I remember watching the first Resident Evil movie in my early teens. I thought it looked stupid from the trailers but really liked it when I finally saw it. I was excited and hugely disappointed by the sequel and I remember liking the third even if it was very different and looked terrible from the trailers. I finally decided to watch all the movies an see how crazy this movie franchise got with so many movies. It’s like a franchise where all its direct to videos sequels were released on theaters. All in all I can’t say I hate the Paul Anderson Resident Evil films. I mea knowing what we know now of what the franchise evolved into I can see the Resident Evil movie franchise as something else.
Resident Evil 2002 (Genesis)
Though the novel adaptation calls it Genesis, so I’ll just go with that or the international name Huesped maldito (damned host) but that’s mostly a mistranslation of the actual Resident Evil name. But let’s begin, the intro explaining what umbrella corp is, doesn’t seem very RE like, too out there with the “they’re evil”. The music by manson is great and he made a great theme, sadly it wans’t used in later movies. The idea of the escape is interesting and it made for a good plot. at this point it definitely feels like it could’ve taken place in the Capcom games universe, some of the things like the flying kick perhaps not (at least in the early RE games) but it could’ve felt more grounded, there was potential to do it that way. But as mentioned, looking at what the games became you can definitely see all the seeds planted of what the crazy world it would build.. The original choice of Alice in wonderland should’ve been kept but the leftovers are cool, I do think Alice here in her red dress is very iconic.
This doesn’t feel like classic RE but it’s not that far off from the crazy RE it later became in the games. The beginning gives you some you’re alone RE 1 vibes , they did a great job there.. The intro is great, action packed, interesting, and keeps your attention.. The hive is an interesting concept as well. The idea of the red queen felt stupid funny how she basically became a part of the whole franchise in the movies and later in the games. That last dog that attacks Alice that gets the kick was so unnecessary and worst part of the movie though it was used heavily in marketing. In general the mystery is good, not a straight up horror movie but it does have jump scares. zombies area alright. the movie works for what it is. A bit sci-fi so it doesn’t feel like the early RE games but it feels not that out of place with later ones, the mysteries are fun. The ending is as brilliant, creepy, gave you lots of hope for the future for it to be more early RE like. The music and soundtrack are great. The sequelbait is great, nemesis program. movie deserved more love from hardcore RE gamer fans. The potential was there. surprised by all the nudity.
Resident Evil Apocalypse
I had huge hopes the ending was amazing lead to RE2/3 here we could get more we would have Jill, it could work. I could forgive the flaws here in the first movie since it was leading to Resident Evil 2 and 3. but oh boy.. It starts with a rundown of everything that happened in the first film, though I do like that it shows us the events of what happened before Alice woke up in the hospital, that’s under appreciated and gives us an interesting premise. The whole t-virus escaping in this way is also different, I’d think they would’ve been more prepared but I do like how they start getting all the important people from umbrella out.. There’s a quote “Just like Valentine told us”, so it implies that a similar event to the first game happened. I like the game inspired homages in the intro and Jill’s intro. The events depicted for the RE2/3 time era is odd yet cool to see wat happens.. What ruined the movie for me was Super Alice with her super powers but counting what the game series became both game and movie I am ok with it now, and I mean now, I hated the movie when it came out. I mean the movie flows rather well until Alice comes in a motorcycle to save Jill Sandwich and the rest. It rubs you the wrong way but knowing that Alice is the superhero of the movie franchise. The only nudity here is the prostitutes, Alice is only seen naked through cg mode. Alice acting like a badass to everyone including Jill is just awful and a character change from the last movie, why are there martial arts against zombies? ridiculous. Nemesis having an origin seemed cool but having this Darth Vader trying to save them storyline is just silly. “I’m good but not that good” Oh god.. Alice explains she isn’t human anymore, that’s where the franchise decided to go.
Dr Ashford Angela tapped in the city’s security.. The pimp guy is cool. The movies have had strong original characters. Alice does get a new iconic outfit, overall the story isn’t too messy if you can tolerate superhero Alice and sentimental Nemesis. I mean it ends with a fist fight with nemesis. It almost looks like Power Rangers. The movie has its flaws but it isn’t as horrible as I remembered it and I hated the movie. I’m coning in to the idea that these movies are the Alice show, if you wanted a more “grounded RE then this was never it. Nemesis face heel face turn silly. The ending is ok.
Resident Evil Extinction
After the weird ass ending from the last one with Evil Alice we start with no context exactly like the first movie. The promotional marketing for this movie seemed odd with the desert, looked so anti RE that I avoided it (this was before RE 5) though I watched it when it came out on DVD and I was surprised how enjoyable it had been. Watching it now again, everything is a warren wasteland after the t*virus expands, this is definitely late game and felt like an ending.
We live in a post apocalyptic world, we have Claire Redfield, Carlos Oliveira from the game and the Pimp AJ from the last movie now working with new people, Claire is nothing like her RE2 self or whatever since they skipped their respective arcs so who knows if it happened or not or if it’s after Code Veronica. I guess it could’ve. Here umbrellas is super high tech or whatever which was always the case I guess looking bck but now it’s even more. I like that they keep using bio hazard. I don’t see how it makes sense that umbrella still has so much power.
Albert Wesker is nice to see but weird in his role. Project Alice / Claire is a diff character but it works as who would’ve evolved to be I guess. Carlos interacting with Alice and Claire is neat since he didn’t in the games. Glad claire gets more respect than Jill did.. at least Alice gets another iconic outfit here as well. Its different post apocalyptic end game and at least feels like it’s not trying to be RE but its own thing so it works. Here at least Alice is less martial arts crazy, still more powerful but not a power ranger. More Alice with wesker and together RE games when it comes to mutating with the t virus, though she get super powers at the end telekinesis. Alexander Isaccs is an ok villain in his role here. Ending at least thought provoking
Resident Evil Afterlife
The narration gives you the rundown and it works, now the people who live underground? Such high tech complexities seem a bit crazy but whatever. The movie begins with Alice being straight matrix like superhuman with telekinetic powers. Not tp mention a bunch of clones. Underground cities are also full of zombies but underground. Alice gets her power removed from t-cells.. A character called K-Mart from the last movie is ehre, how awesome is it that we get Claire and Chris Redfield here. The movie has a bit slow boring beginning while it explains things, a smaller scale story… oddly enough since we don’t want more after the initial set up but the smaller scale story is good and nice.. We get yet another iconic outfit for Alice. This was released in the middle of the 3D craze after Avatar and you can tell many shots were made specifically because of the 3D.
I find the movie in general amusing you see. It gets a bit crazy near the end but game RE crazy so its good. Wesker implies he knows Chris and Claire but they don’t seem to react well against him. I do think the events from the games in general happened just a bit different but overall these characters did have their own stories to tell outside of hte Aliceverse, It feels more RE like and it’s neat with the matrix fight with Wesker with these characers there. You can see RE5 inspired parts, Jill is evil here and enemies, neat all around. good movie. The ending well it’s interesting enough.
Resident Evil Retribution
It starts with an intro as always then a lot of nonstop action until we meet the new status quo with Wesker and Ada Wong. Somehow it seems to actually now fit with the current RE franchise in terms of ridiculousness. The movie world feels like a video game now, it’s totally like a game, with RE monsters and random set pieces. The plot? kind of here enough to guide you through the movie which is fine, that’s all it needs to do. Jill is kinda cool, Ada as well but Leon is indeed treated horrible here. Barry not too bad despite being killed. Despite the clusterf-ck the world has become in this franchise it keeps the story at a smaller scale here as well: escape from some of the underground cities but it’s still larger scale than the last film. Kinda neat concept to continue the story but unsure if it’s great storywise.
It still feels like a video game so if anything it has succeeded in that. Red queen is bad but not exactly a reason why now, or ym Alice must die or what’s happening. If you think about it much the movie begins to fall appart but still interesting enough to watch and the music is cool, in fact all the movies always had contemporary metal music that was deemed cools at that time. I miss the theme like the Manson one but oh well retribution had a nice theme as well . I can’t say that I didn’t love the ending because I did. This second trilogy is by far more exciting than the first. Hell since they imply that some of the events of the games do take place, then perhaps the other new movie does take place in this continuity not based on project Alice but I’m getting ahead of myself.
Resident Evil The Final Chapter
Lots of returning original characters and they aren’t too bad, I enjoyed them K-mart, LJ, Alexander Isaacs, Dr Ashford, red queen, Matt addison, Rain Ocampo, Luther West, Alice’s daughter. clones retcons, this movie has tons of those, unsure why if it’s such a flexible movie storywise, it could be full of new characters and yet they bring those back through weird retcons that make no sense. here we are set up with something different than what the last movie showed of couse it’s explained but still, this is done in pretty much every movie but annoying. They don’t give a fuck. The plot doesn’t seem so interesting, and by this point the retcons are getting annoying. We get an intro as always with new information, this time we get more background and what’s really happening and at least we know we get an ending, I’m surprised they always referenced the fist movie which was a much smaller incident. Though I guess it was responsible for everything, clones!
Every Resident Evil movie makes sure to lecture you the first 5 minutes recapping everything that’s happened in the previous movies I think the writers needed that a lot more than the poor bastards watching the movies. Going back to the hive is poetic for the final film but man I would’ve loved something different it’s just lackluster in general. The final fight is not as epic, the retcons are not interesting, but drive the plot to a way to have a final movie I guess. Overall it had a good run. decent enough ending. unsure why it was left open ended with Alice still saving the rest of the world as it heals.
not as fun as the others
TLDR
RE1: decent
RE2: Meh
RE3: alright
RE4: fun
RE5:interesting
RE6: what