Every style of movie has just a few stinkers, however the online game film style has greater than its justifiable share. Movies like 1993’s Super Mario Bros. and 1997’s Mortal Kombat: Annihilation are nonetheless legendary for a way really terrible they’re, and for a way badly they miss the enchantment of the supply materials. Luckily, Hollywood’s monitor report has improved considerably lately, with the Sonic the Hedgehog collection and The Super Mario Bros. Movie exhibiting a greater means ahead. Even so, there are nonetheless some stinkers on the market. We’re taking a look at you, Borderlands…
Hollywood retains making an attempt, that is for positive! And it might be fairly laborious to sink decrease than the next 12 abysmal online game films anyway…
Super Mario Bros. (1993)
Super Mario Bros. is type of the online game equal of 1987’s Master of the Universe, in that it is a very flimsy adaptation of the supply materials and spends far an excessive amount of time on Earth. We’re unsure what offends us extra – the ridiculous tackle King Koopa and his Goombas or the truth that Mario and Luigi wanted devices to assist them soar and stomp.
Double Dragon (1994)
The Double Dragon video games are about two brothers shifting from left to proper and beating up a whole bunch of thugs. That’s not precisely the stuff nice movies are fabricated from. We should admire this movie for its try and create a post-apocalyptic, punk-flavored model of Los Angeles, however each facet of Double Dragon is so low-cost and poorly executed as to make it unwatchable.
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997)
After a string of dangerous diversifications, 1995’s Mortal Kombat proved it’s attainable for a recreation franchise to outlive the transition to the massive display screen. Sadly, that success was by no means replicated the second time round. Mortal Kombat Annihilation is a colourful prepare wreck that crams in each character from the video games for no different cause than as a result of it will possibly. The CG results have been abysmal even by 1997 requirements. At least the late-’90s techno soundtrack nonetheless holds up.
Wing Commander (1999)
Wing Commander should have appeared like a logical recreation franchise to adapt, provided that the PC video games have been already notable for his or her use of FMV cutscenes. Yet someplace between buying and selling collection veteran Mark Hamill for Freddie Prinze Jr. and Matthew Lillard and botching the look of the alien Killrathi, Wing Commander fully misplaced contact with the enchantment of the video games. What was left amounted to little greater than a low-budget bundle of sci-fi tropes.
House of the Dead (2003)
Director Uwe Boll grew to become synonymous with dangerous online game films within the early 2000s, and House of the Dead was the primary of many misfires. There’s little question a very good film to made out of the video games and their mixture of violent zombie gore and B-movie cheese. House of the Dead, sadly, did not come even near realizing that potential.
Alone within the Dark (2005)
Boll adopted up House of the Dead with the much more dreadful Alone within the Dark in 2005. Where the video games helped delivery the survival horror style and impressed franchises like Resident Evil and Silent Hill, the film is simply very, very dangerous. It’s not simply one of many worst online game films ever made, however a transparent contender for the worst movie of all time.
BloodRayne (2005)
2005 could be the worst 12 months ever for online game films, as Boll additionally unleashed BloodRayne upon unsuspecting audiences. There was treasured little to salvage right here, and we’re nonetheless unsure how Boll roped in actors like Ben Kingsley and Michael Madsen for this schlocky, oversexed vampire film.
Postal (2007)
If any Boll movie can rival Alone within the Dark because the worst online game film ever made, it is positively Postal. As it’s, the supply materials did not supply the strongest basis to construct on, consisting largely of hyper-violent motion and shock humor. The movie merely accentuated these qualities, ensuing within the online game equal of parodies like Epic Movie and Disaster Movie.
Max Payne (2008)
On paper, 2008’s Max Payne sounded fairly swell. It tailored a popular shooter franchise, featured a bankable star in Mark Wahlberg and mixed the fashionable gunplay of The Matrix with the visible sensibilities of Sin City. Sadly, a bloated script and awful performing ensured that Max Payne grew to become yet one more adaptation that did not stay as much as its potential.
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (2009)
1994’s Street Fighter is a great distance from good cinema, nevertheless it has a sure campy allure. The identical cannot be mentioned for 2009’s Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. With poorly executed battle scenes and not one of the colourful extra of the video games, there’s simply nothing about this adaptation that screams “Street Fighter.”
Silent Hill: Revelation (2012)
Flawed although it’s, 2006’s Silent Hill stays one of many higher makes an attempt at translating a well-liked online game collection to movie. But like Mortal Kombat: Annihilation earlier than it, Silent Hill: Revelation misplaced contact with mainly every part that made its predecessor stand out. Rather than channeling a way of terror, Revelation merely collapsed underneath the burden of its flashy, hole motion scenes.
Hitman: Agent 47 (2015)
2007’s Hitman might need made this checklist if not for the truth that it was finally “topped” by the 2015 reboot, Hitman: Agent 47. Agent 47 makes an attempt to be an over-the-top motion film worthy of the ’80s classics, nevertheless it’s just too bland and formulaic to depart any type of lasting impression.
Borderlands: The Movie (2024)
If not the outright worst film on this checklist, Borderlands might be probably the most disappointing. We had excessive hopes for this adaptation, given the involvement of massive names like director Eli Roth and stars Cate Blanchett and Jamie Lee Curtis. But the tip result’s an unpleasant mess of a movie and an actual waste of the colourful sci-fi supply materials. No one concerned appears to be like to be having a lot enjoyable on this drab Guardians of the Galaxy wannabe.
Recent online game films embody A Minecraft Movie, which scored a 6 out of 10 in IGN’s assessment, and Until Dawn, which scored a 5 out of 10 in IGN’s assessment.
What’s the worst online game film you’ve got seen? Let’s talk about within the feedback!
Jesse is a mild-mannered workers author for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your mental thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.
