Why Video Games Movies Are Here to Stay

Borderlands is revving up for its big-screen debut in August 2024. On paper, it sounds like a blockbuster waiting to happen: a star-studded cast featuring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, and Jack Black, plus a rumored $100 million USD budget. The source material is solid, and the game's vivid, chaotic world is perfect for cinematic exploration.

But let’s be real—it’s a video game movie. And historically, video game movies have been pretty terrible. 

The issue with video game adaptations is that they make for rather weak source material compared to books or comics. Both of those mediums already have a narrative structure that movies can build upon and enhance. Take a book, for instance—when it’s adapted into a movie, it gains a visual element. Or a comic book—turn it into a movie, and you add fluid motion to the story. But when you turn a video game into a movie, you strip away the one thing that hooks its audience: the gameplay. And without that interactive element, barring a few exceptions, video game movies often fall flat.