10 Video Game Movies That Could Genuinely Work

Despite being almost universally terrible, video game movies appear to be becoming more and more prevalent. With dozens of movie adaptations of our favourite titles currently being churned through the pipeline, it seems that Hollywood is determined to get at least one of them right. And contrary to popular belief, it is possible.

The trend has been to adapt popular video games rather than adapting those with actual cinematic merit. Almost every video game movie has been born from a franchise that's entire appeal focuses on the interactivity and playability of the actual game.

No one plays Tomb Raider or Prince of Persia to immerse themselves in the story.

The key is picking a franchise that has enough depth to stand on its own in a non-interactive medium. That means characters, worlds and visual spectacle. There has to be a place in the franchise for a movie to sit. Taking a game and just translating it blow-for-blow into a movie will simply labour the finished product with unfavourable comparisons.

So, when someone tells you that video game movies are simply just a bad idea, tell them that they simply haven't made the right one yet.

The new Prey was an entertaining idea that could have been refined into a far better one with enough time. However, one thing that it demonstrated expertly, was its merit for being made into a movie.

Picture an 'Alien' style horror movie with a group of people trapped on a space station. It would be heavily science-fiction with the movie making good use of the creative weapons that the video game offers. It would be your standard space horror schtick.

But, the true appeal of the movie would be in the visual way that it could portray horror. Lots of still frames and controlled shots in which the backgrounds subtly change as mimics move back and forth, turning into different items. The horror of watching and picking apart the background would be what made the movie work. It would take the video game mechanic and weave it into an entirely visual medium.

It would take a lot of creativity to get it just right, but it is the perfect game to make into a movie simply because the movie would be using the lack of interactivity to create a new way to engage the audience.