Here we are again, another film series needs to be ranked before the next installment is released.
The Resident Evil series has now been with us from 20 years, well in gaming. The film series has finally hit the age of 15. With the release of Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, the sixth installment, it is seemingly coming to an end. But, I like to rank things leading to the final movie, because, I like to rank things.
Among us, we have debated and even had a little arguement over Resident Evil’s position, it is horror? Well, to answer in short, yeah, Action/Horror. I have come to terms with what we have and though, I am not totally happy, it is the most successful video game film franchise ever. Especially when it comes to sequels and the horror genre.
So, what do you think the order is? Is the first movie the best? Do they get progressively worse like a lot of horror films with the long running series? Well you don’t have to wait any longer, here is the list worst to best, Resident Evil.
5. Resident Evil (2002)
Yes, the first is by far the worst. From a crappy story, poor effects and hard to listen to dialogue. Resident Evil used bad CGI in places it did not have to use CGI. Being relatively new at the time, I guess I see why CGI was used, but not on zombies. There are so many great effects artists out there, why in the hell would you make CGI zombies? I mean, the zombies in the first Playstation game looked more convincing.
Still, what can we redeem from this movie? Not much, Colin Salmon is in the movie, for a short time and I am a fan.
4. Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)
So, I asked, do they get worse. No actually the movies get better and find a groove eventually. Once you see the first movie and give up on the face the series will be nothing like the movies and be its own thing. It is easier to deal with. We do get familiar characters sprinkled in to this second movie, like Jill Valentine, who plays a major role, bad acting, but hotness Sienna Guillroy. They totally missed the opportunity to bring in fan favorite Chris Redfield and gave her a generic, cannon fodder partner, Peyton. Carlos Olivera and the Nemesis make appearances as well. It is a mixed bag of games 2 and 3. It was great to see Raccoon City.
3. Resident Evil: Extinction (2007)
At this point things are getting a little better, but it feels like it jumps too far into the future. There is no one left and they are in the desert. Alice has the ridiculous powers and we see the Alice clones and Wesker makes and appearance. Some cool action in the film, Milla has fully embraced the character and at this point, I love seeing her kick some ass. Nearly the entire cast of the film is wiped out by the end, which characters like Carlos, die out. Claire Redfield is in this one and before Chris and Leon Kennedy, my favorite. Claire was poorly cast, she should have been younger and much different based off the second game. Let’s face it Claire should have been in the second movie or maybe blowing up Raccoon City was a bad idea. I am not screen writer, but three games take place in Raccoon City and multiple characters are from there. Why make these changes and where is Chris Redfield in all of this…LA.
2. Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010)
Yep, to me these movies literally get better and more interesting. Afterlife is strange, it begins with with the Alice Clones that were in the last movie taking out an Umbrella Corp facility. It is actually pretty awesome, I love seeing women kick ass and I really just love Milla. The story after that gets a little bad, she is flying a plane to Alaska and finds Claire and she has the spider mind control device and her memories are gone. Eventually they go to LA, to a prison and find…CHRIS REDFIELD! I hate to say, he was completely miscast, and wasted. There are some cool scenes in the prison and I loved the addition of Luther West was very welcome. Overall, I had a lot of fun with Afterlife and the ending set up one of the most interesting opens to a sequel. The opening credits were awesome in 3D.
Chris was played by Wentworth Miller, who I actually love in the Flash and Legends of Tomorrow, but he was not Chris. Not the right choice.
1. Resident Evil: Retribution (2012)
Once you understand what these movies are and put aside your differences and the differences from the game franchise. You can have fun watching these, action films with horror elements. The second to last movie begins in reverse and then plays everything back, it was super cool. But the story itself, takes you on kind of a trippy journey under the ocean into a testing ground for the T-virus. It is interesting, there are different environments each with different kinds familiar Resident Evil monsters.
Leon Kennedy finally inters the series, again should have come a long earlier. With Leon, comes Ada Wong and it makes sense. But the biggest surprise is Barry Burton shows up, Barry is from the very first game and he pops up now? This is one of the biggest turn offs of the series. Barry was the leader of Jill and Chris’s Unit, along with Wesker. God! The film series is a scattered mess.
The end fight was interesting, Jill is bad and Rain(clone) fight Leon, Alice, Luther and Ada. We get to see Wesker, who has taken over the White House and outside its walls are all kinds of monsters closing in…
The series is on big mixed bag. Cool action, poor effects that get progressively better. But, it is a scattered mess if you followed the games. If you’re a fan of the movies alone, like my wife, they are great.
One of the biggest issues are plot holes from movie to movie and characters disappearing. Where did Chris go, Kmart and Jill disappears from the second movie to the end of the 4th movie, why? Poor writing, the films would have been better if they were more linear. I think, and we mentioned this on the THS Live podcast, Resident Evil would make an excellent Netflix series. Sony owns the rights, so it may be difficult, but Netflix should look into making the show and do it like the games. I could see a solid 5 or 6 seasons following the events of Resident Evil 0, Resident Evil, Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis and Resident Evil 4, possibly RE 5.
Thanks for reading, how do these measure up for you?
Be sure to check out Resident Evil the Final Chapter out today!
