Movie Night! The Other Three 'Resident Evil' Movies... (I got there in the end!)
I watched the first three 'Resident Evil' movies back in November, last year, and had this idea that I'd watch the next three, for the first time, and see what happened. Well, what happened was all sorts of things that had nothing to do with watching 'Resident Evil' movies... The next thing I know, it's April this year and I realised that I still had three films that I needed to watch. And so I did, out of some strange need to 'complete the set'. Well, that and the fact that a week spent trying to get everything in order (before I went on leave) meant that I was incapable of watching anything else. I needed 'popcorn movies' and that's exactly what the last three 'Resident Evil' movies were. Even so, they still made it hard work for me...
Writing about 'Resident Evils' 'Afterlife', 'Retribution' and 'The Final Chapter' is somehow really easy yet awfully difficult at the same time. Basically, everything I said about the first three movies applies here because they are essentially exactly the same film, spun out over and over again. Alice fucks up zombies and goes after the Umbrella Corporation who leave her in a right state, ready to kick off the next film... Rinse and repeat. It's not a bad approach to take, Paul Anderson clearly knows what his audience wants and is happy to deliver. I'll tell you what though, as fun as these movies can be, it's a bloody boring approach to take if you want to find something new to say for a post like this... It's a no brainer then but if you liked the first three movies, of course you'll like these ones too. If you're thinking of writing a blog post about them though, you might want to rethink that choice ;o)
One thing that did strike me though was that while the plot for the first movies was pretty thin, the next three movies took that plot and made it so thin to be almost non-existent. Up to a point, it's not a problem because the spectacle is great, Alice kicking zombies all over the place, and that's the whole point of these movies. Look a little deeper though...
'Afterlife' wasn't bad as it had a little bit to work with from 'Resident Evil: Extinction'. There was a sense of continuity with the 'Arcadia Arc' that helped 'Afterlife' tick along. The big monster, with the hammer/axe, was also very cool but I couldn't help but wonder... Who made him that hammer? Did he make it himself? How come the T-Virus made him ten feet tall and with a real need to carry a hammer/axe? I'm overthinking it, I know, but seriously... Is there a division of Umbrella that churns out these hammer/axes on the off chance that the T-Virus will mutate someone along those lines? And who is the poor bastard who has to hand out the hammer/axes? This viewer wants to know.
So, it's clear that random questions (well, one random question) got me through 'Afterlife', that and watching Alice killing half the zombies in Tokyo. 'Resident Evil: Retribution' though... Again, all the stuff that makes you keep watching but you could tell the 'Ideas Well' was starting to dry up because not only is Wesker trying to get Alice out of yet another underground Umbrella facility, they've brought everyone (from the first couple of movies) back as clones and set them on our heroes. It all looks good but honestly, what was the point of it? They could have skipped this film entirely and not missed anything important. But they didn't and that brings me to 'Resident Evil: The Final Chapter'...
Now, bear in mind that Wesker has rescued Alice, brought her to the White House and given her back her 'T-Virus Powers' to get her onside for a final battle against the undead. Then the 'Final Chapter' starts and... it was all a big trick, apparently. What? No! And why? There was no point to anything that Wesker did there and as someone with his own 'T-Virus Skills', the way Wesker went out was just awful. I'm not keen on Wesker but he deserved a better end than having his leg crushed, by a door, and bleeding out. I'd mentally checked out long before that point though. Umbrella's ultimate goal seemed at odds with literally everything they'd done in prior films and cloning Dr. Issacs was, well... alright, I guess. I had more fun watching the movie try and cast doubt over the identity of the traitor (after making it clear who that was) than probably anything else apart from watching Alice fuck up zombies.
I did it though, I watched them all; my 'completist urges' have been sated for now. There are any number of better zombie films out there but I've got to hand it to the 'Resident Evil' franchise, they've nailed the action and that's what I really needed. Now, what to watch next...?
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