The best and worst video game movies ever made

With the recent announcement of a Final Fantasy XV feature film and upcoming movies such as Warcraft, Ratchet & Clank and Assassin’s Creed, we reflect on the biggest successes and mistakes of the video game movie genre.

The majority of video game adaptions are met with heavy criticism, and subsequently the genre has become so unpopular that no video game adaption has ever reached 50% on Rotten Tomatoes’ Critic Scale.

We have searched for some of the best and worst video game film adaptions, according to their audience score on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes.

Best video game movies

Resident Evil (2002)

IMDb – 6.7 / 10 Rotten Tomatoes – 68%

Resident Evil was one of the more popular video game adaptions to surface in the film industry.

The film was moderately successful and was succeeded by a series of sequels. Resident Evil’s path to success was a realistic, independent interpretation of the video game and the casting of Milla Jovovich as the protagonist.

Silent Hill (2006)

IMDb – 6.6 / 10 Rotten Tomatoes – 63%

As with the other top-rated video game movies, Silent Hill didn’t fully harmonise with the game’s version of events. However, the film was an independent success and delivered a professional, gripping horror film.

Prince of Persia (2010)

IMDb – 6.6 / 10 Rotten Tomatoes – 58%

Prince of Persia is a relatively recent Box Office success which is based on a successful video game.

The film featured exciting parkour and action scenes reminiscent of the Prince of Persia games, while still delivering enough independent content to be enjoyed as a standalone film.

Worst video game movies

BloodRayne (2005)

IMDb – 2.9/10 Rotten Tomatoes – 16%

BloodRayne is one of the worst video game adaptions ever to be produced.

Fans of the vampire heroine depicted in the video games were disappointed in the film release, resulting in universally-dismal audience ratings.

Alone in the Dark (2005)

IMDb – 2.3/10 Rotten Tomatoes – 10%

Alone in the Dark is a horror game which was adapted for film, although unlike Silent Hill the resulting horror movie was a massive failure.

Producing incredibly low ratings, the movie completely abandoned any conventions of honoring the original material.

House of the Dead (2003)

IMDb – 2.0/10 Rotten Tomatoes – 9%

The director of House of the Dead – which has been criticised as overly cheesy and laughably misguided – is the work of the infamous director Uwe Boll, who has won at least 5 Worst Director awards and directed a large portion of video game movies.

This film is officially the worst video game movie ever made.