A new trailer for the Rampage movie adaption was just released and once again, we’re looking down the barrel of another potentially bad video game movie. It’s not that the trailer itself is necessarily bad, but we’re already so predisposed to bad video game movies, that before I even saw it, I was ready to be disappointed. 

But why? Has there really never been a good video game movie? Nothing that did its source material justice?

It’s hard to imagine that Rampage will be the film to break the video game movie curse. Even if it wasn’t based on a game, it’s still not the type of movie to be praised by critics. But that brings us to a very important question: how should we judge the success of a video game adaptation?

There are really three ways to adjudicate this – critical reception, box office success, and target/general audience reception.

First and foremost, a video game movie has never been overwhelmingly praised by critics. If it were, that would be the most inarguable mark for a “good” video game movie.

Box office revenue is a little tougher. There’s no video game film that we can point to as a blockbuster or a phenomenon, but plenty have had marginally successful and profitable runs.

Then there’s target audience reception. First of all, are gamers even the target audience? They’re the obvious answer, but they’re almost too niche to be the actual target audience. General audience reception is much easier to assess.  For that we just have to look at Metacritic or Rotten Tomatoes. Plenty of game movies have received decent reviews, but none are stellar across the board.

An overwhelmingly positive reception from critics or general audiences (or both) would be the marking of a good video game movie for sure, but no film has ever reached that acclaim. Likewise, no video game movie has ever had incredible standout box office success.

There’s not even a game movie that has gone on to be a cult classic years down the road. Even this might retroactively qualify a movie as “good.” When it comes down to it, the best a video game has ever done is middling.

It isn’t all doom and gloom though; there are a lot of upcoming movies that could potentially break the chain. Detective Pikachu, Tomb Raider and dozens more give us hope. 

So, has their ever been a “good” video game movie? Did we miss something? Can Rampage make for a good video game movie? How should we actually judge the success of a video game adaptation? Let us know in the comments or on social media!