Mario, Sonic and Lara Croft, Nathan Drake, Scorpion, as well as other favorite game greats made the jump to the big screen successfully, as it turns out.
You'd think that making these best video game movies lists would be pretty easy, since the number of qualifying films is so small so we've made it a little more challenging with a top 10 Now the question on your mind isn't Oh, which movies got cut? but instead Wow there are greatest 10 movies based on video games?
Yes, adapting games effectively to film has always been one of Hollywood's toughest challenges, even as games are becoming more and more story-driven, and functioning as long-form films in their own right. It's understandable that old-school cabinet games and platformers, which tend to have less narrative, would be harder to adapt, but modern games are almost automatically built for the big screen. How hard is it to make an Uncharted movie when the Uncharted games feel like a movie? As it turns out? Very hard.
And an important note: this list is made up of movies that are based on actual games. So it does not a include video games (The Wizard, Pixels) and or the many are films that feature a made up game (Free Guy, Ready Player One Wreck-It Ralph and or Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, etc.).
So this New week with the Minecraft movie arriving on our doorstep, here are our The 10 Greatest Video Game Movies of All Time
The 10 Greatest Video Game Movies of All Time
1. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024)
We already told you Sonic never got three movies and so here is Sonic the Hedgehog 3 the best of the three so far and the great representation of a new Sonic franchise. The Sonic the Hedgehog movies have only gotten better with each installment, with the whole series really refining the way it brings Sega's insane console-launching speedy platformer to life, both in animation and live-action.
It's high-octane family entertainment that also managed to find the perfect voice for Sonic in Ben Schwartz, who strikes a balance between sarcastic and sweet. It is a also responsible for the bringing Jim Carrey out of blockbuster retirement or gifting a whole new generations with his very unique comic antics.
It feels like modern cinematic miracle that we have now managed to bring Sonic or Mario to movie theaters in a such successful ways. And Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was the darkest, most effective film yet. The chemistry between Sonic Tails or Knuckles is greatest in this movie or Keanu Reeves voice for Shadow is a perfect.
2. Werewolves Within (2021)
This is definitely the Least frequently seen film on this great list and the least known game on the list ( the VR game for Oculus Rift from 2016) on which it is a based and that's Josh Ruben's Werewolf Within is a superior quirky monster mystery starring Sam Richardson (Veep, The Detroiters) as a new park ranger in the same small town filled with feuding citizens who are either killed by their own neighborhood rivalries or a terrifying beast roaming the woods. Full of humor enhanced by co-stars Milana Vayntrub (Our Lost Squirrel Girl), Michaela Watkins (Heart Eyes), and George Basil (Severance), Werewolf Within is a very good film and a must-see for any horror season marathon.
3. Detective Pikachu (2019)
The live-action/animation hybrid Detective Pikachu was a clever, heartwarming dive into the very vast world of Pokémon, and one in which Ryan Reynolds voiced a smart, Detective Pikachu who teams up with Justice Smith's frustrated former Pokémon trainer Tim, who is the only person who can hear this very special Pikachu talk. or Together they are investigating the death of Tim's estranged father in Ryme City. This energetic, unique approach to a very unique game world created a box office gold mine, and made Detective Pikachu the highest-grossing video game movie of all time (at the time). The Best character arcs the surprising storyline twists and the movie is clearly understood the assignment. And so far it is believed a sequel is still in the works.
4. The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)
The less said that about original Super Mario Bros. movie from 1993 the better, but it is a fascinating study in how to make a blockbuster disaster. And now this movie is so bad that it is a still in bad territory even when it is a good. So all in all This was live action miscalculation of the epic proportions.
That first attempt at the bringing Mario and Luigi to the big screen was so bad that it basically killed the all Future attempt. Nintendo switch basically stopped licensing it is a characters for movies. So now, nearly 30 years later the Super Mario curse was broken with a vibrant delightful animated film that made just as much money at the box office as the original. The world of the Mario Bros. was a too ridiculous or incoherent plumbers and princesses, mushrooms, Bowser for live-action and needed to thrive in a cartoon environment. And that is a exactly what this fictional story needed in the fictional presentation. And so while castings of the Chris Pratt as Mario came as a shock to internet ultimately no one cared. And here everything is worked out fine.
5. Tomb Raider (2018)
And so here's another great game franchise that's been going on for so long that we've reached reboot territory. And not only that, the 2018 Tomb Raider movie was based on a completely different rebooted game series the Survivor trilogy than the last two Angelina Jolie films, with Simon West at the helm and Jan de Bont as the action director.
The new Tomb Raider, starring Ex Machina's Alicia Vikander, was a thoughtful, exciting reworking of the 2013 game, the first in a new trilogy, and it involved an adventure on Yamatai Island that helps transform the young Lara Croft from aimless heiress to globe-trotting adventurer. And or, if you prefer, Survivor, since the original story paints Lara as more of a spunky, vulnerable type than a confident action hero.
The sequel was in the works for a while, but the delays due to Covid disrupted everything so much that MGM had to lose the film rights to the game franchise in 2022. That's a pity. And Trinity is definitely behind it.
The sequel was in the works for a while, but the delays due to Covid disrupted everything so much that MGM had to lose the film rights to the game franchise in 2022. And that's a pity. Trinity is definitely behind it.
6. Mortal Kombat (2021)
With this list, we're trying to strike a balance between old and new when it comes to video game movies, honoring older adaptation efforts and past major changes while also saluting newer, more rigorous and grounded reboots. 2021's Mortal Kombat, which has a much-hyped sequel coming in 2025, hit all the right notes in terms of world-building, solid action and of course, occasional wit. It took the iconic, seminal fighting game and gave it a new sheen, keeping our heroes' quest to save Earth from the enemies of Outworld alive while using the revenge story between Scorpion and Sub-Zero as the backbone of the film.
But now we'll give some love to Paul W.S. Anderson's original 1995 adaptation, too. Yes, before he cracked the Resident Evil code, Anderson had that one nice '90s hit with the first Mortal Kombat movie - a fun campy crash course in how to bring a fighting game to the big screen.
7. Resident Evil (2002)
For overall quality as well as spirited debate, the most resilient video game movie franchise is Paul W.S. Anderson's Resident Evil series. And over the course of two decades, with six films, Resident Evil became the little Umbrella Corporation engine that it could be, with its own brand of immersive action and horror.
Representing the entire run and that even includes the recent Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City reboot in 2021 and a separate Netflix series in 2022 is the 2002 original, the one in which The Fifth Element's Milla Jovovich plays amnesiac heroine Alice, who joins a group of warriors to fight the evil Umbrella Corporation and the scourge of the zombie-creating T-virus.
Combining various parts of the first two Resident Evil games, this first film nicely set the stage for 25 more years of RE movies. While 28 Days Later and the Dawn of the Dead reboot helped popularize zombie horror earlier this century, Resident Evil has found itself in a sweet spot as a game filled with undead monsters and plenty of dystopian lore to draw from.
Oh, and the franchise hasn't stopped reinventing itself either, as a new version from Y'all the Barbarian's Zack Krieger is slated for 2026.
8. Uncharted (2022)
The intro asked: how hard can it be to make a good Uncharted movie? Of course, that's a different matter than how hard it is to make any movie in general.
Not only do the Uncharted games play like action movies, with eye-popping interactive cutscenes and what are essentially stunt spectacles (one of which ended up in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning to some extent), but the games themselves were influenced by classic action-adventure films like the Indiana Jones movies.
The choice to cast Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg as younger versions of hero Nathan Drake and mentor Victor Sully Sullivan (this is Hollywood, baby) angered some fans of the game franchise, taking away some of Uncharted's heart and lively appeal from the movie, but the action was good (especially the third act set piece) and there was enough charisma on set that Uncharted held up as a mixtape of characters and stories.
9. Rampage (2018)
This is now arguably the best movie you could have made based on a 1986 arcade game, featuring monsters like Godzilla and Kong and their best friend - a giant werewolf - climbing buildings, eating people, shooting down planes and then reducing said buildings to rubble. However, for 2018's Rampage itself, the battle lines were a little different. It was lizard and wolf versus ape and the Rock.
Yes, Dwayne Johnson has teamed up with director Brad Peyton (after Journey 2: The Mysterious Island and that San Andreas) to make a blockbuster disaster movie about mutant animals fighting and then leveling Chicago.
10. Street Fighter (1994)
So our official no-nonsense entry here, because we have to admit that some video game movies are pretty great, is the silly guilty pleasure of 1994's Street Fighter. So see, most video games at the time were either platformers or fighting games, so not much of a narrative was unfolding. And this Street Fighter was exactly what you wanted from a Street Fighter movie. Coming at the end of Jean-Claude Van Damme's heyday (he still had Peter Hyams' underrated movies Timecop and This Sudden Death), Street Fighter has now moved into beloved cult movie territory, starring Ming-Na Wen, Kylie Minogue, Wes Studi, and the late, great Raul Julia (in what would be his final film role). Written and directed by screenwriter Steven E. de Souza (Die Hard, The Running Man, Richochette), Street Fighter was turned into a Van Damme vehicle, one that made Colonel Guile the central character and guaranteed the same ton of roundhouse spin kicks.
So what are your all-time favorite video game movies? Tell me comment through
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