If that trailer for “Sonic the Hedgehog” proved anything, it’s that video games should not be adapted into movies.
Throughout the ages, only a handful have been decent. The Tomb Raider movies have their moments, and the first Mortal Kombat film was awesome.
However, for every good one we got, we had a dozen stinkers. For this list, we decided to give you the worst of the worst. In order to qualify, the movie has to be based on the game and not a different interpretation. For example, the animated Pokémon movies are based on the anime, not the game.
Top 5 worst video game movies
5. Warcraft
Some hardcore fans do like this movie, but general audiences agreed that it’s pretty awful.
The CGI and make-up aren’t bad, but the film falls apart in every other aspect. The acting is beyond hokey. The story is both predictable and boring. Even the action scenes are bland. The film is about two hours long, but it feels like an eternity.
A video game series like World of Warcraft has such potential for a film adaptation, but this film misses the mark at every turn.
4. Double Dragon
The Double Dragon games have a very simple concept. Billy and Jimmy Lee are brothers who use their kung-fu fighting skills to rescue Billy’s girlfriend while fighting off a Chinese gang.
In the game, Billy and Jimmy are both big, muscular dudes who look like American Gladiators. However, in the movie, we got two scrawny guys who just look in over their heads. The main theme of rescuing Billy’s girlfriend is thrown out the window for a new story about collecting a medallion.
If you’re a fan of the games, spin-kick this movie far, far away.
3. Doom
This movie was so bad even The Rock poked fun at it years later:
Wow! Very cool RAMPAGE news! Not pointing to the scoreboard yet, but it seems we may have finally broken the dreaded video game curse. And remember, I starred in the stinker “Doom” so I have lived thy curse 🙏🏾 https://t.co/2FSb0wXavK
— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) April 13, 2018
Good lord, Dwayne Johnson wasn’t even in a lot of this movie and he still feels the need to talk about how awful it was.
Doom is a video game series about fighting demon-spawn from Hell in outer space. How do you screw that up?
This movie is DARK. We don’t mean dark in tone, we mean it’s literally hard to see anything in this movie. The DC Cinematic Universe has nothing on how dark and lifeless this movie is.
The major flaw with the movie is the threat. Rather than fighting demons from Hell, the heroes fight failed genetic experiments. All of the things that made the original Doom cool and edgy are thrown out the window. The only thing the movie has to do with the games is the title. Call this movie “Space Station Survival,” and nobody would know it had anything to do with Doom.
2. Mortal Kombat: Annihilation
Holy smokes, this was bad.
The first Mortal Kombat movie wasn’t exactly “Citizen Kane,” but it got the job done. The action is cool. The story is simple but easy to follow. It is hammy in all the best ways. Also, it has Robin Shou as Liu Kang! How could you go wrong with Robin Shou?
“Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.” That’s how.
The acting in this movie is absolutely atrocious. Kids in high school theater would’ve given a bigger effort than these guys. I mean just watch this scene:
A director watched that and said, “Yeah, that was great. Let’s use that take.”
Unfortunately, we cannot perform a fatality on this movie. If you want to watch a fun Mortal Kombat movie, watch the first movie. It gets a flawless victory against this dumpster fire every time.
Need more evidence? Here you go:
1. Super Mario Bros.
How bad is this movie? Let’s see what Bob Hoskins, the actor who played Mario, had to say:
“The worst thing I ever did? ‘Super Mario Bros.’ It was a f***in’ nightmare. The whole experience was a nightmare. It had a husband-and-wife team directing, whose arrogance had been mistaken for talent. After so many weeks their own agent told them to get off the set! F***in’ nightmare. F***in’ idiots.”
See if you can endure this:
Even John Leguizamo who played Luigi doesn’t have anything kind to say about the movie:
Why is the movie bad? Where do we even start?
The story has nothing to do with Mario. The movie takes place in an alternate timeline version the real world rather than the Mushroom Kingdom. Bowser is human. Goombas are big, tall guys with tiny heads. Clearly, the only mushrooms that went into making this movie were the ones the writers took.
Hopefully, the upcoming animated Super Mario movie will be better.
Is there any hope?
Even though the Sonic movie looks awful, we have our hopes up for “Pokémon: Detective Pikachu.”
That movie looks like it might have decent CGI, a fun story, and hilarious acting from Ryan Reynolds.
Did we miss any other disasters? Let us know in the comments below!
