Who Ruined Video Game Movies? Uwe Boll

Video games adaption of popular movies is nothing new. For decades video games developers have been going after movie licenses. More often than not these games have very little to do with the original movie and the quality is questionable. With a few notable exceptions, movie based video games are little more than quick cash ins.

As narratives in video games are getting more advanced the link between movies and video games has gotten stronger. Not only can video games follow the original story more faithfully, some games are prime candidates for being made into movies.

Video games based on movies are notoriously bad but movies made based from video games are if possible even worse. Some of the most hated and lowest rated movies of all time are based on popular video games. In an ocean of terrible movies, one man still manages to stand out. Uwe Boll is the godfather of terrible video game movies.

Uwe Boll started his assault on the video game based movie business in 2003 with his adaption of "House of the Dead". The original game is a highly successful light gun arcade shooter where players shoot their way through hordes of zombies. The movie adaption is known for having noting to do with the game, a plot that makes absolutely no sense, and liberal use of stock footage from the original game. The movie is routinely included in worst movies lists.

The universal rejection of "House of the Dead" did little to deter Boll. In 2005 he brought to screen another horror game adaption. This time around he brought his special touch to the acclaimed "Alone in the Dark" series. The movie fared little better than "House of the Dead". Critics had a hard time overlooking the glaring plot holes and the terrible special effects. As if this was not bad enough, the acting is absolutely horrendous, highlighted by a terrible performance by Tara Reid.

After directing two complete bombs one would think that Uwe Boll would have a hard time finding more work adapting video games into movies. Sadly this was not how things would pan out, and 2005 also saw the release of his version of "BloodRayne". The movie got much better reviews than Boll's previous adaptations drawing comments like "Not as bad as you'd expect" and "actually pretty decent... for what it is". That was as good as it got however. Michal Madsen who plays the lead role called the movie horrifying, and several of the starring actors have blasted it publicly.

Coming of a natural hat trick of absolutely terrible movies, what would be more natural than Uwe Boll getting $60 million of funding for his next video game project. The adaption of "In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale" attracted a fairly impressive cast. The results were still familiar. Universal disgust by reviewers and the public alike. The movie failed miserably at the box office and received very harsh reviews. Many rejected the movie for its extremely generic plot and close resemblance to other and much better fantasy movies.

The video game genre had proven harsh for Uwe Boll, but 2008 would see the release of a movie based on a game more suited for his directorial skills. "Postal" was based on the hugely controversial and speculative game of the same name. While "Postal" was received with the same overwhelming negative response as all of Boll's previous work, in the case of "Postal" that is actually nicely in line with the original game. " Postal" ended up as one of the few Boll movies to make a profit at the box office.

Coming off the surprising success of "Postal", Boll moved on to another video game franchise. "Far Cry" is a popular first person shooter that relies heavily on the various environments in the game. The premise lends itself nicely to being adapted into an action movie. Never one to shy away form making creative alterations to the source material, Boll attempts to make the movie humorous. If done well, a funny action movie can be great, but in "Far Cry" it is done poorly. Perhaps the biggest weakness with "Far Cry" is that it is not as horrendously bad as Boll's other video game movies. The movie is simply bad which keeps it from reaching the cult like status of Boll's other movies.

Some critics blame Uwe Boll's continued presence for the lack of progress for the video game genre. He is often described as the current day Ed Wood, and prolifically featured on worst movies of all time lists everywhere. Uwe Boll refuses to bow to poor criticism however. Rather he challenged his harshest critics to a series of boxing matches. Boll actually ended up fighting 5 critics in a series of fights dubbed Raging Boll. Boll won all five fights.

Despite terrible reviews, horrible box office performance, and general ridicule from the movie industry Uwe Boll continues to find work as a director of video game adaptations. He has already released several sequels to some of his most hated work, and more is in the pipeline. For video game movie fans there sadly is no way around Uwe Boll.

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