“Resident Evil” Movie Series
My Rating: 4/5 Stars
Three dystopia movies set in modern day. They are science-fiction, action movies based on the video-game series with a similar nomenclature. “Resident Evil” video games and movies center around humans surviving against military weapons, a full range of deceptive products, many insidious services, zombies, and mutants that are both accidentally and intentionally engineered by egotistical, hyper-selfish criminals masquerading as leaders in corporations, research laboratories, government bureaus, and other organizations. Such parasitic leaders are determined to live like modern-day nobles by secretly controlling the world. However, they have a few major roadblocks: (1) they constantly lose control over their inventions, (2) they are unable to control the most resistant rebels, and (3) a female protagonist named Alice (acted by Milla Jovovich). All of these “Resident Evil” movies have a common theme: creations turning against their creators, or followers rebelling against their leaders. They are all good action films. Don’t expect anymore and you won’t be disappointed.
Alice is the main protagonist in all of these three movies, but she always has the help of at least one heroine and a few other people. All of these heroines have similar traits: they are smart, tough, capable, and team players who are not afraid to work alone when necessary. Alice is unique in that her genome empowers her to gracefully function with the T-Virus, which is created by scientists and used by corporations and governments as a bio-product and bio-weapon.
When the T-Virus is introduced into the vast majority of humans, the T-Virus weakens and kills the human host in less than 12 hours. Once the human host is dead, the T-Virus, within seconds of death, seizes control over the corpse, and reanimates the corpse into a zombie. The zombie only possesses lower-brain functions and partial body capabilities (the zombie moves slowly). The zombie completely focuses on eating or preying on non-zombies. The zombie’s bite infects victims with the T-Virus. The T-Virus has limited air-born infections.
Alice has a very unique and mysterious genome, because it is somehow complementary with the T-Virus to upgrade her into a superhuman heroine. She looks like a normal human being, but she has superior mental capacities (i.e., fast reaction rate and telekinetic powers) and superior athleticism. She is suppose to be super tough, but the movies are inconsistent about her durability. In one scene, she easily shakes off being thrown into a concrete pillar, and in another scene, she is easily knocked out by someone clubbing her head only once. Over time, her powers have gradually increased. She is greatly prized by the world’s corrupt leaders, because these leaders want to be powerful like her, thus they can further expand their powers over the rest of humanity.
All of these heroines are supported by a few other female and male protagonists. These few insurgents are surviving against and rejecting a world manipulated by self-serving, deceitful leaders, because the rebels want to live a life free of any overlord.
Overall, the “Resident Evil” movies are mostly action and just enough story to justify the action. There are minimal attempts to be political, artistic, cutting-edge in movie design, moral, educational, or story-intensive. If you expect more while watching the movie, you’ll be very disappointed. Just enjoy the action.
Resident Evil (2002)
This is the first film of the “Resident Evil” movie series. It starts off with the main heroine, Alice (acted by Milla Jovovich), being a regular human being trying to expose the corruption inside the Umbrella Corporation, which is the largest and most powerful corporation on the planet. This first movie starts in one of the many vast underground facilities of the Umbrella Corporation.
Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)
This is the second film. It’s better in every way than the first film. By the start of this film, Alice (still acted by Milla Jovovich) was already infected with the T-Virus and her powers are slowly growing. She needs every help she can obtain, because the T-Virus has infected a large city named Raccoon City.
She has the assistance of a few people, such as Jill Valentine, who is played by British actress Sienna Guillory. Her character is a member of STARS (Special Tactics and Rescue Squad). Sienna Guillory does a great job of acting as a deadly, intelligent, and sexy protagonist. She has very good control over her facial expressions, body language, and voice. I think she worked with a speech professional, because she perfectly spoke with an American accent in the movie, even though she speaks with an obvious British accent in real life. In every scene she is in, she does an outstanding job. She should get more prominent roles in various movies.
Resident Evil: Extinction (2007)
The zombies are too tough. In the 3rd movie, they walked at least dozens of miles under intense heat and exposed to long-term sunlight while consuming few, if any, liquids and other nutrients. The movie still centers around Alice (played by Milla Jovovich), and, as usual, she has the help of other heroines and other people. The third movie is better than the first movie, but it inferior to the second movie. The second movie has better action, better story, better dialogue . . . and it has Sienna Guillory acting as Jill Valentine.
Sienna Guillory is that good of an actress. She easily becomes the star in every scene she is in. She should get more good acting jobs in various movies. It’s a shame an excellent actress like Sienna Guillory receives mediocre attention from Hollywood, but a mediocre actress like Angelina Jolie is rewarded with lots of promotions and movies. Sienna Guillory’s beauty seems to be all natural, unlike Angelina Jolie. I guess Sienna Guillory’s lifestyle isn’t liberal enough, or she doesn’t befriend or give sexual favors to the right people, thus her acting career has been stunted by liberal, crony, and perverted Hollywood.
Hollywood seems to be monopolized by a few people, thus Hollywood keeps excreting lots of movies with the same liberal themes, superficial ideas, lousy writers, mediocre actors, average actresses, excessively hyped directors and producers, dishonest marketing, and so forth. This is one major reason for why I am increasingly attracted towards watching a mixture of a few domestic films and increasingly more foreign films. Nonetheless, I rarely watch TV shows or movies.
Planet of the Apes (2001)
My rating: 2/5 stars
This movie has nothing to do with “Resident Evil,” but it’s a remake of the famous, original movie series. The remake is a decent action-filled dystopia set in a distant future loosely based on the original movies that were loosely based on the book. All of these stories are about humans overestimating their capabilities. The remake’s main protagonist is played by Mark Walhberg, who is a mediocre actor. This movie is barely adequate when its comes to its story, dialogue, action, and character development. The special effects are good.
In this science-fiction future, people mastered spacecrafts, but people mistakenly believed they understood wormholes. They thought wormholes were simply a shortcut through space, but, in actually, wormholes somehow altered reality. Simultaneously, people thought they could control the evolution of apes to convert apes into slaves and peasants for humans. Instead, people created an oppressed class yearning for vengeance and freedom. These artificially evolved apes eventually developed an intelligence superior to humans, acquired athleticism exceeding their wild predecessors, and kept the corrupt morals of humans. They were imperfect successors to unsuspecting humans. Humans destroyed themselves by underestimating the effects of wormholes and manmade evolution.
START OF SPOILER!
My take on the movie’s confusing ending.
At the end of the movie, Mark Walhberg used his test monkey’s spacecraft to get off the second planet that was ruled by apes and back through the wormhole. He arrived on a planet that looked like earth, except for one major difference: this earth was ruled by intelligent apes.
Mark Wahlberg and fellow humans thought the outer space’s wormhole was just a shortcut through space; they didn’t know it was a space and time hole. This was proven by the human astronauts using a test monkey to first enter the wormhole, and the monkey’s late or last exit out of the worm hole, while the astronauts’ mothership entered the wormhole last, but exited first. The mothership arrived out of the worm hole thousands of years before the test monkey’s exit from the worm hole.
This is my explanation for the movie’s strange ending. Mark Wahlberg first went back into the wormhole, then the ape king, Thades, entered the wormhole. Thades traveled by means of Mark Wahlberg’s first spacecraft. Thades arrived into a future of earth where apes were evolved by humans to be slaves and peasants. Thades successfully led an ape rebellion, then Thades became the apes’ great leader, and, finally, turned humans into slaves and peasants. Mark Wahlberg exited the wormhole and arrived into a future of earth that was years into Thade’s rule.