Absolutely Worst Video Game Adaptations – Uwe Boll Would be Proud!

Hollywood has been awkwardly flirting with electronic entertainment hits since the early nineties. Already then, the general rule was that the movies mostly sucked, and yet, Uwe Boll was only getting started. Here's the selection of terrible movies.

Marek Jura

June 12, 2020

Over the years, only a handful of good movies based on games have been released. Beyond that, there's a real sea of complete garbage. We may remember some of these movies with fondness if they remind us of our childhood. We may find some of them on YouTube in compilations of the weirdest movies ever. And some of them, no one remembers. In this article, we will look at the absolute worst, the bastard children of video games and motion-picture. Sounds like fun, right? Mind you – if you do like some of these movies, you might want to stop reading.

Mortal Kombat 2

What is it? A pointless sequel to a pretty good brawl
Where to watch (at your own risk): Amazon Prime

Mortal Kombat has always been a somewhat kitschy series. The characters, the punches, the set design – everything seemed like a deliberate, glorious exaggeration. The key word here, however, is deliberacy. Skilful handling of the kitsch made the game impossible to compare to any other production at the time. Mortal Kombat was just incredibly atmospheric and playable.

The first movie adaptation wasn't bad. It was far from a masterpiece, but it turned out a pretty enjoyable action movie. The sequel was, unfortunately, a different story. It seems like the creators wanted to show literally everything that was in the game within the hour and a half of the movie. So, we get the whole set of iconic characters, who generally saunter around the set without any purpose. To add insult to injury, the pretty solid costumes from the first movie were replaced with designs that reminded you of nothing.

Dialogs are cruder than oil, and the story might as well not be there at all. People die, bizarrely show up, everyone fights, and in the end, we get the mandatory, ultra-embarrassing special effects. Warriors falling from the sky? Check. Sand as a flammable material? Sure as hell. Heroes materializing out of nowhere? Yeah. Mix it up, bake it in 350 degrees for 40 minutes, and Mortal Kombat 2 is ready.

Of course, the film also has advantages. Well, at least one – it only 95 minutes and not a second longer.