The Biggest Threat to Video Game Movies & Shows Isn’t Bad Writing

For years, video game adaptations carried a terrible reputation. Audiences came to expect awkward dialogue, thin characters, and movies or shows that barely resembled the video games they came from. Films like 1993's Super Mario Bros and Alone in the Dark became shorthand for how Hollywood misunderstood gaming. More recently, though, Fallout, The Last of Us, and 2023's The Super Mario Bros Movie proved that studios finally understand how to respect the source material. But even as adaptations' writing improves, another issue has started to emerge: adaptation by imitation.

Many modern adaptations are so focused on recreating recognizable moments or visual accuracy that they struggle to justify their own existence as movies or TV shows. Instead of feeling cinematic, they often feel like expensive reenactments of scenes that audiences have already experienced in game form. Video game movies and shows would be better off if they stopped clinging to the original game's structure and instead used the strengths of the big or small screen to balance faithfulness with their own creative identity.

Video Game Movies & Shows Merely Recreate The Story Rather Than Adapt Them

Bad Writing May Not Be An Issue, But This Still Hurts Modern Adaptations

For a long time, bad writing was really the biggest obstacle facing game adaptations. Characters were flattened into stereotypes, and lore was largely ignored. The result was a generation of adaptations that felt disconnected from games that fans actually loved. Assassin's Creed buried its interesting sci-fi premise beneath lifeless storytelling, while Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time stripped away much of the personality and atmosphere that made the games so beloved. However, more recently, Arcane has proved that an adaptation can successfully build upon established lore while still functioning as great TV. HBO's The Last of Us similarly received critical acclaim by understanding the emotional core of its source material. But that doesn't mean adaptations are flawless.

The industry might have tried too hard to overcorrect the flaws of previous titles. Adaptations now cling closely to iconic imagery, dialogue, and scene recreations, so they've stopped feeling like adaptations altogether. Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City was a big improvement on previous movies that deviated heavily from the games, but its choice to recreate so many iconic scenes and meant the film lacked substance. Its uneven pacing that condensed two games into a single feature allowed the movie to visit many beloved game moments at the expense of a coherent and compelling story. It may have been faithful, but it wasn't as great as Raccoon City could've been.

Similarly, Borderlands failed to understand the chaotic game it was adapting. By prioritizing the depiction of Pandora, representing iconic characters, and staying true to costumes, Borderlands failed to understand the rest of what made the game so beloved. Of course, this doesn't mean that brilliant adaptations don't exist: the Fallout TV series is one of the best video game series out there. By expanding upon the game's plot while still respecting the Fallout world, the Prime Video show earned critical acclaim and was cited as one of the best adaptations of all time. It was definitely the exception to the rule.

Hollywood Needs to Strike a Balance With Its Video Game Adaptations

Though we've mostly left the era of poorly-written video games, that doesn't mean the genre has fully evolved yet. The biggest issue facing these adaptations is balancing authenticity with creative identity; the most memorable projects, like Fallout, are willing to take risks, reinterpret familiar stories, and use its TV format to create something new. Otherwise, even faithful adaptations risk becoming predictable exercises in nostalgia rather than stories capable of surprising audiences on their own terms.

A good adaptation can be defined across many parameters, but it's essential for a video game movie or show to fully take advantage of the new medium to tell the iconic story. If an adaptation can translate the spirit of its source material, without mechanically recreating the game and copying its structure beat-for-beat, a project can delight audiences as much as The Last of Us and Fallout.