Here’s a weird cultural contradiction that has not been satisfactorily examined. It hardly needs to be said that almost all cinematic adaptations of video games are terrible. Of 45 such projects, Rotten Tomatoes, cinema’s busiest review aggregator site, rates just three as receiving largely positive reviews (“fresh” in the site’s lexicon).
With all respect to colleagues in the critical fraternity, my one viewing each of The Angry Birds Movie 2, Pokémon Detective Pikachu and Sonic the Hedgehog will suffice. That’s an astonishingly poor hit rate. Only 6.7 per cent of films in this genre are worth crossing the street to see. Few are substantial smashes either. For every Tomb Raider or Resident Evil, there are half a dozen Warcrafts or Assassin’s Creeds.
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