing to compress an entire game's worth of plot. Often considered the more watchable half of the anime series by some, despite being used as a vehicle to promote new Pokemon characters to be featured in upcoming game sequels. Of course, the targeted audience for this movie would skew much younger compared to all the other movies here, and not to mention they still get released in theaters in Japan.
- For its target demographic (younger kids who play Pokemon), the movies generally go in the "genuinely good" section. For many, they'd fit here.
- With the exception of the 4Kids dub of the first movie, which was just wrong! Heck, they took what was a reasonably good base plot (Mewtwo is an emotionally-suppressed character that considers himself a separate type of entity to others, but still has sympathy for them but prefers to hide it) and completely BARF'D all over it (Mewtwo's just evil, no motive at all)!
- Whoa, whoa, whoa. Mewtwo did see the error of his ways in the end no? Broadstrokes pleases.
- The movies do have a break now and then when they aren't so bad they're good. Destiny Deoxys and The Rise of Darkrai are quite good in some people's opinion. The last in the trilogy looks to be quite well, as well.
- The Resident Evil movie was considered a success by some people(if even that many). A lot of the credit can go to the fact that it wasn't adapted from the plot of the game; the writers took the premise and wrote another, more movie-friendly story to go with it. And Milla Jovovich. And Sienna Guillory in the sequel. Oh, my.
- This troper thought the best part of the movie was watching "Alice" (Jovovich) go from amnesiac infant to Bad Ass Action Girl; he thought she did a pretty good job. (As such, the sequels were letdowns.)
- This troper will agree that the first movie had its merits, the later two movies where just good examples of They Just Didnt Care. As they turned what was originally suppose to be a horror movie, into a generic Aeon Flux Hollywood action girl movie clone. What makes matters worse is that the DVD behind the scenes bonus in the second movie, admits this. Complete with the actresses smiling while saying it.
- The Silent Hill film was also a success, visually beautiful and very fitting within the theme of the series, although it actually paid closer heed to the original game and used some members of the games' production teams. Whether or not it was as scary as the games, and whether the inclusion of Pyramid Head was a good thing, is still hotly contested. Note that Silent Hill, like Resident Evil, is in the Survival Horror genre, which is already pretty close in nature to the horror genre of films.
- Then again, Your Mileage May Vary especially concerning the replacement of Harry with Rose, because the creators didn't think audiences could relate to a single father looking for his daughter. It had to be a woman because only women can care about their children.
- This troper and most of the friends he saw the movie with related a lot more to Sean Bean, since he searched just as desperately for his wife and daughter, yet was doomed to failure from the start, since he couldn't get inside the "other" Silent Hill where they were trapped.
- It struck me that Sean Bean's character never asked for his daughter, only his wife. It was like he just didn't care that his daughter was missing, and I think that was what they were going for.
- Despite this insulting ascertainment by the director and screenplay writer, and the whole people getting ripped apart thing at the end, which was never part of the real silent hill games, it is still considered by many to be the best adaptation of a game to date, a serious film to compare with the fun and campy Mortal Kombat.
- The movie takes many elements (characters, events, symbols) from the game and completely twists them to the point that they have a completely different meaning/purpose, or none at all. This results in Silent Hill being the most accurate game-to-movie adaption to date and still completely lacking the essence of the original.
- The script was sent to Konami for approval and was sent back with a note "Why there are no men?". Sean Bean's part was added and after that, the script was approved.
- The Hitman movie has a plot which will make less sense the more you think about it, but it will keep you entertained for 90 minutes.
- This troper agrees, although it seem like they entered "Action movie in Russia" into a scriptwriting machine and shot the result.
- That, and it at least tries to maintain 47's characterization as The Chessmaster, rather than make him a generic action thug.
- This troper begs to disagree. The games give you ratings on how well you do your assassinations, with the best ranking given to those who execute their objectives exceptionally well (as in no one spots you, no innocents get harmed, minimal to no use of your weapons, kills look like accidents) while the film shows assassinations to be very bullet-and-sword-laden affairs.
- Actually, this troper read the near-final script and the movie would be even better if not for Executive Meddling. The differences between script and movie being: 47 being hunted by Spetsnaz instead of other "agents", the whole affair being a Xanatos Gambit played by the KGB agent, a couple of action scenes more and no recycled footage from completely different TV series. And yes, 47 is even more of a Chessmaster in the script.
- Keep in mind that Hitman is, despite the assassin theme, up-to-your-choice-game, where you can either brutally butcher every single character that comes between you and the target or perform the hit silently and professionally without harming anyone not related to you object. There isn't right or wrong way to do the movie, because it will resemble the game anyway. They had to balance between the action-movie-Kill Em All fans, who wanted to see the bullets fly and the Silent Killer-Ghost-Mystery Man-fans who wanted to see the sneaking, so they were forced to modify 47 a bit more appealing to every audience. But ofcourse you cant pleace everyone.
- Although you have a point, the games seem to have Silent Assassin as 47's default rating. Not to say there isn't some good shooting there, but movie!47's shoddy workmanship would get him killed by Mark Parchezzi III.
- Ahem...The Wizard. It's not even based on any video game (though it has very blatantly obvious Product Placement), but somehow manages to be watchable through almost ninety straight minutes of cheese.
- Max Payne: The story and characters are totally stock and bares only a passing resemblance to the source material (the biggest complaint is the decision to excise the overly gritty, intentionally So Bad Its Good Purple Prose narration from all but the beginning), but it doesn't completely fail (it was financially successful). The film is a standard revenge shoot em up, and Max isn't exactly that likable of a lead to begin with (although he had a lot more personality in the games), but several sequences are visual stand outs. Your Mileage May Vary of course.
- Basically, ignore the story and skip the first half-hour of the movie. Once the sky sets itself on fire the movie gets
a lot more watchable.
- Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Represents a great leap forward in technical terms, but it ends up living smack-dab in the middle of the Uncanny Valley as a result. No real relation to the games at all, except for a guy named Cid (And even then, they spelled it "Sid"), the names of the planets, and monsters that disappear into the aether when you kill them (plus, very loosely, the metaphysics of Final Fantasy VII). All of this is topped off with a Cliche Storm plot joined In Medias Res and a Gainax Ending. Probably single-handedly responsible for ending Square's existence as an independent company, as they lost so much money from it that they were forced to merge with Enix. Still, it's very much a case of Your Mileage May Vary; Roger Ebert gave it three and a half stars, and he was far from alone in appreciating the film, but many others weren't so kind.
- The Spirits Within is perhaps best watched as a standalone movie in its own right without comparing it to any of the Final Fantasy games.
- Also, none of the games have much to do with each other either, so in this respect the movie fits perfectly into the series.
- True enough, although there are a great many things that tie all the games together (i.e., spells, monsters, weapons, summons, etc.) that were rather absent from the film. While I do feel that it was a good film (it really was), I thought it would have been even better where it just called, The Spirits Within.
- Night Trap: The Movie showcased this trope in an unexpected way, taking a cult-classic "interactive movie" and removing the interactivity, leaving all the delicious So Bad Its Good camp intact.
- The Prince Of Persia movie is shaping up to be at least decent if not genuinely good. First, Jordan Mechner (the game's author) is responsible for the main plot and the rest of screenwriters focused more on pacing and embellishments. Second, it's produced by Disney, which means it'll fare better that any schlock Fox was throwing at us through the last two years. Third point, which may be debatable, is the fact that movie apparently goes the Silent Hill way, taking a lot of things from the game, but putting them in a different context, which means that Your Mileage May Vary. Anyway, have a scoopful.
- The Hero of Time, loosely based off of Ocarina Of Time, wasn't horrible for a completely fan-made movie. Still, there was some major Narm, and Zelda purists are likely to be furious after seeing it.
Full exceptions / genuinely good movies
- Sonic The Hedgehog The Movie is a very enjoyable OVA with surprisingly good animation and has an art style, characters and plot that perfectly capture the feel of the older Sonic the Hedgehog games. Sonic actually has his classic Jerk With A Heart Of Gold attitude for a change, and the action scenes (ESPECIALLY the climatic final battle with Metal Sonic) are nothing short of awesome. Also, the soundtrack was incredible. However, Your Mileage May Vary with the English dub. While it may not have too much in common with the games outside of a superficial level, the film makes up for this in many, many ways.
- The Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie was very accurate, putting all the characters in the right place, and with the right personalities. The animation is excellent, and ki attacks have never looked better. The character designs were excellent, and Bison's design was improved, giving him a huge muscular look that Capcom has used ever since. The storyline of the movie was brought over to Alpha simply replacing Ken with Ryu during the brainwashing scene, and replacing Guile with Charlie. The iconic grass scene is a stage in Alpha 2, and several other things were taken from the movie are shown in Alpha, such as Ken having long hair when he was younger and gave his bandana to Ryu. Did I forget to mention a nude Chun-Li scene and that she kicks Vega's ass in a REALLY well-done fighting scene?
- The tie-in prequel/OVA for IV, "Street Fighter IV: The Ties That Bind", is also in this category. This is mostly because it serves to set the stage for the plot of IV, and was written entirely by Capcom staff. Also, the voice acting.
- I'd say this movie was a partial exception AT BEST (personally I hated it). Yes, the art was good and it had some decent action scenes, but the plot was utter bullshit. Too many stupid cameos. Most of the characters are just in the movie for the sake of making fans go "OMG IT'S DEEJAY/BLANKA/DHALSIM/etc!".
- Then there was Wing Commander Academy, an animated series which was quite loyal to the games, including the ship designs and voice actors for Blair, Maniac and Tolwyn.
- The two Fatal Fury anime specials, Legend of the Hungry Wolf and The New Battle, were pragmatic adaptations of their corresponding games, focusing around the game's main characters Terry, Andy, Joe, and Mai, with most of the other characters being adapted into supporting roles or cameos. They took some creative liberties, such as the addition of Terry's doomed love interest Lily McGuire and Wolfgang Krauser's younger appearance, but nothing that completely deviated from the source material. The movie itself, appropriately titled Motion Picture, has an original storyline that's pretty decent and can be enjoyed independently without much knowledge of the games.
- While not necessarily perfect, the animated movie adaptation of Animal Crossing (released only in Japan) does a far better job maintaining the spirit of the material than one would think possible and is a pretty decent watch to boot, if a little simple in its plot.
- Mortal Kombat- Only, repeat only the first one. It has its own problems, though: Sonya is a Faux Action Girl, Sub-Zero and Scorpion are mindless slaves of Shang Tsung and Kitana is a Distressed Damsel. On the other hand, well-crafted fight choreography, a script with legitimate wit at times, some nice set design, a kick-ass soundtrack, an excellent Shang Tsung portrayal, and it even makes us give a crap about the characters and what's going on. The plot, while not exactly Shakespeare, was serviceable and didn't get in the way of the action. Some feel Raiden's role as The Obi Wan makes more sense for a Physical God than the not-quite-first-string fighter he was in the games. Sub-Zero and Scorpion are cool, mostly because they don't talk much, and Kitana is still pretty far from being pointless in the film with moves that can at least make Lui Kang blink.
- Considering the videogame was "Enter the Dragon with superpowers" they had more to rip off than most.
- The soundtrack was pretty awesome too.
- Gene Siskel actually gave Mortal Kombat a (marginal) thumbs up. Roger Ebert nearly followed suit ("right in the middle"), but he said he didn't get a full experience due to his theater's crappy lighting, and thus, most of the movie was overly dark-looking and washed-out because of it.
- This site has a great review of the movie that praises many aspects, especially the characters of Raiden and Johnny Cage. This Troper also greatly enjoyed how Goro was done, the animatronics were excellent.
- However, the sequel, the Animated Adaptation (just watch this montage and try to prove us wrong), and the Recycled The Series all fall squarely under the trope. The first Mortal Kombat movie may have been good, but at the cost of a universe-balancing sequel that belongs so far in the "Flat-Out Bad" category above that it's not even funny.
- Press Start, a independent film which managed to be a generally great Affectionate Parody of video games and the mechanics found within them.
Contested
- The Tomb Raider movies. Angelina Jolie vehicles. The first one was OK, the second one can be considered flat-out bad or bad yet enjoyable. Your Mileage May Vary indeed.
- Jolie wore big chest padding in the series... yes, you heard that right, Angelina Jolie's breasts weren't big enough for this movie. Thanks for making video games look mature, guys.
- Jolie's about a C cup. Croft is D-DD. That's rather squarely in the not big enough category.
- The Dead Or Alive movie has widely divergent opinions. The game is a cheesy fighter, focused around a not-quite believable conspiracy theory to build the ultimate fighter that's really just an excuse to show off cool moves and hot women. The movie, on the same hand, is a cheesy fight-flick, focused around a not-quite believable conspiracy theory to build the ultimate fighter that's really just an excuse to show off hot women and cool moves. The fight scenes were well done and managed to incorporate some of the cooler moves without being obvious about it and some of Kevin Nash's scenes with Jaime Pressly were hilarious.
- It's fair to say that Resident Evil: Degeneration belongs here. Bonus points for having more in common with the source material than just the title and some zombies (not having Milla Jovovich swoop in and hijack the plot certainly helps), but coming from someone who likes the film: the script definitely needed a little polishing up, since things that sound really deep and cool in Japanese don't always translate very well into other languages.
- Actually, the film, from what this troper heard, was actually dubbed in English with American actors before it was translated to Japanese. So...yeah....
- By that, the movie is perfectly fine then. Considering it's Resident Evil, where the dialogue normally ranges from fine to narmtastic, I'd say this one has it good.
- All the games were subtitled English in Japan. The point is that all of them could benefited from a good Woolseyizing treatment before recording started.
- Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is either loved or hated, depending on who you ask. It, too, wasn't a straight adaptation, actually being a sequel to the game.
- This troper knows many people who loved it but could easily understand why others would hate it. The level of homage to the fans easily justifies that.
- Penny Arcade concurs with the above opinion.
- However, this might vary depending on whether the person you ask has seen the English version or the Japanese subbed version. This troper discovered the difference when he couldn't even have a conversation about the movie with someone who had seen the other version. This is not guaranteed, however, as many have watched both versions and loved (or, in this troper's case, despised) both equally.
- I would think most people would either watch just the Japanese, or watch both.
- The amount of people that despise subtitles for any any number of reasons ("Why watch it in Japanese when I can watch it with in a language I speak" being a biggie) is surprising. Even moreso when you count casual fans.
- Opinion may also vary depending whether one considers it as a full-scale movie or as "non-interactive software" (a term Nomura encouraged).
- The movie spawned a "Updated" Version (Titled Advent Children: Complete) with a half hour's worth or extra footage. It was popular enough.
- Generally the Complete version is considered to be a much better version, having given more depth and explanation to the storyline. Even so, its really only a movie for fans of the original game, anybody else would be out of their depth.
- Street Fighter. Jean-Claude Van Damme vehicle. A film that couldn't decide if it was a comedy or an action movie. Bison has a god complex, but then goes around making Bison dollars (though it is pretty well agreed that Raul Julia's manic Ham And Cheese is pure win). Ken and Ryu are money-grubbing con-artists. Dee Jay and Zangief are bad guys (although the latter does a Heel Face Turn). Balrog is a good guy, E. Honda is Hawaiian, and they are part of Chun Li's news team. T. Hawk and Cammy work for the A.N (the last was excusable). Guile is an American commander with a Belgian accent. His friend Charlie gets transformed into Blanka thanks to M. Bison forcing Dhalsim (who looks entirely different) to work for him (although, to be fair, this was accepted as fact by fans until the Street Fighter Alpha series said otherwise), and there are almost no flashy moves, just a Hadoken at point blank range and Bison's various Psycho powers. Whether or not it manages to be So Bad Its Good or not depends on the individual viewer.
- You forget that Guile made a Flash Kick right on Bison's face.
- Hong Kong also filmed a Street Fighter movie, although it was more of an Affectionate Parody. I remember a scene where in one fight against Chun Li, the best way to defeat her? Solve her Athelete's foot problem.
- Although it mostly retained the cast of characters from the game, Akuma was left out and Fei Long was replaced with a Jonas Quinn named Sawada.
- It's hard to say whether 2000's SiN: The Movie, based off the 1998 FPS video game of the same name, is good or bad. It's a reimagining of the original game's storyline, with police captain John Blade pursuing a dangerous biochemist/scientist named Elexis Sinclaire, who wants to destroy mankind with bioengineered mutated monsters. It has many of the same characters as the video game, has a sizable amount of violence (in copious detail), and actually works quite well for the first half. However, the film has J.C., the hacker/prominent supporting character from the video game, killed off in the first five minutes, and replaced by his sister, who has all the same skills as him. The last half of the movie is one long fight sequence as Blade and J.C.'s sister (who is also nicknamed J.C.) running up through the levels of the SinTEK building killing anything that moves. There isn't really an ending, and the film is only an hour long. Not only that, but the English and Japanese voice tracks for the film have different dialog, making their plots slightly different.
- Given the fact that none of the major monsters in the movie ever have an occasion where they simply fail to move, fight, or do anything while being blasted to death, one could quite well argue that the movie surpassed the original game for once.
- The Salamander OVA is not bad on its own, though it's very light on the action side.
- The Super Mario Bros Movie. It isn't just like the writers could never have played the game; it's more like they did play it but were experimenting with mind-altering substances at the time. Instead of the cheery Mushroom Kingdom, the film takes place in a dreary rain-soaked Cyberpunk-type environment. Instead of a dragon-turtle thing who has captured the Princess, Bowser is a humanoid tyrannosaurus military official from an alternate dimension that took over the kingdom, electing himself "President". Goombas are pinhead soldiers stuffed into military uniforms, Toad is an anti-establishment street performer, and Princess Daisy is also a pan-dimensional dinosaur-person. Who was smuggled to our world for safety and hatched out of an egg. In a Nunnery. The references to the video games feel more like a Shout Out than an actual adaptation.
- And Luigi gets the Princess.
- He gets Princess Daisy, whom he had already had a relationship with in the games. What's the problem of them pairing him with the right princess?
- On the other hand, this review gives several reasons to why the Super Mario movie is a genuine under-appreciated masterpiece. Be warned that the article contains spoilers.
- If there is a God, that article is His Word.
- According to this interview, Shigeru Miyamoto believes the movie failed because it was too much like the games, which makes one wonder what Miyamoto would consider to not be like the games. (Of course, he could have been confused and was instead talking about the obscure Japanese Anime. The latter is actually a little bit closer to what fans had imagined when they first heard about a "Super Mario Disney Movie".)
- The Cyberpunk setting can be explained; the directors of the movie, Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel, had previously created Max Headroom.
- Also, the set designer for the movie had previously worked on Blade Runner.
- Nintendo Power, in their overview of the series, mentioned the movie. They then said, "Yes, it happened. Let us speak no more of it."
- The Super Mario Bros Movie was a decent Fish Out Of Water adventure story featuring heroes Trapped In Another World. It just wasn't a particularly good Super Mario Bros movie.
Parodies
<Later>
Careful! There are mines under there!
Come on, it's never the first one. <BOOM>
- Actually, the minesweeper one seems like a pretty solid setup for a decent movie if handled right. Comedy meets psychological horror (the creepy yellow dude).
- Rather good, though depressing. WHY are they there? Why must they die like animals? What about radar? Oh, and that yellow guy was creepy enough in-game, but as Pizza the Hutt's sidekick. ohmygod...
- Another Pac Man movie trailer in the first part here
- There's also a Tetris movie trailer.
- Parodied in a fan-made poster◊ for a Sonic The Hedgehog movie, starring Keanu Reeves with only a blue jacket as his "costume".
- You can't not love Danny DeVito as Robotnik, though.
- Parodied in Jeremy "Norm" Scott's Hsu And Chan comics:
Hsu: It will be a cold day in Hell before we compromise our principles.
Hollywood Director: It works like this— You get a fat check, we take complete creative control of the project, trample all over your established characters and storyline, then hand the whole thing off to an NYU film drop out with two shampoo commercials to his credit, who will most likely turn the film into a cross between a high school drama production and a Duran Duran video.
Chan: DEAL!
Hsu: Can we cash these today?
*the brothers are seen leaving the office with a large sum of money in their hands*
Chan: We have unique principles brother.
- In the popular comic strip Get Fuzzy, Bucky writes up a script for "Pong: The Movie".
- Doubt: The Video Game. Some ideas just don't work out well.
- Then of course, the parody you wish were real.
- Surprising that this epic April Fool's Day trailer hasn't been mentioned yet: Another wish-to-be-real parody
- And yet another awesome trailer for a movie which will never be made.
- Not really a parody, but what about those Halo ODST commercials? I've never even played Halo, and I'd watch that if they turned it into a movie.
- Fan Film "Escape From City 17" is probably better than any real Half Life movie we can expect.
- Mario Kart: The Movie
- The Sims: a group of people move into a house and find themselves controlled by a malevolent power.
Other
- The fan made Megaman movie is looking to be a serious attempt to capture much of the spirit of the original games. Apparently, it has been very successful with test audiences. However, until its release it can't be properly categorized.
|
|
