Top 10 Video Game Movie Adaptations
5. Tomb Raider (2018)
Hoping to capitalise on the recent new incarnation of Lara Croft in the gaming world, 2018’s Tomb Raider sought to breathe new life into the franchise, giving audiences a younger, more contemporary and more grounded interpretation of the thrill-seeking heroine.
Nine years after believing her father died on an archaeological mission, a young Lara Croft travels to a long-hidden island south of Japan in order to solve the mystery of her father’s disappearance and stop a deadly plague from being unleashed upon the Earth.
Gone are the twin pistols and Bond-style gadgets of the Angelina Jolie era with Academy Award winning actress Alicia Vikander stepping into the role with nothing but a bow, arrow, and plenty of pluck.
Taking some hits for being a little light on action and not spending enough time developing the character of Lara Croft, Tomb Raider still ranks as one of the best video game movies in recent memory.
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4. Warcraft (2016)
With a budget of $160 million, a fantastic ensemble cast and a talented director in Duncan Jones (Moon; Source Code), as well as a built-in gaming audience of millions across the globe, Warcraft was poised to be a juggernaut of a film in 2016.
It is odd, then, that the movie only made $47 million at the North American box office and was set to be one of the biggest flops in motion picture history until a massive boost from the Chinese box office notched the overall takings to a much more acceptable $433million – the highest gross for a video-game-to-film adaptation ever.
Originally set up to be the first in a series of films, Warcraft (alternately known as Warcraft: The Beginning) tells the story of a race of Orcs opening a portal to the Human realm in an attempt to claim it as their own. As war breaks out, leaders on both sides begin to question if there may be a better solution.
Visually stunning and attempting to tell a large story on such a grand scale make this one of the better game adaptations despite its failings to provide memorable characters and an engaging plot.
3. Resident Evil (2002)
After a deadly virus causes the employees of a secret underground experimental research facility to get a sudden appetite for human flesh, an amnesiac woman known only as Alice and a team of private commandos are forced to fight for their lives against hordes of the undead.
When Resident Evil shuffled its way into cinemas back in 2002, audiences may have groaned at another computer game getting the silver screen treatment, but this zombie-riddled action/horror proved a huge leap forward in quality for video game adaptations and, along with its many sequels, would go on to take a massive bite out of the worldwide box office.
Going on to become the highest earning video game movie franchise in history with a total of six films and an announced reboot and TV series in the offing, Resident Evil is a no-brainer (sorry) for the number three spot on the list.
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