Games You Didn’t Realize Had Movie Adaptations

Summary

• Video game adaptations into film have a history of negative reception but TV series adaptations have improved the trend.
• Double Dragon (1994) film adaptation may not have faithfully followed the game and received criticism for writing and acting.
• Need for Speed (2014) had a star-studded cast and made back its budget, but failed to leave a lasting impact or become a cult classic.

Video game film adaptations have been around for a while, and have largely had negative connotations up until very recently. Oftentimes, they have been criticized for not emulating the source material well, an issue that some would say television series adaptations have fixed.

While more recent movie adaptations of video games aren’t always a hit with the critics, they generally tend to be better received from the perspective of their source material’s fanbase. However, there are a variety of video game adaptations that a mixture of poor reception, limited success, and time have managed to bury. The shadows of even other poorly regarded adaptations loom heavily over these fairly obscure entries into the foray of video game movies.

5

Double Dragon

An Earlier Entry

Double Dragon seems like a relic of a series to some, with its peak of cultural relevance being somewhere between the 80s and 90s. That said, it has still managed to be remade, adapted, and otherwise maintained in various forms as recently as 2023. For something that truly has stayed in the 90s, look no further than the 1994 Double Dragon film adaptation.

Starring the likes of Scott Wolf, Mark Dacascos, and Robert Patrick, this film features Billy (Wolf) and Jimmy (Dacascos) as rebels fighting against a gang in a dystopian Los Angeles (rechristened to New Angeles) controlled by an original villain known as Koga Shuko (Patrick). Willy, the final boss, and leader of the Black Warriors Gang of the games, is unseen. Marian, initially merely a hostage/love interest in the games, who the brothers can literally brawl for the affection of, is reimagined as another rebel played by Alyssa Milano, with a more active role in the story. Memorable enemies from the games, such as Abobo and Linda, also make appearances.

While it is unfair to call it a one-to-one adaptation of the game, one might argue that the relatively bare-bones story, which did, in fairness, feature the brothers fighting against a gang, may not necessarily have been as enticing as a more faithful adaptation. Yet, the adaptation aspect itself seems to be not the focal point of the criticism, as the scripting and acting received the brunt of the negativity. Although certain elements of the film, like a fighting Marian, Shuzo, and others, were included in later installments of the proper series, that affection does not seem to have spread to the film itself.

4

Dungeon Siege

In The Name Of Boll

Uwe Boll is a filmmaker whose adaptations of video games have been heavily criticized by fans of either medium. His takes on Postal, Far Cry, and Alone In The Dark, among others, have all been negatively received. Yet one that might have eluded notice is his 2007 adaptation of the 2002 game, Dungeon Siege. Part of the reason for this might have something to do with the game’s title being demoted to a subtitle for the adaptation, being called In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (2007).

The “canon” narrative of the game (which in fairness contradicts elements of the gameplay itself) is not followed to a tee. The protagonist of the film is a man by the name of “Farmer,” played by English action star Jason Statham. Statham was one of many stars attracted to the film, presumably because of its budget. Other names of note include Ron Perlman, John-Rhys Davies, Ray Liotta, Burt Reynolds, and Matthew Lillard.

Farmer is a family man, who loses his son to a hostile species known as the Krug, controlled by an evil magus known as Gallian (Liotta). He rediscovers his true heritage with King Konreid (Reynolds), justifying his choice of removing Farmer (aka. Camden Konreid) from the palace as a way to keep him safe. Gallian is aided by Konreid’s treacherous nephew, Fallow (Lillard), who hopes to claim the throne for himself once Konreid is out of the picture, a prospect Farmer’s existence makes far more problematic. With the aid of his longtime friend, Norick (Perlman), and the royal magus, Merick (Davies), among others, Farmer must stop Gallian and the Krug from taking more lives than they already have. The film was a theatrical release, but it still failed to recoup more than a fraction of its budget at the box office.

While this film maintains some basic elements of the game, it also goes out of its way to change a lot, with the royal bloodline subplot being manufactured for the film. Interestingly, In the Name of the King had something of a divorce from Dungeon Siege for its two direct-to-video sequels. Boll’s subsequent entries, Two Worlds (2011) and The Last Mission (2014), are entirely disconnected from the series their predecessor was based on, instead featuring time-travel elements and a greater focus on corrupt rulers being put in their place. That said, if one does count The Last Mission as a video game adaptation, it would be Boll’s final entry into the subgenre.

3

Elf Bowling

A Gutter Ball Of A Movie

• Based On: Elf Bowling (1998-2008)
• Directed By: Dave Kim and Rex Piano
• Genre: Sports-Comedy

Although video game movies are often stereotyped as over-budget live-action disasters, Elf Bowling the Movie: The Great North Pole Elf Strike (2007) proves that sometimes an animated video game movie can be just as, if not more, disastrous.

Some context is probably needed, seeing as the free flash game, Elf Bowling, is not especially well-remembered. The title is fairly self-explanatory, but there is still a kind of narrative at play. The elves are striking before the holidays, and Santa takes up the job of literally busting the union with a bowling ball, hoping for a much different kind of strike. Subsequent sequels included remasters, and various different kinds of sports with the inclusion of live elves. In addition to Santa, other characters, such as Mrs. Claus, Santa’s brother Dingle Kringle, and an elf by the name of Elliot, took to making appearances across the series, which mostly resulted in different profiles to pick from. The series also had an edgy sense of humor that mellowed out somewhat in later entries, without completely disappearing. The franchise ended, seemingly for good, in the late 2000s, but not before its movie debut.

This odd take on the game was relatively sanitized considering its source material. It serves as a prequel of sorts, showing how Kris Kringle went from a bowling pirate to Father Christmas. Eventually getting marooned in the North Pole with his freeloading brother, Dingle, he happens upon the elves and a human woman living with them. From there, he turns into Santa and also introduces the sport of elf bowling. While bowling with the elves was a punishment in the original game, here they seem oddly pleased by it for the most part. Unfortunately, Dingle frames Santa for his own awful deeds to make the elves strike. This is done to hypnotize the elves and force them to do Dingle’s bidding instead of Santa’s, resulting in a chain of events that leads to Dingle singing about how “slavery makes the world go round” and forcing the elves to work in a sweatshop. Eventually, Santa is able to discover that Dingle is cheating and set things right once more.

Despite featuring acclaimed voice talent, including Joe Alaskey (Looney Tunes voice actor with a diverse range) and Tom Kenny (the voice of Spongebob) as the Kringle brothers, there was little to salvage the film’s overall reputation. There was an argument made that the humor of the game and the humor in the film were targeted at extremely different audiences, with the movie trying to appeal to a far younger fan base than those who would’ve played Elf Bowling back in the day. It seems like, in the vein of the game itself, Elf Bowling the Movie has been largely deleted from our cultural memory banks. Nonetheless, it received a truly unique revival in 2021 in the form of a stage show courtesy of Chapman University’s performing arts group, The Player’s Society.

2

Need For Speed

At The Pace Of A 2-Hour Movie

As a film based on a variety of illegal drag racing games which tend not to have an overarching story or even game mechanics that are 100% consistent in each entry, the film adaptation of Need for Speed had the opportunity to play it fast and loose. Assembling a star-studded cast, the film was a story about a car mechanic and skilled driver being framed for the murder of his friend, and racing his way to redemption. The film featured a star-studded cast including the likes of Aaron Paul, Imogen Poots, Dominic Cooper, Rami Malek, and Michael Keaton. It was also said to have a budget of $66 Million.

Yet this film was poorly received by critics, and despite apparently making back over twice its budget at the box office, seems to not have truly had any lasting relevance. Need for Speed was negatively compared to the Fast & Furious franchise, which Betsy Sharkey, in an article for the Los Angeles Times, believed it was trying to emulate.

Although it is entirely possible for a film to fail to make an impact upon release, only to recover and be hailed as a cult classic years later, no such resurgence seems to have happened in the decade since this movie was released.

1

Monster Hunter

English filmmaker, Paul W. S. Anderson is known for his video game adaptations. He directed Mortal Kombat (1995), a film that was both a commercial success and is considered a cult classic, being positively received by many fans of the gory fighting game. He was also heavily involved with the critically panned yet commercially successful Resident Evil film series (2002-2016), which notably starred his wife, Milla Jovovich.

More recently, near the end of 2020, another film of Anderson’s, which was based on a Capcom property, was released: Monster Hunter. Jovovich starred once again, this time as Natalie Artemis, a US Army Ranger who gets transported to the world where the Monster Hunter games take place. This leads to Natalie becoming a monster hunter herself, as she convenes with others in this unfamiliar world. Anderson stated he wanted the outsider role to mirror the experience of discovering the series and its beasts for the first time, drawing from his own initial discovery of the game.

While Monster Hunter is still a well-known video game series today, this film never quite rode that wave. Monster Hunter was both commercially unsuccessful and not well-received by critics. Additionally, Chinese audiences were critical of a pun made by the character, Axe (played by Chinese-American actor/rapper Jin Au-Yeung, better known as MC Jin). Axe refers to his knees as “chi-knees,” which was widely interpreted as an echoing of a racist playground chant. Although Jin explained the line as the character “proudly proclaiming he is a Chinese soldier,” Anderson ended up issuing an apology for the line.

Ultimately, despite Anderson’s stated enthusiasm for the project, it failed to echo the earlier success of his other video game adaptations and seems to have been memory-holed over time since its recent release.