Best Video Game Movie Ever? by Gary Hainsworth

December 2016, Updated August 2022

Is it possible that "Mortal Kombat", which was better when it was called "Enter the Dragon" and starred Bruce Lee, is the best live-action video game adaptation of all time? Is that a depressing commentary of the movie genre itself if the answer turns out to be yes/? It's a sad thought, but the conclusion seems rather inescapable. The only other good movie based on a video game that comes to mind is "Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie." All the others I can think of are either "so bad they're good" or are just plain terrible. Bad as it is, I "enjoyed" the "Super Mario Bros" movie despite a part of me wishing it had the plot of "Blue Velvet" (with Princess Peach in the Isabella Rossellini role and Koopa played by Dennis Hopper channeling Frank Booth) instead. 

Still, I don't like having to grade movies on a curve. However, until video game adaptations produce their own version of The Dark Knight (2008) or even Batman Begins (2005) curved their grade will have to be just to say that the genre itself is not entirely devoid of merit. Back in the day, a good comic book movie, let alone a great one, was so rare a bird that the idea of their being a good comic book was almost absurd. Sure, but people are now being nominated and or winning Oscars for films that started their creative journey as a comic book or graphic novel. Whereas before comic book movies, on those few occasions they would be considered for Oscar consideration, tended to be nominated for technical awards like Art Direction, Cinematography, and Visual Effects, but those above-the-line categories traditionally called Creative, such as acting, writing, directing, remained elusive until relatively recently.

Now the comic book movie is better accepted as a valid genre come awards season and not treated as the unfortunate source of Hollywood's wealth the way Gatsby tries to distance himself from his bootlegging past. For example, Paul Newman being nominated, but not winning for his role as John Mooney in the Sam Mendes directed movie Road to Perdition (2002), William Hurt being nominated but not winning for his role in the David Cronenberg directed movie A History of Violence (2005), and Heath Ledger being nominated, but unlike many others, winning for his posthumous performance as The Joker in The Dark Knight (2008). If one wishes to expand the definition of a comic book movie to include a comic strip then Al Pacino's scene-stealing performance as "Big Boy" Caprice in Dick Tracy (1990) as Best Supporting Actor is a further example of the comic book movies slow and steady march toward artistic legitimacy as a proper movie genre. Video game movies have had no such parallels and are generally considered to be synonymous with terrible, and there appears to be many legitimate reasons for the persistent belief that a video game movie is garbage. Because virtually all movies based on a movie have been awful. Occasionally profitable, but never critical darlings. 

Update (08/2022): While the genre has yet to have an equivalent to The Dark Knight (2008) or Joker (2019), three have been a few video game based/inspired movies that achieved critical success. Pokemon Detective Pikachu (2019), Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), and its direct sequel Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022) are all rated over 60% on Rotten Tomatoes. In other words, certified fresh. Great films they are not, but good or at least good enough, most certainly.