Movie Reviews- Resident Evil Trilogy

Again, explanation needed. Why did I watch these films? 2 words- Ali Larter. In 1999, I saw 4 different films, all having Ali in a major role and did not realize it was the same actress. The 4 films were- House on Haunted Hill (innocent brunette in a horror film who survives the climax), Final Desination (same), Legally Blonde (the heiress accused of murder), and Varsity Blues (for those who have seen the film I now have 3 words- whipped cream bikini). Anyone who can pull that off impresses me. Ali is now on the TV show Heroes (and, I will admit, she is the main reason I started watching Heroes, and, what a character intro in the pilot, huh?) She has a major role in the 3rd film in this series Extinction, so I decided to catch up on the other two before seeing her in the third.

The entire trilogy is based on a series of videogames. I'm sure the videogames were great for their time. Without Resident Evil, there would be no Silent Hill. Movies based on videogames do not have a good track record. Super Mario Bros. anyone? So, any movie based on a videogame already has 2 strikes and 3 balls against it. The first film doesn't help.

Resident Evil stars Milla Jovovich(Fifth Element) as Alice, a female (who is often found in little or no clothing) who, at the start of the film has amnesia. She wakes up in her mansion and is soon kidnapped by a bunch of SWAT memebers and taken below the mansion to help them stop a virus from being released to the general population. It seems that a deadly virus was released in a top secret lab hidden below the city and it must be stopped.
This original film is more of a horror film- tons of zombies popping up, bloody and gruesome deaths await most of the SWAT team (I must admit, the laser hallway is a great sequence), and, it has, a kick-butt chick! Halfway through Alice realizes that she is partially to blame for the outbreak and that she was a security personnel for the entry to the labs. When her life and the life of her friends are on the line, she starts taking charge!
Although not a real fan of Milla, I must admit, she looks good in the little red dress and kicking butt. I doubt if she will ever be a great actress, but she's a good actress for being an ex-model. In the film, Alice does have miraculously healing cuts and bruises, but, it is part of the fun because Milla did 90 percent of her own stunts and they decided to not cover up any of "battle scars".
The dialogue in the film is laughably bad and it is fun to mock. From talking to a fan of the games, he said that the sets were amazing because they were straight out of the game. There are a couple of good fight scenes, but, overall, nothing too impressive.

film rating- 1 (for Milla's red dress and art direction)
movie rating- 3

Resident Evil- Apocalypse

This takes place immediately after the end of the first film. This film's tone is more futuristic sci-fi action than horror. Alice (Milla) has been kidnapped by the evil corporation and has had her genes spliced with the virus. Not only did she survive but now she has superhuman abilities.
Racoon City has been overtaken by the virus, the city walls are closed, and only a few survivors are struggling to stay away from the infected, and they arent winning. As always, a small group has banded together. They discover that the main scientist(from the secret underground lab in part 1) has lost his daughter in the zombified city and that the government is going to send a nuclear weapon over the city at dawn to contain the outbreak. He offers room on the last helicopter out of the city to the small band if they get his daughter.
Alice is given a bit of help by Jill Valentine, a tough female cop trying to get out of the city. Milla has a new provacative outfit and Jill is a cop in hot pants and tube top and adds to the scenery as well. There is an impressive new villain in Nemesis(with a surprising connection to the first film) and the final battle between Nemesis and Alice is a visual treat.
The dialogue is still horrendous, but there is a greater sense of fun here. Again, no great shakes, but the fact that this is a true sequel with strong connections to the first film shows that the filmmakers at least tried with this one. A definite step up.

film- 3
movie- 6

Resident Evil- Extinction

Guess what? The nuclear bomb didnt stop the spread of the virus! It is 5 years later and the world is now barren and, yet again, another band of survivors is trying to find a place to settle down where they wont be visited by Zombies. The leader of this band is Claire Redfield (Ali Larter) and they have a convoy of trucks. Alice is travelling alone, just trying to survive because she knows that the Evil Corporation is hunting her down to take advantage of her powers.
Of course, Alice finds Claire and the convoy needs to find gas to head up to Alaska where they feel they may be safe. They are in the Western US and decide the best place for gas before their trip may be Las Vegas. So they head to Vegas while the corporation starts tracking Alice.
This is basically Road Warrior with zombies and hot butt-kicking chicks instead of Mel Gibson. Parts of it are just as cheesy as part one, but the fun of the Vegas Strip under sand and some more great stunts by Milla help. In films like this, you know that characters are only introduced to become zombie food and the audience can enjoy watching the band get smaller. I will admit that I was surprised with who dies and the order of it all. Characters that I just knew were going to live got chomped earlier than I would have guessed. That put a bit of suspense into the proceedings.
Dialogue is again atrocious, but by now, it's almost endearing. ("What are we doing?" "Getting out of here!") Milla and Ali look great. The final 10 minutes takes an interesting turn, and, I will admit, the final shot made me sad that I wasn't watching these in preparation for Resident Evil 4.
The amount of fun as a whole is lessened, but the final 10 minutes and a few surprising and shocking sequences almost make up for it.

film-2
movie-5

None of these will stand the test of time. 20 years from now, no one will remember these (unless they are still cranking out sequels). These are not high art by any means. The reason for these films is simple- to make money by showing the audience the blood, guts, and gore of a zombie movie by having kick-ass chicks looking hot while killing the zombies. At least some thought has gone into the plotting of the scripts, even if dialogue was missed completely. If you just want to turn your brain off, there are much better films to watch, but these will do. These would also make for a fun MST3K-type style of Saturday night and you may hate yourself for actually defending certain scenes here or there.