Updated September 23, 2021 20.5k votes 3.4k voters 108.8k views
Video game film adaptations have long been the target of scrutiny and derision among the film-watching community. That's partly due to the scores of fans who wanted to see their game brought to life on film but find themselves incredibly disappointed that the adaptation didn't come close enough to meet their expectations. The other reason is due to the simple fact that most video game movies are just plain awful.
Super Mario Bros... need we say more? That cinematic gem aside, there have been tons of bad video game movies released over the years, and almost all of them have been universally panned by critics. Despite this, many have a sizeable fan base filled with video game enthusiasts and people who see the movies as a reminder of their childhood. Nostalgia may be the only thing many of these movies have in their corner, but that's no reason to never sit down for a couple of hours to give them a second chance.
The movies on this list are ones that the critics hated, but the audience enjoyed. They must have been given a "rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but have an Audience Score of 50% or higher to make the grade. Check out the movies below, and find the ones that you enjoyed. Don't forget to vote up your favorites to see which one rises to the top to be named the worst video game movie that's actually pretty good.
When it comes to survival horror video games, the one that most people know and love would have to be Resident Evil. It's easily one of the most successful games in the genre, and there are more than enough of them to keep you busy for a long time. When the game was first adapted into a film, it divided fans in a number of ways, and in some cases, it suffered, but in others, it did remarkably well.
There have been a total of six Resident Evil films, so the first one must have done something right despite what the critics have to say about it. Fans were divided over the changes made in the first (and all subsequent) films as it related to the source material. Other fans didn't mind the changes and enjoyed the movie for what it was: a zombie survival horror movie with great action and an intriguing story.
There weren't a lot of film adaptations of fighting games when the first Mortal Kombatmovie was released in 1995, and to be fair, there haven't been many afterward either. The movie pulled in parts from the games and wove together a narrative around several central characters in such a way as to be completely cheesy and entertaining at the same time.
All that said, if you've seen the movie, you know the real appeal, and it's not so much what you see as it is what you hear. The theme music and techno beat that culminated in a loud "MORTAL KOMBAT" amidst the bass drop is one of the greatest aspects of this film... and it's not that horrible a movie either. It's got great fight choreography, a good cast, and it features Christopher Lambert in the most whitewashed role nobody cared to complain about at the time.
There are tons of horror games on the market, but not every one of them gets adapted into a feature film. Silent Hill received just such an honor in 2006, just seven years after the first game hit store shelves. The movie was panned, and not even screened for critics, so you already know the studio didn't have high hopes for its performance when it was released in theaters.
The movie surprised a lot of people, as it made back twice its budget, and even garnered a sequel. Overall, Silent Hill is a pretty decent movie - even if the critics don't agree. It has been praised for its visuals, set design, and overall atmosphere, but got dinged for the inane dialogue. Transferring dialogue that works in games over to the silver screen isn't easy, and that's the main area this movie lacked, but it's still a fun and thrilling psychological horror flick.
Resident Evil: Extinction is the third film in the Resident Evil film franchise, and the direct sequel to Resident Evil: Apocalypse, which was released three years prior. The film focuses on Alice and a group of survivors from Raccoon City, who are trying to make their way across the Mojave Desert to Alaska amidst the zombie apocalypse.
The film got some negative critical attention for being "more of the same" with little development made from the previous film in the series. Like the other Resident Evil sequels on this list, you're going to enjoy this film if you love the franchise, and many people do despite how much it deviated from the source material.
Hitman is a game about an assassin who kills people. The concept is pretty straightforward, but only on the surface. The titular hitman is a cloned contract killer named Agent 47, whose flawless record of carrying out hits keeps him in high demand among the wealthy and elite people of the world. The games have been around since 2000, and within seven years, a movie hit theaters.
The movie starred Timothy Olyphant as Agent 47, and it was loosely based on the lore created in the games. It wasn't a great movie, by any standard, but it was certainly fun to watch. It's close enough to the games to intrigue the more ardent fans and seeing as it's a completely bald Timothy Olyphant expressing very little emotion, it's worth the 92-minute runtime at least once.
Pokémon The Movie 2000 was the second feature film adaptation of the hit video game series released first in Japan in 1999, and in international markets with an English dub the following year. The movie didn't perform as well as its predecessor, Pokémon The First Movie, but it did manage to rake in a whopping $133.9 million on a $30 million budget.
The problem with this movie isn't that it's not good - it's a great film. The issue stems from having a limited audience that might consider watching it in the first place. If you're not already a fan of Pokémon, odds are, you're not going to enjoy this film, or even know what's going on, which may be one of the reasons it has such a low rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Conversely, if you watched the cartoon until your eyes bled, you're going to love it.
