The famous films’ adaptation is a rather scrupulous art that rarely finds acceptance among its consumers. Moreover, it is often not important for which motives the movie was filmed. The popular books and legendry game adaptations are often criticized and described as third-class products. However, nowadays it is more of a cliché that can be gotten rid of by revisiting a few high-quality cinematic works that drew their inspiration from the video game storylines.
🎬 Mortal Kombat
The movie, made by Paul Anderson in 1995, didn’t have the worst possible rating among films of such format. Mortal Kombat had many fans, especially among children and teenagers. It was a legend at its time and the most talked-about subject during all school brakes (and not only there). Many people believed this film adaptation would only spoil the excitement from the game. But even though the fans had some comments concerning the plot, they still were interested not with the content depth or languid dramatic speeches, but for the action, atmospheric fights that inspired nostalgia and for the accompanying soundtrack – one of the best in cinema history. Despite all the misgivings, this first film part had a decent box office.
🎬 Resident Evil
The same director released this movie for gamer audience in 2002. It wasn’t an easy task to bring the game idea to life.
The first part of the “Resident Evil” line, starring Milla Jovovich, received positive reviews. Paul Andersen, who already had the experience in filming video games thanks to Mortal Kombat, left gamers a lot of references to their favorite entertainment. The thriller showed the game atmosphere, drama, and brutality.
Initially, it seemed that the series had a good chance of long-term success, but Hollywood killed the storyline development and launched next movies into a stereotypical system that destroyed all entourage. But the first part is worth watching for fans.
🎬 Warcraft
The relatively new Duncan Jones film, released in 2016, has a history of quite a long formation from an idea to a full-fledged movie. The studio that released it mentioned the project launch back in 2006, and the public saw its full implementation 10 years later. A whole decade of waiting played a cruel joke with it: by the time of its release, the sensational film was at the hype peak among game fans, and when the premiere finally took place, it didn’t comply with the inflated moviegoers expectations. Fans were upset as it didn’t reveal even half of their favorite computer entertainment storyline. However, it still cannot be called bad as a lot of money has been invested, which is noticeable from the high-quality graphics and fight scenes, but unfortunately it became a difficult task for Hollywood to recreate the plot.
🎬 Assasin’s Creed
This movie by Justin Kurzel has also become an overwhelming niche for Hollywood. The reason is trivial – the wrong chosen format. It is quite possible that if a series had been filmed instead of a full-length movie, the game franchise plot would’ve been fully revealed. Fans of these games line weren’t upset with the adaptation and mostly liked it, but viewers who aren’t gamers understood a little from the big picture.
🎬 Tomb Raider
The excellent Angelina Jolie starred in the first film adaptation, which took place in 2001. It had impressive box office receipts but didn’t receive a lot of positive reviews from game fans. Gamers found it pretentious, boring, and formulaic. After its release, Jolie turned down the role publicly.
17 years later, Warner Bros decided to dig out old ideas and bring them to life with Alicia Vikander in the lead role. Since she was a devoted Tomb Raider fan, she played her character perfectly. The picture as a whole surpassed its previous version, but still caused gamers chagrin. This time, they didn’t like the actress’s shape, which didn’t meet the standarts set by the sex-symbols of the 90s. Although the 2018 film is recommended for watching.
🎬 Silent Hill
The Silent Hill universe is famous for its multifaceted storyline, therefore, transferring it to screens is not an easy process. However, in 2006 Christopher Hans’s attempt to do it was crowned with success – he “stuffed” the picture with references to the legendary franchise moments. As always, fans’ opinions are mixed. Some blame the director for ruining the entire game series, while others discovered this line for themselves thanks to his film. They are ready to prove to everyone around that ash falls from the sky instead of snow in the city. Despite serious differences from the original, the picture deserves due attention. Even if horror is not your genre, it’s worth watching, at least to appreciate such a technique as choreography substituting graphics.
🎬 Postal
The “Postal” is famous for its silly jokes, and the silly jokes of the source are hard to spoil even for such a director like Uwe Ball. Everything from the game was transferred to the screens, including mufflers-cats and politically incorrect humor. Postal and Ball complemented each other: the stupid primary source and director’s sense of beauty lack illuminates the series banter on screens. At the end, there is a scene where Uwe himself was shot in the groin when he confessed his hatred of video games.
🎬 Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
In 2010, Disney released its own Prince of Persia version. And the company’s idea of this film is seriously different from the original – they assigned the name and life story to the main character. The risky trick of changing the original scenario while leaving the main recognizable features has succeeded.
🎬 Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
The audience loved this animated story with realistic graphic elements. Each “Final Fantasy” is an independent work.
At one time, the motion picture was taken rather indifferently – no one perceived the Japanese claim of seriosity. As a result, this high-budget film had minimal box office receipts. But years later, it gained cult status and recommendations for viewing. The viewer will be surprised by the uncharacteristic graphics for 2001, which went to huge costs.
🎬 Pokemon. Detective Pikachu
After the Pokemon hype, it took some time before they burst into Hollywood in 2019. But Pokemon Go has nothing to do with it – the plot reveals the game foundation of “Detective Pikachu”.
The characters themselves are unusual in the motion picture – cartoonihs cuties have been replaced by more realistic figures that look like real animals. This is quite an attractive moment because the creators have moved away from clichés and breathed a little life into an already tired franchise. Great jokes that permeate the film make you watch it to the end.
