The best movies based on video games [2023]

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Art has always fed off each other. Cinema has fed off literature and now, as a new art form, it also feeds off video games. Many are the series and films that have appeared in recent years based on some of the most popular video games of all time, to the delight of professional gamers.

After literature, television series or comics, video games have become a major source of inspiration for Hollywood

Hobby, industry, art, leisure… and inspiration for cinema. Video games have evolved to offer a narrative that has been exploited in cinema with films of all kinds. From those that barely take any element of the original video game to those that transfer to the viewers plots or adventures that have already been enjoyed before in an interactive way by the players.

In fact in a few lustrums video games have gone from being a curiosity when they were adapted to cinema to one of the great sources of inspiration in Hollywood along with novels, television series or comics.

Best video game movies and where to watch them.

The following is a list of some of the best adaptations that have reached the big screen throughout the present century, to limit the selection temporally. The list includes from the most recent to the most distant in time, indicating where appropriate in which streaming platform they are currently available

– “Gran Turismo” (cinemas): The popular sports driving simulation video game took a select group of the best players to be trained as car drivers in “analog” races, participating in real competitions, as narrated in this film released this same year and that this summer can be enjoyed on the big screen.

– “Super Mario Bros.” (Movistar+): The most famous plumber brothers of video games, Luigi and Mario, have arrived this year to the big screen thanks to computer animation. Mario must rescue Luigi and to do so he will live a thrilling adventure full of winks and tributes to a number of Nintendo videogames.

– “Uncharted” (Movistar+): Young Nathan Drake will travel half the planet jumping from danger to danger and solving the most varied enigmas in search of a mythical treasure that has been lost for centuries. At the same time, the search could reveal the whereabouts of his long-lost brother.

– “Tomb Raider” (Prime-Sky): Lara Croft, the most celebrated polygonal archaeologist of consoles and computers in the late 90s came to the cinema for the first time in two installments with the incarnation of Angelina Jolie while the most recent adaptation moved the search for relics to the interpretation of Alicia Vikander.

– “Angry Birds” (Netflix – Movistar+): When these angry birds burst onto cell phones they were a complete revolution, but it seemed complicated to tell a story around their flights and flying pig attacks. Fortunately, this hilarious computer-animated film manages to do so without betraying the essence of Rovio’s video game.

– “Assassin’s Creed” (Disney+ – Netflix): The saga of the most effective assassins of all periods of history found in this movie a way (quite forced, to be honest) to make the protagonist’s consciousness travel in time so that he can reach the past (in conreto to 15th century Spain) and accomplish his mission.

– “Warcraft” (Prime): A portal that connects two worlds is the core of the action of a confrontation between humans and fantastic creatures turned into reality thanks to digital technology in an ambitious film that transfers the setting of one of the most popular video games.

– “Prince of Persia: “The Sands of Time” (Disney+): A dagger and an hourglass, both buried in the middle of the desert, are the lure for a vibrant adventure film that will allow the protagonist to emulate his counterpart in the video game on which it is based by jumping and climbing through the most unlikely places.

– “Silent Hill” (Sky-Tivify): On the way to the town that gives its title to the video game and movie, Rose suffers an accident and when she wakes up her little daughter has disappeared. The fog that envelops everything, the silence and the empty streets are not a good omen, but they do show how bad it will be for the mother (and the viewer) when the most terrifying creatures begin to appear.

– “Alone in the dark” (Prime): Edward investigates the paranormal as a result of a childhood experience. Now he will face the most complicated case of his career as he investigates mysterious disappearances in the orphanage where he spent his childhood. (Prime)

– “Doom” (Netflix): It wasn’t the first shoot ’em up (it was overtaken by “Castle Wolfenstein”), but “Doom” made a huge impact on video games. The labyrinths that were traversed on the computer and the monstrous creatures that the player had to defeat were enough as a premise to take a group of special fighters to Mars where they had to stop a genetic mutation of alien origin.

– “Resident Evil” (Netflix – Movistar+): One of the most successful and long-lived sagas both in video games and movies, all about the evil Umbrella Corporation, its experiments, the terrifying creatures that inhabit the subway labyrinth of Racoon City, the virus that escapes containment and the army of zombies that originates and that will have to tackle its charismatic protagonist, played by Milla Jovovich.

– “Tron and Tron: Legacy” (Disney+): Two for the price of one. Although it is not actually based on any game, but the game appeared after the movie. The original is a cult film, a waste of imagination and special effects, incredible for the time. Flynn, a video game creator is absorbed into the ENCOM Master Control Program, where he will have to fight to free Tron a security program and recover the authorship of some of his creations, for which he will have to overcome tests and fight.

– “Castlevania” (Netflix): The series is based on the popular vampire hunter saga created by Konami in the 1980s. With three seasons of very high quality, the series follows the adventures of a Belmont in his fight against Dracula and the forces of darkness.

– “Pokémon: Detective Pikachu” (Movistar+): Pokémon is one of the game franchises most often adapted to the screen. Although mainly, it has done so in the form of animated series and movies, in Detective Pikachu it does so with real people. A different adaptation to everything that has been seen about Pokémon. Netflix is preparing something similar as well.

– “Sonic the Hedgehog” (Amazon Prime Video): Based on Sega’s mascot, the popular hedgehog Sonic. The film chronicles Sonic’s adjustment to his new home, Earth. The fast hedgehog, along with his new friends, will have to face the evil Dr. Robotnik and his plans for world domination.

– “Double Dragon” (Filmin, Amazon Prime Video and FlixOlé): One of the favorite videogame sagas of those who took their first steps with a NES controller in their hands (also available on cell phones) but slammed by critics and users. In a world where the police only patrol during the day, the night is in the hands of criminals like Koga Suko who seeks a powerful medallion to become an all-powerful being. However, half of the medallion is held by the Lee brothers, two martial arts experts who will fight to keep it in their possession.

– “House of the Dead” (Amazon Prime Video): Considered one of the worst video game adaptations of all time (just like the rest of the adaptations that Uwe Boll has “gifted” to gamers). A group of young people partying on an island face a bunch of undead with embarrassing action moments mixed with stills and cutscenes from the videogame itself.

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