Ranking Videogame Movie Adaptations

[LastMinuteSavior]

What's up gamers?

 

Thought I'd share my ranking of watched videogame adaptations.

 

Keep in mind this is mostly based on how much fun and rewatchable I find these movies.

 

I left out a few titles I watched ages ago like the Silent Hill sequel, FF7 Advent Children and Resident Evil Degeneration because I barely remember watching those, so I didn't think it was fair to rank them.

 

So, from favorite guilty pleasure to worst I-hate-myself-for-watching-this, here's my list:

 

 

Yeah, I don't care what anyone thinks, I love Street Fighter. It has little to do with the games, but I love Raul Julia as Bison, Zangief's jokes, Ming-Na Wen and Kylie Minogue look super cute, and Van Damme is always fun, even when coked out of his mind.

 

 

And here's what's on my watchlist (I'm sure I'm gonna LOVE these RE flicks):

 

 

 

Ok, that's it.

 

Share your own ranking, recommendations, or just your toughts on the subject. Just be sure to not start WW3 over this.

Opinions and preferences are obviously subjective, and lets face it, these are mostly mediocre movies anyway.

 

✌️

 

Edited July 17, 2023 by LastMinuteSavior

[Terra]

I haven’t seen many but my personal favorite is Silent Hill. Revelations on the other hand… 

Edited July 16, 2023 by Terra

[HaserPL]

Hitman, Prince of Persia, Tomb Raider (Jolie's version), and Need for Speed are pretty decent movies even if someone hasn't played the game they're based on, and good adaptations (if compared to like 90% of adaptations that are just garbage). With the Resident Evil series, at least up until Afterlife, that's my guilty pleasure AF. After Afterlife they changed from silly zombie flicks to ridiculous and boring CGI fests. 

[Glorious Fury]

Not a huge video game to movie guy, but Mortal Kombat (1995) would be my favorite from the list by far. Love that in MK 11, they have DLC skins of the likeness of several cast members from the movie. 

Edited July 16, 2023 by Glorious Fury

[KennethMcCormick]

2 hours ago, LastMinuteSavior said:

[...]Yeah, I don't care what anyone thinks, I love Street Fighter. It has little to do with the games, but I love Raul Julia as Bison, Zangief's jokes, Ming-Na Wen and Kylie Minogue look super cute, and Van Damme is always fun, even when coked out of his mind.[...]

 

In the HK live action version of City Hunter, with Jackie Chan (Wong Jing, 1993), there’s a Street Fighter sequence featuring a most adorable Chun Li...

[LastMinuteSavior]

35 minutes ago, HaserPL said:

With the Resident Evil series, at least up until Afterlife, that's my guilty pleasure AF. After Afterlife they changed from silly zombie flicks to ridiculous and boring CGI fests. 

 

Yeah, there are a few fun scenes in the earlier movies. But the 5th movie was awful. That's why I didn't have the stomach to watch the final Milla Jovovich entry. Yet.

 

 

26 minutes ago, Glorious Fury said:

Mortal Kombat (1995) would be my favorite from the list by far.

 

The moment Techno Syndrome kicks in I just lose my composure.

 

 

19 minutes ago, KennethMcCormick said:

In the HK live action version of City Hunter, with Jackie Chan (Wong Jing, 1993), there’s a Street Fighter sequence featuring a most adorable Chun Li...

 

I'm aware ?

 

Jackie defo did some coke too that one time.

 

 

[Slava]

I did a tier list ?. It was hard to find a good template, a lot of them were missing some titles. This one did too (Tomb Raider 1), but I ended up using it anyway:

 

 

I was most unsure about Spirits Within (B or C) and Tomb Raider. In the case of Tomb Raider, I watched it so long ago that the current opinion may differ from my memory a lot. So I just decided to stick it right in the middle.

Edited July 16, 2023 by Slava

[RevengeancePrime]

Your top 4 is the same as mine, although I'd probably switch Silent Hill and Doom. I'd even probably put MK first and SF second because Raul Julia as Bison carried SF in my opinion. Without him it wouldn't be nearly as entertaining as it is. MK on the other hand had some great casting choices all around with Shang Tsung, Liu Kang, Raiden, Johnny Cage, Kano and Sonya Blade. The film also had such a cool aesthetic with awesome fights. Too bad Annihilation was terrible. They couldn't even give us a good Shao Kahn (the guy sounded like he was about to cry the entire movie). Aside from those I'd probably put RE Apocalypse and the new Tomb Raider after. 

[LastMinuteSavior]

Everyone shits on Silent Hill 2 ?

I guess there's a reason why I don’t remember more than 5 seconds from it.

 

I second-guessed myself about Pokémon, unsure if it started as a game or a cartoon, but it seems it was a videogame from the get go (sorry, I was team SEGA).

 

@Slava I liked Spirits Within when it released in cinemas. It's was a big departure from the games, but I enjoyed it as a Sci-fi flick.

Still, while I think Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat have aged pretty well (mainly due to the humor and colorful characters), the Final Fantasy movie looked very dated the last time I wached it on tv.

 

[LastMinuteSavior]

16 minutes ago, RevengeancePrime said:

.They couldn't even give us a good Shao Kahn (the guy sounded like he was about to cry the entire movie).

 

It's actually hilarious how he went from a huge shadowy figure in the sky at the end of the first movie, to your average muscle bloke with a lot of daddy issues in the sequel.

 

[DrBloodmoney]

My Ranking:

 

Legitimately Good:

The Last of Us (TV show)

 

So Bad it's Good:

Super Mario Brothers

Street Fighter

 

Acceptably Bad but Fun:

Tomb Raider (2018)

Resident Evil

Resident Evil Afterlife

 

Pitiful/ Insulting/ Physically Painful to even Remember, let alone ever re-watch:

Literally every other one ?

 

 

Edited July 16, 2023 by DrBloodmoney

[Helyx]

I've seen all these films, most recently re-watching both the Silent Hill movies.

 

They're all pretty bad, it's just some are worse than others. I can't honestly say there's been a single video-game-to-film adaptation that's worth a second watch.

[LastMinuteSavior]

2 hours ago, Helyx said:

I can't honestly say there's been a single video-game-to-film adaptation that's worth a second watch.

 

2 hours ago, Helyx said:

...most recently re-watching both the Silent Hill movies.

 

 

Okay.

[SteelFreaxx]

 

 

Another one to add to your list.

[LastMinuteSavior]

I don't know @SteelFreaxx. That one looks especially bad.

 

Have you watched it? Does it have any redeeming qualities?

 

[DanielTheManieI]

I’m sure I’m the only person who liked Silent Hill: Revelation. Yes, it’s bad, but I much prefer it over the first movie. Maybe I like it cause Silent Hill 3 is my favorite game so was fun to see Easter eggs. 
 

Also, @LastMinuteSavior add Monster Hunter to your list. Then let us know what you think. ?

 

Resident Evil: Afterlife was great in 3D, I remember watching it. Bullets, zombies and the Executioners axe flying at you. 

[jgm4789]

If were strictly talking about film adaptations best are the sonic films, the Japanese phoenix wright and yakuza film, the first street fighter and mortal kombat films, rampage, and detective pikachu.

[Redgrave]

I remember watching the live-action Street Fighter movie and being disappointed there wasn't a scene where Ryu or Ken do a hadouken that looks like it does in the games. I think now I can appreciate it more as a cheesy 90's action movie though. However Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within I remember seeing and wondered what it actually had to do with Final Fantasy and as a kid I think I convinced myself Cloud or Sephiroth would show up at some point.

 

I don't remember very much of the first Silent Hill but I remember it at least used the soundtrack from the games which is greatly appreciated. And it's one of the few movies Sean Bean doesn't die in. I also don't remember very much of the 2005 Doom movie but I guess the action scenes were fine although I don't like how they had the demons be like some kind of Mars virus or something. I don't know why they didn't just have it be demons and do Event Horizon stuff. The last one I don't remember very much of but I guess I remember liking it was the first Tomb Raider.

 

I only saw the first Sonic movie and despite not being a big fan of the series I thought the movie itself was pretty good. I should probably watch the second one at some point since I know for the third one they are teasing Shadow in it and I want to see how that turns out. I would love it if they gave him guns like in the Shadow the Hedgehog game.

 

For Resident Evil I only liked the first one to some extent and I never really could watch any of the sequels all the way through mainly because I didn't like Alice as a character along with the smoker voice she did. On top of that I hated seeing the actual characters from the games get upstaged by her.

 

Overall though I still hold a soft spot for the 1995 Mortal Kombat and I consider that the best one since that one doesn't take too many liberties and it actually sounds like they wanted to make a movie for the fans of the games to where they had test audiences and asked them about some fights. It's kind of crazy knowing the movie was a couple wrong decisions from falling flat. The Scorpion fight for example was originally going to end when Johnny does his drop kick on him instead of teleporting him to that underworld looking area, and the Reptile fight almost didn't even happen at all. It's too bad Annihilation wound up the way it did but I guess at the very least Annihilation has some cool fights and has some banger songs like the Cyrax one or the one where Raiden fights the Reptiles and does the unnecessary flips. The Reptile fight from the first beats them all though. It's also kind of crazy how the same guy that directed this later made the Resident Evil movies so I have to wonder what happened there.

[LastMinuteSavior]

@Redgrave

What, you didn't like the hadouken at 1:52!? ?

 

 

Long story short: Paul W.S. Anderson started out with Mortal Kombat, made the awesome horror Event Horizon, a few dumb but fun movies after that, but then he started working with his wife Milla Jovovich all the time, got big budgets at his disposal to do whatever he wanted, got too comfortable and started unloading a bunch of crap.

 

46 minutes ago, Redgrave said:

Silent Hill (...) one of the few movies Sean Bean doesn't die in.

 

Don't watch the sequel ?

 

[Jeanolt]

There are not many good ones, but from what I can recall:

 

1. The Last of Us

2. Super Mario Bros (2023)

3. Pokémon (First two seasons)

4. Prince of Persia

5. FF7: Advent Children

6. Yo-Kai Watch

7. FFXV: Brotherhood

8. Detective Pikachu

 

Really bad:

9. All the Resident Evil Mainline movies

10. Assassin's Creed 

(Seriously bad, tries to reduce 25 hs of a possible game into one movie, and the plot/characters are horrible)

11. Doom

Edited July 16, 2023 by Jeanoltt

[Redgrave]

47 minutes ago, LastMinuteSavior said:

@Redgrave

What, you didn't like the hadouken at 1:52!?

 

 

Long story short: Paul W.S. Anderson started out with Mortal Kombat, made the awesome horror Event Horizon, a few dumb but fun movies after that, but then he started working with his wife Milla Jovovich all the time, got big budgets at his disposal to do whatever he wanted, got too comfortable and started unloading a bunch of crap.

 

 

Don't watch the sequel

 

 

Yeah it was that moment where I was like "That was the hadouken?" and being disappointed ? But yeah it's pretty enjoyable now I think. I guess when I first watched it many years ago I expected it to be more like the games kind of like how I mentioned before that I thought Final Fantasy characters would show up in The Spirits Within.

 

Yeah the issues make sense knowing it's because they are married or at least part of the reason. I find it hard to believe he really got away with so many including being able to do Monster Hunter but I guess those movies did make some money back regardless of feedback.

 

It sounds like the sequel isn't very good any way which makes me wonder what it is the first one did right. I only remember seeing the first one when it was on a movie channel years ago.

[LastMinuteSavior]

40 minutes ago, Jeanoltt said:

11. Doom

 

That makes me sad. But it's ok, it's easy to understand why a lotta people don't like it.

 

The cast makes it work for me. Karl Urban always gives 200%. Rosamund Pike is always charming. And Dwayne Johnson had a much more likable on and offscreen persona at that point.

I also enjoy the general sci-fi B movie vibes.

 

48 minutes ago, Jeanoltt said:

10. Assassin's Creed 

 

Yeah. I think I'll save my eyeballs from watching that one. I couldn't even finish watching the trailer.

 

[SteelFreaxx]

12 hours ago, LastMinuteSavior said:

I don't know @SteelFreaxx. That one looks especially bad.

 

Have you watched it? Does it have any redeeming qualities?

 

It has a brief Palico cameo. ?

It's on par with the later Resi films but don't set your hopes high.

 

11 hours ago, DanielTheManieI said:

add Monster Hunter to your list. Then let us know what you think.

 

[Terra]

Forgot about this pile of crap

Edited July 21, 2023 by Terra

[imminent_jargon]

Mortal Kombat is fun (and knows it). Probably won't end up in the Criterion Collection anytime soon, but it's fine. 

 

The Double Dragon movie (1994) tries to have a similar comedic edge but ends up hitting a lot of the same Robocop-inspired beats as other mid-budget action films of the early 90s. 

 

There's a film adaptation of Tokimeki Memorial but I haven't seen it. Fukiishi Kazue is the lead, and she became a pretty well known actress/model later on in her career. 

 

The Resident Evil movies were on TV in Japan all the time when I lived in and around Tokyo. Mila Jovovich had a bigger profile there than in the US, and would even go on variety talk shows to promote the latest sequels.