It makes sense from a logical perspective. Nearly every corner of our popular culture, from television to comic books, from old movies to amusement park rides, has unearthed successful movie franchises. So, it would only follow that videogames would be a fertile ground for such stuff, right?
Well, as much as no one seems to want to be the bearer of bad tidings, the answer, given the empirical truth, is no. Videogame movies, as a genre, are a wasteland of failed efforts, from the tiny of scale to the quite large. From Super Mario Brothers, the first film ever based on a videogame, right up until last week’s In The Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, not a single one of these films has been what you’d call an unqualified success. But, why? Why can no one make a successful film from a videogame franchise?
