Resident Evil

In an era of critically acclaimed video game adaptations, is the latest Resident Evil movie a worthwhile reboot from the director of Weapons?

Guest post by Matt Charlton

"No, Jill, don't go!"

Resident Evil has been one of those things in my life that's been there, and I've been aware of it; I've dipped my toe in the pond, so to speak, but I was strictly a Nintendo/Sega, Commodore 64, Atari ST, Amiga and, ultimately, PC gamer.

Throughout the majority of the 90s, my gaming palette was shaped by PC gaming, big box CD-ROMs and LucasArts point-and-click adventure games.

I had a go at Resident Evil, and the terrible voice acting and god-awful controls were tricky.

I've tried a few times to replay it, and modern control systems have just moved on too much.

That being said, Resident Evil Village - I loved it, played it through, adored it. Requiem - the same - I hate that stupid monster, though; just when you thought you were done with her, she comes back... again.

I've tried Biohazard, but it didn't grab me the same way. I've even started to play Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 3 with modern control systems on the Steam Machine. They're playing pretty well, and if I can find the original game with remade voice acting, a better script and a better control system that doesn't feel crowbarred into it, I'll try and give it another go.

I quite like the live-action Resident Evil movies starring Mila Jovovich, because who doesn't?

I don't think I've seen the last few movies in that series, but I have them all on Apple TV; there was an offer, so I bought them.

There was a standalone film or series or something that I watched, but I was sad that it was cancelled and left a cliffhanger. I don't like unresolved threads. It upsets me.

Anyway - I'm waffling - the point is that Umbrella and all of its broken test tubes have somewhat saturated the zombie market, both in gaming and in film.

The new Resident Evil movie (another reboot) promised something a little different. Extremely high ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, with a certified fresh 96% and a 90% popcornmeter from the audience, too.

From the Director/Screenwriter of Weapons, Barbarian and the producer of Companion - three films I really enjoyed - I went into it a little jaded and went along for the ride.

Being autistic, my first watch of something isn't always the most enjoyable - when your nervous system is frying itself trying to spot patterns, tie up any loose ends, wonder what was going on in that first scene and what happened at the end with all that - it's hard.

I did enjoy it, and it definitely requires a second watch, and I believe I'll enjoy it even more, and it'll end up becoming one of my favourites.

As far as a video game adaptation goes, this is probably the best I've seen. There are so many tropes, so many Easter eggs and so many many little touches, it's a love letter to video games and it's a love letter to the Resident Evil gaming franchise.

The comedy is great, the infection is a little weird and is a little more Last of Us than your classic Resident Evil, and the cartwheeling. Oh boy, what can we say about the cartwheeling? I don't know. It's something. It certainly is something.

Weapon progression is a thing; keys for locks have little pictures on them (and there are so, so, so many locks - why are there so many locks?). It takes itself seriously and takes the piss out of itself in equal measure.

It wasn't what I was expecting, but it's definitely what the franchise needed, and I think so far as a horror comedy event goes - it'll be up there with Zombieland, Shaun of the Dead and others as a masterpiece in combining two different forms of media and having a decent payoff.

The hero isn't a hero at all; he's just a normal guy, and it shows - perhaps not the brightest bulb in the box, but a lot of what he does, you can at least see the logic behind it.

I'm not sure what adding his partner/that backstory/the situation/the ending added to it, because it became a completely unresolved thread with not really any leverage - when the world is falling apart, and an entire city has been overrun, it's hard to get emotionally attached to a voice on a voicemail; Baron Zemo did it better in Captain America: Civil War.

A very strong movie, one I'll revisit, but probably a 7/10 after the first watch. Could have been a 10.

I'll let you know if that changes after a second viewing.

Have you seen Resident Evil? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below.