10 worst movies based on video games
Video game movie adaptations have earned themselves a reputation of being bad. But one director even admits this film was a low point.
Movies based on video games have earned themselves a bad reputation, and there’s a reason for that. The vast majority of gaming stories which find themselves on the big screen are frankly not up to scratch.
They are mostly written by people who don’t have a history with gaming, let alone the game in question, and as such leave the audience puzzled by the direction.
Worse than this, many of these films are simply boring. What’s worse than entering into the realm of the extremely terrible, is the land of the dull. We’ve all heard of movies or games which are so bad they come back around to good, but a boring film is always boring. Removing the gameplay from the medium, these stories just don’t stand on their own.
But what are the worst of the worst? Read the list below to find out the ten worst gaming movies of all time.
10. Super Mario Bros. (1993)
This isn’t the 2023 animated film with its all-star cast including the likes of Chris Pratt and Jack Black. This is a film Nintendo likely wants us to forget all about. It’s a live-action adventure starring Bob Hoskins as our portly plumber, and has very little to do with the games in terms of plot.
For some reason it was decided to be a realistic take on the Mario story, where Bowser is just a guy with a bad haircut and an undying desire for the lizard men to take over. The palette is oddly grey, and it’s set in the dystopian future.
Understandably it was a box-office flop, making back only about $55 million on its roughly $70 million investment. However, the wacky storytelling inches it into the realm of guilty pleasures, which is why it’s not higher on the list.
9. Double Dragon (1994)
The first Double Dragon games didn’t have too much of a story, and the film adaptation may have stuck too closely to the source. While it did have a lot of action, including speedboat chases and explosions, there wasn’t much going on in terms of plot beyond: karate kids good, the guy from Terminator 2 bad.
While things like the boys’ bedazzled gi have not aged well, at least Double Dragon was made on a small budget. The developer had dreams of Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris fulfilling the role of the protagonist, but we weren’t getting anything close to that on $11 million. Sadly, despite pulling in Alyssa Milano, the film only recouped $6 million at the cinema.
8. Wing Commander (1999)
While Wing Commander is now a popular and long established gaming franchise, the 1999 live-action adaptation did little for its reputation. You would think a ‘90s film starring Freddie Prinze Jr. as the lead with Matthew Lillard supporting is sure to succeed, but this was no Scooby Doo.
The whole thing was considered very dull and failed to reach financial success. While the studio spent almost $45 million on the film, it only made back around $17 million. You know things are bad if even Freddie can’t save your flick.
7. Resident Evil (2002 – 2016)
There are a staggering six films in the Resident Evil movie canon, and now a Netflix TV series has been added to the mix. All of these things have pretty much one thing in common; none of them have anything to do with the award-winning gaming franchise. They may splash the words T-virus and Umbrella Corp about, but similarities end there.
Paul W. S. Anderson is known for his video gaming adaptations, and he did get one thing right. By casting future wife Milla Jovovich as the lead, there was at least some good monster bopping action on display even if there wasn’t much of a story.
Despite the films’ flaws, of which there are many, these movies were a massive commercial success. The latest movie alone grossed over $450 million against a tiny $60 million budget. Maybe the name of the game alone was enough to bring viewers in, hoping this time it has to be good. Right?
6. In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (2007)
Paul W. S. Anderson may be well known for his gaming movie adaptations, but no one is more synonymous with the scene than Uwe Boll. And not in a good way. Despite tacking it on after the colon, this film has little to do with Dungeon Siege and more to do with an attempt to copy the popularity of the Lord of the Rings franchise.
Despite managing to convince an all-star cast of Hollywood tough boys to take on the project, including Jason Statham, Burt Reynolds, and Ray Liotta, it was a massive box office flop. Of the $90 million production budget, most of which presumably went to the cast, it made less than $20 million back.
5. Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (2009)
The 1994 Street Fighter film which casts the Belgian Jean-Claude van Damme as all-American hero Guille, and a very sick Raul Julia giving the performance of his life as M. Bison, has a lot of heart despite little to no substance. This film safely entered into the world of so bad it’s good, and is worth a watch even if only for Van Damme’s dodgy accent.
The Legend of Chun-Li is nothing but dull. The terrible directing and dialogue have become the stuff of memes, and it was clear that the only thing the writer knew about our Chinese fighter is that she does the spinning bird kick. Possibly high off the Street Fighter name, it didn’t lose out too badly at the box office, making $19 million on its $26 million investment.
4. BloodRayne (2005)
BloodRayne wasn’t successful as a video game so you will be surprised to find out that it was adapted into not one but three films. You may not be surprised to find out that Uwe Boll was behind the projects. While a lady vampire Nazi killer may sound exciting, there was never anything beyond that to keep either the gaming or film franchise afloat.
After the failure of the first film, the next two went straight to video so we never got to see BloodRayne: Third Reich at the cinema. This is one of the biggest losses on the list. While BloodRayne started with a modest budget just below $40 million, it only made around $5 million on release.
3. Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997)
While not as successful as Resident Evil, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation made itself a small profit at the box office. However, this was more due to the success of the first 1995 Mortal Kombat film adaptation directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, which was goofy enough to net a tasty $200 million at the box office.
Sadly, the sequel was a low point. That’s not my words but the words of creator Ed Boon who said, “I don’t know if this is my least favourite memory, but I wasn’t a big fan of the second movie.” With Anderson no longer at the helm and the movie losing much of its heart, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation still made a respectable $30 million profit, but caused the studio to cancel the third movie in the trilogy.
2. House of the Dead (2003)
The popular Sega arcade shooter knew that it was B-movie style schlock, but this got lost in translation for the movie adaptation which took itself a little too seriously. The only thing the two seem to have in common is that they both feature zombies. Instead of protagonist G leading an investigation into the cause of the outbreak, we see a group of sexy teens get trapped on an island with a bunch of brain eaters.
Despite making less than $3 million in profit, someone thought it was a good idea to develop a sequel. Luckily this one never made it into the cinema and House of the Dead 2: Dead Aim ended up going straight to video.
1. Alone in the Dark (2005)
Christian Slater and Tara Reid have both proven that they can be good actors, but that really wasn’t the case when they starred in the film adaptation of Alone in the Dark. This one was Uwe Boll’s second attempt at turning video games into films, and to date probably his worst.
Alone in the Dark is not only thought of as one of the worst video game to film adaptations, but simply one of the worst films of all time. While the gaming series started out strong, the movie was based on the fourth entry A New Nightmare voted one of the worst games in the series.
Losing $12 million at the box office doesn’t sound too bad until you find out it only took $30 million to make. It seemed that Boll began as he meant to go on.
Written by Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.
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