Resident Evil
Allright, so, here's something I've been thinking about a lot. Shino does this Podcast called Interactive Distractions, and their question of the week last week was about video games made into movies. I mentioned, during my response, that Resident Evil was brilliantly written and got guffawed at a little for it (not by him, but by one of the other people on the show.). Instinctively, I agreed that I'd been a bit dumb to say that, but...thinking on it more, I really do believe it was brilliantly written.
Taking into consideration that it's a zombie movie and a video game movie especially, they did a fantastic job. They made a zombie movie that wasn't cheesy, and a video game movie that wasn't awful-- something that's damn near impossible to do.
Putting that aside, though, I still think it is a well-written series. Especially the first movie. There was enough action to keep your interest, enough story to make you really think, and the characters had enough focus you really -cared- about them, unlike most action movies. I was -so- upset when Rain died that I wanted to throw something at the screen. And my heart broke for Matt when he was taken away after being bitten. And poor Alice-- she just wanted to do the right thing and got slammed in the middle of all of this.
In the later movies, Alice continues to be a well-written character. I love her depth, and that they managed to make a chick who was tough and strong but not heartless or evil. My heart absolutely -broke- in the third movie when (SPOILER IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT)
Oded Fehr's character dies. I love that she saved -him-, and yet he still wasn't entirely a 'damsel-in-distress'. He just got about as good a part as most female characters get these days, being rescued all the time, while not entirely helpless. But no, in RE, Alice does the rescuing. And she does a damn fantastic job of it.
((END SPOILERS))
I loved the Nemesis project in II and how it broke your heart when you find out he's Matt. I love the disgusting creepiness of the zombies. I love the whole virus storyline.
I -didn't- like the virus mutating from airborne into blood-transmitted, because that seemed to be stretching it out so that they could infect the whole building quickly in the first movie more than actually believable.
I -didn't- like the way they did the T-Virus in the storyline with the little girl, because it wasn't really explained very well how and why the virus helped her. And I didn't like the random disappearance of both the girl and Valentine in the third movie, because um...wtf? I think they at least mentioned that Valentine died, but other than that, we have very little idea of what happened between the movies and why they disappeared.
Overall, though, it brings up some really hard issues. I mean, what -do- you do when a quickly-spreading infection is killing people? Lock up the city and let healthy people die so that you can control the virus? And what about killing your friends so they don't turn into brain-eating monsters? While it's not something you're likely to run into, it's really an interesting question. Could you kill your friend if the alternative was something that evil?
While it's not Blockbuster material, I think movies like this get a bad rap because people don't look at fantasy or science fiction, or horror as well-written simply because of their genre. People think that movies can only be good if they deal with generic every day life settings or if they're Lord of the Rings-- a classic and epic sort've tale or Pirates of the Caribbean, which probably only made it up there for stunning special effects and Johnny Depp. (not that I don't think those two series aren't beautifully fantastic, but with the way critics and the general public seem to think, this is the only way I can see that they've done so well.)
It just really sucks that a lot of good movies are cast aside because of the type of movie they are, rather than being looked at for their actual content.
Taking into consideration that it's a zombie movie and a video game movie especially, they did a fantastic job. They made a zombie movie that wasn't cheesy, and a video game movie that wasn't awful-- something that's damn near impossible to do.
Putting that aside, though, I still think it is a well-written series. Especially the first movie. There was enough action to keep your interest, enough story to make you really think, and the characters had enough focus you really -cared- about them, unlike most action movies. I was -so- upset when Rain died that I wanted to throw something at the screen. And my heart broke for Matt when he was taken away after being bitten. And poor Alice-- she just wanted to do the right thing and got slammed in the middle of all of this.
In the later movies, Alice continues to be a well-written character. I love her depth, and that they managed to make a chick who was tough and strong but not heartless or evil. My heart absolutely -broke- in the third movie when (SPOILER IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT)
Oded Fehr's character dies. I love that she saved -him-, and yet he still wasn't entirely a 'damsel-in-distress'. He just got about as good a part as most female characters get these days, being rescued all the time, while not entirely helpless. But no, in RE, Alice does the rescuing. And she does a damn fantastic job of it.
((END SPOILERS))
I loved the Nemesis project in II and how it broke your heart when you find out he's Matt. I love the disgusting creepiness of the zombies. I love the whole virus storyline.
I -didn't- like the virus mutating from airborne into blood-transmitted, because that seemed to be stretching it out so that they could infect the whole building quickly in the first movie more than actually believable.
I -didn't- like the way they did the T-Virus in the storyline with the little girl, because it wasn't really explained very well how and why the virus helped her. And I didn't like the random disappearance of both the girl and Valentine in the third movie, because um...wtf? I think they at least mentioned that Valentine died, but other than that, we have very little idea of what happened between the movies and why they disappeared.
Overall, though, it brings up some really hard issues. I mean, what -do- you do when a quickly-spreading infection is killing people? Lock up the city and let healthy people die so that you can control the virus? And what about killing your friends so they don't turn into brain-eating monsters? While it's not something you're likely to run into, it's really an interesting question. Could you kill your friend if the alternative was something that evil?
While it's not Blockbuster material, I think movies like this get a bad rap because people don't look at fantasy or science fiction, or horror as well-written simply because of their genre. People think that movies can only be good if they deal with generic every day life settings or if they're Lord of the Rings-- a classic and epic sort've tale or Pirates of the Caribbean, which probably only made it up there for stunning special effects and Johnny Depp. (not that I don't think those two series aren't beautifully fantastic, but with the way critics and the general public seem to think, this is the only way I can see that they've done so well.)
It just really sucks that a lot of good movies are cast aside because of the type of movie they are, rather than being looked at for their actual content.