RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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I'm in such a bubble of positivity for Barbarian and Weapons director Zach Cregger's upcoming Resident Evil movie (out September 18) that I had no idea anyone was upset about it until I looked at the reactions to some of PC Gamer's coverage.
The movie is Resident Evil "in name and nothing else," one person wrote in reply to one of our social media posts.
As it turns out, some Resident Evil fans are unhappy that the film doesn't directly adapt any of the games, that it takes liberties with the setting—there were no iPhones or snow-covered streets in Resident Evil 2—and that it 'doesn't look like Resident Evil.'
It's true that the first trailer (embedded above) doesn't scream 'Resident Evil,' though I assume that's by design. Explicit references to the setting are withheld until after the title reveal, when we hear in the stinger that the protagonist's very bad day takes place in Raccoon City. Theater audiences are meant to go ooh and then connect the dots they missed earlier in the trailer, like the conspicuously-placed typewriter, a reference to Resident Evil's save locations.
But this is obviously not a straight adaptation of Resident Evil 2. Rather than putting existing Resident Evil characters and stories on the screen, Cregger says he's centering the player's experience.
"I want fans of the games to just know that I am a giant fan of the games," the director told ScreenRant recently . "I am making this movie to celebrate the games. I haven't seen the other movies.
I am making this movie to celebrate the games. I haven't seen the other movies.
Resident Evil director Zach Cregger
"What I'm not doing in this is that I'm not going to cannibalize the characters and the stories that the games already do so well, because I'm not going to be able to improve on Leon. I feel like Leon exists in the games and anyone I cast and any haircut I give him or any line of dialogue I make him say, it's just not going to be Leon because Leon exists.
"What I'd rather do is tell an original story that lives in the world of the games, that obeys the rules of the games largely, but feels more like the experience you get when you're playing the games. That is leaning into the survival horror aspect of it—it's not survival action, it's survival horror."
That sounds like a great approach to me, though I do understand the desire for a more direct adaptation. By chance, I had just finished reading the first of the Foundation books when the Apple TV show based on the Isaac Asimov series came out, and was appalled by how little the show resembled what I'd just read. Some say the story as written was 'unadaptable,' but I'm not sure I ever think that's true.
That said, even if it's possible to make a good, direct adaptation of Resident Evil 2, there's a real chance you'd wind up with something that only a narrow band of filmgoers care about, or worse, that resembles a Tommy Wiseau flick.
(The game's opening cutscene features Leon casually saying "What's up with that guy?" while firing into a crowd of the first zombies he's ever seen in his life.)
The closest Capcom has come to greenlighting a direct, live action Resident Evil adaptation is the most recent film, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, which wasn't especially good. Before that were all the Milla Jovovich movies, and Milla Jovovich is not, in fact, a Resident Evil videogame character.
After seven not-all-that-great Resident Evil movies that also aren't direct adaptations of the games, it's not entirely clear to me why Cregger's approach is taking heat. It might partially be a reaction to the comedic undertones in the trailer. Cregger is funny, as his Whitest Kids U'Know sketch comedy career attests, and I get the sense that his Resident Evil movie will be laced with levity.
I'm looking forward to it. One of the best working horror directors of the moment making a movie based on a game series he personally loves is the kind of thing we could only dream about back in the day, when the closest thing to that you got were Uwe Boll flicks.
If this movie's no good, I'm sure there'll be more shots at adapting Resident Evil in the future, because not being very good hasn't stopped the film series from continuing thus far.
How are you feeling about what you've seen of Cregger's take on Raccoon City? There's a poll above, and comments below.
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