Name all of the feature films based on video games that have had major international releases.
Only includes films based on the plot of a video game, not films about video games like Wreck-It Ralph, or 80-minute video game commericals like The Wizard.
Also does not include documentaries on video games, like The King of Kong, even though that was awesome.
RT % = score on Rotten Tomatoes, a composite score from film critics.
*originally scheduled for wide release in the USA but distributors and theaters backed out of the deal.
Interesting to me that the Final Fantasy movie is actually the best-reviewed video game movie of all time. Not much of an accomplishment I guess, looking at this list, but it's something. I had high hopes for that movie but it turned out pretty bad. I saw it at a special advanced screening in San Francisco. Hironobu Sakaguchi was in attendance and I met him in the bathroom before the show. Afterwards there was a standing ovation and he was in tears (of joy). He was probably in tears again when he saw the box office returns and general consensus among critics. Too bad they will probably never take one of the really great stories in video games like Final Fantasy VII or FF6 and just give it the Peter Jackson treatment. Instead they keep giving work to Uwe Boll.
19/31. Terrible movies, great games. I have a small hint of love for the Mortal Kombat films despite their obvious flaws because they are so terrible they are actually enjoyable.
Final Fantasy was beautifully made but the plot was a bore.
I have to admit I loved the first Mortal Kombat movie when it came out, too. It was so kitschy and lame... but... it didn't try to be more than it was. It stayed pretty true to the game, the fight scenes were reasonably well coreographed, and it was fun. The 2nd movie, though, I thought was abysmal. I think my cousin and I actually walked out of the theater. I've only done that twice in my life.
So... Final Fantasy just barely retained its lead to hold on to the title of best-reviewed video game movie of all time. And... the 2nd best reviewed? A movie based on a game with a plot about throwing birds at rocks and blocks of wood. oy
This quiz is in need of a major update. The latest Tomb Raider reboot and Rampage both dethroned Final Fantasy as the highest-reviewed video game movies (still in the 50’s, which isn’t great but it’s progress). And then there’s the ones that are either about to be released or are still in development, like Detective Pikachu, Sonic the Hedgehog, Monster Hunter, a Mario reboot, and the ones I’m really dreading: Minecraft and Angry Birds 2.
this is very out of date now and probably not going to be updated in the future. I mean... it's missing the Super Mario Bros movie from 2023 which was one of the highest-grossing movies of the year and most commercially successful video game adaptations of all time. If I was still updating I might even make room for TV series adaptations, as HBO's The Last of US is probably hands down the most critically successful video game adaptation ever made.
Final Fantasy was beautifully made but the plot was a bore.