It's summer and as usual there's a whole host of blockbuster movies to watch (if you haven't seen The Dark Knight yet, I strongly recommend it). So I thought it would interesting to take a look at some of the most disastrous films that were based on video games.
I don't know why most movies based on games have generally been awful. Maybe it's some deep psychological reason, that because we're simply watching an adaptation of something we're used to interacting with, it's not as engaging. Or maybe it's just because the makers knocked up a really quick script that had nothing to do with the film and then just chucked money at it until it was ready. Either way, here are my three main offenders:
Advertisement:
Super Mario Bros This is the movie taht's least like the game it was based on. Bowser (or King Koopa as he was known then) is a human played by Dennis Hopper, Yoshi is a Jurassic Park reject, Goombas are about nine feet tall and the Mushroom Kingdom looks like some weird and grimy futuristic underground city. A bizarre film.
House Of The Dead Made by bizarre German director Uwe Boll (who's made some other terrible game movies in his time), House Of The Dead has very little to do with the classic arcade shooter other than the fact there are zombies in it. Oh, and the fact that during the action scenes there's actual footage from the game slotted in at random moments, which is complete madness.
Street Fighter Okay, I must admit I quite like this one, but only because it's so bad and completely messes with the story. Guile (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is the leader of some sort of fake UN army, alongside Cammy (Kylie Minogue), who has about four accents throughout the film. Chun-Li's a news reporter, with E Honda and Balrog as her camera crew; Ryu and Ken are conmen and Dhalsim's a weak scientist guy who doesn't have any stretchy powers at all. It's as if they'd written an action movie then decided at the last minute to change the names in the script to Street Fighter characters to make more money from it.
There have been a host of other terrible movies based on games: Double Dragon, Alone In The Dark and Dead Or Alive spring to mind. But that said, there have been some good ones too: I recommend Mortal Kombat, the first Resident Evil movie, Silent Hill and Street Fighter: The Animated Movie.
So how about you? Which game movies do you particularly love or hate? And are there any games you'd like to see getting the film treatment?
