It’s no secret that video games have rarely made a successful jump to the big screen with movie adaptations. Some have dashed the hopes of the fans and some are simply regarded as the worst movies of all-time. There are those diamonds in the rough worth noting though and with Mortal Kombat making another trek onto the big screen that looks pretty amazing thus far, it’s a great time to delve into the top five video game movie adaptations.
Now, this list isn’t limited to just theatrical releases since there’s so few great theatrical video game movies that belong on any sort of list with “best” in the title. You can literally count the good theatrical video game movies on one hand and would really have to stretch to get to five fingers. Thus, it’s worth looking into other video game movies that might not have gotten the full theatrical treatment or skipped it all together, but still are worth watching. Here are my top five video game movie adaptations.
5: Resident Evil: Degeneration
Although it is not related to Paul W. S. Anderson’s live-action adaptation of Capcom’s Resident Evil series, the 2008 CG-animated film Resident Evil: Degeneration fits canonically within the games while delivering stylistic zombie-killing fitting for where the franchise was at the time. The film brought two beloved fan-favorites in Resident Evil 2’s Leon (voiced by Paul Mercier) and Claire (voiced by Alyson Court) back together again to deal with the spread of the T-Virus and G-Virus while flesh-eating zombies wreak havoc on an airport.
The CG animation can look a little off at times, but it still remains a nice look and style for the time and helps elevate some of the stylish action that came from Resident Evil 4. The voice acting is solid, and the story as a whole is fine for what it is – an in-between narrative. It’s a solid follow-up to Leon’s epic battle for survival in Resident Evil 4 and is a surprising lead-up to Resident Evil 5 with how Tricell becomes involved towards the end. Honestly, it’s just always a blast to have Leon and Claire in the leading roles and the film offers enough crazy mutations and blood spilling to please any fan of the franchise. Even talking about it now gets me excited to see Leon and Claire reunite once more in Netflix’s anime series, Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness, in July and it’s hard not to see some Degeneration vibes in the trailer.
- Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You!
For most, Pokémon: The First Movie is regarded as the best animated Pokémon movie. For me though, it’s a close tie between that and Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You! with the latter getting a bit of an edge. I Choose You! is actually a bit of a reimagining of the first episode of the Pokémon anime series where Ash Ketchum (voiced by Rica Matsumoto/Sarah Natochenny) and Pikachu (voiced by Ikue Otani/Kate Bristol) meet for the first time. There’re even reimaginings of Ash and Pikachu coming across other iconic Pokémon like Caterpie and Charmander that fans will love and get some good nostalgic vibes.
As a whole, it’s your pretty standard Pokémon adventure with Ash and Pikachu, but I Chose You! is able to stand out through how it further builds out the Pokémon lore. It brings together all the different generations of Pokémon with a few legendary Pokémon, including Ho-Oh and Entei, running around. It adds some strange but welcomed story moments that delve a little deeper into more unspoken elements of lore like the effects the elements can have on Pokémon and what a world without Pokémon would look like. Yes, it also has the incredibly brief moment of Pikachu actually talking, which is weird, but the memory I have of fans reacting to it in the theaters was totally priceless. Best of all is that I Chose You! still has the genuine heart of a Pokémon story that’s gorgeously animated and still offers a refreshing trip down memory lane after over twenty animated films in the series.
- Sonic the Hedgehog
Last year’s live action/animated hybrid of Sonic the Hedgehog went from being a fan’s nightmare to a fan’s dream with how their demands turned everything around. The whole fiasco with Sonic the Hedgehog’s (voiced by Ben Schwartz) design initially spelled doom for the film, but then fan’s demands for a redesign were fulfilled and the way people talked about the film completely changed. Sonic the Hedgehog became the film that fans were incredibly vocal about supporting and people came in droves to see the film that managed to actually be a really fun ride.
Schwatz’s voice performance gave Sonic the energy he needed to be more charming and charismatic than ever before. The story and comedy were fitting for the whole family while maintaining most of the fun essence of Sonic’s character. Jim Carrey came in to deliver a weird and wild Robotnik performance that was fun as hell. The action and effects even looked pretty great and were super memorable with how Sonic does his own take on Quicksilver’s super-speed antics. There was even a great surprise at the end for fans in the form of a great-looking Tails and all the recent set leaks about Knuckles being in the sequel only heightens the anticipation for it. Sure, Sonic the Hedgehog isn’t a perfect movie by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s easily one of the most fun video game movies to date.
- Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Although it was just a direct-to-DVD movie, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children continued the story of FFVII in a beautifully animated, action-packed, and character-driven way. The film takes place two years after the events of the original game and follows a closed-off Cloud Strife (voiced by Takahiro Sakurai/Steve Burton) dealing with the loss of Aerith (voiced Maaya Sakamoto/Mena Suvari) while a mysterious disease infects those around him as well as himself and a trio of dangerous strangers try to resurrect Sephiroth (voiced by Toshiyuki Morikawa/George Newton).
The film not only brings incredible non-stop action that has excellent CG-animation that has some of your favorite FFVII characters absolutely tearing it up, but also some interesting closure for Cloud’s story. It’s awesome that we get to catch up with Cloud, Tifa (voiced by Ayumi Ito/Rachael Leigh Cook), and other fan favorites after the traumatic and destructive events of Midgar being destroyed while Cloud reels from Aerith’s death and fears the possible return of Sephiroth. It offers Cloud and fans some good closure for Aerith and even Zack (voiced by Kenichi Suzumura/Rick Gomez) and creates a solid epilogue for one of the greatest games of all-time.
- Detective Pikachu
Detective Pikachu did what seemed impossible by successfully bringing Pokémon into live action and creating a whole new world for people to become obsessed with. To say that Detective Pikachu was a dream come true is a total understatement. From watching Bulbasaurs walk along a river in unison to a Charizard blasting flames in a realistic battle arena, the Pokémon world was brought to life in a completely new way full of bright possibilities. The film gave fans something new to be excited about and featured a fun, funny, and heartfelt adventure to boot.
With Ryan Reynolds voicing the titular Pikachu and Justice Smith delivering a light-hearted performance perfectly fitting for a Pokémon story, the film was an absolute blast. It took its source material seriously enough to create a coherent story surprisingly full of heart while delivering a visually stunning adventure that rarely lets off the brakes and is full of fun moments for everyone to enjoy. It delivered a fresh Pokémon experience that now has fans, especially me, craving for more. The possibilities are now endless for what else can be explored in a live action Pokémon world – and it wouldn’t be possible without Detective Pikachu.
