Sorry for the lag in all these posts. Yes, I have watched all the movies in this franchise -- in fact, I finished them just before the holidays -- but I'm being lazy posting them. (And, according to Stan, I have an unfinished post on JFK? Eh, doesn't surprise me. I'll get to them all. Just get off my back! ) So... the third film in the Resident Evil franchise. Let's get to it!
Last we left off, Alice was rescued from another secret Umbrella research facility with her cronies that escaped Raccoon City along side her. Well that's kind of unnecessary information at this point. As the film starts off (just like every film in this franchise) Alice begins narrating the setup of this story that's occurring some undisclosed time after the last film -- let's say six months to a year. First thing she discusses is how the T-virus outbreak escaped from the confines of Raccoon City (even though it was nuked) and have spread across the entire world essentially creating the apocalypse. Wait... Stop...
In the previous film we focused on zombies confined to a city. Then this movie we flash-forward to see Alice, doing her best Mad Max impersonation, trekking through the desert wastelands of a post-apocalyptic world. The story to fight against the end of the world is completely overlooked. What the fuck? I WANT THAT STORY! Where's the tale of losing the planet to the T-virus? Humanity standing together to save the world but ultimately loses. Again, what the fuck?! Did the producers and writers hear that concept and just yawned? "Oh, you know what would be even better than making moving where we show the mankind fight a losing war with this horrifying zombie outbreak? A movie where we summarize this information in the intro with a mere 10-second CGI clip. Yeah, that's some captivating filmmaking. Let's do it." It's not as though I place this franchise high on a mantle or anything, but their decision to overlook that biggest battle of all times is perhaps the biggest letdown I've ever experienced in my cinephile life.
In fact, I'm done with this post. There's really not much else to say. In terms of the big plot points, Umbrella has been trying to make clones of Alice as she is -- somehow -- the only human to successfully bind with the T-virus in a non-destructive way. Well, it essentially makes her into a superhuman. However, Umbrella has been unsuccessful duplicating Alice. Oh, but did I mention they actually have Alice programed as their solider (some computer chip in her eyeball will flicker when she's activated). So at a flip of a switch, Umbrella can activate her as their own personal slave/solider. Yet, the whole movie is spent with them trying to "find" her as if they never had this capability to begin with. Argh!!! The logic gaps in this story make me so angry!
This is the most disappointing film the series... so far. However, much like the Fast & Furious franchise, it does get better as the films progress. Let's hope that the upcoming sixth film keeps that trend alive.
I wouldn't call any of the games in the series aside from RE4 fantastic, but goddamn does this movie series sound like it shed everything people liked about the games aside from the concept of "this virus turns people into zombies." I know you can say this about every game-turned-movie, but holy shit. The games are mostly quiet, slow-moving, and full of puzzles. This just sounds like a big dumb action movie. Despite playing almost the entire Resident Evil series (I'll get to Revelations soon enough, and oh yeah I forgot they released 6 recently) and enjoying it, I have zero interest in these.
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