The Evolution of CGI - Resident Evil part one.

Recently, my boyfriend and I decided that we would attempt to marathon the entire Resident Evil series (live action films, of course) as we are, not only fans of the films, but fans of zombie related things in general. This so called "amazing idea" of ours was, in retrospect, a terrible one.
My writings today will keep its focus on the first three films; Resident Evil (2002), Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004) and Resident Evil: Extinction (2007).

A common quite from our adventures in Raccoon City was; "Wow, this looked so much better years ago." This is true. Very true. In fact, in my head, I actually renamed the first two films "The Evolution of CGI".

Of course, it's key to bear in mind that the first of the Resident Evil was shot around 13 years ago, and it's also very important to remember how amazing it looked when it was first released, how terrifying the monster used to be during the train scene. Now let me ruin this for you. Said "terrifying monster" pictured below, and believe it or not, this is a shot from the movie, not the game series.


The zombies themselves aren't that much better either, their make-up is almost pitiful. In my notes I wrote - "Back in the 80's?" COME ON. It's 2002. White faces no longer suffice for a terrifying, high action zombie film. They genuinely look like something straight out of the original Dawn of the Dead.

A screenshot from Resident Evil - No really. 

This really frustrated me, but we powered on, reassuring ourselves that this was 13 years ago: a revelation for its time, it was incredible the leap forward for greenscreen and CGI... Oh wait, yes, I forgot that HEADS EXPLODED WHEN THEY WERE SHOT. (Really?) When I see heads exploding from a gun wound, a quote from Seven Psychopaths always comes to mind - "It's impossible for someone's head to actually explode, isn't it? When it gets shot." But yes, I digress.

Despite all of this, I do really enjoy the strong female characters who come in the form of Alice, Rain and the Red Queen.

Alice (Milla Jovovich) starts off in a stereotypical way, of course, coming across as the damsel in distress probably as a result of her memory loss, shown clearly when her fake husband offers her his bad guy leather jacket, to keep her warm in the underground hive. She is used by directors, however, to create a male gaze... In lamans terms, this means that she's naked a lot/wears revealing clothes in order to get the male attention.

Alice

Usually I'd disagree with this, especially given how much of a strong character Alice is, but I think this works in the films favour; it makes Alice come across as vulnerable and weak, following the stereotype, but her [amazing] red dress and combat boots completely juxtapose her character's badassary - heck, I'd kill to be able to backflip kick a dog in the face and still look fabulous as fuck.

Rain (Michelle Rodriguez) is a super strong female character, she beats most of the men in terms of combat as well as survival, despite being bitten from the outset. She's not afraid to jump right into the action despite the danger that is clearly present, as a strong authority figure. Slightly two-dimensional... but we'll look past that...

Rain

The infamous Red Queen, I love her... I'm also going to look past the terrible effect put in place for her character, it improves in later films, plus the idea was there. However, I particularly love the Red Queen as she's voiced by a child, that's pretty awesome. This MASSIVE juxtaposition between a child and complete authority. Plus it's eerie as all hell, imagine a child telling you what to do in that creepy, apathetic voice. I'd do as I was told.

The Red Queen

 Male character's are mainly undeveloped, but nobody really cares about them, apart from Matt whose story pieces together some of Alice's memory in his attempts to find his sister. I like this a lot, the narrative paints him as the antagonist but it turns out that the ultimate bad guy is the husband (and the CGI guy).

It's funny, Resident Evil is an awkward mix of ground breaking characters and awkward stereotypes. Female characters are strong, they don't need no man. Then again, much like older horror films, the black guy dies first. I feel like the script writers really tried, and I don't think that race dictated the character's death... but they must have seen this coming! Due to the lack of characters in the first film, however, this awkward bi-polar take on life and the people within it comes out more so in the next film.

A lot of the acting performances within this film feels overly dramatic, too, as the scene doesn't fit the tension coming across from the characters, furthermore, a lot of the actual dramatic scenes are ruined by the poor CGI and attempts at effects.

I'm giving this film a whole lot of shit, but despite this, I still enjoy it... or rather, I love the memory of it. I like to remember how amazing the action was when I first watched this film. How futuristic everything felt. How unbelievable in felt in general. I think I'm going to keep it that way.

If this film has taught me any kind of moral lesson (other than to not fuck with the T-Virus) it's that some things don't get better with age and unfortunately, Resident Evil isn't a fine wine. It makes me wish that I could watch it with my 2002 eyes so I could really appreciate the high level of intensity, which now comes across as laughable.

I would highly recommend leaving this film as a fond memory.
Don't go back to it.
Don't think I'm wrong, because you will come crying back to me.
Leave it as a beautiful memory to keep with you forever.

Stay tuned for my reviews of Apocalypse and Extinction... I swear they get better (the films... not my reviews)
Thanks for reading!
Jess.

"I honestly didn't know that you did back flips when you're shot with a machine gun."