5 Great Video Game Movies That Aren't Based On Video Games

Imagine everything that was great about Dredd but add far more grotesque violence, horrifically believable hand-to-hand combat, and boss levels.

Much like Dredd, The Raid sees our protagonist enter at the bottom of a high-rise and fight their way to the top. Each level presents new challenges and every so often The Raid adds in a boss level to keep things fresh. In the opening scenes we meet our hero, Rama. Rama has a wife, whom he loves. There’s a bit of foreshadowing about the drug overlords that have this tower block under siege, but after a few minutes of introductory set-up that it’s, Level 1, GO! Rama is part of a badass Indonesian SWAT team, so once more our protagonist is a member of that ‘super-grunt’ archetype. He’s not the leader at the beginning, but he quickly establishes himself as the most dangerous member of the team through beautiful displays of violence and what appears to be deep-rooted hatred of doors. Unlike Dredd though, Rama struggles and has moments of retreat against overwhelming odds. In this sense, he’s too low of a level to proceed further.

There’re so many ways you can look at the film like a fantastic homage to video games. Change Rama ethnicity, and his name to ‘Wei Shen’ and you’ve got yourself a pretty faithful Sleeping Dogs movie. Mimicking that level progress and design from games like Die Hard Trilogy to Devil May Cry 3, we start at the literal bottom and work upwards towards the skies. Each level ups the difficulty and requires new skills to get past. It’s a tried and tested formula that keeps the plot simple and allows the action to take its rightful place as ‘chief attribute’. No complicated side stories or romantic sub-plots.

None of these films are one-to-one transplants from video games, but each has qualities that are straight from our adoration of that medium. For as long as video game movies continue to suck because Hollywood is a cold and disgusting place where dreams and fandom die, we can at least find solace in movies like these and others that embrace the mayhem and fun we seek in video games.

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So that’s our list. Did we miss any out? Tell us about it in the comments!