It's always tricky translating movie characters to video games. It's not like drawing from a book or designing a work from scratch. With film characters, audiences have a direct reference to how the model should look. As a result, it's much easier to scrutinize the graphics of these movie-licensed titles.
That said, some developers seemingly make no attempt to match what came before. A game is released with the intent to capitalize on a specific movie, but the characters look nothing like their big-screen versions. In these games, audiences are essentially watching total strangers onscreen instead of the cinematic icons they love.
7 John Connor — Terminator Salvation
Several actors have played John Connor in the Terminator series. In the fourth entry, showcasing the prophesied war with the machines, Christian Bale steps into the boots of humanity's future savior. His appearance isn't anything elaborate, boiling down to a buzz cut and some stubble. It's basic, but practical for a soldier. Unfortunately, the Terminator Salvation game developers took it as cart blanche for blandness.
Unlike the film, the video game makes Connor the sole protagonist, but he's practically unrecognizable. His character model is the most generic soldier archetype one could imagine. Granted, it's tough when the film version doesn't have any defining facial features, but Bale's hardened expressions and intensity are completely absent here. Batman Begins achieved a better likeness years earlier using less powerful hardware. There's simply no excuse. At least Terminator: Resistance does the franchise and characters better justice.
6 Max Rockatansky — Mad Max
It may seem like an odd time to make a game based on the long-dormant Mad Max movies, but the series saw a successful revival in 2015 with Fury Road. Considering the game came out the same year, one would think it would follow its film peer, or at least make the Road Warrior resemble Tom Hardy. He stepped in as the new face of the character going forward, and a game would help cement that new status.
However, while the title definitely emulates Fury Road in aesthetic, it ignores the story and even the look of its eponymous hero. Some might argue that the developers wanted to harken back to Max's original appearance, but that theory doesn't hold water, since he doesn't look like Mel Gibson either. Instead, he's a dead ringer for Joel from The Last of Us. This isn't surprising, given the immense popularity of that title within the gaming circuit. Sadly, film fans felt cold with this approach. The rugged outlaw onscreen stumbled into the wrong post-apocalypse.
5 Wolverine — X2: Wolverine's Revenge
This game's title is misleading in multiple ways. Firstly, the game doesn't have anything to do with X2 or any of the X-Men movies; rather, it takes its cues from the comics.
Because of that, Wolverine looks nothing like Hugh Jackman. He sports an apelike forehead, a shriveled scowl, and spiky, blue hair. He's more muskrat than man. In other words, he's an illustration come to life. Marvel loyalists probably prefer this faithful rendition, especially considering how picky comic readers are regarding adaptations. That said, this Wolverine probably won't top anyone's list of sexiest guys like his big-screen counterpart does.
4 Aragorn — The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
Here's another case of differing source material. The Fellowship of the Ring video game came out in 2001, the same year that Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy debuted in theaters. One would be forgiven for thinking this little title was licensed to capitalize on that release. It happened with seemingly every blockbuster back then, but this game is actually based on J.R.R. Tolkien's book itself. Not only does it contain characters and scenes absent from the film, but the heroes adhere to the page's descriptions rather than the actors' likenesses.
Nowhere is this more noticeable than with Aragorn. Here, the noble hero is gaunt and lanky, a far cry from actor Viggo Mortensen. He doesn't even have a beard. All in all, he looks more like a random thug than a ranger or a king. Needless to say, he has a tough time conveying the soulfulness found in both the novel and film.
3 Marty & Doc — Back To The Future
It's ironic that this is widely hailed as the best Back to the Future game when it intentionally ignores the actors' looks. Rather than going for photorealism, Telltale's episodic adventure opts for a stylized aesthetic. The characters are akin to caricature illustrations. This gives the game the feel of an animated series, which helps it in the long run.
Games aiming for more detail are inevitably outdated in a few years. Stylization often maintains visual appeal. Still, it's undeniably jarring to go from the movies straight into this game (as the creators intended). Marty and Doc apparently got a cartoon facelift in the future.
2 James Bond — 007 Legends
Secret agent James Bond is another character played by numerous actors. That's what happens with a legacy spanning over fifty years. 007 Legends pays homage to that legacy by taking players through some of the hero's famous adventures. The catch is that it frames them within the Daniel Craig era.
This means that fans experience iconic scenes from Goldfinger, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Moonraker, Licence to Kill, and Die Another Day, except with Bond resembling Craig. The actor already turned heads for being a radical departure from 007's typical appearance. That uncanny feeling increases when modern face is inserted into older movies — the result is basically an hours-long deepfake. For fans whose favorite Bond is Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, or even George Lazenby, 007 Legends feels like a slap in the face.
1 Peter Parker/Spider-Man — The Amazing Spider-Man 2
The web-slinging Spider-Man is one of the most popular superheroes ever created, so it figures that each of his movies would get a video game tie-in. The Tobey Maguire films all saw console titles that featured decent likenesses of the whole cast. Sadly, that was an afterthought with games based on the reboot flicks.
Not only do the Amazing Spider-Man games features barely any of the movie characters, but the web-head himself doesn't even slightly resemble Andrew Garfield once he takes off his mask in the second entry. Like with Terminator Salvation, "generic" is the name of the game. This Peter Parker has virtually no distinguishing aspects to his appearance. He's the same random pretty boy seen on male clothing ads. If this was an early model of Jason Brody from Far Cry 3, then it might be acceptable. However, people expect more from their Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.