What was the first live-action movie adaptation of a video game?
A movie based on a video game is a completely paradoxical idea on paper due to the fundamental differences between the two mediums. While gaming fans are often excited to see film adaptations of their favourite games, they often end up hating the movie because the cinematic medium cannot accommodate the kind of freedom and interactivity offered by video games.
This hasn’t stopped filmmakers from capitalising on the massive gaming community by producing lacklustre adaptations such as Assassin’s Creed. However, other directors like Edgar Wright have repeatedly maintained that the cinematic medium is incompatible with the basic principles of gaming.
“There has never been a good video game film,” Wright said. “The reason for that is staring you in the face. A video game is a unique experience to you, you are playing the game. Just like watching somebody else play a video game is not fun, it’s not fun watching a video game adaptation if you’re not playing it… There is no game that I would like to adapt. Maybe Rampage, but somebody’s probably already doing that.”
This discussion around video game adaptations has intensified after the recent unveiling of The Super Mario Bros, an upcoming animated film based on the most popular gaming franchise in history – Nintendo’s Mario. Many fans are already apprehensive about the project since Chris Pratt has been cast as the iconic Italian plumber.
While the animation medium offers more freedom to conduct such adaptations, live-action is a different game altogether. The first live-action adaptation of a video game was the 1993 adventure film Super Mario Bros which was described as one of the worst films in history when it first came out. In later years, the film gained a cult following due to interest from the enormous Mario community.
Bob Hoskins, who starred as Mario, hated the production. He said: “The worst thing I ever did? Super Mario Brothers. It was a fuckin’ nightmare. The whole experience was a nightmare. It had a husband-and-wife team directing, whose arrogance had been mistaken for talent. After so many weeks, their own agent told them to get off the set! Fuckin’ nightmare. Fuckin’ idiots”.
Since then, many filmmakers have tackled the challenges of adapting video games in unique ways. Recently, Netflix has found success with projects such as Castlevania, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners and Arcane, but this success has been limited to animation. That’s exactly why it will be interesting to see how the new Mario adaptation fares.
