Games in the Movies, Volume 2

IN THE WRONG: The Resident Evil series (2002-2010?)

It pains me so much to write about this movie series. I wanted to like it, I really did. The first movie, titled just Resident Evil (2002) was alright, taking a few liberties but following a Resident Evil-eske plot, but it lost a lot of what made it Resident Evil. The sequel, Resident Evil Apocalypse (2004), further expanded on the plot of the first movie, losing almost everything that was Resident Evil sans names. The third movie, Resident Evil Extinction (2007), lost everything that had to do with Resident Evil. Not even the names could take it apart from any other generic zombie movie nowadays.

The first thing I would like to adress is the character development. The games had a sense of creating characters that are both lucky and not afraid to show their flaws. For example, the heroine of the first movie, Jill Valentine, was a special forces officer, but was very nervous when it came to the attacks of the zombies. The movie version of this character was more of a gun-toting badass than anything else. In the movie, they introduced a new character named Alice, which served nothing but a superhuman that could do more action movie retardation. The characters themselves completely tore the movie apart.

Another thing I would like to mention are the settings. The first movie was going in the right for having it take place in a mansion, a la the games. After that, they tried to bring it into the city itself, a homage to the second and third games. This was still understandable, but Racoon City is suppossed to be a smaller town, not a bustling metropolis. The third movie turned it into a wasteland. You heard me right, a wasteland. This was a wild turn, and helped it break from the games and have barely anything to do with them. Great job writer and/or director.

Fun fact: The writer and director didn't play the games, and only followed plot summaries. Huh, maybe THAT'S why these were trainwrecks. And the funny thing is that these are actually doing well in the theatres, well enough to get a 4th movie, Resident Evil Afterlife (2010). I'm going to go see that movie JUST to see how bad it is.