While this blog is primarily about movies, I think it's important to occasionally step outside once in a while and look at things that are, shall we say, related to films. Video games are the distant cousin of movies: They're both visual mediums that require sound effects and music to enhance said visuals, they both are popular forms of entertainment, and they both provide incredible opportunities for telling complex and impactful stories. The only real significant difference between the two is that video games are an interactive medium, while movies are presentational. While that has not stopped Hollywood from trying to cash in on video gaming popularity by blindly putting together movie adaptations of various game titles ranging from boring to downright atrocious, there is one series in particular which has always had the potential to be an excellent movie adaptation but has never really got a real chance. Oh, sure, there are movie adaptations of this game series, but we'll get to those in a moment. Even so, in all seriousness, what will it take to make a genuinely good Resident Evil movie?
For those of you who don't follow the video game world as regularly as I do, Resident Evil (known in Japan as Biohazard) is a video game series first published by CAPCOM in 1996 for the Sony PlayStation. It was a survival horror game series heavily inspired by the Zombie films of the late George A. Romero. Fun Fact: George A. Romero directed some of the television commercials for the games. You play as a Police Officer trying to survive the Zombie apocalypse, all the while looking for other survivors, trying to call for help, and unraveling the greater mystery at hand. Namely, what caused the Zombie outbreak in the first place? Since the release of the first game in 1996, CAPCOM has released over twenty games in the franchise. Sequels, prequels, and spin-offs of various quality. Then, in 2002, Sony Pictures released the first movie adaptation starring Milla Jovovich and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson (who was married to Jovovich at the time). Since then, there have been a total of six movies, most of which included Paul W.S. Anderson, either as a writer and/or director, and all of them starring the same actress and each one has gotten progressively worse, but more on that in a moment.
What makes the game series so good, at least to me, is its overall silliness, and I mean that in the best possible way. Every Resident Evil game has had a unique charm to them which I think is what makes them so enduring. The best part is, it was likely by accident. The very first game was infamous for having some of the worst and corniest voice acting ever put to a game. Best possible analogy: imagine a community theater show on quaaludes. To be fair, it was one of the earlier games to include voice acting, and it did improve a lot by the second game. Nevertheless, this gave the first game an endearing "so bad it's funny" kind of charm to it. Making it entertaining on multiple levels. Since then, every other game in the series has maintained a level of silliness in its presentation. Ranging from over-the-top villains to cheesy one-liners and the occasional melodrama. It's a kind of self-awareness not often seen in video games that I think we need more of.
The movies, on the other hand, went with a different, and unwise, approach.
All six of the movies decided to try a different kind of silliness...by not being silly at all. What I mean by that is, despite the films taking the same general aesthetic, storyline, and visceral action of the games, they never really matched the tone. While the tone of the games was generally creepy and embraced the silly aspects of their presentations, the movies decided to go with a different approach and tried to be more dower and serious. In other words, they tried to be "cool." Unfortunately, writer/director Paul W.S. Anderson doesn't really seem to understand what being "cool" actually means. Much like Michael Bay, he is more concerned with over-the-top action set pieces than he is with story or characters and will go so far as to sacrifice texture in said characters, i.e., the stuff that makes any given character interesting, in favor of vacant avatars who are only on screen to initiate the next action scene.
This adolescent mindset is best showcased in the fifth movie, Resident Evil: Retribution 3D. The plot of this film involves Alice (Milla Jovovich), returning to a secret facility reminiscent of the location from the first film, and forming a mother/daughter like bond with a mysterious little girl. Which, you may recall, is reminiscent of the plot to James Cameron's Aliens. Both of these movies are indeed cool in their own way. Except there is a glaring difference between their definitions of the term "cool." In Aliens, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) was cool because, despite being absolutely terrified of the monsters that were haunting her past and were way more powerful than her, she faced her fears, overcame the odds, and had risen to the occasion to save someone she loved. Whereas in Resident Evil: Retribution 3D, Alice (Milla Jovovich), to use a video game analogy, is always in "God Mode." She is never in any real peril, always seems to have the upper hand in every single situation, and always comes out of every struggle with little effort and no signs of exhaustion. In other words, Alice is flawless, thus dull, while Ripley is flawed, therefore interesting.
Even worse, this schlocky and lazy style of action made its way into some of the more recent video games. Changing out creepy atmosphere and survival priority gameplay for generic action shooting and explosions. All of which would otherwise be fine in the right game but is a complete betrayal to the Resident Evil franchise, at least in my opinion.
The good news is that the uninteresting action schlock priority seems to be wearing off. The most recent game in the franchise, Resident Evil 7, has returned to its horror roots and is a more adequate addition the series. Even better, CAPCOM announced a remake of the game Resident Evil 2 (considered by many including myself to be the best game in the series) and they're making said remake much more like the kind of survival horror game it initially was. Once more, Hollywood is putting together a reboot of the Resident Evil movie series, and all signs indicate that Paul W.S. Anderson will not be involved.
So, where do we go from here?
While I won't go so far as to insist that the upcoming new movies follow any particular guideline, I do have a few things I would personally like to see in the forthcoming reboot.
1. Puzzles.
One of the main elements of the games which have been mostly absent from the movies is puzzle mechanics. Every game features a wide variety of unique and clever puzzles the player must solve to advance to the next stage. Granted, this idea works better in games because of their interactivity, but I do believe it can be employed in the movies. Maybe make the villain a narcissist, not unlike The Riddler and put some secret passages that can only be opened by solving a puzzle, all the while Zombies are breaking down the barrier. It can work if it's done right.
2. Meta-humor.
I do not mean to imply that I want the movie to copy the humorous style of Deadpool, just that I think it would do the film right to occasionally crack a good joke about its source material in good fun. Example: Another element of the game is healing herbs and first-aid sprays. Maybe the film can include a scene where someone is treating a would and closes it with a bottle of spray-on adhesive, or someone offers a character in pain an herb to address it only to discover it's Marijuana. Sure, it's silly, but it would be a subtle nod to the silliness of the games.
3. Three-dimensional characters.
It goes without saying that none of the characters in the movies have ever been exciting or engaging. What makes any movie, book, game, or television show interesting is sympathetic characters and a reason to care about them. You can put the whole world in peril all you want, but unless we have at least one character with relatable steaks to make us care, why should we give a damn? A flawed protagonist is always more engaging than a perfect one.
Well, that about sums up my feelings on this situation. Hopefully, we will get better Resident Evil movies in the future. Until then, we have the brand new games to look forward to, and they look so very promising indeed.
Ladies & gentlemen, I am TheNorm, thank you for reading.
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