“Video Game Movies”, such a simple phrase yet impossible to master. Both mediums are based entirely around story, but what may be interesting to some people won’t interest everyone. Some people may love video games and dislike movies or vice versa. In order to recoup the other half of the audience, studios will populate the films with well known stars. Most recent examples of this include Five Nights at Freddie’s had Josh Hutcherson and A Minecraft Movie had Jack Black. Both films managed to draw in large crowds of both fans and casual viewers, enough to garner sequels. After 33 years of making movie adaptations of video games, it seems like the studios and audiences have finally reached a common ground. Of course out of those 33 years, it’s only been the past six to seven years that have really shown the most improvement.

Humble Beginnings

In order to understand the overall video game movie landscape, we first have to discuss 1993’s Super Mario Bros. I can only imagine the excitement 90s fans got when they first saw the poster. Seeing the tagline “This Ain’t No Game” and two humans resembling Mario and Luigi was enough to grab everyone’s attention. Released in the summer of 1993, Super Mario Bros. opened fourth at the box office earning $8.5 million its opening weekend. At the end of its theatrical run, a total of $38,912,465 wasn’t enough to recoup the nearly $48 million dollar budget. On paper, executing a Mario movie sounds easy: travel to new worlds, fight interesting creatures, save the princess, the end. However, the director’s of this film seemed determined to prove us wrong.

Instead of the Mushroom Kingdom fans know, the movie spends most of its time in either the real world or the bizarre “Dino World”. Despite “Dino World” coming from the cartoon, the one in the movie was less Dino and more Cyberpunk. Before production began, the film went through multiple rewrites and shuffled through numerous actors and directors before choosing Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton. The husband and wife directing duo were famously known for their TV Film Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future. Despite Mario’s failure at the movies, he did go on to have a second life among cult audiences. Thankfully, 30 years later Mario got a second chance at the movies with Illumination’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie, the film was welcomed by fans and even received some praise from critics.

Signs of Promise

Despite being both a critical and commercial failure, the Mario movie managed to do something unexpected: inspire other adaptations. The rest of the 90s were sprinkled with adaptations, from fighting games to aerial combat, nothing was off limits. If you asked someone what they remember from 1994’s Street Fighter film, the unanimous answer is Raul Julia’s performance as M. Bison. Despite Raul Julia stealing every scene he’s in, his charm was not enough to save the movie. Unlike the Mario movie, some of the characters in Street Fighter managed to match their game’s character designs.

Taking lessons from the adaptations prior, 1995’s Mortal Kombat managed to deliver for both fans and audiences alike. Despite the film being rated PG-13, the film managed to deliver iconic matchups between fan favorite characters and an iconic theme. For the first time, it truly felt like seeing your favorite game on the big screen as you know it. Even though not a critical masterpiece, this was one of the first films where fans could all say “that was pretty good”. Overall, the future remained bright for movie adaptations and showed no signs of slowing down.

Resident Evil

The adaptations continued on through the new millennium with Lara Croft: Tomb Raider kicking off the new generation. The most audiences got out of Lara and her cinematic outings was another Street Fighter scenario, looking the part without much else to offer. Yet it was 2002 when Resident Evil was unleashed in theaters that signaled a change for the adaptations to come. RE’s movie franchise managed to do something interesting, it sustained life as a franchise while barely resembling the source material. Thankfully, it looks like things may be turning around for the RE franchise with Zach Cregger’s adaptation releasing soon.

Identity Crisis

Many adaptations in the early 2000s often had the saving grace of resembling something from the source material: DOOM had the FPS sequence and Max Payne had the bullet time effects. Unfortunately other games were recognizable in name only, some of these adaptations were helmed by Uwe Boll. UB’s films are synonymous with poor editing and straying far away from the source material. Before Warner Bros. started shelving movies as “tax write-offs”, Uwe was exploiting Germany’s tax shelter laws to fund his movies. Overall, the early 2000s were an endless search for identity when it came to video game movies.

For the first half of the 2010s, adaptations went with the reliable formula of casting big name actors. Movies like Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time andWarcraft managed to stand above other adaptations, both boasting big actors and well funded producers for the films. In 2019 the landscape of game adaptions changed when Pokémon Detective Pikachu released. The film succeeded in telling a Pokémon story and blending in elements of Who Framed Roger Rabbit thrown in, resulting in the first video game movie to be labeled “Fresh” by Rotten Tomatoes. Because of this film’s success, adaptations slowly started to find balance between big names and honoring the material.

What’s Next?

After the success of Pikachu, movie adaptations could now be viewed as worthy of critical acclaim. Just before the world shut down due to covid, Sonic the Hedgehog dashed his way into theaters. Boasting big actors and a genuine respect for the material, Sonic dashed its way to a “certified” rating and kickstarted a film series and spinoff show. In the end, Sonic managed to prove video game movies were slowly improving. While not every adaptation afterwards was a success, the idea of a successful movie adaptation no longer seemed rare.

In recent years, video games have opted to jump into the small screen instead. Fallout and The Last of Us prove that video game adaptations can not only succeed but also be universally praised. Despite the format differing, both shows offer a valid lesson towards creatives pondering an adaptation: it’s about who you hire. Showrunners for both projects show a deep admiration for the material and have the talent to back it up. However, choosing the right team is half the battle, the other half is choosing the right format.

When it comes to where adaptations go from here, I think they will continue to improve. Instead of being the usual triple AAA game, Indies have made their way to Hollywood. Recently, Mark Fischbach (known on YouTube as “Markiplier”) pulled off an amazing feat in writing, directing, starring, and producing a feature adaptation of David Szymanski’s game Iron Lung. While critics weren’t receptive to the game itself, they were more fascinated by Markiplier’s indie approach. Up until this year, there hadn’t been a big Indie game adaptation, that’s proof enough we’re on the right path. Of course, when it comes to acclaim of any kind it’s always going to vary among groups. But if the past 33 years have shown us anything, it’s that we’ve come a long way and show no signs of stopping.