Thanks to an endless slew of successful comic book films, movie adaptations have become the new norm. Unfortunately, not every adaptation out there has been a hit. While films like Wonder Woman, Harry Potter and The Avengers dominate the box office, video game adaptations remain at the very bottom of the cinematic barrel, forever reviled by the fans they were supposedly made for.

So, what's wrong? Why can't Hollywood ever make any great video game movies? Or forget "great." What about decent? Are video games simply not translatable to live-action media, or is there something wrong with Hollywood's preexisting formula?

It almost certainly has to be the latter. From a purely creative perspective, there's very little to distinguish comic books from video games. Both media are decidedly visual and explore storylines that are both out of this world and perplexing, and yet comic book movies continue to find success both critically and financially. It's no surprise fans moan and groan whenever news of a new video game adaptation hits the internet. On a fundamental level, gamers have begun to lose faith, and here's why.

Overdone Plot

There's a line that is often used in storytelling: "Sometimes, less is more." The same goes for video game adaptations. For some reason, filmmakers feel obligated to put a "fresh Hollywood twist" on classic video game stories to stand out, but this is a mistake. In the movie's efforts to seem unique, distinguish itself from the source material and appear creative, it overwhelms the narrative with changes it never needed, resulting in a contrived, overblown mess of incoherent plot parts and themes that are far removed from the video games fans know and love.

There is a persistent belief among filmmakers that video games are simply untranslatable to live-action media, which might've been true if Scott Pilgrim vs. The World hadn't come out in 2010, proving that video game-inspired films can indeed be both impressive and successful. Scott Pilgrim may have been adapted from a comic book, but the comic book itself was inspired by everything modern gaming stands for. In a sense, their argument is invalid. And if Edgar Wright was able to do it, why not everyone else?

Popular video game titles aren't too different from classic literature, and classics are classics for a very good reason. These are tried and tested formulas that shouldn't be excessively tampered with because they already work. It's like they say: If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

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Dated, Overly Ludicrous Storytelling

Changes aren't always bad. In many cases, if a story is too ridiculous to be translated to the big screen then it has to be partially reinterpreted. Think Super Mario Bros. and Street Fighter -- two films that ended up being too laughable to be taken seriously. There's a delicate balance here between realism and absurdity, and when an adaptation ceases being believable and viewers can no longer stomach suspending their disbelief, that's when you know you're changing too little. However, even through revisions, a film should still remain grounded in its source material.

This is a difficult element of adaptations to explain, but a valuable one. Ridiculousness isn't always inadvisable (in fact, in cases like Ant-Man, Kingsman, Wanted or Scott Pilgrim, it's heavily preferred), but it's not always worth adapting either. Again, balance.

An excellent example of a tastefully revised adaptation would be the Marvel Netflix shows, which prove that comic book stories are versatile, and can also become serious television dramas. In fact, most Marvel Cinematic Universe films manage to do the same. Spider-Man is now a teen comedy. Captain America is a political thriller. Thor: Ragnarok is another comedy. And they all worked. For the comedies, they managed to be ridiculous without being overly ridiculous, thereby allowing viewers to continue happily suspending their disbelief.

Problematic Cast and Crew

This part is difficult to say nicely, but sometimes the problem behind video game adaptations isn't the story or the characters. Often, it's the people working on these films.

Think about it. Who made the call to over-complicate an already well-done story? The producers. The directors and the studio. The screenwriter. Who decided to keep the ludicrousness of Mario and Luigi's eye-popping plumber costumes, but not the beautifully over-the-top Mushroom Kingdom they're typically associated with? Probably the exact same people. Sometimes, those entrusted with creative control mishandle their powers at the expense of the fans they promised to serve.

It can't be denied that some filmmakers simply have an abominable track record adapting established stories. Everyone deserves a second chance, but after about five or 15 box office bombs and critical failures, video game companies really should think twice before entrusting their time-honored magnum opuses to these people, else risk disappointing loyal fans.

Several filmmakers have already mastered the art of adapting comic books and literature to film. After a string of heinously terrible movies, studios have since learned their lesson and reinvented their formula. Video game adaptations need look no further than the films currently dominating public opinion to learn from the best.

Remember, comic book stories also used to be badly adapted, but Hollywood has come a long way since then. Should Hollywood still adapt video games to film? Of course. It's never too late to change their approach. If comic book movies could cross that Rubicon, there's no reason to believe video game films won't be able to.