For decades, “video game movie” was practically a warning label. Hollywood kept raiding beloved games for the big screen, and gamers learned to keep expectations dangerously low. Thankfully, things have changed.
From speedy hedgehogs and pocket monsters to zombies and extremely angry birds, video game adaptations are no longer automatically doomed. Some have become box-office giants, others have earned strong reviews, and a select few have managed both.
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So, what are the best-reviewed video game movies ever? Using Rotten Tomatoes‘ current ranking of theatrical releases, which requires at least 20 critic reviews for inclusion, here are the top 10. Scores are accurate as of September 23, 2026 and may change as additional reviews are added.
10. The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) — 59%
Critics weren’t completely won over by Mario’s return to the big screen, but audiences certainly were. The Super Mario Bros. Movie throws Chris Pratt’s Mario, Charlie Day’s Luigi and Anya Taylor-Joy’s Princess Peach into a colourful blast through the Mushroom Kingdom, with Jack Black having far too much fun as Bowser.
The story is basic, but that’s hardly the main attraction. From power-ups and kart racing to familiar music and blink-and-you’ll-miss-them references, it’s loaded with Nintendo fan service. Its 95% audience score also tells a very different story from the critics.
9. Mortal Kombat II (2026) — 64%
More than 30 years after the first live-action movie, Mortal Kombat finally gets serious about the actual tournament. Simon McQuoid’s sequel brings Karl Urban into the carnage as Johnny Cage and goes bigger on the fighters, mythology and gloriously ridiculous violence.
It’s not exactly a flawless victory from critics, but Mortal Kombat II is the franchise’s best-reviewed theatrical outing. As we noted in our review, the plot may be thin, but there are fights galore, heaps of fan service and plenty of brutal fun.
8. Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) — 64%
Remember that original Sonic design? What looked destined to become an internet punchline instead launched one of Hollywood’s most successful video game franchises.
Ben Schwartz gives Sonic infectious energy, James Marsden makes for a likeable human sidekick and Jim Carrey gleefully winds back the clock as Dr. Robotnik. A Fresh video game movie was still something of a novelty in 2020, and six years after that infamous redesign, Sonic’s cinematic gamble looks pretty damn successful.
7. Gran Turismo (2023) — 65%
How do you turn a racing simulator into a movie? Gran Turismo found the clever answer: tell the story of somebody who used the game to become a real racing driver.
Neill Blomkamp’s film dramatises Jann Mardenborough’s leap from PlayStation competitor to professional motorsport, with Archie Madekwe in the lead and David Harbour playing his gruff trainer. Our review praised the race sequences and Harbour’s performance, even if the film can sometimes feel like one very expensive PlayStation commercial. As a sports drama built around an unlikely true story, though, the approach works.
6. Pokémon Detective Pikachu (2019) — 68%
Ryan Reynolds as a coffee-addicted Pikachu who can be understood by exactly one human being shouldn’t work nearly as well as it does. Detective Pikachu builds a convincing live-action Pokémon world around its mystery, filling Ryme City with creatures living alongside humans rather than simply parading familiar faces across the screen.
It also made a little video game movie history. In 2019, Detective Pikachu became the first theatrically released video game adaptation to be rated Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
5. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022) — 69%
The first Sonic proved the character could survive Hollywood. The sequel stopped being shy about the games. Tails arrives, Idris Elba’s wonderfully serious Knuckles comes charging in, the Chaos Emeralds matter and Jim Carrey’s Robotnik becomes even more unhinged.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 doesn’t reinvent the formula, but it expands the world in exactly the direction fans wanted while setting the stage for an even stronger third film.
4. The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019) — 72%
Yes, really. Those birds beat Mario, Pikachu and two Sonics.
The sequel forces the birds and their longtime pig enemies to work together against a new threat, giving its stacked voice cast plenty of room for rapid-fire silliness. The first film wasn’t exactly a critical darling, making the sequel’s place this high on the list all the more surprising. Whether gamers would rank it above some of the names below is another matter.
3. Werewolves Within (2021) — 86%
The least recognisable gaming property in the top 10 produced one of its best-reviewed movies. Based on Ubisoft’s VR social-deduction game, Werewolves Within follows forest ranger Finn Wheeler (Sam Richardson) into a snowbound town where suspicion starts spreading as something dangerous appears to be lurking outside.
Director Josh Ruben turns the concept into a sharp horror-comedy whodunnit that works perfectly well even if you’ve never heard of the game. For years, it was the critical benchmark for video game movies.
2. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024) — 86%
Three movies in and Sonic somehow kept levelling up. Keanu Reeves joins the franchise as Shadow, Jim Carrey takes on double duty as Ivo and Gerald Robotnik, and the story digs much deeper into material longtime Sega fans know well.
Bigger action and darker stakes could have turned it into an overloaded sequel, but Sonic the Hedgehog 3 emerged as the series’ critical high point, earning Certified Fresh status along the way.
1. Resident Evil (2026) — 95%
After decades of Resident Evil movies, Hollywood has finally made one critics love.
Zach Cregger doesn’t directly adapt any one Capcom game. Instead, his horror film drops Austin Abrams’ deeply unlucky courier Bryan into a new nightmare built around ingredients players know well: isolation, grotesque creatures, dark humour and the constant suspicion that opening the next door is a terrible idea.
As our review found, Cregger finally gives the games the horror movie treatment they’ve been crying out for, capturing the survival mechanics and atmosphere without simply recreating one of the games.
Resident Evil currently sits as the highest-rated theatrical video game movie on Rotten Tomatoes. After more than three decades of Hollywood trying to crack the video game movie, Resident Evil is sitting at the top. Try explaining that to someone in 2002.
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