The problem with movies based on video games is simple: for the movie to succeed, it has to appeal both to the hardcore gamers who made the franchise popular, but also to viewers who aren’t gamers at all. Few genre films have achieved this, and many, like the 1994 street fighter, failed miserably. For this reason alone, the 2002 film resident Evil is a quiet triumph. Here’s why it’s worth another look.
If someone tells you that the resident Evil movies are barely better horror and action movies than underworld series, you may hear a compliment in disguise. As underworldthe first one resident Evil wasn’t trying to achieve any sort of cinematic prestige or win the love of film critics. He was trying to create an action vehicle for Milla Jovovich, who in the sci-fi community was already popular for her role in The fifth Element. In retrospect, no one can claim that either The fifth Element Where resident Evil are amazing and socially relevant films.
Corn resident Evil changed the game for what a zombie movie could be. Unlike most mega-popular zombie movies of the time, resident Evil suggested that a zombie franchise could have a contemporary hero – in this case, Jovovich’s Alice – and that the hero’s story could eclipse the story of the occurrence of the zombie apocalypse.
Anyone who has played a resident Evil the game expected a certain amount of gunfire. What audiences didn’t expect was Milla Jovovich briefly redefining the way we might perceive sci-fi zombie slayers. You can’t prove exactly that resident Evil set the zeitgeist to accept something like The Walking Deadbut it’s hard to imagine the latter becoming popular in 2010 if resident Evil had failed eight years earlier.
Action movie giant James Cameron quoted the first one resident Evil as a “guilty pleasure”, and it’s easy to see why. like his movie aliensthe tension comes from cramped spaces and a protagonist forced to take the lead while unraveling the mysteries of his own past. resident Evil the story is quite different from aliens, but the themes are similar. In both films, greedy corporate interests create monsters, and those monsters nearly destroy the world.
In fact, if there’s a reason to review Resident Evil, that’s it: Like the action films of early 2002, this one is cleverly anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian. It makes you wonder what would happen if a giant corporation like Amazon or Google made bioweapons and conducted crude genetic experiments.
It’s not at all subtle and it’s far from the smartest movie you’ve ever seen. But it briefly eclipsed its video game origins and became the action blockbuster of the moment. You don’t have to like everything, but if you like horror and sci-fi thrillers, the first resident Evil deserves your respect.
resident Evil diffuse on Hulu through January 31, 2022.
