In just its first four episodes, there are already people declaring HBO’s The Last Of Us as one of the greatest television shows of all time. One of the strange superlatives accompanying the game however, is this idea that the show has ‘broken the video game adaptation curse’ – the idea that video games adapted into live-action TV or movies are doomed to fail. I do get where this idea comes from, but I’m here to tell you that this curse, like an actual curse, is nothing more than a myth. At the very least, it’s been a while since the idea has had merit.
So where did this notion of a ‘curse’ come from? Well, 1993 saw the very first feature-length film based on a video game hit the big screens. I am, of course, talking about the original Super Mario Bros. movie starring Bob Hoskins as Mario and John Leguizamo as Luigi. The film went through production hell, and failed to break even at the box office. Critics praised the fancy effects and production design for the time, but it failed to express the true spirit of its inspiration. So it’s fair to say that the relationship between video games and film didn’t get off to a great start.
But 1986 was a long time ago. Sure, there have been plenty of poor adaptations between then and now, such as Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, Doom, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and 2002’s Resident Evil, but even some of those were actually box office successes that spawned multiple sequels. Ultimately however, they were pretty bad movies, all with critic scores of 35% or lower on Rotten Tomatoes, and were generally mocked by gamers and film critics alike, allowing this idea of a curse to take hold.
But those were all in the 2000s, and more recent years have been far more creatively fertile. The first Sonic The Hedgehog movie, for example, not only took over $300 million at the box office on a budget of roughly $90 million, but was also extremely well-received by fans and critics. With over 250 critic reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, Sonic The Hedgehog sits at a perfectly respectable score of 63%.
Let us not forget the likes of Pokemon: Detective Pikachu (2019), Monster Hunter (2020), and Mortal Kombat (2021) too. All three of these movies not only made a profit at the worldwide box office, but they’ve also bagged pretty decent critic scores between 44% and 68% on Rotten Tomatoes. Are they not the two main factors that go into classifying a movie as a success? Then on the TV side you have hugely successful shows like Castlevania, Arcane, and Cyberpunk: Edge Runners – all extremely well-received Netflix shows based on video games (with quite incredible RT scores of 94% to 100%).
Sure, there have been some extremely bad adaptations in recent years too, such as 2016’s Assassin’s Creed and Netflix’s recent Resident Evil adaptation, which was cancelled after just one season. But a few bad eggs here and there doesn’t exactly add up to a whole curse.
The evolution in video game storytelling has no doubt had a huge impact on the growing success rate of adaptations. Games are no longer just a case of hitting a white ping pong ball back and forth, as developers put years of work into creating heart-wrenching stories set amidst visually stunning settings. In other words, games have become immeasurably more cinematic over the years, lending themselves more naturally to adaptation. This is why The Last Of Us translates so well to a television format too – it isn’t just a video game, it’s a beautifully written story filled with heartbreak, tension, fear, and excitement.
Taking video games, an interactive media form, and translating that to film or television where the user has no agency is no easy task. Although I don’t believe The Last Of Us “broke the curse,” I do think it showed some important steps that need to be taken for future adaptations.
For a start, HBO’s The Last Of Us is remarkably faithful to its source material, right down to minute details such as character clothing and certain scenes being a near shot-for-shot remake of the game, as seen in the images above from episode two. Any changes that have been made so far have been tasteful and appropriate. Showrunner Craig Mazin also worked closely with Neil Druckmann, Naughty Dog’s Co-CEO and co-creator of The Last Of Us, which I believe has played a crucial role in the show’s success. It also goes without saying that casting choices are another key element, with Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey truly embodying the characters of Joel and Ellie.
HBO’s adaptation of The Last Of Us didn’t break a curse, and while it may quite possibly be the very best TV adaptation of a video game, that shouldn’t overshadow the fact that the quality of such adaptations has been pretty high for years now.
