@vaporeon_ @aescling From what I've gathered reading discussion of the recent Sonic movies, they were appreciated because they make constant references to the games, sometime obscure references, meaning the people making the movie understand many details of the game that would be difficult to know without being a genuine fan.

Some critics I know who are normally quite discerning liked the movies for these reasons.

Outside of the acknowledgements of source material they are pretty mediocre family films at best and most of them are just bad movies in general. And despite referencing the source material, the actual depiction of the characters is completely different from the games. So they are not faithful adaptations in spirit.

But a lot of people like this. I believe that many people see films as the Superior Medium For Art and that it feels validating to have something from your childhood depicted with reverence in The Superior Medium.

I think the Sonic, Mario, and Minecraft movies set a precedent for studios where a movie made from a famous videogame IP will be accepted by audiences if it is a mediocre family film full of deep cut references. So we are probably going to see a ton of these in the next five to ten years, unfortunately.