What I'm about to start here is something... something downright dangerous. With the sixth installment of the Resident Evil series slated to come out next year, I'm going to take a trip down memory lane and watch the whole franchise until I'm caught up.
Enjoy the trailer... this is going to be fun!
Featuring new music by Slipknot?! Take my money now!
In all fairness, this bad movie isn't all that "bad". (Quick side note: What's the correct way to use a period in that sentence when I'm finishing with quotations to emphasis a word -- not to actually quoting something or someone? Asked Sweeney this a while back. He said he's partial to always leaving punctuation inside the quotations. Me? Makes sense to leave it outside in these types of cases. I know consistency rules over all, but what's everyone else's take? OK... moving on!)
So this film really isn't all that terrible (especially when you know where the series is headed). I mean, Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 32%... so it is a "bad" movie, but I at least found some fun elements to it. The opening, for instance, was creepy as all hell. Deep underground Raccoon City is the Umbrella Corporation's secret laboratory called the Hive. In the opening scene, an unknown thief steals the vaccine for the T-virus while releasing the T-virus itself into the ventilation system. The super-computer controlling the whole complex, the Red Queen, puts the place under lockdown and kills all of the innocent employees in the process. It's a really creepy/violent opening and does a great job at planting all of the enemies our heroes will have to face later on. Unfortunately, none of that is going to help how wacky and confusing the story is going to become.
Cut to the hero of the franchise, Alice -- played by the always gorgeous Milla Jovovich. She wakes up in a mansion after having collapsed in the shower, and -- hold on -- she has amnesia. It doesn't take long before the Umbrella Corp's own Seal Team Six shows up and snags Alice. Surprise! Turns out this mansion is actually a security post and entry point to the Hive and this team has been sent to figure out what happened to the station and deactivate the Red Queen computer system that has apparently gone rogue. Oh, and they also bumped into two other dudes in the mansion that are also suffering from amnesia -- is this a soap opera? -- that join the search party because... fuck it! The more the merrier, right? No need to keep random people with no combat training on the surface in custody. Let's just bring them down into this highly secretive research station that's been compromised like it's no big deal.
Well, to make a long story short, they make it into the Hive and deactivate the computers -- but not before the Red Queen uses the security systems to kill of half of the team. Once the security systems are down, the zombies come out. Then it becomes a race to get out of the Hive and back to the surface before the zombies can take a bite out of them.
During the whole ordeal Alice regains her memory piece by piece. Apparently she's a security guard for the Umbrella Corp. with special combat training and the thief that started this whole shit show is her co-bodyguard (one of the dudes found unconscious in the mansion at the beginning). The way the film reveals all this information is a little frustrating. I had to double-check with Wikipedia to make sense of the plot because the flashbacks used to convey people recovering from their amnesia was difficult to follow. Oh! And the amnesia! That's later revealed to be caused by the Red Queen. When the computers were locking down the compound, they also release amnesia causing gases into the mansion; hence why the three people found in the security house had no clue what was going on. But, let's just go back to why the fuck the security system releases amnesia-gas to begin with? I wonder if there's a term that's the opposite to deus ex machina. Inside of a problem in a story magically corrected, how about there's a problem that's magically (and unnecessarily) started. Those are my feelings on everyone getting doped up at the start of the film. Just a cheap way help get everyone back down into the Hive willingly.
The film ends with only two survivors making it back to the surface (the mansion), Alice and the other (good) amnesia dude who was actually there find his sister who worked at the Hive. By the way, no mention of how or why he knew about the mansion as a security station and access point to the Hive. Also, if the mansion is a security station (and judging from all the guns and death lasers that are seen in the Hive) why the hell wasn't it equipped to stop some stranger with no security clearance from walking in through the front doors? All that aside, the two make it to the surface only to be greeted by a bunch of Umbrella goons in contamination suits that carry them away. The other good guy, Matt (I believe his name is), has been infected with the T-virus. So, before he's escorted away we hear one of the goons explain that "he's to be taken to the nemesis project." (Oooh... What's that mean?) And Alice gets carted off somewhere else.
In all, the movie is actually kind of fun to watch, but aside from the zombies and mutant creatures, it's not really a suspenseful horror film. It's more of a dark action/horror. Lots of gun fights over heavy metal/techno music. Slow motion kung-fu moves. They also make sure to have at least two scenes where Milla Jovovich is (somewhat) naked -- much less she fights zombies throughout the whole film in a scant red dress. I mean, it's a movie for 14-year-old boys (despite the R-rating) who are familiar with the games.
Speaking of the games... how does it fair against the original subject matter? I have no clue. The only two games I've played in the Resident Evil franchise is Zero and Four (with the fourth being the only one I've actually beaten). So when I say I have no how this compare to the source material, I mean it. The only thing I can say for sure, is that this movie does not convey the suspense and subtleties of a survivor-horror game. It would have been more exciting if there were fewer characters and less over-the-top shootouts and kung-fu fights. But, then again, that might have not been a 14-year-old's type of shoot-em-up horror film.
Then there's this ending...
What will the next film hold? Well, it's clear that the virus has made it to the surface and it's clear Alice is going to continue to kick ass and take names.
By the way, this film and the next are both available on Netflix for those to enjoy!
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