RESIDENT EVIL (R, 100 minutes)
Everyone that saw it told me it was worth watching, so I took their word for it. And it was fun. There's a lot of problems with it, but it was no Tomb Raider - i.e., it was not abysmal.
So. Poor character development. For the first part of the film, the Guy With the Gun only seems to exist to make the Girl with the Gun look tough, and there doesn't really seem to be any reason to make her look tough at all, storywise. They do actually make her a strong person without being objectified or cliche, and so it was a good idea... wasted. Once the first GuyWTG is out, a new GuyWTG comes to the front, and he's a whiny little guy. That was also done well, except that it dragged on. He became the Guy That Freaked Out and Cried in Every Scene, also for no use.
Milla Jovovich managed to do with her hands and feet what an entire army could not, which is kill everybody, and so that was silly. They covered dogs in Nickelodeon Gak® to make them look as though they'd been flayed - also silly. And one of my biggest pet peeves in movies, CGI that is not believable, ran around killing things, too.
Alice in Wonderland symbolism ran rampant, and was horrible. I couldn't avoid the impression that they only used Alice symbols (such as the Red Queen and a white rabbit) on the advice that "cool movies do that." But I've got news for them: even The Matrix was clumsy with its Alice references, but I forgave it because it was THE MATRIX. (Which reminds me, there was also a useless shot of a bullet in slow motion... why?!?) This movie also tried to be Cube at one point. The attempt was obvious and sad (even with Cube's small budget, it was much more believable), but the fact that they referenced (I prefer to think of it as "referenced," rather than "ripped off") the film more than made up for it in my eyes.
The sequel set-up was good (although drawn out - it felt like they added 10 minutes onto the movie just to make it), and it made it look like the next one will be better than the first, and more true to the video games: one person, alone in a city, with a shotgun, and wearing nothing more than a dentist's bib.
Let's just hope they spend more time on the CGI.
PS, Milla is pushing for the lead role in the movie adaptation of American McGee's Alice (if they screw up Alice symbolism in that, there's no hope), which could leave her typecast if they follow this up with Nemesis. Just a thought...
Everyone that saw it told me it was worth watching, so I took their word for it. And it was fun. There's a lot of problems with it, but it was no Tomb Raider - i.e., it was not abysmal.
So. Poor character development. For the first part of the film, the Guy With the Gun only seems to exist to make the Girl with the Gun look tough, and there doesn't really seem to be any reason to make her look tough at all, storywise. They do actually make her a strong person without being objectified or cliche, and so it was a good idea... wasted. Once the first GuyWTG is out, a new GuyWTG comes to the front, and he's a whiny little guy. That was also done well, except that it dragged on. He became the Guy That Freaked Out and Cried in Every Scene, also for no use.
Milla Jovovich managed to do with her hands and feet what an entire army could not, which is kill everybody, and so that was silly. They covered dogs in Nickelodeon Gak® to make them look as though they'd been flayed - also silly. And one of my biggest pet peeves in movies, CGI that is not believable, ran around killing things, too.
Alice in Wonderland symbolism ran rampant, and was horrible. I couldn't avoid the impression that they only used Alice symbols (such as the Red Queen and a white rabbit) on the advice that "cool movies do that." But I've got news for them: even The Matrix was clumsy with its Alice references, but I forgave it because it was THE MATRIX. (Which reminds me, there was also a useless shot of a bullet in slow motion... why?!?) This movie also tried to be Cube at one point. The attempt was obvious and sad (even with Cube's small budget, it was much more believable), but the fact that they referenced (I prefer to think of it as "referenced," rather than "ripped off") the film more than made up for it in my eyes.
The sequel set-up was good (although drawn out - it felt like they added 10 minutes onto the movie just to make it), and it made it look like the next one will be better than the first, and more true to the video games: one person, alone in a city, with a shotgun, and wearing nothing more than a dentist's bib.
Let's just hope they spend more time on the CGI.
PS, Milla is pushing for the lead role in the movie adaptation of American McGee's Alice (if they screw up Alice symbolism in that, there's no hope), which could leave her typecast if they follow this up with Nemesis. Just a thought...
posted by Court at
9:20 AM
