The Top Ten Movies Based on Video Games

In relation to books or plays, video games are a relatively new media from which to adapt a movie. As a result, filmmakers have yet to really understand what it takes to make a good video game based film. Unlike a book or play, there’s usually a limited character-based story from which a plot can be derived. Furthermore, as an adaptation of a video game, the film should at least attempt to recreate the feel and tone of the game. This typically means more action and emphasis on visuals than on characters or story. There’s only so much screen time in a feature length film, and finding that ideal balance between story and excitement is difficult to accomplish.

The following is our list of movies based on video games that have fared the best. In comparison to general films, they are, by all means terrible (none rating higher than 44% on Rotten Tomatoes), but in their sub-genre, they are the cream of the crop.

10. Doom (2005)

A movie based on a first person shooter seems like it could have all sorts of great action-packed possibilities, yet Doom wastes most of those opportunities. First of all, there is no attempt at a plot. It’s just a string of poorly planned excuses for action scenes. Second, despite the originality of the video game, the film plays its visuals and general concept pretty safe. There is the interesting “first person shooter” sequence, but that ends up feeling like a desperate attempt to get a cheer from the fans of the video games. It doesn’t really feel necessary and is not quite executed well enough to make the film any better. But at least we’ve got Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as a major character (in addition to Karl Urban and Rosamund Pike). The Rock is always putting in a good effort and the film is better as a result. In all, Doom mostly meets expectations, even if those expectations are really low.

9. Dead or Alive (2006)

With a cast of nobodies, downright obnoxious acting, and a preposterous plot, Dead or Alive is nothing more than a terrible film. Yet, there’s something here that keeps it at least interesting. The first step to watching the film is that you can’t take it seriously. Basing a movie on a martial arts combat game franchise is a sure-fire way to admit that the plot really doesn’t matter. You have to make fun of it and go along with all of the ridiculousness. If you can do this (not easy), you just may have a good time. For one, the film manages to capture the somewhat cartoonish visual atmosphere of the games, and it is at least different in the way that the battles between characters can happen at any given time. Trying to find any other redeeming qualities is just a waste of time.

8. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)

A cross between Indiana Jones and James Bond was what fans were hoping for, but what we got was another example of why video game movies fare so poorly. With a video game, especially one with a first-person perspective, the player feels like they are the character that they are controlling. They want to avoid danger, and in general they inherently care about the well being of that character. With a movie it is more challenging to create that connection between the protagonist and the audience. The film version of Lara Croft all but forgot about this little complication. Despite a stellar cast (including a big role for Daniel Craig), and interesting action, the film just never feels that important and as a result the audience loses their attention. If the writers had been able to figure this issue out, the franchise would probably have lasted longer than two films.

7. Need for Speed (2014)

The video game series focused on car chases, so that’s exactly what the film version gave audiences, if nothing else. The video games were mostly devoid of a story, the goal is usually “outrun the cops” in an exotic car. This ended up being an easy enough premise to base a feature film on, so much so that the writers pretty much gave up after that. Need for Speed is definitely a “check your brain at the door” affair, which honestly should come as no surprise.  Therefore, this film makes it on the list not because it breaks the paradigm of video game based films sucking, but because it accomplishes exactly what it set out to do. Most video game based films don’t even get that far.

6. Silent Hill (2006)

As far as video game adaptations go, Silent Hill ended up being better than most. It successfully translates the creepy weirdness from the game to the screen, but upon doing so the complications of the feature length film format rear their ugly head (no pun intended). Overlong and devoid of meaningful dialogue or plot, Silent Hill remains an exercise in endurance. The visuals are interesting as long as you don’t care that there isn’t really much of a purpose to them besides being the main reason to keep watching. As such, Silent Hill pays tribute to the video game on which it is based. By making the audience uncomfortable both on purpose and by mistake due to incompetence, it is nonetheless an intriguing experience. 

5. Mortal Kombat (1995)

Like a version of Enter the Dragon on steroids fueled by cheesy B-movie special effects, Mortal Kombat gave us a lot to like as a video game film. Even if the premise was somewhat redundant, it nonetheless captured the essence of the video game. Director Paul W.S. Anderson’s technique of more action/less common sense actually worked here because, honestly, the film doesn’t really need much of a plot to begin with. After all, we’re talking about a video game series that consisted entirely of 1v1 combat sequences. With no storyline to complicate expectations, Mortal Kombat allows the audience to just sit back and enjoy the violence.

4. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (2010)

By the standards of normal movies, Prince of Persia was pretty horrible. Yet another attempt by Disney to replicate the success of Pirates with an exotic locale, young popular protagonist, and some sort of traditional good vs. evil storyline. By the standards of video game movies, Prince of Persia was great. It featured all that cool parkour action that was the trademark of the later games in the series. It had enough swashbuckling adventure to keep you at the edge of your seat and a beefy Jake Gylenhaal is as likable a protagonist as there could be. It has veteran actor Ben Kingsley as a believable antagonist, and Disney didn’t skimp on the production values. We’ll just have to forget about the fact that despite 9 video game titles to draw inspiration from, it was largely devoid of a meaningful plot. 

3. Resident Evil (2002)

Paul W.S. Anderson’s crowning achievement as director is a surprisingly interesting action flick. At the time of its release, Resident Evil was really something that we had not seen before. Anderson was able to mix the thrill of a horror film with the intrigue and edginess of science fiction and the attention-grabbing moments of an action flick. More importantly, it featured some downright artistic moments that no other film on this list besides the next one came even close to. It introduced most of us to the ass-kicking capabilities of Milla Jovovich, made us believe in Michelle Rodriguez, and established the foundations of a movie franchise that has produced 5 more films. Some of those later films may have some advantages in certain areas over this first installment, but as far as creating a movie that captures the essence of a video game while also not needing to dwell on that fact, this film has no equal. Yet.

2. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)

So Spirits Within is only loosely connected to the game series of which it shares its name, but that’s OK. It is proof that there is hope for movies based on video games because it doesn’t play it safe by just attempting to repeating a storyline from the game. Instead, it used the game and that universe as inspiration to push the boundaries of what a film could be. As the first photo-realistic computer-animated feature film, it paved the way for the spell bounding special effects that we take for granted today in our favorite comic book movies. This film was basically an expensive experiment that would not have been possible had its director (and Final Fantasy video game creator) Hironobu Sakaguchi not learned so much from creating video games in the first place. Sure, the film is a little slow and not as entertaining as it should have been, but it is the innovation that counts. Forget all the other movies on this list, if video game based movies of the future have even part of the creativity and ambition as Spirits Within, then it is only a short time before a truly good one comes along.

1. None

That’s right, there are no movies based on video games worthy of being #1, yet.