Are Video Game Movies About To (Finally) Hit The Big Time?

Quick! Name a good video game movie! Can't do it? I don't blame ya*. Movie adaptations of video games have been the sort of affair that sounds good in concept, but falls flat on its face in execution. Critics and audiences have been disdainful of the likes of Need For Speed, and even financially, only one video game film (Laura Croft: Tomb Raider) has crossed $100 million at the domestic box office. Looking at the state of things, it's easy to despair that the idea of a good video game movie is as likely to occur as Half-Life 3.


But the winds of change are blowing through Hollywood, with upcoming features based on video game properties having an enormous amount of potential in them. This Augusts Hitman: Agent 47 looks to be the typical generic action movie that just so happens to be inspired by a PS3 game, but it's in 2016 that things start to get interesting. Several prominent video game companies are taking a cue from the king of blockbusters, Marvel Studios, which started its own independent film studio once movies based on characters they licensed to other studios (remember the original Fantastic Four duology?) tanked. Once they went solo with Iron Man, well, the rest is history.

Ubisoft, Rovio and Blizzard Entertainment are all staking out their own cinematic path next year, with each studio having a gargantuan part in the creative process of the movies that are based on their beloved video games. Rovio, for instance, is fully in charge of financing their first ever Angry Birds movie, an entirely computer animated feature being made for only $80 million. Ubisoft is launching their motion picture division (which has future plans to make movies out of Far Cry and Splinter Cell) with next years Assassin's Creed movie, set to star Michael Fassbender and Marion Cottilard. And as a huge fan of Source Code, most enticing to me is Blizzard Entertainment and Legendary Pictures film Warcraft, based on the World of Warcraft game and directed by Duncan Jones.

With these companies involved, does that guarantee each of these films will be masterpieces? Of course not. But it is nice to see these companies learning from mistakes of the past (mainly, giving the film rights of their characters over to studios who don't understand the storytelling possibilities of their games) and taking a more active role in their movies. If this approach works on even just one of these three high profile projects, then there's a good chance of video game movies will finally reach their maximum potential.

*=I'm referring to films based directly on video games here. Wreck-It Ralph and Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World are both movies heavily influenced by video games that are both incredible.