The first major live-action movie adaptation of a video game was 1993’s Super Mario Bros. It was, to put it mildly, pretty bad.
Its failure didn’t deter Hollywood from trying to make it work, though. 1994’s Street Fighter, despite an impressive performance from the iconic Raul Julia, was universally panned. 1995’s Mortal Kombat has become a cult classic today, but it’s still a mediocre movie. However, it was a box office success, as was 2001’s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (also a bad movie!)
Still, these box office successes were few and far between. For every “win,” we had several disasters: Resident Evil, Wing Commander, Alone in the Dark, just to name a few. Oh, and don’t forget about those awful Uwe Boll films, either. Still, Hollywood kept trying to make video game movies work, and by the time the 2010s rolled around, we were not only seeing more video game movies, but also some large names attached to them.
2010’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time starred Jake Gyllenhaal, Ben Kingsley, and Alfred Molina. Fresh off Breaking Bad, Aaron Paul was the lead in 2014’s Need for Speed. Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, and Jeremy Irons all starred in 2016’s Assassin’s Creed. Hollywood kept trying to make video game movies work, pulling out all the stops.
Well, aside from understanding what makes a video game movie work, that is.
You see, nearly all of these films were presented as super serious, mature movies. It was as if Hollywood looked down on video games and wanted these movies to transcend the source material. Which is, of course, stupid; the best part of the DOOM film was the first-person sequence. It was certainly not whatever was happening with that movie’s plot or acting. I don’t want to watch a bunch of dialogue and lore explanation in DOOM, whether it’s the 2005 movie adaptation or DOOM: The Dark Ages.
Something happened, however, by the end of the 2010s, and no, it has nothing to do with Rampage, which somehow made nearly half a billion dollars at the box office. It’s like Hollywood learned that the best way to make a good video game movie is to stop trying so hard and instead have fun with it.
Even as video games become more serious, their movie adaptations don’t need to follow suit
In 2016, Nintendo released a Pokemon spin-off called Detective Pikachu, starring Pikachu as an actual-factual detective who would solve crimes. Oh, and he talked as well, even showing some occasional snark and personality.
Three years later, Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures released a Detective Pikachu movie with none other than Ryan Reynolds as the voice of Pikachu. You know, the guy from Deadpool was now voicing Pikachu. Who wouldn’t want to see that?!
I’m being serious; who wouldn’t want to see that? Aside from 2016’s Warcraft, which was completely buoyed by the Chinese box office, Detective Pikachu was easily the highest-grossing video game movie to date. Around the same time, Paramount was beginning the marketing campaign for their upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog adaptation. It didn’t go as planned, though, since everybody (correctly) went after the horrific design for Sonic. Thankfully, Paramount changed Sonic’s appearance from realistic to cartoonish/more in line with how he actually looks in the games. Combined with a nonsensical plot that isn’t afraid to be over-the-top, a fact made easier by Jim Carrey’s incredible performance as Dr. Robotnik, you had a film that would take in over $300 million at the box office.
It’s a number that would have been higher if not for the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, the recipe for success had become clear: what if video game movies were as fun as the games they’re based on? That’s not to say that darker, more serious games shouldn’t get the live-action adaptation; the first season of The Last of Us on HBO is incredible. Instead, it shows the importance of knowing when to lean into that more serious tone versus knowing when to have fun with it.
Now, this is Hollywood we’re talking about, an industry that has, especially recently, been learning all the wrong lessons from box office trends. I’m pretty sure they’ve gotten the memo when it comes to video game adaptations, following the massive success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which grossed $1.3 billion. Its sequel, which is literally 98 minutes of jangling keys at the audience, also grossed over $1 billion. A Minecraft Movie, which is also 101 minutes of key jingling, was just shy of that billion-dollar mark.
There’s also all of the Sonic sequels and two films in the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise. None of these are critical masterpieces, but they are aligned with the source material: fun, entertaining, and exactly what audiences would want out of them. It was like these studios stopped trying to produce works of art and just focused on making a fun movie based on a fun game.
Video game adaptations can still be serious so long as it’s contextually appropriate
I’m not saying that every video game adaptation needs to eschew mature storytelling and themes and focus on the wacky, over-the-top nature of the games they’re based on. That’s not possible since not every game today is wacky and over-the-top. The Last of Us‘s first season works so well because it understands the source material. The same can be said for Prime Video’s Fallout; it understands the source material, its twists and turns, and, more importantly, knows when to throw in some humor.
Compare that to, say, Uncharted, which tries way too hard to be Indiana Jones. I get it; the games have a heavy Indiana Jones influence to them. That said, we didn’t need Uncharted to be another Indiana Jones movie; we needed it to be a fun action-adventure à la National Treasure.
A better example would honestly be Zach Cregger’s upcoming Resident Evil, a movie that looks to be staying true to the source material while understanding that you don’t need to religiously follow said source material. I know that online discourse has been wondering why this is a Resident Evil movie if the iconic characters aren’t present. To them, I have one thing to say: have you ever taken a deep look at Resident Evil’s lore? It’s an absolute mess. All Cregger needs to do is what the video game franchise has done over the past few years: go back to its survival horror roots. That’s exactly what he appears to be doing.
That’s ultimately the crux of things, and it’s so refreshing to see Hollywood finally understanding what makes video game adaptations work. Yes, games have evolved as an art form over time and have been able to tackle complex, deeper messaging, but ultimately, they’re entertaining first and foremost. Street Fighter is supposed to be wacky, it’s supposed to be larger than life, it’s supposed to be stylish. Guess what the upcoming film looks to be: wacky, larger than life, and stylish. Guess what the Mario and Minecraft movies were: wacky, larger than life, and stylish. No wonder why they succeeded, and no wonder why everyone is excited for Street Fighter.
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