Recently, many video games are getting their own movie adaptations. Most of these video game movies get multiple negative reviews. Whether it be that the acting is bad, the characters don’t work, the set pieces aren’t faithful, or a number of other details that take away from the movie, video game movie adaptations have a bad track record. So, why do these movies get all these negative reviews with large budgets and talented actors?

Many directors have tried to create video game adaptations since 1993, starting with Super Mario Bros. Video game adaptations tend to fail in many areas when the directors try to stay 100% faithful to the game itself. Video game to movie adaptations should not try to recreate that experience, to begin with. Ruben Fleischer, the director of the upcoming Uncharted film, may be able to break the cycle of bad video game movies. This is due to his idea of focusing on creating a good film first before he incorporates the video game details. This mindset of creating a good film before adding video game elements could create a great movie. With that idea, Fleischer might be the first director to perfect the video game movie. However, there has been a large amount of negative reception. The casting of Tom Holland as Nathan Drake has been the biggest factor for negative reception. This is mainly because of how young he looks and how he doesn’t look like Nathan Drake at all. Also, Holland is very well known for his role as Spider-Man, which may be a difficult role to branch out of. Fans wanted Nathan Fillion or Jensen Ackles to play the role instead. Originally, Mark Wahlberg was set to play the role of Nathan Drake, but he dropped down to playing Victor Sulivan because it was in development for five years and he had other films that he saw as more important than Uncharted.

Johannes Roberts, the director of Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, is one of the many directors who tried and failed at creating a good movie with video game details. The movie itself stays extremely close to the remakes of Resident Evil 1 and 2 by including most of the main cast, iconic locations, and story beats. A lot like 2018’s Tomb Raider, the movie was ambitious for including many of the same locations and characters from the 2013 game. Even though they included locations, characters, and story beats, they fell short in the storytelling, pacing, and overall quality of the movie. For example, Lara Croft didn’t feel like Lara, and instead, she felt like the normal female survivor we’ve seen so many times. She felt off with how she seemed to understand every element of survival. However, this is a clear contrast to who Lara Croft is. In the 2013 game, she had to fight for her survival and create her own bow from the ground up. The main complaint is how Lara seems to not mind killing. In one of the first cut scenes in the first game, she is forced to kill a soldier to survive. After the action was finished she fell to the ground and was horrified with what she did. However, in the movie, she showed no remorse and it seemed like we were following a completely different person. The same could be said for Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City with the story missing a lot of elements from the games. For example, the split gameplay, paths characters take, and how both storylines intertwine, are very important to the Resident Evil series and were, unfortunately, completely missing from the film.

In successful movies like Sonic the Hedgehog, fans made the movie director and creative team change the face of Sonic. This was due to how human he looked; the more human they made him look, the creepier it got. So, they changed Sonic to be more cartoony and closer to the source material. That small design change went over well with fans and they generally enjoyed the movie. Small changes like that can sometimes make or break a movie, usually, it doesn’t work in favor of the movie and sometimes it does.

The Silent Hill games are highly rated and are enjoyed by people everywhere, so when they announced there was going to be a movie, people were excited. Although, when the movie was released, it was met with mixed reviews. The critics didn’t really care for it while the audience had both positive and negative reviews. Both critics and the audience enjoyed the visuals and how they managed to capture certain game areas and some of the overall game elements. However, the general complaint about the movie was that it was too long, had horrible and drawn-out dialogue, the main character was completely different, and many scenes were unneeded. As someone who has played the game, I agree with the main complaints; the one complaint that stands out the most is how they changed the main character. Harry Mason is one of the best protagonists out there in gaming, and he helped drive the story along. By replacing that character it creates a disconnect between an everyday movie watcher and a fan of the game itself.

One of the biggest issues in video game adaptations, and alongside that most of these movies bite off more than they can chew. They try to cater to the everyday movie watcher and the die-hard fans and it doesn’t work most of the time. By catering to multiple audiences it takes away from the product and quality of the movie. When the final product and quality of the movie are the main things that matter, it’s an issue that minor elements take away from the adaptations of beloved games.