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The Last Gaming Barrier

Video games have crossed many barriers over the years. They have become not only financially successful but garnered critical acclaim and multiple accolades. They have made their mark on popular culture and arguably have just as much impact on it as any other form of media. But there is one last barrier that video games have not been able to cross and it is one that is absolutely mind-boggling.

  

It's movies based on video games. Video games themselves have been able to be just as financially profitable as the latest blockbusters. But when it comes to adaptations of video games into cinematic form, video games are not only behind the curve but have failed time and time again to even deliver a consistently good product.

And this is rather ironic because games nowadays with their cinematic cutscenes have moments in them that are just as powerful and memorable as any film. And in the realm of cinema itself, video games have made an impression because more and more films use CGI and feature near copies of video game cut scenes.

But despite this, video games have continually had some of the worst adaptations on film. And it seems to not get any better even as the years go by. It has been decades of futility. It started with flawed adaptations in the 90's like Super Mario Bros., Double Dragon and Street Fighter and then continued into the 2000's with Uwe Boll's horde of shitty video game adaptations and the endless string of Resident Evil films that weren't even actual adaptations of the games. And it hasn't gotten any better in the current decade either with forgettable or lame crap like Assassin's Creed and Tomb Raider. If you ask me, the best video game movie is still the 1995 film Mortal Kombat and that does not even have any fatalities in it and has room for improvement. It is the best because it's entertaining and captures the spirit of the game very well and follows the plot pretty closely. 


It just baffles me how so many video game movies have been lost in translation. It is such a trend that I don't think you can just blame Hollywood. I mean there are films that were absolutely bastardized because of typical Hollywood interference like Max Payne for instance. Great series of games that already had phenomenal plots and for some reason the studio decided to rewrite them and as a result, made a very painful film to watch.

Maybe Detective Pikachu will finally start a new dawn for video game films. But if the past track record has anything to say about it, that's expecting a lot.
Can this detective solve the mystery of bad video game movies once and for all?

I just want to see an average video game movie again, let alone a great one. And then even if I get that, I want to see some kind of consistency from this particular genre. There are so many games that could legitimately make for great movies. And until that particular barrier is broken, video games will still have one roadblock in their way in terms of popular culture.

Maybe one-day video games will no longer be synonymous to bad movies. But until then, their string of failures speaks for themselves.

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