Not all video game-to-film adaptations are bad. In fact, some are downright - dare I say it - enjoyable. It's a pretty safe bet that if Uwe Boll's name (Alone in the Dark, House of the Dead, Postal, Bloodrayne, Dungeon Siege and the list continues...) is not attached, you will find yourself having somewhat of a good time. The films on this list are not classics by any means; but for a genre that is so chock full of utter shlock, there are a few films that are enjoyable enough for video game fans to actually add to their DVD collection.
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Also noteworthy from the film version of Doom is the short but sweet first person camera angle that comes into play at the end of the film. It's very much a gimmicky stunt, but also the first time that a video game film has so directly referenced the source material in such a way.
The film deals less with violence and more with the relationships of the characters, yet somehow still manages an impressive body count. Apparently, producer Adrian Askarieh has said that he likes to distance himself from the game creators so in order to make a film, rather than a game on film. In Hitman, for the most part, this proves true.
Somehow, I feel like PETA could have a field day with some of the messages in this movie. Oh, except for the part where Ash's Pokemon fight against Mewtwo to retain their rights to be enslaved and made to fight. Think of it like Michael Vick's dogs battling each other to be able to stay a member of the dogfighting ring. F*cked up.
6. Tomb Raider Series
The Tomb Raider films are the only game-to-film adaptations that have truly succeeded in being genuine summer popcorn flicks. There's no real interest in the complicated-but-not artifact hunting plot, and the movies strive for little else than to show off Angelina Jolie and move from one action set piece to the next. Not to mention, spanning the two films you've got great actors such as Jolie, Daniel Craig, Gerard Butler, Jon Voight and Djimon Hounsou, plus composers Graeme Revell and Alan Silvestri.
Though many nerds still may prefer their Lara Croft of the digital variety, there is no doubt in my mind that seeing Angelina Jolie in the short shorts while dual wielding made many a dork soil their pantaloons.
5. Resident Evil Series
To their credit, the three live-action Resident Evil movies are the only game-to-film adaptations that spring to mind as having success taking actual plot threads from the games and mish-mashing them together for something new. The movies don't really have any main characters from the games, aside from their occasional appearance as a side chacter. However, much like Tomb Raider, the Resident Evil films generally take the high octane approach to its source material.
As much as I enjoy the films overall, I will never forgive the first entry for giving the world one of its first glimpses of what I like to call the "diagonal face slice", when a character gets his or her face sliced in half in an upward stroke, only to remain standing for a few moments while their face slides off like a piece of melon. If I ever see a movie where that gets used one more time, I'm yelling "fire" in the movie theater.
4. Street Fighter: The Movie
Alright, so this movie isn't actually good, per se, but I would take a cue from Bill Clinton and ask you to define the word "good". If "good" means a thought provoking, well acted, future AFI top 100 piece of cinema, well then, no. Street Fighter: The Movie is not good. If "good" means Jean Claude Van Dam playing an American Colonel, awful one liners, Kylie Minogue and some of the worst acting ever caught on celluoid, then Street Fighter is a god damn masterpiece.
Truly one of the classics of the "so-bad-it's-good" subgenre, Street Fighter is too entertaining to pull your eyes away from. To SF purists, it may be a bastardization of everything you know and love about the franchise, but what are video games about if not letting loose and enjoying the ride? If you can get over the assumption that these films are supposed to be hard knocking, dramatic dopplegangers of our favorite games, you can find a wealth of enjoyment in this movie.
Where the film truly ties into the games is its usage of heavy thematic content. The Spirits Within often celebrates pacifism, as well as promotes a strong environmentalist message. Unfortunately, perhaps releasing this kind of movie in the middle of the summer popcorn blitz wasn't the greatest of ideas - it opened the same month as Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes and Jurassic Park III. Not exactly quality cinema, but hey, that's the American public for you. Needless to say, Final Fantasy was an abysmal failure and lost nearly $100 million. Ouch.
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, however, is a completely different story.
Silent Hill is as close to arthouse cinema as video game movies will ever get. Directed with love by Christophe Gans (Brotherhood of the Wolf), the movie is an abstract experience that explores the downright horrifying themes of the games through images and music. In fact, most of the music in the film is lifted directly from the games, and helps in its successful representation of the scariest games of all time.
Perhaps most disconcerting (but certifiably awesome) is the films ending. There is no Hollywood spin here, no studio cop-out. In fact, it's the ending that ties the whole film together by not retroactively rendering the themes moot. The entire story moves towards this inevitable ending, and upon re-watching, this becomes clear.
Though Silent Hill was financially successful and a sequel was in the works, the primary filmmakers have since departed the project, so I fear that the artistic integrity that was present in the original may be gone with them.