Films have been adapted from video games since the early 1980s. Many films such as Tron have been made closely related to computers and video games in this time.
It was still a very selective genre, but it was only after the release of a few films based on games of well-known brands did this genre get some well-awaited public attention and became recognized as an independent genre.
One can further specify films based on video games into several other major genres, such as adventure for Lara Croft-Tomb Raider.
Traditionally, movies based on the Pokémon franchise or computer-animated such as Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Original video animations (OVAs) are also based on popular games, such as Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation.
Parallel to the films based on comics created in the past (especially from the 1980s), video game-based films tend to hold a reputation of being dull as compared to their origin, as in the extension of the back stories of the games could have been better written.
Thus, they often receive adverse reactions from film critics and fans of the source material,i.e., the original video game.
Other than that, the other likely reason for the failure of video game adaptations is the lack of proper structural conversion to the film format.
It is a very challenging job for filmmakers to keep intact the essence of the source video game.
But we are focussing on the movies that were a success in their adaptation from video games to a movie, and hence this list for you to look at :
Lara Croft –Tomb Raider
Director – Simon West
Casting – Angelina Jolie, Jon Voight, Iain Glen
The protagonist of this film is an orphaned heiress and intrepid archaeologist, Lara Croft, who ventures on a treacherous quest to retrieve the two pieces of an ancient artifact, The Triangle, that possesses the power to control time. She needs to recover the artifact before it comes into the possession of the Illuminati.
A solar eclipse is bound to occur due to an extremely rare planetary alignment for the first time in 5,000 years.
The fearless tomb raider must team up with contendor adventurers and pledged adversaries to collect the pieces as time passes. But, in the end, who can harness the archaic talisman’s unlimited power?
Mortal Kombat
Director – Paul W.S. Anderson
Casting – Christopher Lambert, Robin Shou, Liden Ashby
The film takes place on a secretive island where three martial artists are summoned to compete in a tournament, the outcomes of which will decide the world’s fate.
Based on the backstory of the popular video game “Mortal Kombat,” there is the tale of an ancient championship where the best of the best from different Realms indulge in one-to-one combat battles. The goal is to gain ten wins, enabling them to invade the losing Realm legally.
Outworld has collected nine wins against Earthrealm so far. Thus now it’s the task of Lord Rayden and his fighters to stop Outworld from landing the final victory.
Hitman Agent 47
Director – Aleksander Bach
Casting – Rupert Friend, Hannah Ware, Zachary Quinto
This movie is based on the video game “Hitman,” developed by IO Interactive, and its protagonist, a mysterious nameless assassin known as Agent 47.
Hitman: Agent 47 revolves around a genetically engineered advanced human created to be an elite assassin. Years of research have endowed him with unprecedented strength, speed, stamina, and intelligence.
His present target is a mega-corp that plans to dismantle the secret of Agent 47’s past so that they can create an army of killing machines that could surpass Agent 47 by all means. Agent 47 teams up with a young woman who possibly holds the secret to overcoming their secret enemies.
Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)
Director – Jeff Fowler
Casting – Ben Schwartz, James Marsden, Jim Carrey
The protagonist of the video game series Sonic The Hedgehog is an extraterrestrial hedgehog named Sonic. This game was created by Sega and can be seen to appear in numerous spin-off comics and animations.
Based on Sega’s global blockbuster videogame franchise of Sonic. This movie narrates the tale of the world’s speediest Hedgehog as he embraces Earth as his new home.
In this action-adventure film, Sonic and Tom (Sonic’s newly met friend on Earth) team up to protect the Earth from the evil genius Dr. Robotnik and crush his dreams of dominating this planet.
Need for Speed (2014)
Director – Scott Waugh
Casting – Aaron Paul, Dominic Cooper, Imogen Poots
Tobey Marshall has been framed in a murder he did not commit by his ex-business associate. After two years in jail, he is a financially struggling custom-car builder and street racer.
Fresh out of prison, enraged in the fury of revenge, he reacquires the fastest car ever built in his workshop and sold. He seeks to enter a secretive, high-stakes cross-country race known as The DeLeon.
The purpose of Tobey joining the race is redemption and recognition in the racing world. Yet all this fades compared to the rage fueling his desire to win this race, his revenge.
Silent Hill (2006)
Director – Christophe Gans
Casting – Radha Mitchell, Laurie Holden, Sean Bean
Every night, a lady named Sharon Da Silva is woken by a bad dream, and every time she wakes up crying out about “Silent Hill.”
Thus Rose, Sharon’s adoptive mother, and her husband Cristopher decide to visit the town of Silent Hill, West Virginia.
Rose and Sharon meet in an accident on their road to the town. When Rose awakens to find Sharon missing, she searches the fog- and ash-blanketed town for her beloved daughter. She searches for her daughter confined within the unnatural, desolate town of Silent Hill.
Tekken (2010)
Director – Dwight H.Little
Casting – Jonathan Patrick Foo, Kelly Overton, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
The year is 2039. World wars have destroyed everything, and corporations run territories, the mightiest and cruelest of which is Tekken.
Jin Kazama spent his childhood in the slums of a place called Anvil. He had to witness the killing of his mother, Jun, by the Tekken. After possessing a Tekken ID, he seeks vengeance for his mother’s death.
Having taken his vow of revenge, he must defeat the world’s most elite fighters to become the “King of the Iron Fist. Armed only with his presence of mind and raw combating skills, he has entered a dangerous and potentially life-threatening tournament, where even staying alive is a difficult undertaking.
Monster Hunter (2020)
Director – Paul W.S. Anderson
Casting – Mila Jovowixh, Tony Jaa, Ron Perlman
While on a jeopardy mission to track the missing troop members. When Captain Artemis and her troop are transported to a different world, they engage in a survival battle against formidable adversaries and subterranean sand-dwelling beasts.
They are trapped in a barren desert world rife with. The Captain and her team soon realize that their otherwise destructive military weapons are insufficient to take down the enemy.
The team comes across a mysterious local huntsman with superior combat skills, which keeps him ahead of the creatures dwelling on that land.
Resident Evil (2002)
Director – Paul W.S.Anderson
Casting – Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Ryan McCluskey
A virus escaped in a secret facility called “The Hive,” turning its staff into violent zombies and releasing the mutated Lab “Animals” they had been experimenting with. The complex computers shut down the facility to prevent the spreading of the infection. The parent corporation sends in an elite military unit. There they meet Alice, suffering from amnesia, but she is the only one who can assist them.
The military troopers must shut down the computer system and abandon the area. They fight and direct their path through zombies, mutants, and computers. They must shut down the system before the virus can escape into the open world.
Streetfighter (1994)
Director – Steven E. de Souza
Casting – Jean-Claude Van Damme, Raul Julia, Ming-Na Wen
Colonel William Guile leads an army into the country of Shadaloo to find traces that could lead him to General Bison, who has captured three missing soldiers of his troop.
Among them is Carlos “Charlie” Blanka, whom Bison had turned into a hideous mutant. And Chun Li, who is a reporter, seeks to avenge her father’s death by killing Bison.
Then two daily wage workers Ryu and Ken, are arrested along with Sagat, an arms dealer, and Vega for dealing in illegal weapons. Guile recruits them to find Bison’s base. Now they must find Bison three days before he murders the hostages and takes over the world.
Angry Birds (2016)
Director – Clay Kaytis, Fergal Reilly
Casting – Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Danny McBride
In this 3D animated comedy, The Angry Birds Movie, we finally discover why the birds are so angry. The movie is set on an island where flightless happy birds almost entirely populate.
In this paradise of flightless birds, Red, a short-tempered bird, the speedy yellow bird Chuck, and the dormant but explosive Bomb have always been outsiders. But when a group of mysterious green piggies visits the island, it’s up to these three outcasts to figure out the motive for the visit of the pigs.
Assassin’s Creed (2016)
Director – Justin Kurzel
Casting – Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons
Through a future revolutionalizing technology Callum Lynch unlocks his genetic memories and recollects the experiences of his ancestor. Through this device, he experiences the happenings in the life of Aguilar de Nerha, his Spanish ancestor, who lived during the 15th Century.
Callum discovers he is descended from an ancestor who supposedly belonged to a mysterious secret society known as the Assassins. He amasses incredible knowledge and combat skills, which could help take down the present-day oppressive and powerful Templar organization.
Rampage (2018)
Director – Brad Peyton
Casting – Dwayne Johnson, Naomie Harris, Malin Akerman
Athena-1, a space station owned by a genome manipulation and modification company named Energyne, is destroyed by a mutated laboratory rat and causes wreckage.
The CEO ordered Dr Kerry Atkins, the only surviving crew member, to retrieve research canisters containing the pathogen. Atkins can flee in the escape pod when the station explodes, but due to damage by the rat.
The falling pod pieces leave a trail of debris across the United States. Pieces of the debris fall in Florida, where an American crocodile of the Everglades consumes a canister, and in a forest of Wyoming, where a grey wolf is exposed to the canister of the pathogen.
Davis Okoye is a former US Army Special Forces soldier working at a Wildlife Sanctuary. In the Sanctuary, he befriended a rare albino gorilla named George.
At night, one of the canisters crashlands in George’s habitat, exposing George to the pathogen. Now Davis and George must defeat the other mutants and protect the people.
Dead Rising (2015)
Director – Zach Lipovsky
Casting – Jesse Metcalfe, Meghan Ory, Virginia Madsen
In East Mission, Oregon, a reporter named Chase Carter and his camera assistant Jordan are covering the stories of people in quarantine during a zombie outbreak.
The FEZA uses the vaccine called Zombrex to vaccinate the victims, and Chase tries to interview Crystal O’Rourke. Out of the blue, the patients turn into zombies, and Jordan flees in her car, leaving Chase behind.
He follows Crystal as she is chased by the zombies when they stumble upon Maggie, a woman in shock at losing her daughter.
Meanwhile, Jordan arrives at the border but is quarantined. General Lyons plans to get Zombrex bombed by his military since there seems no other way to keep the zombies from spreading out. Chase, Crystal, and Maggie must fight their way to reach the border.
Doom (2005)
Director – Andrzej Bartkowiak
Casting – Karl Urban, Rosamund Pike, Dwayne Johnson
Something goes wrong at an isolated research laboratory on Mars. All the research work has ceased, the communication systems are failing to respond, and the messages that get through to the base are not very comforting. It is declared to be a quarantine of Level 5.
The only people allowed to go in or out of that place are the Rapid Response Tactical Squad – a group of coarsened Marines armed from feet to the teeth with military-grade firepower.
However, they find themselves under threat after being attacked by strange extraterrestrial creatures. They must investigate the mishaps in a research facility and neutralize their enemy, or so they expect.