Renewed Top 10 - Movies Inspired By Video Games

Time for Part 2 of the Video Game Movie Series

Top 10 Movies Inspired By Video Game

The criteria for this list is simple. The movie in question must be directly or indirectly inspired by video games... or be based around a video game element or trope. Example of indirect would be a movie based on a book inspired by video games. Now... the rules are set.

Here we go...

Honorable Mention: Free Guy: Now... this movie has been released to the public due to delays. I have NOT seen it. But, it is going here. Why? Ryan Reynolds in a movie about a video game NPC who discovers he might be a protagonist. The premise alone sounds great. And we know Ryan will make it entertaining. That is enough for me.

10: The Wizard: Growing up, I felt like... what would happen if you could actually put your gaming skillz to the test and make money off of it. That is what this movie is. The precursor to esports. Fred Savage is in this movie. And it's great. But... it starts the list because it was also a blatant ad piece for Nintendo. It featured one of my top 3 games of all time, Super Mario Bros 3, before it was released in the US. That... is advertising.

9: Jumanji The Next Level: So, I can't explain this one with reference another on this list.(See #4). This one is a twist on the formula. Sequel games... players selecting different characters in this one. Better explanation with the predecessor.

8: Ready Player One: Based off the Book of the same name(with a second book out now), this was just pure 80s/90s nostalgia married to modern gaming enhancements. Everyone living as their avatars. Playing a virtual contest. And you can't have 80s/90s nostalgia without the Dawn of Video games.

7: The Lawnmower Man: A 1992 Horror film focusing on a Doctor experimenting on a mentalling disabled man, using meds and computer based training in hopes that it will increase his intelligence. It's a success. Computer... based... training. Virtual Reality. It goes too far. Jobe ends up being about to take control of other through the VR simulation and develops psychic powers to use outside the VR Sim.

6: WarGames: Ever wonder what it would be like to play video games on a computer exponentially more powerful that yours? That is this movie. A guy breaks into a military facility just to play video games on their computers, and inadvertently starts a war.

5: The Last Starfighter: What if you played a game so well, you got recruited to play for real? That is the idea here. A gamer so good at a game... it wasn't really a game. It was training to help fight in an intergalactic war.

4: Jumanji Welcome to the Jungle: A sequel to a classic Robin Williams movie about a board game coming to life. This time, it's an old video game based on the board game. Teenagers chose their characters, and get sucked into the video game. All the way down to Rhys Darby being the intro NPC that has canned dialogue. The details in this were spot on for games of the era. Casting on point(even Nick Jonas). This would've made Robin proud(and had a great reference to him).

3: TRON: Disney had a very different approach to Virtual Reality. While Lawnmower Man is a horror film about bringing VR into the real world, TRON is a film about what if you were physically sucked into the VR world. Amazing visual effects. Top  notch for the time.

2: Wreck It Ralph: Pixar makes really heartwarming stories. This one is about a villain in a video game who doesn't want to be villain. So he explores outside of his game to find his purpose. Brings up the idea of a glitch being a mistake to society. Heavy movie. Entertaining. And... weird observation... Wreck It Ralph is an even more family friendly take on Ready Player One. Look at the styles of games they both tackle.......

And the Number One for Movies Inspired By Video Games......

1: Scott Pilgrim vs The World: Based on a series of graphic novels about a dude who has to navigate fighting his new Girlfriends Evil Exes. This movie is a video game. Announcer yelling "FIGHT!". Scoring points for victories. Getting currency for defeating the enemies. A Subspace area. Power-ups. Boss fights. And Rescuing the princess from the final boss. And the overall presentation screams VIDEO GAME. But... there is one more aspect that pushes it over. I read the books. The movie follows the story pretty well...... except the final fight. The movie was filmed before the author had finished the last book. So the fight with Gideon is VERY different...... and it gives it extra character! It is a BETTER ending than the books......... oh... and Bonus Bill Hader as the fight announcer.

There is the list. Tell me what you think. Have one that you think should or shouldn't be on this list? Say so in the comments. Share this list with others. I wanna know what they think too.

This was Part 2 of the 3 Part series. Check back soon. The last one is the expected one.