Video game movies don't need to suck

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With the Hitman movie upon us amid rumours of toning down, we look at how to get it right

Resident Evil

The potential

The Resident Evil games are virtually films in themselves. Masterclasses in slow-build fear and packed with skewed camera work, they’ve been amongst the most cinematic games around for the last three console generations. Plus they have zombies. Lots of zombies. Moody, arty horror with a lot of splatter? How could it fail?

What we got

Paul W.S. Anderson. That’s how it could fail. Once the man behind previous videogame movie cheese-fest Mortal Kombat (Don’t argue. Just watch it now you're older and try not to laugh) got his hands on Resi it was doomed. Replacing the game series’ tension and layered plotting with a thumping industrial soundtrack and lots of staggeringly cheap and badly edited bullet-time kung fu, the whole film had the feel of a low-budget Matrix trapped in the body of a music video. What was anyone involved thinking? Hell, was anyone involved thinking?

David Houghton
David Houghton
Long-time GR+ writer Dave has been gaming with immense dedication ever since he failed dismally at some '80s arcade racer on a childhood day at the seaside (due to being too small to reach the controls without help). These days he's an enigmatic blend of beard-stroking narrative discussion and hard-hitting Psycho Crushers.