We’ve been binge-watching the Resident Evil franchise, a group of 6 films produced between 2002 and 2016, based on a video game. The old lady loves this sort of fantasy, lots of cartoon violence and gore, but nothing really scary. I’m in it primarily to watch Milla Jovovich in skin-tight leathers (and sometimes a lot less). The girl is magnificent. Yeah, go ahead and say what you want. I’m at the age where I feel no obligation to apologize.
The films are, of course, dreadful, but the special effects are first rate and the fight scenes are so ridiculously over-choreographed they even manage to evoke a sort of grace and elegance, without once provoking any genuine concern for the safety of the characters or the mayhem inflicted on them. Its pretty clear the people who make these films have never actually been in a real fight, ever.
The plots are pretty standard: evil corporation uses viral bioweapons to attempt to achieve world domination, and as a by-product, the world’s population is turned into zombies. And like all good zombies, they can be dispatched in a spectacular gorefest by shiny chrome automatic weaponry that never seems to run out of ammunition, or to jam precisely when you need it the most.
The films are extremely popular (they grossed over 1.2 billion $), as are the video games, the Japanese animations, and even the novelizations. Well, at least some of today’s kids can still be coaxed to read.
Fascinating stuff, the series is very well produced, and still manages to be totally devoid of any literary or artistic merit whatsoever. Its quite an accomplishment, actually. They are remarkably content free, although they repay close study because they reveal so much about their intended audience–or at least, the audience the producers think are consuming their product. They may not be the same…. The movies are about sex and violence, but they clearly appeal to people who rarely experience either. One wonders how they will handle genuine human emotions and tragedy when they do encounter it.
But at least, they are fun to watch, at least the scenes with the lovely Milla.