With RESIDENT EVIL 4: AFTERLIFE upon us soon (it hits the screens on SEPTEMBER 10th), I decided to take a look back at the franchise (the movies that is, not the games, two different animals). Granted the series has it ups and downs, good points and bad points but you can read Arrow’s reviews of the films (Part 1, 2 and 3) to get into that. Now, when you think of the RESIDENT EVIL franchise, what do you think of?
Hot ladies in skin-tight outfits, packing machine guns? Droves of zombies popping out of dark corners ? Unholy mutants causing mayhem? Fortunately, you probably think of all of the above. RESIDENT EVIL takes the nastiest, creepiest, sexiest and most deliciously gruesome elements of horror and smacks them all together into one action-packed epic. Which got me thinking: what would the ultimate RESIDENT EVIL movie look like? If you could cherry pick the best elements from the films, what would the end result end up looking like? Let’s play producer, shall we, and nail down the key ingredients to a cool RESIDENT EVIL flick.
RESIDENT EVIL: “Bloody hell amid the high-tech gloss” – Here we have the (necessary) origin story. The introduction of Alice and Raccoon City, the high-tech dungeon where the virus is initially unleashed. What’s so cool about the first film is that blend of antiseptic gadgetry and old-school horror. The heroes are in a state-of-the-art underground laboratory, but are faced with all the evils of an old-school nightmare: a plague-like virus, flesh-eating zombies, rabid dogs, disembodied voices… There’s something eerie about being faced with such primal horrors in such a clean setting like “The Hive”, that facility where most of the action takes place. Also, we of course have our skimpily-dressed (loved them twat shots) hero Alice (Milla Jovovich) leading the way and giving us a perfect protagonist to follow. Mostly because it’s so easy to watch her…
RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE: “Strong supporting characters/monstrous villains” – While the second film is not unlike the first, just in a more expansive setting (the actual city), it introduces a few very cool new characters. (Alice can’t go it alone, she needs a strong support group.) For starters, we have another sexy lady packing heat to root for in the form of Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory), who is every bit as comely as Alice and just as deadly. Then we have our main man Carlos (Oded Fehr), who brings some much needed testosterone into the proceedings. The RESIDENT EVIL movies are, of course, all about Alice and her journey, but Carlos is the franchise’s strongest male character, and we all know a flick like this requires some machismo. Finally, we have perhaps the coolest villain in the series, “Nemesis”, a creation of the vile Umbrella corporation who is half-monster, half-man, all mini-gun packing creature from hell. While zombies and mutant dogs are scary, Nemesis can think and plan – an adversary on a whole ‘nother level. Yikes!
RESIDENT EVIL: EXTINCTION: “Corporate scum!” – It’s in this entry that we get our best look at the “big bad” of the series: the Umbrella Corporation. While they’ve been on the periphery up until now, they’re front and center here, and embodied by a creepy scientist named Dr. Isaacs (Iain Glen). A RESIDENT EVIL movie always needs a corporate scumbag to really loathe (after all, the zombies are practically innocent bystanders), and Isaacs is a truly slimy character. (And the real sonofabitch, Albert Wesker, is still waiting in the wings…) Unfortunately Jill Valentine didn’t return for this entry, but we did get Ali Larter as Claire, a pretty fair trade-off.
RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE: “The next level” – Although we still haven’t been exposed to RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE, one thing is getting me pretty pumped for it: the 3D! And not the bullshit post-production version of 3D – the real deal. The film was shot using the same cameras James Cameron utilized for AVATAR – and if that’s not exciting, then I don’t know what is. 3D has always been an appealing concept, but it’s never really been used quite right. AVATAR changed all that, and RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE is the next step in making it clear that, when used correctly, 3D technology is a powerful tool that enhances the viewing experience; it doesn’t have to be a gimmick.
So, having listed off all these things, what would my ULTIMATE RESIDENT EVIL contain? A) Our lead character Alice dressed like a Maxim pin-up girl battling beasts and undead ghouls in locations both vast and intimate. B) Super-powered laboratories containing secret technological horrors run by slimeballs in suits. C) Sexy/hunky supporting characters to fight alongside Alice. D) A towering uber-villain that Alice and Co. ultimately face off against – the bigger and freakier, the better. So that’s MY ideal RESIDENT EVIL flick… what’s yours?