3 Video Games Movies That Turned Out to Be Really Lame

Adaptations are hard. The source material doesn't even matter: either we're talking books, comics or video games, it's always challenging to bring them to screen without triggering massive fan outrage or simply failing to grasp the spirit of the story.

Although there are exceptions – for instance, the recent take on the Sonic the Hedgehog videogame franchise appears to prove successful – it's rare for a videogame adaptation to conquer fan hearts.

Let's look at the three movies that were particularly bad at trying to do so.

'Assassin's Creed'

When fans first heard of an 'Assassin's Creed' movie adaptation, they were excited: after all, the iconic game does have a great potential to be turned into a film. The way the assassins' story combines action and drama has appealed to thousands of game fans across the world… but the movie starring Michael Fassbender certainly has not.

One of the worst things about it was how it chose the present as the main setting for the events, while the game focused more on what happened in the past. Even though some of the action scenes were quite impressive, they certainly could not drag the entire movie out of the storytelling pitfall.

'Assassin's Creed' only has 19% on Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes, with 42% audience score.

'Need for Speed'

Did someone say iconic videogame franchise? Because that's what 'Need for Speed' certainly is – with the history of the game beginning from the early 2000s, it is a legendary racing simulator filled with action, suspense, police tensions and drama.

But did the movie made in 2014 live up to the standard? Not quite. Even though it managed to gross some $203 million worldwide and paid off its budget, the characters and plot never managed to keep up – let alone outrun – the cars and some decent action.

According to critics, the movie's screenwriters never made it out of a "single-player mode", failing to engage the audience and make an enjoyable adaptation out of promising source material. 'Need for Speed' has landed 22% on Tomatometer, and a bit more optimistic 57% audience score.

'Alone in the Dark'

Among all the failed video game adaptations, there is an undisputed leader. You may have enjoyed 'Assassin's Creed' or 'Need for Speed', but with 'Alone in the Dark', things seem a bit more straightforward.

First of all, it has… 1% on Tomatometer. Even 'Morbius ' – a meme standard of bad movies – has 15%. 'Alone in the Dark' is almost unilaterally considered to be the worst movie adaptation of a videogame ever. Led by Christian Slater, the movie appears to have collected every cliche of a bad adaptation: "opening gateways to alternate dimensions, bimbo blonde archaeologists, sex scenes, mad scientists, slimy dog monsters, special army forces designed to battle slimy CG dog monsters, Tara Reid, "Matrix" slow-motion gun battles, and car chases." It's not even us talking: those are the words of Blair Erickson, the writer of the original script, who admitted that the story was "crappy".