Two years after the first game, Resident Evil 2 was released in 1998. We'll be playing the Director's Cut version of the game. It established the concepts and characters that would stick around all the way to the recent Resident Evil 5, such as Chris Redfield, Albert Wesker and the T-Virus. It was one of the very first games to establish the phrase "survival horror." Known for its sluggish controls and bad voice acting, the classic game has now sold over 2.7 million copies. Worth a watch? Sure, just keep expectations in check,and maybe a better zombie movie handy in case you get bored.Resident Evil (titled "Biohazard" in Japan) was released on the Playstation in 1996 and was directed by the now-heralded Shinji Mikami. It's an interesting concept, with poor execution.
There are a few really good scenes(the lazer scene is still awesome), but not enough to make this a classic worthy 4 sequels. It slows down, speeds up, slows down, and speeds up. The effects are bad, the acting is worse, and the movie doesn't really have a good pace. So a team of special ops, lead by Alice(Milla Jovovich) head down to find out what happened, and see if they can prevent it from spreading. They have a lab underground called The Hive, and one day a deadly virus is unleashed turning everyone down there into zombies. It's about a corporation that pretty much runs the world called Umbrella. So, when this came out I had to check it out. I love zombie movies, and will watch just about anything that features them. I've never really played "Resident Evil", so I don't know how well this stacks up to the games, and I don't really care. Ok, first and foremost, I don't play video games(other than some on my phone).
Now, is there an excuse for a horrendous looking creature via CGI? Or maybe some truly useless characters with weak (at best) dialogue? No, I can't say there is. I've never played any of the games, but I can certainly see where this story lends itself to the video game medium. In this case, it gives the viewer a sense of what a first person shooter game with this story would feel like. But there's something to be said about a throwback action-horror taking place in one confined space. Resident Evil is actually a pretty serious film, people are dying left and right, and the world is on the brink of an apocalypse. In fact, one can make the argument that Alice is a more likable character than Selene is in Underworld.Īs I've said a lot recently, there's nothing wrong with a mindless action adventure if it doesn't take itself too seriously. I did, however, find Alice to be compelling, as long as the sequels do more to expand her history and explain how she became an absolute bada**.
Knowing where most zombie flicks go, there's really no use to getting attached to secondary characters when you know their deaths are all but guaranteed. Much like the Underworld franchise, I honestly don't care about any of the supporting characters. But in the instances that the survivors, led by Alice (Milla Jovovich), are scrambling through rooms doing anything to survive CGI creatures and flesh eating zombies, Resident Evil is pure guilty pleasure. When the film takes twists and turns that are supposed to surprise you, when in fact, they feel like a weak attempt at shock, it becomes overwhelmingly convoluted. Resident Evil is at its best when it pushes aside the politics of this "secret military group" named The Umbrella, and instead is an homage to the original Alien. Resident Evil isn't necessarily the exception to that rule, but it's nowhere near as awful as the genre has been. Video game movies have been awful for decades now.
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