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Resident Rant
The ‘Resident Evil’ video game series is my favorite video game franchises ever with a few of the entries making my top to games of all time. The earlier entries provided a unique horror experience with interesting storylines, gameplay and secrets to unlock. While the series has now turned into a Michael Bay-esque action romp with entries 4 and 5, it’s still enjoyable in a different way. It was inevitable that they would turn this series into a film but who would suspect one of the most incohesive and messy film franchises of all time?
OK. That probably sounds a little harsh but let me explain in greater detail. Like my rant on the ‘Saw’ films, you have to look at both these films individually and as a series. Individually some of these films are OK(ish). The first ‘Resident Evil’, released in 2002, received some neglect from the fans upon hitting theatres but I felt that it was decent, more action oriented re-imagining of the first game. ‘Resident Evil: Apocalypse’ came out two years later which was said to have integrated more elements from the games such as a few key characters and the series’ poster boy, Nemesis. Apocalypse was just plain BAD, making a mockery of our beloved characters. Towards the end, the film also took a bizarre twist as a bunch of psychic mumbo-jumbo was tossed in. It was silly and unneeded. The third entry, ‘Resident Evil: Extinction’, released in 2007 was a definite improvement. It was still an incohesive B-movie with an insurmountable amount of flaws but it was damn entertaining. The latest entry, Resident Evil: Afterlife was ABYSMAL, adding nothing to the progression of the overall story.
So there are my opinions on the individual films. Now let’s look at why these films are terrible as a series. THEY DOESN’T MAKE SENSE. The series has this tendency to randomly drop and add new storylines constantly. Throughout the series Alice (the man character from the films who isn’t based out of the games) has psychic and telekinetic abilities that continue to develop throughout. In ‘Afterlife’ they randomly drop this fairly quickly. The powers were lame but the fact that they just take them away like that makes them absolutely redundant in the first place. Why have them at all? Also, all of the (SPOILER) clones from the ending of the 3rd film are seen only briefly at the beginning of ‘Afterlife’ showing that they knew it would be a cool ending for the film if Alice finds all of her clones but they had know idea how to go about continuing on with that development in the next film. Pitifully bad writing and just like the ‘Saw’ films, one can make the assumption these are being written one at a time without the entire arc of the story mapped out.
The writer’s also tend to enjoy randomly throwing in characters from the games at any given time just because they can, however they don’t have the same history or connections as the games making some of the characters pointless. For example (bear with me as this may get complex…I’m about unleash the raw power of my geeky side) in the games, we have Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine, two teammates and members of S.T.A.R.S. (Special Tactics and Rescue Squad) who are some of the few survivors of the original inciting incident of the whole outbreak. We also have Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield (a rookie cop and college student looking for her brother respectively) who must join forces after the initial outbreak. Now in the films, S.T.A.R.S. was not present at the inciting incident, making Chris and Jill unneeded characters. Lo’ and Behold they throw Jill at us in the second film and she claims to have experience fighting the dead. When the hell did this happen? She wasn’t there! Anyways… there is no mention of the existence of Chris. In the third film they throw Claire at us who has no connection to anything without Chris (especially considering her character is entirely different). Then in the 4th film they bring In Chris but he has no connection to Jill making everything just TOO DAMN COMPLICATED. And I know, I KNOW that they will bring in the character of Leon in the next film or two, just because they can. His character won’t fit in at all, but they’ll find a way to shoehorn him in there, opening up a plethora of holes and loose ends.
They do a similar thing with other elements from the games, like the enemies. They randomly throw in the enemies from the games but they are basically never seen again. In the films, they are zombies, plain and simple. In Resident Evil 5 (The game) they are citizens infected with parasites turning them into bloodthirsty madmen. So these enemies use weapons; one of which is dressed as an executioner and carries an enormous axe. This enemy makes an appearance in the 4th film. WHY? HOW? This doesn’t make sense in the least and they added it because it looks cool. Creatures like Nemesis, who is one of the most memorable villains I’ve ever seen in a video game to date, is made out to be a weakling with EMOTIONS. He is supposed to be a biologically engineered Assassin who is virtually unstoppable.
I think the saddest part of this whole thing is that these movies are popular. Now I know I just geeked out back there suggesting that people who are unfamiliar with the games won’t see the flaws however I feel like the holes in this franchise are gapping enough that it should be pretty apparent that these are bad films. They will keep making these films because they make money and I, like an Alzheimer’s patient will probably go and watch them all.
Side note: I would like to point out that there was on Resident Evil’ film that I did enjoy. ‘Resident evil Degeneration’ was a CG animated, straight to video film that built upon the plot of the games with the same characters. The action was fun, the CG was quite good and the plot was interesting. It’s not a great film but it’s the best film with ‘Resident Evil’ attached to the name.
Final Ratings:
Resident Evil – 3/5
RE: Apocalypse – 1.5/5
RE: Extinction – 2.5/5
RE: Afterlife – 0.5/5
RE: Degeneration – 3.5/5
OK. That probably sounds a little harsh but let me explain in greater detail. Like my rant on the ‘Saw’ films, you have to look at both these films individually and as a series. Individually some of these films are OK(ish). The first ‘Resident Evil’, released in 2002, received some neglect from the fans upon hitting theatres but I felt that it was decent, more action oriented re-imagining of the first game. ‘Resident Evil: Apocalypse’ came out two years later which was said to have integrated more elements from the games such as a few key characters and the series’ poster boy, Nemesis. Apocalypse was just plain BAD, making a mockery of our beloved characters. Towards the end, the film also took a bizarre twist as a bunch of psychic mumbo-jumbo was tossed in. It was silly and unneeded. The third entry, ‘Resident Evil: Extinction’, released in 2007 was a definite improvement. It was still an incohesive B-movie with an insurmountable amount of flaws but it was damn entertaining. The latest entry, Resident Evil: Afterlife was ABYSMAL, adding nothing to the progression of the overall story.
So there are my opinions on the individual films. Now let’s look at why these films are terrible as a series. THEY DOESN’T MAKE SENSE. The series has this tendency to randomly drop and add new storylines constantly. Throughout the series Alice (the man character from the films who isn’t based out of the games) has psychic and telekinetic abilities that continue to develop throughout. In ‘Afterlife’ they randomly drop this fairly quickly. The powers were lame but the fact that they just take them away like that makes them absolutely redundant in the first place. Why have them at all? Also, all of the (SPOILER) clones from the ending of the 3rd film are seen only briefly at the beginning of ‘Afterlife’ showing that they knew it would be a cool ending for the film if Alice finds all of her clones but they had know idea how to go about continuing on with that development in the next film. Pitifully bad writing and just like the ‘Saw’ films, one can make the assumption these are being written one at a time without the entire arc of the story mapped out.
The writer’s also tend to enjoy randomly throwing in characters from the games at any given time just because they can, however they don’t have the same history or connections as the games making some of the characters pointless. For example (bear with me as this may get complex…I’m about unleash the raw power of my geeky side) in the games, we have Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine, two teammates and members of S.T.A.R.S. (Special Tactics and Rescue Squad) who are some of the few survivors of the original inciting incident of the whole outbreak. We also have Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield (a rookie cop and college student looking for her brother respectively) who must join forces after the initial outbreak. Now in the films, S.T.A.R.S. was not present at the inciting incident, making Chris and Jill unneeded characters. Lo’ and Behold they throw Jill at us in the second film and she claims to have experience fighting the dead. When the hell did this happen? She wasn’t there! Anyways… there is no mention of the existence of Chris. In the third film they throw Claire at us who has no connection to anything without Chris (especially considering her character is entirely different). Then in the 4th film they bring In Chris but he has no connection to Jill making everything just TOO DAMN COMPLICATED. And I know, I KNOW that they will bring in the character of Leon in the next film or two, just because they can. His character won’t fit in at all, but they’ll find a way to shoehorn him in there, opening up a plethora of holes and loose ends.
They do a similar thing with other elements from the games, like the enemies. They randomly throw in the enemies from the games but they are basically never seen again. In the films, they are zombies, plain and simple. In Resident Evil 5 (The game) they are citizens infected with parasites turning them into bloodthirsty madmen. So these enemies use weapons; one of which is dressed as an executioner and carries an enormous axe. This enemy makes an appearance in the 4th film. WHY? HOW? This doesn’t make sense in the least and they added it because it looks cool. Creatures like Nemesis, who is one of the most memorable villains I’ve ever seen in a video game to date, is made out to be a weakling with EMOTIONS. He is supposed to be a biologically engineered Assassin who is virtually unstoppable.
I think the saddest part of this whole thing is that these movies are popular. Now I know I just geeked out back there suggesting that people who are unfamiliar with the games won’t see the flaws however I feel like the holes in this franchise are gapping enough that it should be pretty apparent that these are bad films. They will keep making these films because they make money and I, like an Alzheimer’s patient will probably go and watch them all.
Side note: I would like to point out that there was on Resident Evil’ film that I did enjoy. ‘Resident evil Degeneration’ was a CG animated, straight to video film that built upon the plot of the games with the same characters. The action was fun, the CG was quite good and the plot was interesting. It’s not a great film but it’s the best film with ‘Resident Evil’ attached to the name.
Final Ratings:
Resident Evil – 3/5
RE: Apocalypse – 1.5/5
RE: Extinction – 2.5/5
RE: Afterlife – 0.5/5
RE: Degeneration – 3.5/5