Hollywood has a special talent for taking beloved franchises and then warping them into grotesque unrecognizable monsters. Especially video games. Oftentimes, there isn't much lore or material to go on, or as is often the case, you don't speak the language of the actual producers. Or more truthfully, don't give a single care about the source material.

Now being someone who hasn't watched many films at all, and hasn't seen a new one since 2008, I am very out of the loop of movie culture. So I was curious, what video game movies have any of you seen, and what did you think of them? Maybe there are films from other countries which are good.

I know Resident Evil apparently has a fairly competent series, that the Super Mario Bros movie wasn't the first time the Brothers had hit the silver screen, and that I hope Rifftrax gets their hands on the live action Sonic movie soon.

I'm happy to say i have watched a total of 0 videogame related movies and no other movies in a long time, i don't plan on starting anytime soon either because most stuff don't interest me at all especially in todays industry.

I do however become overjoyed everytime i see a movie based on a game get cancelled as it saves them from getting movie abominations as adaptations.

Doom. Effects decent, terrible story and wooden acting.
Warcraft: Effects very good style in keeping with the games, acting lacklustre.

There are others (Hitman etc), but they follow a similar thread: Look good, but not enough meat to make them special.

You'll be happy to hear then that the Metro 2033 movie was stomped out, on account of the bizarre decision of the screenwriter wanting to move the plot from Moscow to DC.

Thank you, you cannot imagine how happy i am to hear that and it is something worth celebrating tonight indeed.

Fallout would suit better if it where to be set in US but even then it's better if hollywood don't get their hands on the ip, bethesda is already bad enough.

Hey now, at least it would render correctly. :P

Since Super Mario Brothers there has never been a "good" video game movie. They're all, at best, 'B' movies.

Mortal Kombat! Bad, but... Good bad?

Also Silent Hill and Tomb Raider are ok.

Has there ever been a good video game movie? Terrible movie, but that scene where the policewoman gets burnt alive was one of the few movie scenes ever that genuinely horrified me.

I meant as far as video game movies go. Not much to choose there.

Mortal Kombat is probably the 'best', which just shows how bad they all are.

Everything else ranges from disgustingly bad (MK2, SMB, everything from Uwe Boll) to "bad as a movie, an insult to fans of the games" (Silent Hill, Max Payne)

It's one of those weird things where you slowly lose your will to live. These movies started when I was a kid and I couldn't understand they used games with no story whatsoever and tried to get a story out of it. It's rather obvious now, of course.
You know, I may remember it wrong, but I was sure at some point creators in general had something like artistic vision. If nothing else, video game movies cured me of that particular misunderstanding, so that's nice.
Then again, these days everything is either a comic book adaptation, an uninspired sequel or a gritty reboot (I think at this point the Spider-Man movies might actually be all of the above), so it's not as if video game movies are some sick outlier in a sea of artistic quality.

Anyways, specifics ..

Super Mario Bros
Artistic liberties and everything, but why make a movie that barely has any connection to the source material? In the wake of the movie a friend of mine did a playthrough of Super Mario Land (yes, Land) 2 with a self-imposed permadeath challenge while blasting Roxette's Almost Unreal on repeat. That had more dramatic impact than the movie.

Double Dragon
The game is purely beating people up in back alleys. With crowbars and baseball bats. The movie is PG-13. Robert Patrick pisses all over this with his performance and rightly so. The mailman is amazing. But this just isn't good and the fact that Bimmy couldn't fight his way out of a wet paper bag doesn't exactly help.

Street Fighter
Fun fact: the guy they got to play Sagat is 1.78m tall.
Look, Arvydas Sabonis is 2.21m, just get that guy in and shave his head. I know he's not an actor, but the role barely had any screen time to begin with and you've already put Kylie Minogue in as the female lead, so let's face it: the movie is already ruined, let's at least give us the option to pretend you actually know what Street Fighter is.

Mortal Kombat
Why do people like this one? This is horrible. It's not even a real tournament, what the hell are you doing?

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
I know I've watched this. I can't remember anything. This might be a good thing.

Resident Evil Series
These are actually fun. They are not good, which is partially why they're fun. Look, these movies are absolute bollocks, but that's part of the charme, because at the very least they're not cynical money grabs designed to cram in every single character from a fighting game to tick all the boxes. No, someone here had a vision. A horrible vision, granted, but I take an overenthused fanfic over a 90 minute commercial any day.
What I'm trying to say here is: Resident Evil is the greatest franchise in cinema history.

Alone in the Dark
If you'd like to develop a drinking problem, but can't stand the taste of alcohol, this film is a must watch.

Silent Hill
Okay, this one confused me and I'm curious about different opinions. It seems like critical response here was generally not that favourable, but personally I thought this one was quite solid. Finally someone picked a game with actual story/themes and to my mind captured the basic feel and atmosphere of the games rather well. Visuals were on point and I vaguely remember the plot not being horrible, while not being a direct 1:1 rehash of the games, yet still staying thematically faithful. Apparently I'm wrong, but I thought this was a comparatively decent movie.

For me Warcraft was the absolute best movie videogame adapdation ever. 8\10
Sadly, many people disliked it.. Wow fans due to the changed lore (I can understand that, but I don't play that game) and other people because they found it confusing (?).
So, no sequel for it (or maybe in China).

Tomb Raider movie was ok. And Jolie was perfect as Lara. 7\10
Same for Silent Hill, it was good enough. 7\10

Mortal Kombat had a legendary theme, but it was cheesy AF. 5-6\10
The casted characters were kinda good tho (maybe not for some acting).

I found RE movies quite generic and boring, instead. 5\10
Doom movie didn't really work 5\10

The worst were probably Super Mario Bros and Uwe Boll's shoddy attempts. 4\10 or less

The reason nearly all video game movies are rubbish is that the 1.5-2.0hr movie format doesn't suit the content. Eg, take a game like SOMA. In theory the plot would make a great movie. In practise, when Hollywood get their hands on it, they'll strip out everything but the action scenes. And yet it's precisely those quiet scenes between the action scenes that are what adds most of the gradual tension build-up. Some games are surprisingly subtle. Hollywood doesn't do subtle.

4\10 is the nicest thing I've ever seen anyone say about Uwe Boll movies and that includes Boll himself.