- Joined
- Aug 11, 2019
Lets get this out of the way, the Anderson movies arent good. But there is a "complexity" to it if that makes any sense because they do tend to have a variable rate of "quality". What I mean is that every entry tends to at least have something "memorable", dystinct and I dare even say objectively enjoyable about it (not that this redeems the whole experience, mind you).
I tend to have a guilty pleasure for the first three movies, mostly because the first one was a competent zombie movie with some RE-esque things but, as an adaptation, it didnt seem to TAKE anything away from the source material (thats for the sequels) and the first two sequels did engage me with what they did which, again, felt so dettached from the source material that I dont think I took as seriously anymore than, say, a fanfiction.
And thats a good way of putting it, these movies are more akin to fanfiction than full on adaptations. And you can even call them, at their worst, charming time capsule movies where you could still enjoy it if you didnt put too much thought in it as they clearly didnt take themselves seriously at all (so, bizarrely, they did embrace RE's B-movie esque nature better than any other adaptation, even better than some of the RE engine remakes even). In fanfictions, you just have the source material characters appear, ocassionally help the main lead, more often than not a self insert, and get written out either by dying or leaving and never returning with no explanation (cuz the author likely forgot or didnt think of a good enough way to bring them back). But you can tell that, at worst, this is just a fan's harmless self expression that isnt actively insulting the source material...it is just pretty dismissable in the end.
And as a quick side note, I legit this it is movies like these and, say, Underworld, that reaffirm that the whole "girl boss" thing really was a pretty modern phenomena as you'd expect these two movie franchises to be girl boss franchises but, surprisingly, they arent (they might be "mary sue" franchises but not girl boss ones if that makes any sense) and you rarely see them being brought up when the usual suspects are saying there are no "female heroes". It is just a stronger reminder of just how artificial and astroturfed the whole thing is.
Apocalypse had the ocassional glimpse of "Oh, I caught that" moments where they did try to replicate some scenes and details from RE3. I also did enjoy the chaos of R.C and idk how, but the zombies just felt pretty damn threatening in the first three movies, so having so many of them was could feel unnerving.
Nemesis wasnt GOOD but if I had to play Devil's Advocate, he had the potential if they had just stuck closer with the source material because he was pretty decent design wise (I much prefer it than the remake's). Its like they had the right idea but thats it.
And some of the action scenes are alright. Again, Im very sure it was cool for our kid selves and our adult selves know that these movies arent high art so our expectations are more realistic.
Apocalypse still kept a RE-esque feeling, even if the quality wasnt objectively as good. And it just engaged me so I cant really hate it much.
Extinction is an interesting case because one might say this is where the franchise officially went tits up when it came to adapt anything about this series properly. You could make the argument the first two movies had at least the base of RE1-3 in their DNA but this one is where the "fanfiction-ness" of this series went off the rails.
But with that said, I cant hate this entry much as well because I guess I am a sucker for the Mad Max with zombies approach they went with, even if it has nothing to do with RE and, hell, it feels more TWD-esque even tho that brand wasnt a thing yet. Feels like there was a more standalone movie here rather than a sequel. Ironically I prefered to watch the adventures of the convoy of survivors instead of the Alice stuff. Again, I wont sit here and preach how the haters are wrong but I'd be lying if something about its style and personality didnt win me over, even if the character aspect didnt. Kind of makes me wish a talented director took a shot at this "Zombies in the desert" concept (and no, Army of the Dead doesnt count)
It just feels like there was a movie worth of events in between Apocalypse and Extinction that would have been neat to at least see some of it but it is all reduced to exposition at the narration. Characters just disappear (with the novels doing a LOT of heavy lifting here) with no explanation and we know this is hardly the first time this will happen.
Now why I dont feel the same for Afterlife onward? Well, three reasons I think
1- The special effects became far more CG heavy and if there is one thing I can say is that the makeup and effects were all mostly real and my brain just appreciated that "real" aspect to it.
2- Plot became far more bonkers and I know you might argue it was bonkers before, especially by Extinction but you felt like the first three were at least TRYING to maintain some aspect of groundedness, at least compared to the sequels set afterwards. Afterlife starts with Alice getting "depowered" apparently but she is still able to do the OP acrobatics she could do at least since Apocalypse but they never specificy it was to remove the psychic powers.
3- I just really kind of outgrew these movies, I watched 1 and 2 a lot on cable and watched 3 on cinemas so I suppose I had some sort of attachment but by 4, I guess all the negatives just caught on to me and I moved on.
Still, do I hate these movies? Not really, they are just dumb popcorn movies and I kind of miss a bit of this style early 2000's had, especially with gothic action movies like R.E.
And say whatever you want, they dont make me eye rollingly ANNOYED like Welcome to Raccoon City and especially the Netflix had and any nigger unironically saying they are "at least better" in comparison deserves the slop they get.
Dont know what this new movie will be like and I do legit hope it will be at least decent enough and with adaptations, thats all you can really hope for.
Edit:
Yo, wtf!?
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