Board 8 > The Mount Rushmore of: Video Game Movies

(+) Yeah! (+)

Rules

1. You may vote up to 4 entries that fit the prompt.
2. No alts.
3. No deleting or editing posts; though, editing posts shortly after you post is fine.
4. If you change your vote, clearly indicate that you are changing a previous vote. Same for adding or subtracting picks.
5. In general, if there are two picks that can be considered the same product (i.e. Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Adventure 2 Battle), I will combine them.
6. If a vote is vague, I will pick the first available choice that best matches the vote (i.e. "Mario" for Wii Games becomes Super Mario Galaxy).
7. I will post the parameters of each Rushmore topic. Other than that, feel free to vote however you like and based on any criteria that best fits the "Mount Rushmore" of that topic.
8. If a vote doesn't fit the topic, it will count as a blank vote.
9. You may nominate as much as you want and have an unlimited amount of seconds for established nominations.
10. Every Sunday, I'll post the schedule for next week. I will pick based on the number of nominations. Any ties will be determined by RNG.

Spreadsheet & Nominations

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aatA25pW6OsDn2RlAAGP1_GOGCMNvLLumAKckHOhtFk/edit?gid=1117984190#gid=1117984190

Last Topics Results

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/667d60f7.png

This was actually a stealth "recommend comics" topic.

This actually still didn't capture the idea in my head, which was DC comic stories like Killing Joke, Kingdom Come, etc. What would that even be? DC Comic Stories? Alas, I won't run a third DC comics Rushmore.

Last 5 Rushmores

DC Comic Series: Action Comics / Detective Comics / Watchmen / Crisis on Infinite Earths
Historical Figures: Isaac Newton / Johannes Gutenberg / Jesus Christ / Augustus
Ancient Civilizations: Egypt / Mesopotamia / Greece / Rome
McDonalds Menu Items: Big Mac / Chicken McNuggets / French Fries / Egg McMuffin
DC Comic Runs: Green Lantern (Geoff Johns) / The Flash (Mark Waid) / Batman (Grant Morrison) / JLA (Grant Morrison)

This Week's Rushmores

Friday: Beer Styles (International Beer Day special)
Saturday: Salads
Sunday: Tarts

Next Themed Week: August 18 - 24 (Video Game Levels)

Today's Parameters

You must pick movies based on video games.

Movies can be theatrical, animated, streaming, direct-to-home, etc.

Movies that take major creative liberties with the video game are allowed. So are movies that don't reference the video game in name but are very clearly based on the video game.

Movies that are centered around fake video games do not count. They do count if the fake video game becomes a real, commercial video game in real life.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_based_on_video_games
https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/guide/video-game-movies/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films_based_on_video_games
https://www.ign.com/articles/best-video-game-movies-of-all-time
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls003042118/

Mortal Kombat (1995)
Super Mario Bros. (2023)
Detective Pikachu
Sonic the Hedgehog 3

I tried to go with actual good ones instead of infamously bad ones

Not sure which direction the prompt should go though because you can definitely make a solid Rushmore from both!

Pokmon: The First Movie
Sonic the Hedgehog
Detective Pikachu
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

wow, kinda surprised we still have such a lack of good video game movies in 2025

scrolling through the wikipedia pages you linked was dire

actually, I'm not doubling up on Pokmon

remove: Detective Pikachu
add: Mortal Kombat (1995)

Trying to think of some big notable ones

Resident Evil (Started a long-running franchise)
The Super Mario Bros Movie (Highest-grossing video game movie)
A Minecraft Movie (Chicken jockey)
Mortal Kombat 1995 (Established series lore going forward)

Resident Evil (a genuinely good movie and the start of a billion dollar franchise)
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within ("I don't care what anybody says, that's one of the best sci-fi films ever made." - Max Caufield)
Street Fighter: The Movie (Raul Julia masterclass)
Mortal Kombat (Those were $500 sunglasses)

Oops I was going to go with Wolfman and Perez Titans yesterday which would have tied it up but I forgot, my apologies. Also what you want is limited series maybe?

Anyway:

Mortal Kombat (1995)
WarCraft
The Super Mario Bros Movie
A Minecraft Movie

Mortal Kombat was the benchmark early film. WarCraft was (though bad) the point where studios started taking them seriously and held the box office record for seven years (thanks China). Super Mario Bros is obvious as the highest grossing ever and a big cultural event that opened the floodgates for more film adaptations. That is the only lock I think. Then Minecraft was a huge cultural event and from a film industry perspective, was where Warner Bros turned their fortunes around and started to have the absolutely insane year theyve been having.

Also, nominate 2024 in film.

I know its July but we did 2023!

Pokemon: The First Movie
Sonic 3
Mario Bros.
Mortal Kombat (1995)

I think this is a decent place to start. The First Movie is iconic to an entire generation, Sonic 3 has the highest RT score for something truly mainstream, Mario Bros' immense box-office is worth acknowledging I'd say, and MK is a cult classic and the music in particular is still loved.

Resident Evil, Street Fighter and Detective Pikachu are all solid picks, but I don't think Detective Pikachu should go in over the first movie unless you're restricting it to live-action

Silent Hill
Max payne

Nominate bad video game movies

Bitto posted...

Nominate bad video game movies

it's just alone in the dark four times

Mortal Kombat (1995)
The Super Mario Bros Movie
Resident Evil
Silent Hill

Ace Attorney
Detective Pikachu
Sonic 3
Resident Evil

Mine

watch the ace attorney movie its a masterpiece

also nobody talks about it but Gran Turismo was actually decent

totamech posted...

scrolling through the wikipedia pages you linked was dire

This.

As a Rushmore set:
The Wizard - the big "this was a giant commercial all along
The Last Starfighter the first "this was a giant commercial all along" (though the ATARI game itself wound up being canned multiple times; it was eventually released, without the license, as Star Raiders II) - 23 years later, fans created a game based on the movie
Mortal Kombat (1995) the first successful "we fleshed out a game into 90 minutes" that was mostly accepted by fans
Resident Evil arguably the first successful movie franchise

Personally, my top 4 would be
Pokemon the (first) Movie
Street Fighter II: the Anime surprised no one said this
Advent Children
Mortal Kombat
with a nod to 2003's Cradle of Life as 5th
There are just so much gaming special effects you couldn't get outside of animation back then

I love the SF2 anime. If this were a personal preference Rushmore, it'd be on it. I don't think it had as much reach as some of these others though.

Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Detective Pikachu
Sonic the Hedgehog

Considered Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, but I realised that I dont actually remember anything about it other than Angelina Jolie being in it.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Mortal Kombat (1995)
Sonic the Hedgehog 3
The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Leonhart4 posted...

Mortal Kombat (1995)
Super Mario Bros. (2023)
Detective Pikachu
Sonic the Hedgehog 3

This seems good

Tron
Mortal Kombat
The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Sonic the Hedgehog

Leonhart4 posted...

I love the SF2 anime. If this were a personal preference Rushmore, it'd be on it. I don't think it had as much reach as some of these others though.

That's fair. Anime didn't become mainstream out of Japan until Pokemon. (Even Advent Children, despite being "an ending" for super popular FF7, was super niche at its release.)

Mortal Combat (1995)
Pokmon: The First Movie
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
Sonic the Hedgehog

Tomb Raider should be in way higher contention than this topic shows. It was the most successful video game adaption movie for quite a while and the gold standard when video game movies were basically always bad.

Mortal Kombat (95)
Sonic the Hedgehog

I don't know for the last two.

And for your spoilered question, what you want is DC Limited Series/Mini-Series/One-Shots. That would encompass things like Killing Joke, All-Star Superman, Dark Knight Returns, Kingdom Come, etc. All of these stories were known to be limited stories that would have a beginning and end, and wouldn't be printed continuously like say Action Comics or Wonder Woman. Killing Joke is a one-shot, also called a Graphic Novel, a story composed of a single issue. A collected mini-series used to be called a Trade Paperback (TPB), but most of them are just called Graphic Novels these days as well.

Going to have to disagree on Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Its box office gross was okay and it was the highest grossing at the time (with almost zero competition) but it didnt do that well relative to its budget and the sequel flopped. The film definitely wasnt the gold standard of anything, it got awful reviews from critics and terrible audience scores almost across the board. It was held up as another example of video game movies being terrible not an exception to it.

Yeah, Tomb Raider wasn't a good movie. It made money because of Angelina Jolie playing Lara Croft.

Low key the reboot may be better than the original

might actually get to the first Mortal Kombat because of this topic

Just don't watch Annihilation unless you want to witness how badly they botched the sequel

Mortal Kombat (1995)
Pokemon: The First Movie
Super Mario Bros. (2023)
Sonic the Hedgehog 3

Leonhart4 posted...

Yeah, Tomb Raider wasn't a good movie. It made money because of Angelina Jolie playing Lara Croft.

Indeed, that plus the strength of Tomb Raider as a brand at the time.

Leonhart4 posted...

Just don't watch Annihilation unless you want to witness how badly they botched the sequel

Nah Annihilation is awesome and people should watch it:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/e/ee6f361c.jpg

You can watch that Annihilation, that is acceptable

that bear scene lives in my head rent free

Mortal Kombat (1995)
Pokemon: The First Movie
Sonic the Hedgehog 3
The Super Mario Bros. Movie

this could be pretty wildly different in a few years tbh. MK is a lock for being the one video game movie pre-modern era that felt relatively safe to admit you thought was honestly good, and it also had major influence on the games themselves (it came up with the actual story behind the first game, and made Kano Australian), which is still unusual among video game movies

First Movie goes over Detective Pikachu I feel for the sheer amount of nostalgia people have for it. I feel the latter, though a better movie, has been somewhat forgotten by comparison. Sonic and Mario are mostly self-explanatory.

shout outs to SF2: The Animated Movie (like Mortal Kombat above, a lot of things from it were later actually put in the games), the 90s live action SF movie, Resident Evil for starting that series, Advent Children and the Angelie Jolie Tomb Raider

Mortal Kombat (1995)
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
Pokemon Detective Pikachu
The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Street Fighter might have an argument over Mortal Kombat, since it came first. But I feel like Mortal Kombat was more memorable.

Tomb Raider was the most successful video game movie for almost a decade. And let's be honest, whether you remember the movie or not, you definitely remember Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft. It also held the record for best opening weekend for a video game movie until 2014.

Considered Pokemon the first movie, but I feel that's more based on the anime which is kind of cheating. So I went with Detective Pikachu instead as the first video game movie to make 100m on opening weekend. It kind of reinvigorated the idea that video games could be made into movies.

And the Super Mario Bros Movie has the best opening weekend for video games, and it pretty much dwarfs everything else.

Street Fighter showed how not to make a fighting game movie and then MK showed how to make a fighting game movie

And then Annihilation showed again how not to make a fighting game movie

Mortal Kombat '95 - I would've put '21 here instead if not for Cole
Pokmon: The First Movie - NGL I prefer The Movie 2000, but...
Resident Evil - Franchise was fun into the ground, but I feel like I needed a horror rep and the first is iconic
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - A perfect modern example of what video game based movies should aspire to be

HMs:

Warcraft
Silent Hill
Uncharted

As someone who's never played (World of) Warcraft or any Uncharted, and only ever played SH2 (so far) I found all of these enjoyable on a very surface level, just not iconic enough to be on a Rushmore imo.

I feel like Uncharted is the kind of video game movie you enjoy more if you don't know the source material

The Wizard
Sonic the Hedgehog
Detective Pikachu
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Both tomb raider movies were ok when I last watched them, and I will never watch them again

Fuck it

Remove Mortal Kombat
Add Lara Croft: Tomb Raider

Mortal Kombat 1995
Pokemon: The First Movie
Resident Evil
Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)

This was harder than it should've been tbh. The OG is the OG. I felt I needed a Pokemon rep. Resident Evil as a movie series lasted a long time. The last one is just personal preference.

Spirits Within, Sonic 1, and Lara Croft are my HMs.

Mortal Kombat (1995)
Resident Evil (2002)
Silent Hill (2006)
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)

The movie being bad doesnt matter, bunch of badly received movies being thrown around here. The sequel being awful matters even less that's not the movie we're talking about, so it's a weird point to bring up. Adjusted for inflation I'm pretty sure it wasn't until the Mario movie two years ago it was beaten and that was the gold standard.

Dancedreamer posted...

Tomb Raider was the most successful video game movie for almost a decade.

So was WarCraft!

ctesjbuvf posted...

The movie being bad doesnt matter, bunch of badly received movies being thrown around here.

If you're talking about critical reception, I agree. Totally irrelevant. Fan reception though does matter.

ctesjbuvf posted...

The movie being bad doesnt matter, bunch of badly received movies being thrown around here. The sequel being awful matters even less that's not the movie we're talking about, so it's a weird point to bring up. Adjusted for inflation I'm pretty sure it wasn't until the Mario movie two years ago it was beaten and that was the gold standard.

Assuming were going worldwide, which is hard to adjust for, no it comes in under WarCraft. Domestic is a different story but given that Mario still more than doubled its inflation adjusted gross its not that impressive a feat, more just a sign that video game movies have done better internationally than in the US.

Like what is the argument for Tomb Raider over WarCraft? They both held the record for a long time except WarCraft did herald the age of successful video game movies while Tomb Raider was a false start.

Mortal Kombat 95
Pokemon: The First Movie
Sonic the Hedgehog
Resident Evil

Sonic the Hedgehog 3
Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva
Pokemon: The First Movie
The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Mortal Kombat (1995)
Pokemon: The First Movie
Sonic the Hedgehog 3
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)

Mortal Kombat 1995
Pokemon: The First Movie
Resident Evil
Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)

Mortal Kombat 1995
Pokemon: The First Movie
Resident Evil
Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)

Pokmon the First Movie
Street Fighter 2 the Animated Movie
FF7 Advent Children
Sonic the Hedgehog 3