Top 5 Most Underrated Video Game Movies
It's no secret that most movies based on video games are terrible. In fact, you'd be hard pressed to find any video game movies that are actually considered to be good. That being said, some of them aren't actually quite as bad as gamers have made them out to be. Here are the top five most underrated video game movies.
5) Hitman (2007)
Starring Timothy Olyphant as Agent 47, Hitman wasn't a bad movie at all. Gamers universally disliked it though. Sure 47's back-story didn't follow the plot of the video games and there were a few parts that made no sense at all, but overall it is an interesting action flick with lots of killing and some cool fight scenes. Olyphant's portrayal of Agent 47 is a big reason this movie makes the list. 47 is a highly professional, always serious, and initially taciturn world-class assassin and Olyphant played him really well. It is unfortunate that he won't be reprising this role in the upcoming reboot.
This movie's main downfall was the plot which was pretty nonsensical. Without spoiling too much, a client literally hired the Agency to kill 47. I'm not an expert on organizations that have hitmen in their employ but I'm pretty sure you can't just hire them to kill their own out of the blue.
The movie also portrayed Agent 47 as too much of a “guns blazing” type. In the games, players are highly rewarded for completing missions based on stealth and subterfuge and yet there is next to none of that in the movie. This is explained when the Agency gives him his mission because they tell him it has to be public and they appreciate him “deviating from his normal methods,” but that doesn't mean they couldn't have put some stealth parts in later on. At least he donned a couple disguises.
In the end, Hitman wasn't a good movie but it wasn't as bad as gamers made it out to be. It's definitely a lot better than the 3.7/10 average score it has on Rotten Tomatoes. It is very entertaining and doesn't have any dragging parts. The way 47 has to constantly fend off attacks from other Agency assassins makes it feel almost like a poor man's Bourne movie. Plus the fact it has Olga Kurylenko topless should make it a 6/10 at the very least!
I feel like this post could have been titled "If You Have Really Low Expectations, These Video Game Movies Are Okay." And, that's frustrating. Low standards are one of the biggest negative influences in the video game industry. For example, the author all but directly states here that you can't expect a video game to have a high quality story.
Why not? Where is it written that video game writers undergo mandatory lobotomies? One of the main reasons there's yet to be a truly great video game movie is because video games are not respected as a medium. 42 years after Pong and the Magnavox Odyssey were released, people are still debating whether or not the medium counts as "art." To put that in perspective, less than 40 years after the very first image was captured on a video camera, Sergei Eisenstein had released The Battleship Potemkin. 12 years later came Snow White.
If we don't start expecting better quality from our video games, we should get used to a lot more lists like this.
Tomb Raider came out when I was sixteen. I'd already been such a fan of the video games, and I really liked it. It was nice to have a female role model to look up to. I enjoyed it and will still defend it to people who didn't like it today as a positive movie for young women.
Max Payne is one of the worst videogame adaptations ever made imho.
Mortal Kombat is one of the worst movies ever made period imho.
..Doom? not even a mention? come onnnn
Silent Hill was great. True to the atmosphere of dread the game instilled and true to game monsters. Plus the ending was actually satisfying. How they made such a horrible sequel is beyond me.
None of these movies are underrated. They got what they deserve.
I liked the Mortal Kombat movies. Yes I said I liked them both. Yes they weren't perfect but i never expected perfect from a Mortal Kombat movie. For one thing they didn't follow the games exactly. But I can deal with that. My only complaint was the 2nd game was entirely skipped over opting for the storyline based off 3. But I liked that storyline in the games anyways so I can deal with it. Even though they had their faults they were still enjoyable and I am glad to own them on dvd.
tekken was pretty good
I would put Mortal Kombat ahead of Tomb Raider as I was always a MK fan and never really played the TR games.
I would have left Max Payne off the list, I wanted to like it but I thought it was terrible.
Tomb raider got 8 on ign
Silent Hill is a terrible movie. With all the changes done to the story it's not even Silent Hill anymore. Was a big fan of the series and I was appalled with all the changes made.
The Cult being changed over to religious people trying to kill the witch, rather then being a cult to harness Cheryl's powers. Pyramid Head being in the movie didn't make any sense, he's a manifestation of another character that's not in the movie. That whole nurse scene, where the mom is dodging knives. Why did they switch it over to the mom? Is it unrealistic for a dad to care about this daughter? The town being abandoned? It is not an abandoned town, it is full of people! The abandoned version exists in a pocket dimension! That little girl couldn't act!
Its like they didn't even try!
what about the Resident Evil movies? if its because you haven't seen them, then i highly recommend them. the special effects are high end, the plots are good if not very complicated, and the acting is pretty great, especially if you are comparing it to other video game movies out there.
Silent Hill 2 wasn't bad at all IMHO.
I love Mortal Kombat! I heard good things about the Tekken movie... But I'll wait to see it. Those were $500 sunglasses a...
Anon 1, understated means people didn't like them.
How are these movies underrated, everyone knows them and has seen them.
I really liked Prince of Persia. It's one of the few movie I bought in Blu-Ray.