Movies based off of video games

From Super Mario Bros. to Assassin's Creed, video game based movies tend to be some real stinkers, ranging from kinda alright (Mortal Kombat, Tomb Raider were at least successful), to mediocre (Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within), to so bad it's good (Super Mario Bros., Street Fighter, Double Dragon), to being outright unwatchable (pretty much everything by Uwe Boll).
This is the thread to discuss these classic examples of bad cinema, including upcoming films of this sort.

Spoiler: Including this potentially stupid awesome masterpiece with the Rock

 

I've got the Super Mario movie on DVD and I loved it as a kid (to this date the only Mario game I have played was New Super Mario Bros on the original DS). I think it's best to view it as it's own seperate entity that just happens to use terminology and imagery from SMB.

The first Mortal Kombat movie is great fun too, and it's a hell of a lot more enjoyable than the lifeless gritfest that was MKX. Annihilation on the other hand...yeah I'm going to just stop here before I die of PTSD. Apparently there's another one in the works but it'll probably be crap. You can't top the original trilogy of games and MK9. Especially MK9.

As for the Tomb Raider movies...the original two (there's a new one now because nobody knows when to fucking stop) felt really surreal since the Core Design run (on which the movies were based) was coming to a close with the utterly awful Angel of Darkness that imploded the studio and killed off the series until Legend in 2007. Come to think of it, the entire Tomb Raider franchise is a great example of idiots not knowing when enough is enough (but hey, Lara is a STRONK FEMALE CHARACTER with a nice rack so I guess it's financially viable).

 

Oh god, Annihilation. That was such a trainwreck, I'm still trying to get it wiped from my memory.

 

Remember how great Raul Julia was in the Street Fighter movie?

 

I was just about to point out this being one of the best movies based on video games, especially how accurate it is to the source material, and how the art direction is reminiscent of Bengus’ style.
A shame how my mains (Guile and Fei Long) got their asses kicked in it though
*shrug*

 

Raul Julia was fantastic but his performance is nowhere near the greatness of Richard "THIS IS DELICIOUS!" Newman.

 

There's going to be a new Super Mario Bros. movie.
It's most likely going to be bad, and I'm not just saying that because it's from the people behind the Minions.

 

Even if is going to be animated?

 

The problem for me is that Mario, as a character, doesn't really seem to work for a featured length film.

 

It could possibly work, but the people who could make something cool with the concept probably wouldn't want to be involved.

The people who immediately step forward to make these movies are the types of guys who make 2-3 minute videos with the characters. It's one thing to make a short comedy video about Mario, it's another thing to make an hour-long movie about Mario, especially working with people who want to protect the brand or whatever.

 

You can only get so much material out of a jolly fat Italian plumber, unless you go down the 1993 film route and add in new elements like his employment and residence. Or you could alter his characterization ala the Super Show.

 

I think part of the problem is that if the source material is too vague then it's easy to screw everything up by making the story more complicated than it should be. What fans of Mario wanted to see in the first movie was plumbers rescuing princesses from evil turtles by jumping. When you take that simple concept and make it into plumbers rescuing a normal girl who kind of resembles a princess from evil prehistoric things that are related to turtles, then you've already made things too complicated and a bit silly.

 

Video games based on movies tend to suck, and movies based on video games tend to suck?

 

Anyone remember the Phoenix Wright movie? I haven't watched the whole thing, but I saw some clips on Youtube that looked pretty good. Campy as hell with an inconsistent tone, but that pretty much describes the games.

 

Goldeneye 64
Aliens vs Predator 2
Lego Star Wars
Spiderman 2
Star Wars Battlefront (the old ones)
Alien Isolation
Michael Jackson's Moonwalker
The Room

 

I think the difference between those and the ones that suck is that those games didn't really follow the plots of the movies they were based on. They just tried to be good games with licensed characters.

 

Which is why I said "tend to."

... LEGO [franchise] games are good?

 

BTW, has anyone here ever seen the Double Dragon movie? It's quite something

Spoiler: the trailer

 

That has to be one of the most nineties trailers I've ever seen.