Live Action Movie Adaptations of Video Games: Like, Love, Hate, or just Ignore?

[Segadude113]

Or anything else? Personally i'm in the like category. I get that some things do need to change when it comes to live action adaptations. Not everything though. Casting is important too. A good cast can make a movie or break it based on the script. Also it's good if the people making the movie have some knowledge about the game they are basing it off of. But it can also work if the actors are just really good at playing the part and you're sucked into the illusion. A good adaptation would be Street Fighter The Movie from the 90s even if it got some characters absolutely wrong. THe same thing might happen again with the new Street Fighter movie's new cast. Super Mario Brothers The Movie from the 90s is crazy but as a darker take on the Mario series it weirdly works. It's the Nintendo answer to Sonic SatAM in my opinion. Sure the Goombas and Koopa Troopas are completely different, as are Yoshi and Toad. Also Bowser played by Dennis Hopper is an odd pick but it works for that sort of business guy in a suit type of villain. Just seems like it could have easily been a totally different movie about humans evolving from dinosaurs. Like a big scifi blockbuster. Maybe that's why it appeals to me. Anyway like I said the casting is super important. Double Dragon is fun. it makes no sense whatsoever to have the arcade game in the movie, but it's dumb fun. Mortal Kombat was freaking amazing. That one is the most faithful even with the lack of gore. Moving onto the 2000s we see Resident Evil and Tomb Raider take shots at live action films. Tomb Raider is pretty close to the games, Angelina Jolie is a lot like Lara Croft and has the attitude down. The action is cool. Resident Evil is just Matrix with zombies. Nothing like the games at all. We did eventually get some CG Resident Evil movies that were better. Speaking of CG, Final Fantasy Spirits Within and Advent Children. We didn't get a live action FF movie until FFXV so cg movies were all we had to go on at the time. Neither one feels like FF. FFXV Kingsglave is just a precursor to the game and made around the same time as it. It ain't bad. Finally I want to talk about the Sonic movies. The Sonic movies have been solid overall. Not just saying that because i am a Sega fan. I mean it. The Sonic movies are super consistant. The only weird one is the Knuckles series on Netflix which is 6 episodes of Wade being the best bowler and it feels more like a comedy movie from the mid 2000s for better or worse. It barely has anything to do with Knuckles or the other Sonic movies. At most it explains why they needed to go to see Wade to get the emerald in the 3rd film. It didn't need to though. I hope if they do go back to Knuckles they make the next season or whatever about him and his lore with the Echidna tribe. Sonic 4 looks great. Shadow might get a spin off series too. Hope that one is good.

 

[Frickinfrik]

Depending on the franchise. If it’s one based on a game that stars humans, I’m fine with it. But if it’s based on a game that starred cartoonish looking characters and/or anthropomorphic animals, then I’m not fine with it and get mad. That’s one of my main problems with the Sonic movies. I hate how they’re live action instead of animated. It being live action makes no sense and deviates from the source material. Also I hate the designs of the Sonic characters in the movies, even after the redesign.

 

[Segadude113]

Depending on the franchise. If it’s one based on a game that stars humans, I’m fine with it. But if it’s based on a game that starred cartoonish looking characters and/or anthropomorphic animals, then I’m not fine with it and get mad. That’s one of my main problems with the Sonic movies. I hate how they’re live action instead of animated. It being live action makes no sense and deviates from the source material. Also I hate the designs of the Sonic characters in the movies, even after the redesign.

can you even say Sonic has a source when every single show and movie and anime has strayed from it? INCLUDING THE GAMES THEMSELVES? I mean if Sega doesn't want to follow their own lore, let everyone take a crack at something original.

 

[Pinballbuzzbro]

I think they should just normalize taking the 90' TMNT/Sonic movies route of adapting the story and characters faithfully but just making them more humorous and light to reach a wider audience.

Like most games are super easy to adapt into movie form, it's just they flop so often because they're either made by people who are completely out of the loop with video games, or simply don't wanna put in the full effort.

Post automatically merged: Friday at 5:29 AM

can you even say Sonic has a source when every single show and movie and anime has strayed from it? INCLUDING THE GAMES THEMSELVES? I mean if Sega doesn't want to follow their own lore, let everyone take a crack at something original.

And the one time a sonic show stays faithful to the games it's one of the worst things to come out of the entire franchise (Sonic Prime)

 

[Segadude113]

I think they should just normalize taking the 90' TMNT/Sonic movies route of adapting the story and characters faithfully but just making them more humorous and light to reach a wider audience.

Like most games are super easy to adapt into movie form, it's just they flop so often because they're either made by people who are completely out of the loop with video games, or simply don't wanna put in the full effort.

Post automatically merged: Friday at 5:29 AM

And the one time a sonic show stays faithful to the games it's one of the worst things to come out of the entire franchise (Sonic Prime)

i liked Prime.

 

[Miles Miles]

Depending on the franchise. If it’s one based on a game that stars humans, I’m fine with it. But if it’s based on a game that starred cartoonish looking characters and/or anthropomorphic animals, then I’m not fine with it and get mad. That’s one of my main problems with the Sonic movies. I hate how they’re live action instead of animated. It being live action makes no sense and deviates from the source material. Also I hate the designs of the Sonic characters in the movies, even after the redesign.

I fully agree with you, and I'm a Sonic fan.

 

[Turbo Kid]

Like:

Love:

Hate:

Ignore:

Everything else

I will say that if anime can be done right in live action, then so can video games

For some reason though very few people can pull of either one, which leaves us with crap like this

Some people are very good though at incorporating video game/anime concepts into original movies or shows, which gives us awesome shit like this

EDIT: Silly me, Speed Racer WAS originally an anime

 

[Dr.Kisaragi]

This is a hot take but I like live action Super Mario movie yup is my guilty pressure as a kid who played mainline and bootleg mario for me is not surprised to see Mario another weird level

 

[RETRO-VETRO RETRO-VETRO]

That’s a really solid take. I agree, casting can make or break a live-action adaptation, especially when the source material has such iconic characters. I think Street Fighter and the 90s Mario movie are great examples of how weird choices can still somehow work if the tone fits. And yeah, Mortal Kombat nailed the vibe even without the gore. I also totally get what you mean about Resident Evil feeling more like Matrix with zombies, it drifted pretty far from the games. The Sonic movies have definitely been the most consistent lately, and I’m curious to see where they take Shadow and Knuckles next. Hopefully they lean more into the lore like you said, especially with the Echidna tribe stuff. It’d be cool to see a live-action adaptation that really embraces the deeper worldbuilding of a game instead of just the surface-level action.

 

[RageBurner]

I avoid them, not all are bad, but I don't like them, as a rule (and the less said about the Monster Hunter one, the better).

 

[Segadude113]

Like:

Love:

Hate:

Ignore:

Everything else

I will say that if anime can be done right in live action, then so can video games

For some reason though very few people can pull of either one, which leaves us with crap like this

Some people are very good though at incorporating video game/anime concepts into original movies or shows, which gives us awesome shit like this

EDIT: Silly me, Speed Racer WAS originally an anime

the 5 Rurouni Kenshin live action films were done really well.

 

[Stingy Perry Stingy Perry]

I avoid them, not all are bad, but I don't like them, as a rule (and the less said about the Monster Hunter one, the better).

I wonder when will CAPCOM add a Black Hawk helicopter as a mound?

 

[Frickinfrik]

Like:

Love:

Hate:

Ignore:

Everything else

I will say that if anime can be done right in live action, then so can video games

For some reason though very few people can pull of either one, which leaves us with crap like this

Some people are very good though at incorporating video game/anime concepts into original movies or shows, which gives us awesome shit like this

EDIT: Silly me, Speed Racer WAS originally an anime

Excuse me but, wtf. The 2023 Mario Movie is a good movie. Unless you meant to say the 1993 film (which is actually awful), cause the 2023 isn’t live action and is good unlike the ‘93 film. I also think it’s astronomically better than the Sonic movies. And I think the Sonic movies suck.

 

[qw90700]

I think not every video game is fitting for a movie adaptation and vice versa. That being said for example I still have no idea what is "movie material" in Sonic actually. Never thought Sonic can have a story to begin with, it's just a hedgehog rollin' on the ground and Dr. Eggman hatin' lol. People who likes Sonic movie seem like they take it as watching a cartoon and/or enjoy VFXs.

And while for example due to its core Resident Evil games have great potential for movie adaptations but they ignored the potential of fixed-camera RE movies just like the games. And IDK why they changed the story that much, IDK why a worst story was more fitting for the movie idea lol.

I don't have many movie adaptations of games I like. The most prime example is the 1st Tomb Raider movie and it's just because it's fun proper movie, Angelina Jolie is a good actress, looks like Lara Croft, has the PS1-style low-poly pyramid Lara Croft breasts lolol but most importantly while Lara's personality is edgy teen toxic mess Angelina actually fixed the character by being cool instead of being annoying; otherwise I wouldn't see any point to watch ugly frog faced Angelina Jonie that looks like ugly frog face as much as Lara Croft lol.

Other than this movie I actually liked the Prince of Persia movie. It was fun in its own context and the guy who play as Prince does looks like the Prince, and manages to look cool and still looks like a man while having that much long hair which not many men can pull that off.

3rd and last movie is Uncharted which is actually among my 10/10 movies list. I do like everything about the movie despite I think Tom Holland is annoying and he doesn't even look like Nathan Drake, but I think Nathan is annoying too which is why Tom's annoying existence fits well to this movie but at least while Nathan is cringy Tom actually managed to be funny. That being said there is no Uncharted game I liked so it make me able to like its movie adaptation instead. However I would like the movie more if Nathan Fillion had played as Nathan Drake for he has the likeness physically and personality-wise. I hope they will develop a 2nd movie that is about older Nathan so Nathan Fillion can play the role lol.

Other than these there is watchable adaptation movies like the 1st Mortal Kombat movie that's nothing good or bad per se, and Silent Hill: Revelation that is a bad adaptation of Silent Hill 3 but at least better than its game lol; other than these no adaptation comes to my mind.

 

[JPchicre]

IDK Man, o kinda agree that the weirder ones and the fighting one that are just excuse to show cool kung-fu moves are the better ones. Games usually have those campy and fantastical settings that are very hard to adapt, double so in Live-Action. I also kinda like the tomb raider (Angelina Jolie) movie for being so true to the games vibes, even if the story is nonsense cause of it. Postal the movie also, for the same reasson (despite that jackass asshole of a director)

 

[Yousef]

Mostly on the “ignore cuz I have no time or energy”, like I’d actually totally love to join in on the hate just for the fun of it but a lot of modern gaming movies aren’t bad enough to be mocked or good enough to be worth remembering. Anything from before 2010 is pretty good though.

 

[qw90700]

IDK Man, o kinda agree that the weirder ones and the fighting one that are just excuse to show cool kung-fu moves are the better ones. Games usually have those campy and fantastical settings that are very hard to adapt, double so in Live-Action. I also kinda like the tomb raider (Angelina Jolie) movie for being so true to the games vibes, even if the story is nonsense cause of it. Postal the movie also, for the same reasson (despite that jackass asshole of a director)

View attachment 107136View attachment 107137

Shit I keep forgetting to watch the Postal movie, thanks for reminder lol.

 

[Insomnia_ig]

Like:

Love:

Hate:

Ignore:

Everything else

I will say that if anime can be done right in live action, then so can video games

For some reason though very few people can pull of either one, which leaves us with crap like this

Some people are very good though at incorporating video game/anime concepts into original movies or shows, which gives us awesome shit like this

EDIT: Silly me, Speed Racer WAS originally an anime

I agree with the Mario movie ngl. The movie is just really safe and boring. Feels like key jangling with the references too especially since no child is going to get most of them and I don't even think most adults would get them either. I do hope they can be less safe with the 2nd film but idk the post credits scene didn't get me hyped at all and I don't think any trailer can either.

Post automatically merged: Friday at 12:21 PM

I love the Sonic films and I like most of the RE films both CG and live action idk why I like them I just do except for Welcome to Racoon City fuck that movie. I like the FNAF movie a lot too. However a lot of video game movies do suck still and a lot just feel unnecessary. Though I'd love to see a DMC movie in the style of Garo or something

 

[nobitakun]

I only find decent one movie based on videogame adaptation: Silent Hill. And it just gets a decent score. The rest, I find them just trash or something to laugh about. One of the best cult crappiest movies of all times is Doom, from Uwe Boll, he is a genious of crappiness :D

 

[El Pollo Loco]

Since video games are interactive, it's difficult to bring them to the screen, and the egos of certain filmmakers often overwhelm the game (the Halo series is a prime example of this).
The adaptations I've enjoyed are Mortal Kombat (2021), the Sonic franchise, NFS, and Halo Forward into Dawn.
Films like Scott Pilgrim, Crank, and John Wick incorporated elements of video games in an organic way. Hardcore Henry itself is the Doom adaptation we want but Hollywood can't or won't make.

 

[Insomnia_ig]

I only find decent one movie based on videogame adaptation: Silent Hill. And it just gets a decent score. The rest, I find them just trash or something to laugh about. One of the best cult crappiest movies of all times is Doom, from Uwe Boll, he is a genious of crappiness :D

Personally I think the first Silent Hill is bad if you've played the first game. That being said as someone who's played the first three SH games I still like the movie. Idk why despite it being a bastardization of the first film it's still pretty good

 

[qw90700]

Personally I think the first Silent Hill is bad if you've played the first game. That being said as someone who's played the first three SH games I still like the movie. Idk why despite it being a bastardization of the first film it's still pretty good

Well gotta like the way they have Silent Hill vibe and pyramid head scenes lol.

 

[Insomnia_ig]

Lol fair Pyramid Head being there is stupid though it makes no sense but obvoiusly since he's recognizable they had to put him in the movie.

 

[qw90700]

Lol fair Pyramid Head being there is stupid though it makes no sense but obvoiusly since he's recognizable they had to put him in the movie.

But otherwise we couldn't watch a legendary scene!!! lol:

 

[nobitakun]

Pyramid head is always welcome. He can kill you with his deadly touch even if you activate infinite health cheat lol.