With the popularity of many video games, an idea came into people’s minds: to shoot those highly rated games into movies or films. Vice versa, many companies create video games based on well-welcomed movies or TV series. As a result, usually, a famous brand IP is used in more than one field including novels, video games, movies, TV series, movie and game peripherals, etc.
However, does every popular video game is suitable to be adapedt into a movie? Not really! Actually, many movies that are made from the best video games receive bad comments online like Rotten Tomatoes. Why video game movies suck? We will talk about this topic below.
Why Do Video Game Movies Suck?
Why do video game adaptation movies suck? In general, video game movies suck because players remember doing better.
The following are video game movies suck top 10 reasons:
#1 Lack of Story
The essential part is that a game is designed by focusing on how the game is to be played instead of how the story will be played out. That is to say, a video game focus on play unlike a movie focus on a story. Yet, movie makers only see the popularity of the popular video games and hurry to create game-related films without caring about the story quality. That is why do video game stories suck as movies.
Examples: Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Super Mario Bros., and Dead or Alive.
#2 Video Games with Good Stories Are Movies Themselves
On the other hand, if a video game is developed with a good story and prolific plots, the game itself is an excellent movie. There is no need to remake. And the movie remake may be bad.
#3 Video Games Are Repetitive
Any video game that lasts for several minutes will repeat itself over and over again. Although it’s a repetition in a game, you will be pleased by shooting enemies and get rewarded. Yet, if move the exciting actions onto a movie screen, all you get is visual diarrhea. That is the game theory why game movies suck.
Examples: Doom, Max Payne, Final Fantasy, and House of the Dead.
#4 Interactive vs. Non-interactive
As all we know, video games are interactive while movies are non-interactive. In a video game, a story is told through the player’s own choices and interactions with the game. Yet, in common situations, a movie does not tell stories in this way. That causes great confusion for screenwriters who are tasked with somehow translating plotless gameplay into a linear narrative.
#5 Audience Age Difference
This reason is truer in the past years. Then, most video games are engineered to satisfy the special taste of teenagers who are desperate for blood, violence, boobs, and explosions. So, they are more popular with teens. If you make them into films, which is a form favored by adults, you will probably not receive the expected popularity. That is why video game movies fail.
Examples: Tomb Raider and Dead or Alive.
#6 Uncertain Protagonist
In a video game, there is no set main character. Every player is the leading role of himself. So, the players will fight to write their own game life. On the contrary, in a movie or film, the main character is set. All stories are related to the protagonists. That is why do video games suck.
#7 The Theme Difference Between Video Games and Movies
Some people say that video games are essentially movies that have showmanship sacrificed in favor of control, so sacrificing the control may leave you with a bad movie. A game that is exciting but does not exactly put effort into character development when that character is meant to be the player. That is why do most game movies suck.
#8 The Video Game Itself Is Awful
Sometimes, a video game movie sucks for its source video game is terrible. Then, why is it possible that the video game is turned into a movie? You may ask. There are many ridiculous reasons like some rich man really like the video game and donate to shoot it into a movie to make it known to more people. Anyhow, this is also one of the reasons for film theory why video game movies suck.
Examples: Bloodrayne, Postal, as well as In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Seige Tale.
#9 Bad Studios or Directors
Many studios and directors of video game movies are not familiar with video games, so they can’t well express the idea in a video game with movies. However, game developers or players are not good at shooting movies, so they won’t bring us excellent video game movies either.
#10 The Life Background of Movie Reviewers
The final reason for why do video game movies suck is that maybe the movie or film reviewers and critics did not grow up with video games. Therefore, they don’t really know the essence of a video game movie and can’t link the movie with the video.
For the reasons above, nearly all video game movies suck. Thus, no video game movie was nominated for Oscars so far.
Video Game Movies that Don’t Suck
Even though most game movies suck, there are still a few video game movies that didn’t suck. They are listed below.
- Street fighter II: The Animated Movie
- Silent Hill
- Resident Evil series
- Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
- Edge of Tomorrow
- Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
- Survival Horror
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
- Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva
- Castlevania
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Also read: Video Game Sound Effects: Definition/History/Download/Creation
About The Author
Position: Columnist
Helen Graduated from university in 2014 and started working as a tech editor in the same year. Her articles focus on video creation, editing, and conversion. She also has a good knowledge of disk management and data backup & recovery. Through an in-depth exploration of computer technology, Helen has successfully helped thousands of users solve their annoying problems.