Why do video game movies suck so bad?

I think I am going to see Max Payne this weekend (look for a review Monday if I do). It looks like it could be ok. Maybe, perhaps, it could position itself as the best movie ever made that is based on a video game. Ridiculous, you say? I thought so too, until I checked out this list of movies that were once video games. Look at it. That is an awful, awful list. I haven't wasted my time with most of that trash, but I have seen six of the movies on that list, and I wouldn't recommend any of them.

Why are the movies created from video games so bad? Games are amazingly intricate these days, and the plots are just as engrossing as a run of Uncanny X-Men or even a decent novel. But so far, when these stories are translated to movie form, they stink. Hard.

I think a lot of the ineptitude stems from the people in charge of making movies. Twenty or thirty years ago, most movies that were based off of comic books were complete crap. Like this . And I think it's because studio executives and producers were old enough that they didn't read comic books. Flash forward to today, and the people who are making movies are the kids who read comic books every day. And now comic book movies are some of the best and most successful movies every year.

So lets take that theory and apply it to video games. Most of the people making movies these days are, let's say, ten to twenty years older than me, and didn't grow up playing video games. And therefore they don't get it. They don't realize that games deserve to be taken just as seriously as other story telling devices. Video games have script writers now, just like comics and television shows, and the movie industry has made some pretty good movies from those.

What does this all mean? I guess it means that we won't really see a good video game movie for another ten years or so. So while Max Payne may turn out to be the best one so far, I am keeping expectations low.