Resident Evil (2002) written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson is no way to begin a franchise for me. This one is almost irredeemable. I appreciate that Anderson tried to make a movie first, and a tribute to the video game second, but the dull characterization and forgettable film-making, it makes this one basically unwatchable for me, but I would not argue with someone who said they liked it. I just feel nothing for it.

The series did get better. Each installment, I found myself perking up. Director Alexander Witt’s Apocalypse is a less dull version of Escape from New York for me, and I know a lot of people are going to hate me for saying that, but if you cannot accept that some people are gonna find that Carpenter movie sleep inducing, you’re being pretentious. Because Apocalypse had a bigger budget, they were able to cover more ground in the world, and showed a more full picture of an “apocalypse” centered around Raccoon City, and as apocalyptic movies go, I like the way this zombie outbreak is executed. The characters are still paper thin, but the cast is at least a little more distinct with Oded Fehr showing up to smile and look cool, Mike Epps adding some comic relief to help me stay awake, Milla Jovovich coming into her own as the series protagonist, proving herself a capable cool gal baddass, and someone dressed up as Jill Valentine. I think this movies way easier to watch and get through than the first, with the more distinct locations, characters, and dynamic storytelling.

Director Russell Mulcahy’s Extinction may be the high point for me in this series. It’s fair to mention that while series instigator Paul W.S. Anderson is off directing other projects such as Alien vs. Predator (A movie much better than all these RE films), he is still the soul screenwriter on all six movies, so this is in a way, his story through and through, even with the second and third entries being directed by other talent. This is the movie where most of my interest in the series comes from. It has the best look of all six films, with the possible exception being the final film, but it puts the themes and ideas I find the most engaging with about this series in the forefront. I like the idea of the main character being a woman, Alice, who has been violated by the evil Umbrella Corporation (in that they have genetically modified her to experiment how to make super-humans) and Alice constantly having to fight against the virus in her that Umbrella tries to use to control her. This all kind of reminds me of the themes explored in Ex Machina, albeit in a junk genre film, and none of it is particularly amazingly done, but its an idea not represented very often in film, that I want to at least analyze it to embrace it for all the value it has to offer. There are plenty of movies about stoic male action heroes that kill with a blank look on his face, but here’s one about a woman doing it, and it is still wrapped in themes about how Corporations run by men still want to dehumanize and use her for their own nefarious means. Where the movie falters is in an uneven pace. It starts off with a really exciting, almost exploitative scene of a family trying to rob and rape Alice, and she’s able to overcome and defeat them, and there are a lot of scenes that focus on Alice trying to reconnect with her allies from the last movie while also trying to keep her distance in case Umbrella takes control of her body, but there are not a lot of exciting actions scenes throughout the movie, so while this might be one of the more thoughtful Resident Evil films in terms of character and theme, it lacks any of the exciting pacing like Apocalypse had.

After Life marks the return of the writer director who started this all, Paul W.S. Anderson, and it announces that this series is going to return to a safe and clean vision. This film is much better than Anderson’s first film in my opinion, and in a way, fixes a lot of the pacing problems of Extinction, and the problems of staying focused that Apocalypse suffered from at times, but we’re left with a piece that feels a lot colder and less inspired than the last two entries. Don’t get me wrong, all previous RE films are not wells in inspiration, they all copied their premises and setting from other more successful genre films. The first film was Aliens (1986), the second was Escape from New York (1981) and Extinction was taking from all the Mad Max films. This time, it is Dawn of the Dead, but it seems like Anderson is stealing more from the Zack Snyder remake than the Romero original. Both are fine films, but when you rip from a more recent film, it feels more like sad imitation than paying tribute to a classic. To be fair, it is not even mall in After Life, instead it is a prison, but the dynamic feels very similar, there’s a rich character whose greed and selfishness endangers the rest of the group, and there’s someone in a jail cell they have to learn to trust and work with. These are all things from the remake of Dawn. It’s just strange, because Andersons going to remake the Dawn remakes opening in the next sequel The existential questions about Alice are pretty unimportant in this one, but she’s still doing what she can with the role to make it empowering to watch without being completely dehumanized, and just being an empty shell that kicks and shoots quarters and zombies. This is the least interesting of the three sequels so far for me. still much better than the first film, but I think when Anderson is directing, your going to get a safer film, but a less interesting one.

I remember only forgetting Anderson’s follow-up sequel Retribution, so I expected this to be on par with the dullness of the first film. I ended up liking it more than After Life, but I think it got better and worse when looking at it objectively. I think the overall action and scope of the story/world got a lot better here. In After Life, everything felt incredibly small, because the first act is about Alice and Claire just wandering around, the second act is just hanging out in a prison, and the third act is this silly climax where Alice has a discount Matrix fight scene with Wesker and a few of his zombie dogs. Some of it was fun, and it was more focused than the two film that came before it, but it also just was not very exciting at the end of the day. This one, I can’t say I was personally that excited still, but at least all the cities being stored in this facility created an interesting geography dynamic, where they can wander from Tokyo to Moscow in a few steps. I think Anderson finally made the existential drama that surrounds Alice’s character the focus in one of his films, and that stuff is actually pretty effective, again, taking into account the kind of movie this is. Adding the daughter also adds an interesting dynamic, where we get to see a child clone have to face the truth behind her existence. Look, I’m sure any film snobs still reading this are just laughing at how seriously I’m taking these films so far, but that’s what we do on this blog. I do want to understand what was resonating with people in this series that made it to six feature films. A video game movie series is lucky to get one sequel, this has five sequels. There is nothing particularly inspired about the aesthetics or design of these movies, but something about this female lead action series resonated with enough of an audience to make it the most successful video game franchise of all time, and honestly until Wonder Woman 1984 comes out, this is the most successful female lead action movie franchise. (Alien is not an action franchise). Even if it was just on a subconscious level, I think there was something empowering about Alice as an action hero to audiences that wanted a cool action heroine, but she was also someone who was constantly oppressed by “the man” (The Umbrella Corporation) so it made her more relatable to that audience, and I think that’s wonderful.

My introduction to the franchise really started when I decided to go to theaters in January 2017 to see The Final Chapter, (unlike with the Friday the 13th series, this actually is The Final Chapter). I thought it would be hilarious to jump into a part six of a series that announces that it is the end of the franchise in its title, and you can go read my original rant I posted, but I basically just had a problem watching the movie because the theater turned the volume up way to loud, and the friend I brought to the screening said the cutting in the film was so fast that it gave him motion sickness. There were three other people in the theater with us, all in a group together. I think it was two young ladies and a gentlemen, and I distinctly remembering the guy saying, “I’m so excited,” when he sat down in his seat. I sincerely hope he got what he wanted. He adds to my theory that these movies have a fanbase. So even back then, when the film was physically harming my friend and I, I still found some of the ideas about clones and identity post being genetically modified to be intriguing for this junky action franchise, so I sought out the rest of the series, and just could not get over the fact that I was not connecting with this franchises characters, and so I gave up on engaging with this series for a few years. Now, I’m back, looking at it again, and finding a new found appreciation for the series.

How do I feel now about how Anderson wrapped up this six film epic, now that I can watch it with control over the volume? First I think it’s fair to say, now that we’re three years past whatever hype this movie would have had at it’s release, Anderson left Retribution on a cliff hanger where it seemed like part six would open with a massive battle against Alice, her friends, and what was left of the U.S. military camped out on the lawn of the White House in D.C. So when part six opens, and that battle is no where to be seen, at any point in the franchise, you can either believe Anderson is the ultimate tease, or he did not have the grand production budget needed to pull it off right. And seeing how Wiki reports that Retribution made $60 million less than After Life, and that his budget for The Final Chapter is 1/3 less than it was for Retribution, it’s fair to point out that he’s having to probably throw this together as quickly and cheaply as possible. My guess is Sony Gems would have been happy to leave the series on the cliffhanger it had in Retribution, but Anderson probably wanted to wrap the series up as well as he could. I get the feeling that Anderson does have a certain amount of passion and vision as to what he wants this series to be, but has to work with the constraints of being a C-List franchise, he has to work in the restraints of what Capcom wants him to include to keep their brand represented a certain way, and he has to make sure enough of the fans of his version of Resident Evil films will still turn up. He’s not Chris Nolan, or Ridley Scott or Michael Bay where he has enough clout to only make the movie how he wants to make it, he still has to answer to the big boss, and he does what he can to make sure the movies still represent his vision as cleanly as they can.

I tried re-watching part 6 for this blog, and got motion sickness. I’m just gonna say, it has some great scenes that build on the existential and feminist identiy themes, but it is still a film that is just hard to look at.

I’m hoping young people who wanted a female heroine watched these movies and felt empowered by it the same way men get to feel empowered every damn week at the movies.