During this past weekend’s box office, two video game movies placed in the top 5 films: A Minecraft Movie and Until Dawn. Thanks to the massive success of the former, Hollywood is all but ready to crown video game movies as the next big thing now that comic book movies are slowing down. But that’s only going to be true if the video game movies are good. The major studios have made plenty of bad video game films over the last three decades. And even video game icons like Lara Croft have had hard time making the leap to live-action franchises with big box office results and even bigger sequels.
The last few years have given fans a video game movie renaissance, with films that we could watch in theaters without being embarrassed. But movie studios don’t always take the correct lessons from their hits, and there will always be bad video game movies to go along with the good ones. In the meantime, A Minecraft Movie‘s breakout status convinced us that it was time to look back at the seven best video game movies to date. And it just made the list at No. 7.
7. A Minecraft Movie (2025)
A Minecraft Movie is a glorious mess of a film, but it did the most important thing any video game adaptation should do: it made the fans of the game happy. It also managed to convert a game that doesn’t have much of a story into something that works on its own terms.
Jack Black rules every scene that he’s in as Steve, the guy who finds his way into Overworld years before the man story begins. Jason Momoa also brought an over-the-top persona to his role as Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison. By comparison, the characters played by Emma Myers, Danielle Brooks, and Sebastian Hansen are the normal people who are thrust into this insane video-game inspired world. We wouldn’t go so far as to say that A Minecraft Movie is one of the best films of 2025, but it feels like a miracle that the movie is enjoyable and lightning in a bottle at the box office.
A Minecraft Movie is now playing in theaters.
6. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024)
After the destination wedding silliness of the second film, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 delivered a story that felt more in line with the games despite the changes that the films made to the mythology. Keanu Reeves turned out to be a great choice to voice Shadow the Hedgehog, a mysterious new adversary who is more than Sonic (Ben Schwartz), Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey), and Knuckles (Idris Elba) can handle on their own.
Jim Carrey came out of his brief retirement to return as Dr. Ivo Robotnik, Sonic’s personal nemesis. Sonic is so desperate to beat Shadow that he even offers Robotnik a chance to work together. However, Robotnik can’t be trusted under the best of circumstances, and especially not after he learns that his grandfather, Professor Gerald Robotnik (Carrey), is Shadow’s ally.
Watch Sonic the Hedgehog 3 on Paramount+.
5. Silent Hill (2006)
Silent Hill deserves a lot of credit for being relatively true to the source material, despite director Christophe Gans and screenwriter Roger Avary’s assertion that it made more sense to replace the first game’s hero, Harry Mason, with Rose Da Silva (Radha Mitchell) because they felt that the main character should be maternal. They also left Rose’s husband, Christopher Da Silva (Sean Bean), with next to nothing to do in the movie, which was a big waste of his talent.
Once you get past that creative misstep, the rest of the film feels like a genuinely creepy horror film as Rose, her adoptive daughter, Sharon (Jodelle Ferland), and a policewoman, Cybil Bennett (Laurie Holden), are trapped in a hell-like alternate world with deranged cultists and unimaginable monsters. The film even faithfully reproduced the terrifying nurses, the misshapen creatures, and Pyramid Head, one of the franchise’s most iconic monsters.
Rent or buy Silent Hill on Prime Video.
4. Pokemon Detective Pikachu (2019)
Pokemon Detective Pikachu retained the spirit of the Pokemon games while setting the pocket monsters in a world that greatly resembles our own. Ryme City features Pokemon and humans living side-by-side without the battles of the video games. And the impressive CGI creatures maintained the designs that Pokemon fans have embraced for decades.
Justice Smith stars as Tim Goodman, a former Pokemon trailer who left his dreams behind following the death of his mother. After the apparent death of his father, Harry, Tim journeys to Ryme City and encounters his dad’s police partner, Detective Pikachu (Ryan Reynolds). Pikachu is convinced that Harry is still alive, but only Tim can understand what he’s saying. Everyone else just hears the normal cries of a Pikachu. But there’s a conspiracy going down in the city, and only Pikachu and Tim can get to the bottom of it.
Rent or buy Pokemon Detective Pikachu on Prime Video.
3. Uncharted (2022)
Tom Holland is a little too young to be a convincing Nate Drake. But the Uncharted movie was very enjoyable even if Holland’s Nate simply isn’t as funny or as charismatic as his video game counterpart. Holland is still likable as a younger Nate than gamers were used to, and Mark Wahlberg was a good wingman as Nate’s mentor, Victor “Sully” Sullivan.
The film shamelessly lifts several of the video game series’ best action sequences, including a great scene featuring Nate falling out of a plane alongside its cargo. But it’s easy to forgive the lack of originality when it’s this entertaining. At its heart, Uncharted understands that it needs to be about Nate and Sully going on an epic treasure hunt. The games may be better, but the movie was pretty good in its own right. If an Uncharted movie could ever be as great as the games that spawned it, then it would come close to landing at No. 1 on this list.
Watch Uncharted on Hulu.
2. Mortal Kombat (1995)
This might be the controversial pick on the list, simply because Mortal Kombat was made when video game movies were relentlessly butchered by Hollywood. Street Fighter and Double Dragon were both prime examples of how not to handle video game adaptations. Mortal Kombat didn’t fall into the same trap because it plays more like a martial arts fantasy than a video game movie.
Mortal Kombat may be cheesy by modern standards, but it’s far more faithful to the games than the 2021 adaptation that couldn’t even get around to the tournament. Robin Shou, Linden Ashby, and Bridgette Wilson were all very appealing as the game’s heroes Liu Kang, Johnny Cage, and Sonya Blade. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa had a deliciously evil turn as Shang Tsung and Christopher Lambert just kind of chuckles every now and then as the thunder god Raiden. But watching these characters play off each other was a delight, and some of the fights are truly impressive — particularly Liu Kang’s unexpected showdown with Reptile’s human form. This is still the Mortal Kombat movie to beat 30 years later.
Rent or buy Mortal Kombat on Prime Video.
1. The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)
Illumination’s take on Nintendo’s top franchise was beautifully realized in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. The animation alone makes this a must-watch experience, and the Mushroom Kingdom has never looked better. Even small touches, like the Super Mario Bros. theme from the short-lived cartoon were wonderful Easter eggs for longtime fans.
Jack Black makes the movie with his turn as Bowser, including his scene-stealing song “Peaches,” which he co-wrote and performed. There are even some hilariously dark moments courtesy of the relentlessly pessimistic Lumalee (Juliet Jelenic) held captive by Bowser. But this film wouldn’t work without Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day), as well as strong vocal performances by Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach and Keegan-Michael Key as Toad. These characters have already withstood the test of time and one of the worst video game movies ever made in the live-action Super Mario Bros. film. It’s only fitting that The Super Mario Bros. Movie claimed the title of the best video game movie three decades later. Hopefully The Legend of Zelda movie will be as good, if not better.
Watch The Super Mario Bros. Movie on Prime Video.
