Wasted Brains

I used to be a backseat gamer. You know, the kind who watches someone play a game and interjects, at times, questions, tips or reactions that may or may not make the end result of the game better. Or, from the point of view of the player, mostly annoying stuff that bothers his concentration. Much like a regular backseat driver except that you won't get booted off the car once the annoyance reached boiling point. Haha. But you do get lectured, or if your lucky, have your questions answered, if you just watch the game. Because, like all backseat gamers, I suck at playing games. Well, mildly suck. To this day I can say I only finished one creepy game the entire time the old PlayStation was still with us. The game unfortunately isn't Resident Evil. For the life of me I always get eaten by zombies by the time I step out of the police station. So I think mildly suck is an understatement.

I do enjoy watching creepy action films. Zombies are fun to watch back then; they are slow, they just want to feed (unfortunately, humans are on the menu), and that's it. Until the film 28 Days Later came in. Zombies become fast, more aggressive than usual and well, they still feed. I haven't had much luck in reading zombies in books (Just World War Z, check. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, check.) but I love watching action films with zombies in them. I like to see them die and uh, stay dead.

Hence, Resident Evil. I've seen all three previous films. And today, for my Peril on the Screen for RIP V Challenge, I'll discuss the fourth installment to the franchise.

Alice is back, as well as her clones. After vowing in the last scene of Resident Evil: Extinction that she'll come after the leaders of the Umbrella Corporation, we are now transported to Japan where the underground facility of the group becomes Alice's target. Unfortunately, Wesker got to her with a serum erasing all the superhuman effects of the T-virus in her cells. This after eliminating all her clones with a blast that left a very large hole in what was once Japan. But hey, since Alice is the heroine of this film, sans her superhuman abilities, she somehow survives a plane crash. Whew.

She now flies to Arcadia. It's the haven in Alaska previously discussed in the third film. But all she finds there is Claire with a mechanical bug strapped to her chest, feral and with major memory loss. She couldn't remember Alice. But Alice took her back and off they flew searching for survivors across the States. They landed in California and met a ragtag team of survivors holed up in a prison.

And gee, maybe I shouldn't discuss the entire thing, right? I practically mentioned stuff better off seen than said, anyway. But here's what I thought about the whole thing.

If you're looking for some mind-enriching activity, this is not it. If you're looking for semblance of characters believable enough to be stuck on top of a prison garrison, this is not it. One thing it is is that it's an action film so you expect and hope for great action scenes. You can only hope for good dialogue or even lines and gee, I only get one and it's even an inside joke, so to speak, with respect to Wentworth Miller's character. And those who don't have any idea of the series Prison Break might not even get it. Short of saying this is my least liked Resident Evil film of the four.

Yes, the action scenes are sort of ok. I liked that part seen on the trailer where Alice is being chased by a horde of zombies on top of the building. But all the 3D stuff, I don't know. When I watch action scenes, I want them fast and good. Like watching Jason Statham slathered in oil fighting a horde of baddies in the first Transporter movie. I don't want my action scenes slow-mo'ed for the purpose of giving effect to the 3D elements of the film. It breaks the pacing for the purpose of the effect. And I didn't like the fact that fight scenes near the end feels like The Matrix all over again, complete with Wesker in shades and dodging bullets and what-not.

But the zombie dogs are creepy. Creeeeepy. There's not much zombie stuff anyway. There appears to be new ones, the kind that has a stinger, pretty much like the vampires of del Toro's The Strain. And there's this big, tall, covered thing with the very large ax bent on killing the girls. For a zombie, he sure looks like he could process information (instead of the usual "Oooh humans, food!"). Then again, I could be missing some characters from the game.

In a nutshell it's mindless, sort of fun action flick enough to waste your time if needed. It's something you watch if you've already invested yourself with the first three films, like I do. Because I learned to care about Alice even if I miss Carlos terribly. There's not much emotional connection with the other cast to care for them right now and I would probably ignore the next film until uh, that last scene after the initial round of credits were featured and made me go "What the...."

So yes, in a couple or so years I'll probably see the sequel to this one. Let's hope it's way, way better than this.