Releasing on September 14th of this year is the 5th installment of Paul W. S. Anderson’s Resident Evil film series. While received by mixed critical reviews and a mixed audience, the series has pulled in enough of a fan base to earn the latest entry in the saga $26.6 million on its opening weekend. Though I don’t find myself particularly intrigued by the Resident Evil film series, I can understand why it’s been able to pull in a crowd as well as it does. Rather than simply transferring the game script into film, the movies adapt their own story and characters to a mythos that already exists, allowing for some creative liberties that tweak things about the game that would not translate well onto the big screen.
In thinking about the Resident Evil series, I couldn’t help but formulate in my head a list of other film adaptations that simply missed the mark and did little more than play insult to the source material. While there are many to be mentioned, here are my top 3:
Any Uwe Boll Adaptation (BloodRayne I and II; House of the Dead I and II; In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale; Alone in the Dark I and II; Far Cry)
It was hard to come up with just one movie for the number one slot, especially with such a infamous adaptor of video games at large. Uwe Boll has taken some rather creative and entertaining titles and turned them into disgusting messes on the big screen. From the decision to cast Christian Slater and Tara Reid in the atmosphere-driven Alone in the Dark to the complete rape of the camp that made House of the Dead what it was, Uwe Boll has proven time and time again that those who own the rights to games need to stop jumping at every movie deal so blindly. One exception to Boll’s list of atrocious adaptations was Postal, which only succeeds in following the games over-the-top zaniness in only a way Uwe Boll could produce.
Mortal Kombat
I remember watching Mortal Kombat when I was in middle school and thinking I was a bad-ass because it was based off of the controversial Midway fighting games and, therefor, was deemed taboo. Recently, though, I subjected myself to the film once more and found that, disappointingly, there was nothing about the movie that did any justice to the controversy surrounding the games. Having received a PG-13 rating, it’s evident that none of the staple gore and violence made it into the film, leaving only the weak and somewhat ridiculous storyline as the films main attraction. While some would say Mortal Kombat 2: Armageddon was the worse of the two films (and really, it was), it was the original film that set the low standard for what could have at least been an amusing gore-fest – which is exactly what the original Mortal Kombat games were.
Doom
I thought anything featuring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was going to be an instant blockbuster, but 2005’s Doom brought me back to a cold, harsh reality. Implementing a First Person Shooter style of filming for a portion of the film, Doom attempted to raise tension throughout the movie, but what it succeed in was only dizzying people – much like the Blaire Witch Project. Unlike Blair Witch, though, the Doom adaptation was unable to represent the atmosphere that was a staple of the series, especially the more recent 3rd installment. With its action heavy-focus and an explanation for the inhuman monsters that couldn’t be further from the games, Doom’s only connection left to the series was its name and setting.
There may be other titles out there that deserver to be on this list most – say, for example, Wing Commander – but of the ones I’ve had the misfortune of seeing, these were definitely amongst the worst. While it’s safe for the movie to detach itself from the source material, one must know where these separations can. Otherwise, you’ll wind up with a bloody mess and a movie completely undeserving of the title it carries.
Far Cray ??? hehehe (Far Cry please)
Wow, so you diss Resident Evil (which is some of the greatest sets of films of all time, unlike the shit that is Avatar)
Then you hate on Mortal Kombat.
You really can’t think of more???
How about Double Dragon, Dead of Alive, Hitman, Max Payne, Tekken, or for god sakes Street Fighter.
But no, You hated on 2 video game films that were actually good.
Shame on you.
I was suprised that the Street Fighter movie wasn’t on here at first. But…
You know, I recently rewatched it (because I have that kind of time) and it has a ton of retarded ’90’s camp and nostalgia value. And Raul Julia. Where as rewatching the Mortal Kombat movie (again, free time), it’s just sort of dull. And has, you know, Christopher Lambert.
So, yeah, the street fighter movie is six kinds of retarted, but at leasts it fun to rewatch. And unnapologetic for what it is. Sort of the Roadhouse of awful videogame moveis.
Maybe if you read the article a little better, Ian, you would have seen that I didn’t diss Resident Evil. I simply said I wasn’t a fan of them, but saw why they actually were a success. You would have also read that nowhere did I call these films Bad Movies. I called them Bad Adaptations. I didn’t go into acting. I didn’t go into directing. I went into how they did a poor job of representing the source material.
Second, there’s such a thing called a “conversation starter”, of which this article was. It’s not the “Do all, end all” of Bad Adaptations lists. I’m not pompous enough to assume my opinion is of the greatest value to others, which is why I post on a site that’s open for comments and discussions.
The list is of the films I have seen, again something you would have been privy to had you actually read the article, and these are the ones that I felt did not portray the game correctly.
Hitman, Max Payne, Street Fighter, and Tekken all portrayed their games in a better sense than the three I listed. When you look at Mortal Kombat, the only reason the games were a success was the gore-factor. They’re not good games. They’re over the top. There was nothing over the top about the movie. It was a PG-13 mess that had no right having the MK moniker attached to it – save for the clever use of character and local names.
Shame on you Mark LoProto!!!!!…lol. House of the Dead was the worst piece of crap I have ever seen in my entire life. If not for the game, I would have no idea where they were going with that movie.
I only liked Mortal Kombat for Raiden as played by Christopher Lambert, but that was because I’m a fan of his from Highlander.
Also, I agree about Alone in the Dark in particular.
I was a fan of the New Nightmare game for PS1, a game I played without ever playing Resident Evil, and it actually did creep me out at times.
I think in many mediums, i.e.: books, video games, comic books; the movie adaptations just don’t really live up to the source material.
This could be mostly because for books at least, there’s a degree of imagination required when taking in the printed word.
As for video games and comic books, they’re unrealistic, and so there’s a degree of letdown when you see a live-action version of something like that.
But I’m someone that’s grown tired of sequels and money-making Hollywood that only cares to take recycled ideas and sell them back to a consumeristic culture all too eager to buy up the latest trends and whatnot.