[Editor’s note: this list was originally published in October 2023. It has been updated to coincide with the theatrical release of “Borderlands.”] Every year, gamers ask themselves: Is this the year video game movies finally gain some respect? And the answer in the year 2024 might, actually, be yes.
No, none of the three video game adaptations that came out last year were outright critical successes. Quite the opposite, actually: critics saw “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” as unremarkable and mediocre, “Gran Turismo” as a glorified advertisement, and “Five Nights as Freddy’s” as a complete borefest.
But the movies all performed respectably at the box office, with “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” becoming the second-highest grossing film of the year, and “Five Nights at Freddy’s” smashing expectations to become one of 2023’s biggest horror movies. These successes all affirm that, for better or worse, video game movies are hot right now.
And with a new “Sonic the Hedgehog” film coming out this year, there’s a chance that the financial momentum of video game movies will stay strong in 2024. Since the first video game movie ever was made, the reception to them has, universally, been negative. The original “Super Mario Bros.
” film from the early ’90s was a bizarre, barely-connected-to-the-games action flick that has its charms but is frankly a complete mess. Movies that followed — cheesy bomb “Double Dragon,” the convoluted “Resident .