30 Awful Video Game Movies, Ranked From Bad to Worst
These are the worst of the worst
Films adapted from their video-game counterparts are notoriously bad.
With that being said, it's time to highlight the worst of the worst. Our rankings are based on Metacritic's unique critic scoring algorithm, Rotten Tomatoes scores, and IMDb ratings.
30. Tomb Raider (2018)
Though praised by Vulture for its well designed fight and chase scenes, this reboot was brutally panned by Wall Street Journal's Joe Morgenstern as a film that "generates no joy, makes negligible sense, and seals its own tomb with a climax of perfect absurdity.
MetaScore: 48.
Rotten Tomatoes: 49%.
29. Sonic the Hedgehog
The release of Sonic the Hedgehog was delayed until 2020 for a $5 million redesign of its main character, but maybe they should have used that time to give the script an overhaul, as well.
"Children encountering the faux-ET format for the first time may enjoy it well enough," says Robbie Collin of The Telegraph, "but signs of life, extra or otherwise, are low to nil."
Gamespot's own Phil Hornshaw, meanwhile, says in his Sonic the Hedgehog review: "As video game adaptations, Sonic the Hedgehog is among the stronger ones."
MetaScore: 47.
28. Rampage
According to GameSpot's own Michael Rougeau, Rampage -- a movie about giant mutating animals wreaking havoc on a city -- is the "video game adaption nobody asked for."
"It's dumb as hell," he summarizes, "but it's also pretty dang entertaining."
MetaScore: 45.
Rotten Tomatoes: 51%.
27. The Angry Birds Movie
The Angry Birds Movie, aptly named after the wildly popular mobile game, is the best of the worst when it comes to big-screen video-game flicks. The 2016 adaptation was a little too loud and obnoxious for the brave ones who survived this poor excuse for a children’s movie.
MetaScore: 43.
Rotten Tomatoes: 43%.
26. Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (tie)
This globetrotting sequel offers even more exciting Tomb Raider adventures as Angelina Jolie reprises her role as the courageous Croft.
Michael Atkinson of the Village Voice said of the movie, "it wouldn't be fair to gripe about the hundreds of plot holes; the whole thing is hole."
MetaScore: 43.
Rotten Tomatoes: 24%.
25. Resident Evil: Extinction
This 2007 film is the highest-rated in the Resident Evil saga, which isn’t exactly high praise. Jovovich reprises her role as Alice in the poor-man’s version of Mad Max.
MetaScore: 41.
Rotten Tomatoes: 22%.
24. Need for Speed
In this 2014 adaptation of the best-selling racing game, Aaron Paul of Breaking Bad fame stars as street racer Tobey Marshall, who is looking for vengeance after being wrongly convicted.
Unfortunately for fans of the game, Need for Speed wasn’t anywhere near fast or furious enough in its two-plus hour runtime.
MetaScore: 39.
Rotten Tomatoes: 23%.
23. Dead or Alive
This incredibly irrelevant movie—based on Tecmo’s Dead or Alive franchise—tells the tale of four rival women who must team up to defeat the forces of evil.
In its blistering movie review, the Austin Chronicle called this 2007 film “a piece of garbage and the best argument for reading books.”
MetaScore: 38.
Rotten Tomatoes: 34%.
22. Assassin's Creed
2016's Assassin's Creed—an adaptation of the popular Ubisoft game—had a lot going for it: A top-notch cast, including Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard and Jeremy Irons. Unfortunately, the actors couldn't make the film any good; the story spent too much time in the present, rather than the past.
MetaScore: 36.
21. Hitman
Starring Timothy Olyphant as Agent 47, Hitman struggled to make the genetically-engineered assassin-for-hire a likable character—who knew? Todd McCarthy of Variety called the 2007 film "numbingly unthrilling" and said it "misses its target by a mile."
MetaScore: 35.
Rotten Tomatoes: 14%.
20. Doom
This 2005 film based on the game of the same name stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and other dudes, who are attacked by genetically-engineered monsters on a Mars base.
Although the film is pretty forgettable, the best part comes when it mirrors the first-person shooter aesthetic of the game.
MetaScore: 34.
Rotten Tomatoes: 19%.
19. Resident Evil
The original Resident Evil--adapted from the incredibly popular video game series--stars Milla Jovovich as Alice, an amnesiac who must prevent the outbreak of the T-virus. It’s the lowest-rated in the saga, but it did spawn multiple sequels because of its box-office success ($102.4 million).
MetaScore: 33.
Rotten Tomatoes: 33%.
18. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
It seems as if the role of Lara Croft was tailor fit for Angelina Jolie. It’s just too bad that the original film was uninspiring and as slow as molasses.
MetaScore: 33.
Rotten Tomatoes: 20%.
17. Warcraft
Set in the world of Azeroth, this 2016 film portrays the first confrontations between the humans and orcs. In development for a decade, the film is the highest-grossing video game adaptation ever thanks to strong interest from Chinese audiences, surpassing Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
A sequel has yet to be announced.
MetaScore: 32.
Rotten Tomatoes: 28%.
16. Max Payne
Sadly, Max Payne feels like it was entirely shot in “Bullet Time”--the slow-motion effect from the game series.
But it's not all bad: Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune said Mark Wahlberg's acting boosted the film from "bottom of the dumpster" to a "top-of-the-dumpster movie."
MetaScore: 31.
Rotten Tomatoes: 16%.
15. Silent Hill
This 2006 horror film took a mother to the deadly deserted town of Silent Hill to find a cure for her daughter’s illness.
The San Francisco Chronicle summed up the movie’s problems by saying, “Silent Hill has plenty of bad acting, bad dialogue and a confusing plot.”
MetaScore: 30.
Rotten Tomatoes: 29%.
14. Ratchet and Clank
This 2016 film finds our two heroes--Ratchet and Clank--in a struggle to stop the sinister Chairman Drek from destroying the Solana Galaxy.
Not only was the animation panned by critics and viewers, it also had an unhealthy obsession with guns for a movie aimed at children.
MetaScore: 29.
Rotten Tomatoes: 18%.
13. Super Mario Bros.
Hollywood had big hopes for Super Mario Bros. (1993), the first movie based on a video game. But rather than create a fun and lighthearted film that was faithful to the franchise, producers took a dark, dystopian sci-fi angle with the film.
Robert Hoskins of Who Framed Roger Rabbit fame played Mario. He would later call it the worst role of his career.
Rotten Tomatoes: 15%.
IMDb: 4/10.
12. Street Fighter
Loosely based on the arcade hit Street Fighter II, this 1994 film stars Jean-Claude Van Damme as Guile. It made gobs of money at the box office -- just shy of $100 million -- but critics loathed it.
Stephen Holden of The New York Times said that while it "captured the look and mood of a video game, the film is an otherwise dreary, overstuffed hodgepodge of poorly edited martial arts sequences and often unintelligible dialogue."
Rotten Tomatoes: 15%.
IMDb: 3.8/10.
11. Hitman: Agent 47
Nearly a decade after the original Hitman movie struck out at the box office, the series was rebooted with this 2015 film. The film failed to capture any passing resemblance to the beloved gaming series.
MetaScore: 28.
Rotten Tomatoes: 8%.
10. Postal
The opening scenes of this movie feature a 'humorous take' on the September 11 attacks. It also features a Nazi-themed amusement park with women wearing both bikinis and Hitler mustaches.
Elizabeth Weitzman of The New York Daily News called Postal "aggressively tasteless and knowingly idiotic."
MetaScore: 22.
Rotten Tomatoes: 8%.
9. Wing Commander
This box office bomb, like pretty much every movie from the year 1999, stars Freddy Prinze, Jr. and Matthew Lillard. It was only loosely based on the game franchise, ensuring that both fans of good movies and fans of Wing Commander would leave the theater disappointed.
Roger Ebert blasted its script as "submoronic."
MetaScore: 21.
Rotten Tomatoes: 10%.
8. Double Dragon
This big-screen adaptation of the popular beat-em-up, starring Scott Wolf, Mark Dacascos, and Alyssa Milano, made an anemic $2.3 million at the box office -- much less than its $7.8 million budget.
Stephen Holden of The New York Times panned the movie as an "incoherent children's adventure."
Rotten Tomatoes: 8%.
IMDb: 3.6/10.
7. Bloodrayne
This 2006 action-adventure (comedy?) film was so incredibly bad that Michael Madsen--who played Vladimir in Bloodrayne--called it “an abomination … a horrifying and preposterous movie.”
MetaScore: 18.
Rotten Tomatoes: 4%.
6. Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li
This straight-to-DVD action film told the origin tale of some of the most iconic Street Fighter characters to date. Unfortunately, it was panned for awful dialogue and terribly staged action scenes.
MetaScore: 17.
Rotten Tomatoes: 6%.
5. Silent Hill: Revelation 3D
This sequel follows Heather Mason, who is drawn to the town of Silent Hill on the eve of her 18th birthday.
The silver lining in this crap storm? This film starred future Game of Thrones vets Sean Bean (Ned Stark) and Kit Harrington (Jon Snow).
MetaScore: 15.
Rotten Tomatoes: 5%.
4. In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
In this abomination, Jason Statham stars as a fighter named Farmer--seriously--who must protect the mighty Castle Ebb from evil. The New York Times called it an “awkward Lord of the Rings knockoff.”
MetaScore: 15.
Rotten Tomatoes: 4%.
IMDb: 3.8/10.
3. House of the Dead
With a disorienting combination of terrible techno, monster makeup and zombies, it’s an upset that this film isn’t considered the worst video game adaptation ever, nay, the worst movie of all time.
MetaScore: 15.
Rotten Tomatoes: 4%.
IMDb: 2/10.
2. Mortal Kombat: Annihilation
Although this sequel picks up where the 1995 original left off, just two of the lead actors reprised their roles in Annihilation.
L.A. Weekly’s Hazel-Dawn Dumpert stated that she would rather “lock a child in a room before [she’d] show him Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.” So there’s that.
MetaScore: 11.
Rotten Tomatoes: 3%.
1. Alone in the Dark
In what can only be described as the trifecta of phenomenal actors, Tara Reid, Christian Slater, and Stephen Dorff star in one of the worst movies ever released to the public.
In fact, this 2005 abomination was so terrible that it earned a spot on Metacritic's list of the worst movies of all time.
MetaScore: 9.
Rotten Tomatoes: 1%.