Best Video Game Movie

Now that the new "Super Mario Bros. Movie" is in theaters, I think it's a good time to dredge up that age-old question, "what video game films are worth watching?"  There are a surprising number to choose from.  Off the top of my head I can think of adaptations of the following: Wing Commander, Resident Evil, Alone in the Dark, Silent Hill, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Tomb Raider, House of the Dead, Hitman, Postal, Max Payne, Warcraft, Assassin's Creed, Sonic the Hedgehog and Doom.  Some are closer to the source material than others.  A few (mostly stuff Uwe Boll directed) have next to nothing to do with their respective video games outside of the name.  To me though none of these motion pictures are objectively very good examples of the medium and rather than trying to find the least worst of the bunch to recommend, I think it's better to look further afield.  Specifically, how about movies that aren't about a particular video game, but instead true to the spirit of playing video games?  Let me show you three examples that I think stand out from the rest.

"Edge of Tomorrow" was originally based on a Japanese novella (or "light novel" as they are called in Japan).  At the end of the science fiction war story featured in those pages, there is a brief disclaimer by the author in which he mentions how his inspiration for the book came from playing old and very hard 8-bit games as a child.  To summarize, he basically states that because he could essentially continue or restart indefinitely,  every enemy and boss in the game (no matter how challenging) was ultimately doomed to defeat because they must always follow the same patterns and present the same weak points.  It's certainly true, as long as the player is willing to refine their skills and learn from mistakes.  It's a viewpoint that is prominently featured in the film's tagline "Live. Die. Repeat."  Sometimes I look back on games I completed years ago such as Golden Eye on the N64 and wonder "how did I manage to unlock every last bit of content and clear every challenge?"  Well, it turns out practice, patience and basic muscle memory can take you a lot farther than you might think possible...and applying that principal to reality could very well net similar results.

"Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" actually did get a side scrolling "beat 'em up" adaptation after hitting the big screen.  So I suppose you could say it retroactively is a movie about an actual video game.  That technicality aside though, the film is really based on a series of graphic novels.  The story is about rock music and romance as much as it is about gaming, but at it's core the character of Scott Pilgrim is a boy who has been immersed in video game experiences for so many of his formative years he views life through the lens of video game mechanics.  Every rival is a boss to be defeated (who then bursts into coins), every successful action awards points along with chiming sound, when he says he's "getting a life" he grabs a spinning pixilated image of a 1UP out of the air.  It's all very referential (I think a theme from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past plays at some point), but unlike "Ready Player One" the references aren't there simply to be nostalgic.  Instead, they serve as a way to communicate a particular feeling or idea to people who have played those games and had those experiences.

"The Last Starfighter" is an interesting case of wish fulfillment.  I'm sure some of us can remember times when a family member or acquaintance told us that playing games had no real-world benefit.  The question this film postulates and then explores is "what if it did?"  It's an odd mix of old meets new.  The author of the screenplay openly admits that he got the inspiration for the script based on Arthurian legends except instead of a sword-in-a-stone, it's an arcade game machine.  In a case of fiction meets reality, there was a prototype made of the "Starfighter" arcade cabinet which has since gone on to become the Holy Grail of arcade collectors everywhere.  For better or worse though winning the game doesn't get you "recruited by the Star League to defend the Frontier against Xur and the Ko-dan Armada."  However, reality marches ever on and with the rise of drone warfare in places like Ukraine, one wonders if there is a dark truth to the notion.  Gunstars aren't drones and drones aren't Gunstars...yet, but maybe someday the two will meet after a fashion.

There are more examples I can think of..."Ender's Game" the movie actually dovetails nicely with "The Last Starfighter" in some respects (the novel that predates the film actually features some truly surreal passages involving the titular main character playing a video game during his free time at Battle School), but I think that's enough for this blog entry.  Hopefully, my point about video game movies doing their best when not drawing from a specific IP has been made clear.  No offense to those who enjoyed seeing Mario on the big screen though...