A place for those who "Trust the Fungus"

I'm only surprised that we haven't brought this topic up before, especially as it's become more and more clear with each passing year and each new video game movie.



Which video game-to-film adaptations do you feel are "worse" then Super Mario Bros.? Now, Super Mario Bros. has its flaws, but I think we can all agree that it stands pretty well as a film that can keep your interest. It's not especially faithful to the games, but it maintains the same themes and stands as a pretty good story in its own right.

I don't want you guys to list any films that you personally don't like just because they're poor adaptations. Yes, the Resident Evil series is far from faithful to the core concept and themes of the games, but at the least the original and some of the later entries are enjoyable.

I want to see discussion of video game-to-film adaptations that are legitimately bad on nearly every level; be it the cinematography, acting, writing or just how it comes together. Faithfulness to the source should be secondary, if anything.

Hands down, my second favorite game-to-film adaptation is Doom. While again, it's not as "faithful" to the franchise as some people would've liked, but as is the case with Super Mario Bros., does the story in the game matter that much in the translation for that particular franchise? No. I watch it in the same vein as SMB--having enjoyed the games but also enjoying the film in its own right. I think it's got a great tone and feels like a modern take on the Aliens formula. My wife hadn't played the games or anything but she really enjoyed Doom (and she too compared it to Aliens).

"Doom" is pretty good, though I am disappointed they eliminated the satanic element from the video-games, I really enjoyed Karl Urban as the Doomguy and it was interesting to see the Rock play a bad guy. My favorite part was the "First Person Shooter" segment, which had the classic Doom-style music playing in the background.

It really is pretty cool. It's one moment in the film that's blatantly an homage to the games, kind of like how the Bob-Omb was used in SMB. The whole movie didn't need to be like that, but small, game-inspired moments that work within the context of the film go a long way.

Street Fighter The Movie (Van Damme) was a poor attempt to take the characters and place them in a James Bond like storyline, but it was still an entertaining movie in my opinion, Raul Julia gave a good performance as M.Bison. It was interesting how some SF fans complained that he physically did not fit the role, they tend to forget that Bison was thin in the original SF2 games, he didnt get his roids treatment until Street Fighter Alpha.

Also, Raul Jula had an unncany resemblance to the original SF2 Bison:

There are bloody shed-loads. I'm building a Blu-Ray collection of video game adaptions (Such is why I cry when there is no SMB Blu-Ray).

BloodRayne II: Deliverance - By far the worst Video Game to film adaption I've seen. It's so bad, it's not even amusing or entertaining. The image is full of black crush meaning you can barely see anything (And the one black guy in it is practically invisible, poor bloke), the acting is shocking (Bar two inspired elements which are sorely added later and not expanded upon as side-characters) and the script is abysmal. There is nothing I can say to even claim this film as enjoyable.

Dead or Alive - Good for semi-clad ladies, yes. But outside of that? Crap acting, some of the ladies aren't all that, and the storyline is bullshit. What Japanese Princess keeps an automatic-release hang-glider backpack on under a kimono on what she originally thought to be an ordinary day? At least it starts of somewhat fun, but to be honest it fails to grab your interest after 30 minutes. SMB holds me all the way through, despite its shortcomings.

King of Fighters - Lovely cinematography (If cartoonish, but that fits the games) throughout is let down by below standard acting and a script that is so dreary and convoluted that I found myself questioning who was who, and then didn't give a shit about who lived or died. At least with Mortal Kombat I gave a damn about Liu Kang and Johnny Cage (Not Sonya though).

Final Fantasy: Advent Children Complete - Beautiful cinemtography, brilliant (At the time, slightly lower res now) graphics and adequate sound design (Sorry, just wasn't a fan of the missable soundtrack) is marred by atrocious direction overlaid upon a horrific script. True, Advent Children was originally only meant to be 30 minutes long (and was extended to meet fan demand for a feature length, straight-to-video affair) but if they were going to extend it then they should have filled it with something worth the extra time, not to mention there's a massive plothole throughout this crapathon in the first place. Action was sometimes hard to see thanks to an overly active moving camera, and this 'complete' edition takes the film up to just over 2 hours long - 1 hour of which is the final battle! I mean we all love a great final fight but over half the film? Overkill is an understatement.

Gamer - Ergh. I appreciate the story and sociopolitical message it was trying to get across but it failed to wrap that message around a story anyone could give a toss about. While not directly a game-specific conversion, it is most certainly a massive statement and homage to gaming, though whether it is for or against is hard to tell in the murky storytelling.

In The Name of the King - A Dragon's Seige Tale - Uwe Boll does, at least, improve on his previous efforts with a film that is often entertaining to watch just to see how crap it is. I mean for Christ's sake, the main character is a farmer called Farmer. How much more moronic does the script need to be? Acting is sterling grade amusing crap too, and the background music is often clearly taking the piss out of the film it's scored for. Enjoyable, but not good by any means, and certainly far from something special.

Mortal Kombat: Annihilation - While the original Mortal Kombat I put on a similar level of quality to SMB, Annihilation is something else. It's terrible, cheap and an evil attempt to continue the original's cliffhanger. Johnny Cage dies literally within 2 minutes of the film starting, Scoprion shouts "SUCKERS!", Nightwolf (Native Indian) talks like an American College Jock "Don't get cocky!", Rain appears just so he can fall in a hole and die instantly, Raiden begins each of his (at least 5) fights by going through a wall backwards (I'm not exaggurating that, either!) and Shao Khan is no taller than the other actors making him look less impressive. However apart from the 2 minute CGI dragon fightscene at the end (Which is just dire), the film is actually really funny in a "this is so crap" sort of way. I still adore Shao Khan's "Earth Realm is beginning to fall. AND IT! IS! GLORIOUS!" Not as good as SMB, but it's as funny as the bad bits in SMB.

Resident Evil - Sorry, the original was not that good. In fact, none of them really were. However I remember going to see Resident Evil I on my birthday and just laughing at the woman who gets killed in the lift shaft. I didn't care about any of the characters and the only cool nod was the Nemesis creation at the end, which was more of a forerunner to the next film. I've only seen 1 and 4, so I can't comment on 2 and 3.

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li - Not bad in film style, not bad in terms of trying to develop a workable script either. However the end result is a film that is majoritively dull, and any fighting film is reliant on it's fight scenes, and these were terrible. VERY obvious wirework through and through does not a good movie make. It's why I hated the shitfest of Hero, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon etc. No real skill, all flashy camera cuts and wirework. Boooring.

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within - Not a bad attempt at a film, however within the confines of a sci-fi the whole "Mother Earth" ideology becomes less intriguing and seems overly preachy, especially when wrapped around a story that is an overly basic action fare at it's best (And somewhat pedestrian at it's worst). Not a bad film, but certainly not great. It's got a similarity to SMB in that the style is very different to the games on which it was based, but lacks the depth of background that the SMB movie provided in it's backdrop scenery and design.

Resident Evil: Degeneration - It's alright. Zombies attack, Leon does shooting, Biohazard ends. This fits into the game storyline perfectly, it explains a little about WilPharma (From Resi 5) and introduces a new biohazard of it's own. But all the script elements are overly cliche and to be honest there's nothing here worthy of merit. Watching this doesn't enhance any backstory to the games to a degree that is of any interest to anybody (I'd include fans in that too) as it's too disconnected and it's not epic enough in dramatic scope to make an impact in it's own right. The graphics are better than Advent Children thankfully, but still aren't superb in every scene (The atrium/garden at WilPharma still uses an N64 trick to make 3D plantlife)

Yakuza: Like A Dragon - Love the Yakuza games. When I heard SEGA gave the okay for TAKESHI MIIKE (famous for Audition among many others) to make a Japanese movie based on the first game, I was expecting something great. Miike doesn't deliver. Firstly the direction is amateurish, very amateurish. The colour palette is childish and shows no sign of post-production work whatsoever. The actors are a mixed bag, with the lead actor (Kazuma) being far too young for the role and not particularly engaging and Majima being just right in his acting but let down by a script that makes him different to his more interesting game-persona (The issue isn't that it's different to the canon, it's that in the games he had a twisted logic which fit, in the movie he just commits random violence for no reason whatsoever and it doesn't work). Also Majima's facial hair is mostly drawn on with a black marker pen, seriously what in the hell? It utilises surround sound surprisingly well, but unfortunately the storyline falls short by having too many interruptions to the main storyline with pissy uninteresting side-ventures that mask what could have been a far better film. The fights aren't that inspired either unfortunately.

Tekken: Blood Vengeance - Amazing film. Truly amazing. Accurate to the game storylines (Unfortunately in this case, as the ending is dragged out and shit - bloody dragon-people!) so nobody can complain on that front, and well directed actually I must say. The issue with this is that it's amazing graphically and also because the script is so bad. A boy is having a shower in school, two girls spy on him and run off before he sees them, it then goes to the boy who is watching them on a TV/monitor so he knows they've spied on him, then he turns around and there is a FULLY DRESSED ARMY MAN in the shower with him who is never seen or heard of again! It makes no sense! Also, Sexual Harassment Panda makes a great CGI movie appearance. Absolutely terrible film, but so so fun and satisfying to watch for those reasons. But still not as interesting as SMB.

Those are the movies I would say are worse than SMB. There are several on a par (Doom, Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter <Live Action>) and few better (Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie, Tekken <Live Action>, Scott Pilgrim vs The World, Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, TMNT <CGI> and Mortal Kombat: Legacy). To be fair most of the remainder for my list are likely to be in the worse than SMB catagory but I'll keep my mind clear.

Any of you guys agree/disagree with any of the film choices in my list?

Roareye wrote:In The Name of the King - A Dragon's Seige Tale - Uwe Boll does, at least, improve on his previous efforts with a film that is often entertaining to watch just to see how crap it is. I mean for Christ's sake, the main character is a farmer called Farmer. How much more moronic does the script need to be? Acting is sterling grade amusing crap too, and the background music is often clearly taking the piss out of the film it's scored for. Enjoyable, but not good by any means, and certainly far from something special.

...

Any of you guys agree/disagree with any of the film choices in my list?

Yeah, I'm going to stop you right there.

I liked "In the Name of the King," if for no other reason, because Jason Statham and Burt Reynolds are great together. I know everybody hates Uwe Boll for the sake of hating Uwe Boll, but I'm a big fan of his movies, particularly the first "Bloodrayne" and "House of the Dead," even if they're dumb, they're completely harmless and Boll's magnum opus is definitely "In the Name of the King," because it's three hours of pure fun. Like you said, not good by any means, but I'd have to disagree with you when you say it's not special-- all movies are special, except for "Gamer" starring Gerard Butler and "The Sum of All Fears" starring Ben Affleck-- those movies suck.

But every other movie ever made is special in some way or another, and I think "In the Name of the King" is special because Uwe Boll really colored inside the lines for it and outdid himself as an amateur director. Also, it had an all-star cast-- Jason Statham, Burt Reynolds, Ron Perlman, Ray Liotta and Kristina Loken-- while that doesn't make it a good movie, it makes it something very special. Besides, I've been a Bollfan from the very beginning.

jka12002 wrote:Street Fighter The Movie (Van Damme) was a poor attempt to take the characters and place them in a James Bond like storyline, but it was still an entertaining movie in my opinion, Raul Julia gave a good performance as M.Bison. It was interesting how some SF fans complained that he physically did not fit the role, they tend to forget that Bison was thin in the original SF2 games, he didnt get his roids treatment until Street Fighter Alpha.

James Bond? Are you kidding? That film was pure G.I. Joe from beginning to end, and that's part of why I love it.

...the other part, of course, being Raul Julia's superb M. Bison. I do agree with you on that point all the way.

As for the one I consider worse? Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, hands down. Though I still need to see Double Dragon-- I only caught the few minutes at the end with a derpy Abobo and something called a "Dragon Wagon," and pretty much swore it off for the past decade. After seeing some stuff on it, though, I've decided I need to see it, if only just because.

Regarding Resident Evil: Degeneration, I got that for my dad on Blu-ray the day it came out as a late Christmas gift (really? They waited until right after Christmas?), as he likes the games and the movies. He and I watched it together and enjoyed it, and when I was talking to him last night, he had heard about the newest movie announcement, but said he wishes they'd do another like Degeneration, and I don't disagree.

Serum wrote:

Roareye wrote:In The Name of the King - A Dragon's Seige Tale - Uwe Boll does, at least, improve on his previous efforts with a film that is often entertaining to watch just to see how crap it is. I mean for Christ's sake, the main character is a farmer called Farmer. How much more moronic does the script need to be? Acting is sterling grade amusing crap too, and the background music is often clearly taking the piss out of the film it's scored for. Enjoyable, but not good by any means, and certainly far from something special.

...

Any of you guys agree/disagree with any of the film choices in my list?

Yeah, I'm going to stop you right there.

I liked "In the Name of the King," if for no other reason, because Jason Statham and Burt Reynolds are great together. I know everybody hates Uwe Boll for the sake of hating Uwe Boll, but I'm a big fan of his movies, particularly the first "Bloodrayne" and "House of the Dead," even if they're dumb, they're completely harmless and Boll's magnum opus is definitely "In the Name of the King," because it's three hours of pure fun. Like you said, not good by any means, but I'd have to disagree with you when you say it's not special-- all movies are special, except for "Gamer" starring Gerard Butler and "The Sum of All Fears" starring Ben Affleck-- those movies suck.

But every other movie ever made is special in some way or another, and I think "In the Name of the King" is special because Uwe Boll really colored inside the lines for it and outdid himself as an amateur director. Also, it had an all-star cast-- Jason Statham, Burt Reynolds, Ron Perlman, Ray Liotta and Kristina Loken-- while that doesn't make it a good movie, it makes it something very special. Besides, I've been a Bollfan from the very beginning.

I'm not hating Boll for the sake of Boll, what gave you that impression? If I was interested in going "Popular opinion is this sucks, so it must suck" then SMB The Movie would definately be one of the worst movies of all time. As it stands I went out of my way to watch it to develop my own opinion and here I am now, as much of a fan of it as you (maybe). You however, as you have stated, are a Boll fan. This means that you have reason to have a possible exaggurated opinion. I don't believe for a moment that this is the case, but I'm simply saying that my opinion is not swayed by popular opinion nor the cultural slander that Boll has become an icon of.

I have only ever seen 2 Boll movies. In The Name of the King and Bloodrayne 2. BloodRayne 2 IS the worst video game to movie adaption I've ever seen. It is purely hateful and disgusting because not only is it bad, it's not even entertaining to watch and loses your interest pretty fast. I've never played the games so it's closeness to those titles is unknown and, frankly, doesn't bother me. I have also not seen the original so am uncertain of it's placement in it's own world but the (limited) story seemed stand-alone, there was no reason to believe it was a direct sequel other than the same title and director. This movie also showed some of the worst direction and cinematography I've seen put to film, however bad direction was also shown by the famous Takashi Miike in the movie Yakuza: Like A Dragon so I'm not at all claiming this is a quality solely owned by Boll.

However In The Name Of The King is fun, it's enjoyable and for that reason it is a far superior movie. Maybe it would have been easier if I put my personal ratings on these movies so you could see that I was in no way comparing the two Boll movies, I actually think more highly of In The Name Of The King than several other video game movies. If nothing else the cinematography (Bar the horrendous CGI castle interiors) was stunning and superb. But in terms of storyline and plot it was nothing spectacular. But yes, the film had a special wink in it's eye for me thanks to the cinematography and the fact it was at least fun.

Bear in mind the name of the topic is "Video Game-to-Film Adaptions Worse Than SMB", and while not a horrendous film, In The Name Of The King is definately worse than SMB. The choice of words, I think, is unfortunate because saying 'worse' sounds like I'm calling it outright 'bad', but it's not. It has it's charm, and is not great by any means but is average and enjoyable.

SMB is a far more interesting movie to me, far better acted I feel (I love Bob Hoskins, best Mario EVER) and as someone breaking into the movie business I find it a far more interesting on a stylistic level. SMB is really and truly unique in it's choice, not many movies take something of one particular style and turn it so completely on it's head to make it something more involving and cinematic.

Going from super-fun-happy-family land to dark gritty Blade-Runner cyberpunk really is a cool and interesting choice, and I am forever intrigued by it. Final Fantasy Advent Children is almost like the opposite to me, that film is so close to it's source material and so popular and famous for that fact alone, that people seem to brush off how horrendous and shit that film really and truly is. I'd easily take a million Super Mario Bros. movies over Final Fantasy Advent Children crap-athons anyday.

Doom wasn't so bad although i agree with everyone else about the lack of the demonic storyline from the games. (Although one of the characters said something refrencing "satanic" stuff to describe the creatures.)

It was also wierd for me to hear The Rock (Dwayne Johnson for those who dont watch wrestling) cussing for the first time without any bleeps. It sounded so corny when he kept dropping f bombs at random times.

LBD_Nytetrayn wrote:Regarding Resident Evil: Degeneration, I got that for my dad on Blu-ray the day it came out as a late Christmas gift (really? They waited until right after Christmas?), as he likes the games and the movies. He and I watched it together and enjoyed it, and when I was talking to him last night, he had heard about the newest movie announcement, but said he wishes they'd do another like Degeneration, and I don't disagree.

Well you're in luck. In case you haven't heard by now, they're making a CGI movie called Resident Evil: Damnation. Nothing known about it other than a teaser, though.

Now that you mention it, I remember hearing that... somewhere... at some point in time. I know my dad would be into seeing it, so I hope we hear more soon.

Rankings for good films
1Tekken( live action one)
2 Mortal Kombat( It's good)
3 Street fighter( OF COURSE)
3 SMB( just beacuse of how screwed up the film came out to be, plot holes galore)
5 Dungeon seige: itnotk(uwe boll movie, it's got really good action scenes it's only good facotor)

Bad films
1. anything by uwe boll.
2. anything by uwe boll
3 legend of chun-li
4 uwe boll film
5 uwe boll film

my top 5 worst VG movies :

Doom (The game was about a demonic invasion from hell, not mutated humans.)
Alone in the Dark (Terrible director, terrible leading actor)
Bloodrayne (need i say more, nice boobies though )
Tomb Raider (Angelina Jolie is ugly)
Legend of Chun Li (Bison in a buisness suit....)

Mortal Kombat, Double Dragon and Resident Evil are among my most despised.

Why Resident Evil, one of the most critically acclaimed video-game movies? I'll tell you why.

Because George Romero wrote a fantastic screenplay for it and was set to direct it when Bernd Eichinger annoyed him to death about changing it and finally George quit the project in disgust. Thanks for nothing, Bernd Eichinger.

Why Mortal Kombat? I mean I can understand the sequel but why the original?

Paul WS Andersen, that's why. He took over the Resident Evil movie after George Romero quit and then knocked up Mila Jovovich.

What does that have to do with Mortal Kombat? Please note I'm not aware of the history behind Mortal Kombat The Movie I just watch the movie.

I just didn't care for it. Though, I did like the one song in the movie by KMFDM-- Juke Joint Jezebel. But other than that, I find it virtually unwatchable.

Oh, ok. That's understandable, it just something you didn't care for.

Yeah, which is funny, because I really liked Uwe Boll's "In the Name of the King."

Serum wrote:Yeah, which is funny, because I really liked Uwe Boll's "In the Name of the King."

"GIVE ME THE CHICKEN! ARGH ARR ARR ARRRGH!!"

Serum wrote:Because George Romero wrote a fantastic screenplay for it and was set to direct it when Bernd Eichinger annoyed him to death about changing it and finally George quit the project in disgust. Thanks for nothing, Bernd Eichinger.

Resident Evil perhaps rivals even Super Mario Bros. in adaptations that could have been really special, yet were unfortunately destined for creative interpretations that aborted one franchise and extended another.

It seems that video game adaptations are a matter of taste: some people can overlook the unfaithful for a good movie while others consider any departure from the source material to be indicative of poor worth. There's definitely a middle-ground that more people should consider.

Two words: Double Dragon...that's all I got for a mess of film that could have been enjoyable campy...if it wasn't so obnoxous and absurd from start to finish tossing in one oddity after another.

Redstar wrote:Resident Evil perhaps rivals even Super Mario Bros. in adaptations that could have been really special, yet were unfortunately destined for creative interpretations that aborted one franchise and extended another.

That's such a great way to put the Resident Evil film series into context. While the franchise as a whole is weaker than the sum of its parts, the first film has a lot going for it and it gets a bit mediocre as the films go on. Still, I'm glad that that particular franchise has been successful.

As stupid as it was, Street Fighter The Movie was still a fun movie to watch if youre not expecting it to be like the game. The movie had a ton of memorable quotes and moments and it came close to having a sequel, it would have been interesting to see who would have filled Raul Julia's shoes if a sequel were made a short time after.

Ive always thought Jeremy Irons would have been a great M.Bison in a sequel.

jka12002 wrote:Ive always thought Jeremy Irons would have been a great M.Bison in a sequel.

That would actually have been pretty badass.

Phlibbit wrote:

jka12002 wrote:Ive always thought Jeremy Irons would have been a great M.Bison in a sequel.

That would actually have been pretty badass.

I agree, he would have been a better choice than Dolph Lundgren when Van Damme was considering him as Bison for the sequel. In a away i am glad a sequel was never made for that very reason.

"and i'm going to keek, dat sun of a beech Bison's aas so HAAARD, that the next Bison wannabee, is gunna feel it"

Ahh good ol Van Damme and his Belgum accent....

This may not be the best place to post this, but it suits it well enough: Has anyone seen the new trailer for Silent Hill: Revelation 3D, the sequel to the original Silent Hill film?



The original is said to be one of the best video game adaptations despite its relative lack of faithfulness to the games' plot. Perhaps the sequel will continue that trend?

Redstar wrote:The original is said to be one of the best video game adaptations despite its relative lack of faithfulness to the games' plot. Perhaps the sequel will continue that trend?

Lack of faithfulness to the games' plot? Are you serious? I thought of any video-game adaptation I've ever seen, "Silent Hill" was the most faithful to the original game its based upon. And I'm looking forward to the new one, because I'm a little schoolgirl for Malcolm McDowell, who's playing the cult leader.

I just watched Resident Evil: Retribution last night. It was such a shitty movie. I am so disappointed, especially after how good the fourth film was.

It was just badly written, badly shot and badly acted. All potential was wasted. Even bringing back franchise-favorite characters did little to enhance the experience.

GUYS GUYS GUYS - Especially Serum.

I have found the one I think we will all acknowledge as the worst ever made.
SUPER HORNIO BROS 1 and 2!

I will add that my linked video is EDITED - all the sex scenes have been removed so it is clean for watching.



Super Hornio Bros is a pornographic film that is based on the SUPER MARIO BROS MOVIE.
This can be seen by the design of King Poopa - like an even sweatier Dennis Hopper. Add to that that Ornio and Squeegie are the wrong way round. Fat, red with a moustache is Squeegie, thin, green with no facial hair is Ornio.

To add insult to irony, Nintendo actually bought the rights and everything for these two movies at a highly increased price to ensure it would never be released again - That makes it an Official Nintendo Product in a very sordid way.

I think we can easily suggest this as the worst Video Game Adaption - by a long long mile.

Yeah, I've known about that spoof for a long time, long before I joined this board, in fact. I just didn't want to say anything. I've seen it, yeah. And the only thing I can say it has going for it is that Ron Jeremy makes a good "Mario" (he's called something else in the flick, I forget) if for no other reason, because (A. He's a good looking guy who pulls off the greasy plumber look and (B. the mustache and the longer permed 80s-style hair are exactly what I think of in a live action Mario if Bob Hoskins isn't involved.

Kind of Super Mario Bros. related:

http://www.acriticalhit.com/20-videogam ... ario-bros/

I get tired of people claiming SMB is the worst one ever, like they've never seen an Uwe Boll movie.

MODERATOR'S NOTE: I merged the above thread with this one, as this thread serves the same purpose as the former. ~ Serum.

I actually like the Resident Evil Movies are they faithful to the original source material? Not really, but a lot of what they have put in I can see happening in the stories of Resident Evil.

There is one film though that although was bad it wasnt completely the directors fault (Even though a lot of us hate this man with a Passion. I am of course talking about is.....House Of The Dead but heres the reason why i'm giving Uwe Boll a free pass on this....it the pacing of the games. I have played a few in arcades and they game is so rushed because it's a first person shooter and the cut scenes are very rushed to the point where there isn't much of a story.

Now please keep in mind that thus us from what I saw with the games at the time. I have not played any of the current games but at the time the games were just GASP MONSTER! SHOOT SHOOT SHOOT! Along with a few scenes of dialog.