History
1986–1992: First feature films
Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach! and Running Boy Star Soldier no Himitsu were the first two feature films adapted from video games. Both films were adapted from Nintendo Entertainment System games in 1986. The first live action film adapted from a video game was the 1988 direct-to-video film Mirai Ninja, based on the Namco arcade game of the same name. [1] Between 1991 and 1992, anime films and television series based on Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai were released.
1993–2001: Mainstream breakthrough
The first live action film based on a video game, the eponymous Super Mario Bros. , was released on May 28, 1993, to both critical and commercial failure. Critics including Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert criticized the film's lack of faithfulness to the source material. [2] Other films include Street Fighter , Mortal Kombat , and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider . [3] [4]
Super Mario Bros. was followed in 1994 by other adaptations, such as Double Dragon and Street Fighter , which received similarly negative reviews. This changed with the 1995 film Mortal Kombat , directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, which was the first adaptation to gain a critical and commercial success; [5] the film remains one of the highest-rated video game films among critics. [6]
Animated films and shows also began gaining mainstream success. The anime series Pokémon (1997–present) became the most successful video game adaptation of all time. [7] The anime films Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie (1994), Pokémon: The First Movie (1998) and Pokémon: The Movie 2000 (1999) became internationally successful. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001) was a major milestone in computer animation, but was a box office failure.
2002–2017: Expansion and mixed success
Video game film adaptations in Hollywood gained notoriety during this period due to large number of films drew mixed-to-negative or panned response. [8] [9] Some of the more successful film adaptations during this time include the Resident Evil series (2002–2016), Silent Hill (2006), Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010) and Warcraft (2016).
Among one of the most notorious video game filmmakers is Uwe Boll, a German writer, director, and producer whose works include House of the Dead , Alone in the Dark , BloodRayne , In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale , Postal , and Far Cry , all of which were almost universally panned by critics and are considered among the worst films ever made. [10] Conversely, Paul W. S. Anderson has gained a reputation for his panned video game adaptations in the 21st century, particularly Resident Evil series and Monster Hunter . [11]
Critics and developers' response
Similar to comic book-based films in the past, adaptations tended to carry a reputation of lackluster quality and receive negative reaction from both film critics and fans of the source material. [12] This is generally due to difficulties in adopting a story meant to be played interactively into a linear movie-going experience. [13]
The reason for the failure of video game adaptations is that structural conversion from video game to film format can be challenging for filmmakers. Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Nintendo franchises including Mario and Zelda , said in a 2007 interview:
I think that part of the problem with translating games to movies is that the structure of what makes a good game is very different from the structure of what makes a good movie. Movies are a much more passive medium, where the movie itself is telling a story and you, as the viewer, are relaxing and taking that in passively. Whereas video games are a much more active medium where you are playing along with the story. ... I think that video games, as a whole, have a very simple flow in terms of what’s going on in the game. We make that flow entertaining by implementing many different elements to the video game to keep the player entertained. Movies have much more complex stories, or flow, to them, but the elements that affect that flow are limited in number. So I think that because these surrounding elements in these two different mediums vary so greatly, when you fail to take that into account then you run into problems. [14]
In an interview with Fortune in August 2015, Miyamoto said, "Because games and movies seem like similar mediums, people’s natural expectation is we want to take our games and turn them into movies. … I’ve always felt video games, being an interactive medium, and movies, being a passive medium, mean the two are quite different." [15]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times stated that video games are "inherently inferior to film and literature" and that "video games by their nature require player choices, which is the opposite of the strategy of serious film and literature, which requires authorial control." [16]
2018–present: Modern age
Observers noted a substantial uptick in the critical and commercial success of video game adaptations in the late 2010s and 2020s. [17] [18] [19] [20] Until 2019, no video game film–live-action or animated–had received a Rotten Tomatoes "fresh" rating, with a score over 60%. Four films since, Detective Pikachu , The Angry Birds Movie 2 , Sonic the Hedgehog , and Detention have been able to break into the "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes. [21] [12] Both Detective Pikachu and Sonic the Hedgehog have posted better-than-expected domestic takes, [12] with Sonic having the highest domestic opening through 2020. [22] Sonic's success led to its sequel Sonic the Hedgehog 2 releasing in April 2022 and beating the first film's domestic opening. [23] Upon these films improved since 2019 but not only ones who also received likely below 75% of fresh rating from Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes, Detention (2019) and Werewolves Within (2021) took over the record with 86% of positive reviews. [24]
Creators of film and television adaptations found quickly that to help appeal these shows to video game audiences, they had to assure the work showed respect for the video game it was based on, both in narratives and appearance, following the online fan backlash to the original appearance of Sonic the Hedgehog that had been shown in the original trailers for Sonic the Hedgehog, which the studio reworked before the theatrical release. [25] Video game adaptations in film and television have also led to growth of players in the original video game work, such as the case with Cyberpunk 2077 and Fallout games. [26] [27]
Shows were all critically-praised series based on video games since 2017, [28] [29] [30] [31] allows American streaming companies began to air television series based on video games. Successful animated series during this time include Castlevania (2017–2021), Arcane (2021–2024) and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022). [32] The first success of a live-action series is a British crime drama series Gangs of London (2020–present). Successful high-budget live-action series include The Last of Us (2023–present) and Fallout (2024–present), both were nominated the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series. [33] [34]
