Resident Evil: The Saga

Distributed by Screen Gems

By Patrick Fenton

The Resident Evil Movie franchise is back in theatres in all of its tight leather, undead, chain-whipping glory. (Yes I said glory.) That's not a word you would usually expect to hear associated with this franchise fraught with controversy, bad acting, sub par scripts, and cheesy special effects. These movies are not Shakespeare, they're not even zombie Shakespeare. They have always been the kind of movies you want your brain turned partially off for, so you're not filled with questions when the guns start blazing and the zombies are set loose. Resident Evil may have started a genre in video games, but the movies have always been pure "popcorn" violent spectacles.

Let's look back at the franchise from games to movies to see where it all started, before we get into the current movie Resident Evil: Retribution.

Note to readers: This post WILL NOT CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THE NEW MOVIE, BUT IT WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR EVERYTHING RESIDENT EVIL BEFORE RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION!! IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO SEE SPOILERS PLEASE SCROLL DOWN TO THE RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION HEADLINE. Sorry about the Caps, but it's better than hate mail.

The first Resident Evil (Biohazard in Japan) game was released in 1996 for the PlayStation and changed the way gamers game. It made all attempts of horror in previous video games seem silly, which is saying a lot considering the opening and ending of the game featured some of the worst live action performances ever featured in a game. Check out the uncensored version of the opening (below) complete with some guy named Joseph dying and (gasp) Chris Redfield smoking. Those two parts were deemed too mature for audiences outside Japan despite the games Mature rating by the ESRB (Entertainment Software Ratings Board). 

Kind of puts things in perspective when the films get bashed for having bad acting and writing, doesn't it? In any case as soon as the video is done you are left to your own devices inside the mansion where everything from ammo to the ink ribbons you use to save your progress are rationed. The actors may disappear until the end at this point, but their terrible voice acting stays. 

The voice acting however was furthest thing from your mind when you encountered the first zombie of the game. After going through empty the main hall and the dining room you find yourself in a small room at the end of a hallway. A brief cut-scene takes over showing a zombie chowing down on some unfortunate S.TA.R.S. team member. The zombie looks up with blood dripping from his mouth and the cut-scene ends, and the zombie is literally 4 steps away. I have seen people empty their pistol and die here. I have done it myself.

That moment of the game was the first time many gamers actually yelled out in horror as the mortality of the character they chose, (Chris or Jill) was made horrifically abundant. You could find yourself out of ammo, or limping around very slowly after that encounter. Of course once you know to point your gun up using the clunky controls you could also get your first exploding head zombie kill of the game. Of course you can run away back out the door and Barry will take over and shoot the zombie, but that's no fun is it?

The game, as mentioned earlier gave the player limited ammo, and could even leave an experienced gamer high and dry in the ammo and health department at any point. Nothing was worse than being out of green herbs and first aid spray, only to use your last clip of ammo on the second of three zombies leaving yourself only a knife (if your lucky) to defend yourself. You had limited slots to store weapons and health, and about the only help the game gave you were drop boxes spread throughout the mansion that magically kept your excess gear handy (if you could limp your way to one).

Photo: Capcom

In any case you wander around the mansion gathering clues and keys while solving puzzles to progress. The player would find a crank or a gem and then they would have to find the proper hole in the wall or statue to use such an item and progress. Adding yet another layer of frustration to your limited inventory space. Eventually the zombies get replaced with monsters capable of jumping over you and cutting your head off with one fell swoop. Eventually you learn that the Umbrella Corporation that owns the mansion is responsible for creating the dreaded T-Virus that re-animates the dead, and created other biological terrors. There's even some sharks thrown in for good measure.

After long-last you're in an underground lab below the Overlook Hotel inspired mansion, to find yourself betrayed by your teammate Wesker, fighting a giant monster called Tyrant, and fighting against the ticking clock of a self destruct sequence. Cue one more live action cut-scene and it's time to start all over again as the character you didn't pick with a slightly different story and puzzles. This first title has received numerous re-releases (same as the sequels for that matter), mostly notably for the GameCube where the graphics/puzzles and even some of the layout got a complete do-over.

The second game in the franchise happens a couple months after the events of the first. This time the player had a choice between Leon Kennedy (the rookie cop arriving in town), and Claire Redfield (Chris's sister). Both of these poor suckers arrive in Raccoon city only to find Umbrella's experiments have gone beyond the mansion and the undead have taken over. This game (released in 1998) had the player facing similar challenges as the first as you wandered through the city finding the police station, unlocked some doors and eventually found your way into yet another underground facility with yet another unfortunate self-destruct sequence. Albert Wesker of course shows up to solidify his role as the games constant foil as well.

There was a bit more diversity in the story lines this time around, and you start out facing way more zombies with way less ammo. A few new characters are added as well, including Ada Wong, with whom Leon falls for. She is the kind of character that may help out at times, but Leon (throughout the series) is too in love to see she's not really on his side. Even his anger at her constant betrayal through the games never seems to quiet his beating heart. The only way to survive long enough to make to the police station in the opening few minutes was to run by as many zombies as possible hoping for the best.

The third game was released in 1999 and set the player once again in Raccoon City as Jill Valentine. After warning her superiors in the police and S.T.A.R.S. (Special Tactics and Rescue Services) to no avail Jill finds herself in Raccoon City dodging and shooting zombies while being chased by the hulking mass Nemesis. Nemesis attacks Jill often in the game leaving the player the option to waste ammo or run. This game ends with Jill narrowly escaping Raccoon City before it gets nuked hopefully ending the zombie apocalypse. Yeah right.

Now is as good a time as any to start in on the movies, the first of which was released in 2002 (Rated R) and named after the first game. It too focused on a mansion owned by Umbrella Co. with an even bigger underground lab on the outskirts of Raccoon City, and a whole new cast of characters. Enter one of the biggest controversies the video game community has faced since the controversial release of Microsoft's X-Box in 2001. Both wars continue to this day.

Alice (Milla Jovovich) is the main focus of the controversy as she headlines the Resident Evil movies despite having no attachment to the game. She is one half of a couple in charge of security of the mansion and of course keeping up appearances to cover the illegal biological weapon lab. The movie starts with her losing her memory once the mansion detects trouble below and produces a knockout amnesia gas. Alice awakes to find Matt (Eric Mabius) in the mansion with her. A special umbrella task force is sent in to investigate the problem and interrupts any chance of them trying to figure out what is going on.

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The most notable member of this team is Rain (Michelle Rodriguez), who is a tough as nails officer and not at all against raising a gun to Matt, whom she instantly distrusts. The team quickly descends below to find Alice's "husband", who also has no memory. In short order they find the computer core. Unfortunately for them the Red Queen who is a homicidal child hologram intent on not letting the T-Virus escape no matter the cost runs it. The squad leader is diced up by lasers into cubes about a centimeter in width, and the labs entire zombified staff show up out of seemingly from nowhere with prosthetics that looked like they came from the "Thriller" music video.

Needless to say the squad gets decimated and separated leaving Rain bitten, and Alice left on her own for bit. Eventually memories return, Alice remembers she was planning on betraying Umbrella, which lead to her "husband” to betray her letting the virus out. Alice and Matt eventually become the soul survivors but as soon as they escape to the surface Umbrella captures them and experiments on them. The movie ends with Alice walking out of a hospital in a gown that consists of two pieces of paper held together by a string. Is that even a hospital gown? She exits the hospital to find the streets a wreck, pulls a shotgun from an abandoned cop car. Ever since this movie the franchise has ended each chapter with a tantalizing preview of things to come.

The movie had some painfully bad CG monsters and zombie make-up, as well as some pretty cheesy dialogue and a story that had little to do with the source material except for Umbrella and zombies. One example of bad dialogue comes form Alice's "husband" as he breaks away from the company at gunpoint he states; "I'm missing you already". 

Seconds later Red Queens synthesized child like voice kicks in as the team complains of the jerks escape.

"I don't think so," she says. "I've been a bad girl."

Both cheesy lines perhaps, though one seemed unintentionally laughable while the second was intentional.

The only reason this movie seemed to be rated R was for a brief hint of Milla's privates at the end. The gore alone was not deserving of an R-rating. 

The decision to vary so much from the original story was a controversial decision on the part of writer/director  Paul W. S. Anderson. It could be argued though, that the decision to have it vary from the games has been the very thing to make it a marketing success despite each installment being panned by critics and angry net-nerds alike. Indeed the franchise needed a fresh take on the series to serve its purpose. To make money.

These movies are not meant to be scrutinized with Vulcan like logic. The performers will not be offered Oscars and neither will Anderson. These are the kind of movies were bullets are spent with no regard for how much ammunition a person could possibly carry while wearing a dress or a skin tight leather outfit. If you can sit back and enjoy the ride without questioning too much they are pretty enjoyable for all mature audiences who have a craving for a monster flick. The sound tracks are always very fitting to the action on screen and well done.

The second movie (Resident Evil: Apocalypse) follows right where the first left off combining the second two installments of the game. It was still written by Paul W.S. Anderson, but this entry was directed by Alexander Witt.

 Alice recovers quickly only to find the experiments done to her have given her heightened agility and strength. She soon meets up with a group of survivors lead by Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory), and is stalked by her old friend Matt who is now the sole member of the Nemesis program.

They make their way through the city under constant attack from zombies, mutant dogs, and Nemesis. Eventually a deal is struck via phone with the creator of the T-Virus. He will provide their escape from the blocked off Raccoon City in exchange for saving his daughter who is also trapped in the city. Once they find the girl they find the T-Virus is keeping her dead cells alive, and has been perverted by Umbrella into a weapon despite the noble intentions of its creator. Along the way the group meets up with survivors of an Umbrella team sent into the city and abandoned by the "benevolent" Umbrella Company. The other group is lead by Carlos (Oded Fehr).

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Everything comes to a head when Alice is forced to fight Nemesis at Raccoon City Hall, which is actually Toronto's iconic City Hall. Toronto had been used in the ending of the first film, and most of the subsequent sequels. As a result Canadian tax credits and locations do go into these movies, which might help with ticket sales at least in Canada where viewers often feel snubbed by the American media. Money well spent.

After the fight Alice and her surviving friends hop onto a helicopter and..... lose control after a nuclear detonation crashing and killing Alice. She awakens in a lab, again recovering incredibly quickly only to find she now has the power to kill with a thought. Umbrella lets her escape ever on the lookout for more data for their perverse experiments.

The fans and critics were once again enraged. The critics complained about lack of substance and silly lines. The nerds were even more enraged about Alice being the focus and her obtaining god-like powers. Even the appearance of Jill Valentine didn't calm their nerves; the critics complained about her performance, as did the nerds. The nerds also complained she was merely Alice's sidekick. Many also complained about Nemesis having a last minute change of heart in his fight against Alice when he started to cry and turned on his masters.

Once again these complaints while mostly valid don't take into account that this is an action franchise meant for entertainment and not thought. If you take the complaints about bad dialogue seriously, you might be forgetting about the fact that when the zombies rise dialogue turns into yelling with little time for thoughtful sidebars or to talk about feelings or character development. Indeed as stated earlier the source material had some of the worst acting in a world filled with bad video game voice-overs. It could be said that cheesy dialogue is one of the few things Anderson kept from the original games and it certainly helped this reporter to feel at home while watching the movies. Once again the movie made money, so another installment was green lighted.

Photo: Capcom

Here the games and movies all go off in their own directions, probably for the best. Resident Evil 4 was released in 2005 on Nintendo's GameCube. The Sony fans would get their port eventually though. This time the focus is on Leon years later dealing with an outbreak of Las Plagas ("smart" zombies) in Europe. With shiny new graphics and controls based on action Leon has to...get ready for it...save the U.S. Presidents daughter. Oh yes the source material is so believable, so the films should be too.

In any case the voice acting got an overhaul along with the graphics and controls. The game has it's own logistical errors like a merchant that follows you around and Las Plagas dropping money and ammo when killed. The Las Plagas also get weapons this time around, but thankfully (?) conserving ammo is no longer an issue. This game is focused on action and story. All of your survival needs are taken care of even if you're the most casual of gamers. The puzzles for the most part are gone too. 

(Note to geeks I'm focusing on the numbered game titles here, not other releases like Code Veronica in the hopes of keeping this thing from going on forever.)

Resident Evil 5 came out in 2009 for both Sony and Microsoft players. This one focused on Chris and a new character named Sheva, his guide in Africa. Chris is now working for a company that fights bio-terrorism and him and Sheva are instantly plunged in an action adventure story following the same pattern as the 4th game. Secrets are uncovered and monsters are shot, all with action over real substance. The game is officially no longer creepy partly because whether you play as Chris or Sheva (exact same story, you can even switch back and forth). It does have some neat online features such as story mode with a friend and various challenges mimicking some of the offline challenge modes 4 introduced. 

Resident Evil 6 is slated for release this fall for both X-box and Playstation 3, and will feature 3 converging story-lines including Leon and Chris at long last teaming up, and of course the now essential online modes. Things sure have changed since sitting around in the dark getting the creeps. Now you have a computer character or a friend on a mic yelling at you at all times.

Resident Evil: Extinction is the most popcorn-fuelled cliché driven mess that this franchise had offered up.  Written by Anderson and directed by Russell Mulcahy.

Alice now has super telekinetic powers and is wandering around alone dealing with rednecks that almost manage to make the ones from Deliverance look civil. Meanwhile, Claire Redfield (Ali Larter) finally gets some screen time as she leads a band of survivors across the desert wasteland that seems to be taking over the country. Even Las Vegas has been "taken back" by the desert. Carlos is part of the group, but he is not the only returning Raccoon City survivor. K-Mart is the only other member of the group who stands out and Spencer Locke does a fine job bringing her to life.

Eventually Alice finds evidence that the T-Virus may not have made it's way up to Alaska and after accidentally destroying her motorbike with her mind she decides to make her way back to the group. She doesn't know that her old doctor from Umbrella is keeping tabs on her via satellite. Umbrella this time around isn't messing around and Albert Wesker (Jason O'Mara) finally makes his big screen debut, and though he has the Umbrella board under his evil thumb, in the end he doesn't do much.

This is one of the creepier aspects of another wise bland entry as Umbrella keeps track of Alice using their satellites; it's the ultimate in creepy tech surveillance. The doctor has been unable to clone an Alice that can survive his little death games and is extremely interested in her abilities. The only other truly creepy part of the movie involves crows, and that part may only be creepy to gamers as it brings back some bad memories.

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Of course all of the story lines eventually converge after a lack-luster showdown in Vegas the survivors hop in a helicopter and head for Alaska. Very few of the convoy members are left at this point, and all the returning cast members that don't make it at least get a proper send off. Sure it doesn't seem like the survivors will have enough fuel, or any places to fill up for their long trip to Alaska. Of course if you start asking questions like that you would have to ask questions like where all the ammo is coming from for these gunfights. Some consideration is given to lack of ammo, but probably not enough. This is why these aren't brain candy movies.

So Alice was once again left alone as she heads off for revenge against Umbrella. The Alice haters out there may have griped about Alice’s super-powers, but they did provide some interesting material in a rather bland film. It also made a good ending as she enters the Umbrella facility finding a mass grave filled with her clones and fighting with the ultimate throwback to the games: some crazy jerk that thinks injecting himself with some variant of the T-Virus is a good idea. The whole thing ends with Alice awakening her clones with the intention of hunting down the remaining Umbrella Co. Samaritans responsible for all this.

On to the 2010 release Resident Evil: Afterlife. Paul W.S. Anderson took back the directors chair when  he saw a chance to make a gun-slinging 3D installment and didn't look back to the old two-dimensional Resident Evil. Unfortunately this didn't change his bland 2D screenplay. As always the action was top-notch.

After a visually impressive opening showing Japan's patient zero, and flashing forward to the army of Alice's attacking an Umbrella hideout beneath Tokyo, things change. The only Alice that seemingly survives the assault is the super-Alice. She follows Wesker (now played by Shawn Roberts), he gets the upper hand and injects her with a cure to the T-Virus, and boasts of how much better his virus is. The plane crashes into the side of a mountain while Wesker is gloating and somehow, the now human Alice survives with barely a scratch and walks away from the wreck.

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Ever the resourceful one, she some how finds an old plane, fuel, and even an old video camera that somehow still has juice to make log entries four years after the apocalypse. Calm down brain, it's just a movie. So off she goes to Alaska still being watched Wesker and his creepy satellites that can ever hear her talking.

When she gets to Alaska she finds not a town, but so many abandoned airplanes that it's creepy. Claire attacks her, but Alice won't have any of that she ties Claire up takes Umbrella's glowing red metal mind-control-spider off of Claire's chest. So Claire has amnesia and is unable to recall what happened to K-Mart on the others.

So under the ever-watchful eyes of the satellites, they get back in the plane with it's never ending fuel supply and fly down the coast to L.A. Once they arrive they notice a sign saying help us on top of one of those huge super prisons so naturally they land on top of the building to help out those prisoners.

Luckily for the now human Alice all the prisoners were let out when things hit the fan.

"Logic, logic. Logic is the beginning of knowledge not the end..." Captain Spock.

So let's forget about how silly that sounds because there's a whole bunch of Hollywood clichés, to introduce. One is Luther West (Boris Kodjoe); who is the token musician/celebrity, another is drum roll... Chris Redfield (Wentworth Miller). Yay. Of course Chris is a member of some special branch of the Army that was training in the prison, so naturally the prisoners locked him up in the deepest darkest X-Men like plastic cell on their way out. Seems Wentworth Miller really likes jails. Of course there's the cliché Hollywood producer guy with an intern following him around and a couple other people who are zombie food before long.

I will point out that these "prisoners" have an endless supply of torches. Sometimes you can count more than 20 on two different levels on screen and they seem to use them to light all the hallways they use. That's a lot of torches over four years. Oh well, when Alice opens up her little knife pouch there is not a clip of ammo to be seen either. That doesn't stop her from keeping her trigger finger held down for minutes at a time!

I know I've been kind of hard on this movie so far, but there are good things. Some of the zombies have evolved/mutated and have these crazy scary looking tentacle like things that come out when their mouths open that will grab onto you in no time in the game. Also from Resident Evil 5 the hulking giant axe wielding, shoot-me-in-the-head-fifty-times executioner guy shows up. Words don't work for this guy so just look at the picture I found on Google below.

Photo: Screen Gems/Courtesy of IGN

So moving on, the prisoners find out that Arcadia, Alice's mythical town is actually a giant ocean tanker and luckily it's sitting just off the shore. So Chris is unleashed and the group makes a last ditch effort to get to the boat and find a beach. People die and of course once they get there they find Wesker is running the show and eating all the survivors that Umbrella is keeping stasis tubes. Cue the disgusting dogs (whose head split open revealing more mouths on the inside), some fighting, a self-destruct timer and we're almost there.

Just when Alice decides to make the dream of Arcadia real and wakes up K-mart and everybody else a fleet of high tech choppers descend upon the ship lead by Jill Valentine, who is of course now being controlled by Umbrella's high tech mind control chest-spider. Roll credits.

It is what is, it may stretch the limits of logic, but there are some great visuals along the way. It's also worth noting that this was the highest grossing film of the franchise so the visuals usually make up for the silly stuff that the audience is more than used to in this series.

RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION (Finally)

The latest installment in the movie franchise starts immediately after the biggest tease ending yet in the series, and the opening was breathtaking. Alice is floating in the ocean, and then up she goes in reverse. The credits roll to a slow motion action scene going backwards to where the last film ended. It should also be noted that Paul W.S. Anderson knows how to film for the Imax 3D venue. This series has come a long way from it's laughable CG in the first chapter (kind of like the game) and this movie is a visual treat from beginning to end, well worth the extra ticket price.

Cut to the whole thing sped up again and eventually Alice wakes up in bed with Carlos (her husband???) walking around prompting her to get up. She goes down stairs and finds her deaf daughter (???) chatting it up with Carlos, and dang the luck he spills coffee on his shirt. Alice being so happy and nice had already picked up her hubbies dry cleaning and disaster is averted. Then to the joy of the audience out the windows are being banged on by a horde of zombies and the idyllic scene is replaced by a mad panic as Alice tries to save her daughter.

Alice once again wakes up in a facility that could only be owned by Umbrella wearing nothing but her old two pieces of paper and a string and whatever doubts the audience had about the franchise seemed to melt away. It's not long before things pick up again aided by another classic video game chick Ada Wong (Li Bingbing) complete with that nice little red dress that is hardly functional. Alice of course finds a nice leather outfit and some guns right away.

The movie from here on out is an escape from Umbrellas most impressive facility yet. It's kind of like a holo-deck from Star Trek, except only the weather is simulated. Giant domes replicating Tokyo, New York and Moscow make up the bulk of the facility. Inhabited by clones ("cannon fodder"), zombies, those scary executioner guys and even Las Plagas wielding machine guns and rocket launchers. Mayhem of course ensues, but there are actually more touching moments for Alice than the series has shown yet.

Claire and Chris Redfield, along with K-mart are left to the wayside (probably in another Umbrella facility) and replaced with more classic Resident Evil characters including Leon (Johann Urb), and Barry (Kevin Durand). Wesker is of course back but let's just leave him aside, because Barry is back! Fortunately his acting has improved since we last saw him in the original Resident Evil game and he no longer judo chops with his hand while he talks or stares at pools of blood for hours looking for clues.

That's not all though, Rain (MichelleRodriguez) is back in dual role as two clones this time. Yes Umbrella never throws anything away even the DNA of people it kills. She helps Alice as a kind citizen of suburbia, and quite separately helps Umbrella hunt Alice and Ada down trying to block their escape. As shown in the ending credits of Afterlife, Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory) has been taken over by Umbrella and is now charged with killing Alice once and for all.

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Before this can continue any further this so called love fest for this popcorn flick must acknowledge the biggest cloud in the sky. Jill. Sienna Guillory had very few lines this time out, and the movie was greatly helped by this. It saddens me to say that none of her few lines were up to par. Yes, the lines given were typical bad-girl shouting orders lines, but she could not make any of them sound natural at all. Every time Jill spoke it seemed out of place.

Making up for this though was the edition Aryanna Engineer to the cast as Becky, Alice's fake daughter. She brings out the maternal side in Alice, and it is nice to see that side of her character after four movies her cold stares towards zombies and Umbrella folk and fellow survivors. The same can be said about the good clone of Rain who is much more cheery than Jill's new friend.

Leon and Barry's team don't get very fleshed out, but they are instantly recognizable to fans of the games, and fit within the characterizations set up on the consoles. This may be a little off-putting for non-gaming viewers as they swing into action right from the start and never really stop to get to know the audience. Luther West reprises his role from Afterlife and tags along with the team.

The soundtrack, like the other Resident Evil movies, is another highlight. It pounds and pulses as the chaos ensues at all the right times, and helps bring you back home to the Resident Evil sound, as it were. The music of these movies has always been it's own have and fit around the visuals like a glove. This movie is no exception.

Yes, there are scenes that are groan worthy, and unintentionally laughable, but overall this movie makes up for the shortcomings of the last two in spades. Its action seems fresh again (mostly), and the new characters and old keep the drama going. Also the movie manages to keep the audience guessing about...certain things, and as always; leaves them wanting more. Another draw to all five of these movies is their approximate 90-minute running time. No time for chitchat, time to kill zombies. The way it should be.

One can only hope this movie makes enough money to warrant the studio green-lighting the sixth and final chapter in Paul W.S. Anderson's Resident Evil Saga. After five movies it would be shame to miss out on the supposed climax of this roller coaster ride of a series.

As far as games to movie adaptations go, this one is the most successful and longest running. These days most video games have 6 or more sequels but none have five movie adaptations but Resident Evil. All of the movies made the studio a ton of money before hitting DVD, so there's no reason to think Retribution won't. Love 'em, hate 'em or tolerate them they are a milestone in game to movie adaptations with no real competition.

Why is this? It may be that these movies hit on the right formula for adapting a game series to the screen. Take the core concept of the game, and make a story around that. The characters from the game don't always fit in with that idea initially. The core of this series has always been to fold:

1. Umbrella is a very bad corporation. This is a great theme as it appeals to the youthful rebellion against corporate masters that has always worked well with movies and music.

2. Zombies and monsters are scary as hell and need to die. Another classic theme that seems to sell tickets at the movies, if done well.

Another trick Anderson used throughout the series was numerous references in the events to not only the Resident Evil games, but games in general.

These movies didn't even need the characters from the games to do well. It established the game like world of Raccoon City and it's hive in the first film and slowly added characters with varying degrees of success. The writing and dialogue may not always be top-notch, but it doesn't have to be. These movies appeal to the same base instincts as the gladiator fights of old, not the modern need for complex melodrama. The impeccable cinematography throughout the franchise only helps to make the blood lust on screen appealing.

Those in the gaming community who grew up with and loved this series should be happy that the core ideals of their obsession are translated here for a wider audience. Yes something is lost in translation, but that can't be helped when you switch from an active medium to a passive one. I hope Hollywood waits a long time before attempting to reboot this series. Maybe they can make more Silent Hill movies instead.

Please feel free to comment in the section below.

Do you love Alice? Do you hate her?

Patrick Fenton: Resident Evil Nerd

Do you wish they followed the games? Are you glad they didn't?

What changes would you have made?

Were you excited to see Barry and Leon?

Was Retribution a dud or a hit?

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