For 30 years, the live-action video game adaptation has struggled to shake off the stigma of being so consistently inconsistent that many have dubbed them as being cursed. While we’ve seen occasional flashes of greatness, they’ve been too few and far between to torpedo the notion for good, but The Last of Us has set down a marker that any future projects may struggle to reach.
At the time of writing, the hotly-anticipated HBO series boasts a staggering Rotten Tomatoes score of 98 percent from upwards of 80 reviews, which comfortably makes it the top-rated live-action production based on a console property we’ve ever seen. It isn’t quite at the front of the all-time pack, though, with Netflix’s Arcane still boasting a perfect 100 percent rating, but that doesn’t take away from The Last of Us‘ achievement in the slightest.
On a more cynical note, the competition hasn’t really been fierce when the bar has regularly been set so low, especially when you consider that out of every video game-based movie to have ever existed, only four of them have ever managed to land above the 60 percent threshold to be deemed fresh.
Werewolves Within ranks as the best-reviewed feature the genre has ever seen, with The Last of Us decimating the competition in the episodic stakes. There was a lot of pressure on the blockbuster-sized series to succeed, and if it can turn that critical acclaim into viewing figures – which it almost certainly will – then HBO has another monster hit on its hands.
