by John Bizub, Contributing Writer
Welcome to the second issue in my series titled, Another Person’s Treasure. In this series, discuss films that have not been well received by critics and have not been well liked by the general public. However, I think there are films that deserve to be given a second chance. Let us begin, shall we?
One of the latest mediums that has gained the attraction from many is video games. Video games have proven to not just to be a “toy for the TV.” The medium allows for more expansive storytelling and audiences gain an appreciation for characters that become more iconic than some characters in movies and television. However, what helps players grow a bond with this form of storytelling is that it allows them to maintain control of their characters, the health of the character, and their cosmetics. Only the players have complete control of their avatar.
However, turning beloved properties from the small screen to the big screen is no easy challenge. It’s not about how much research you do on a certain property; it’s capturing the feeling of playing video games. Sure, films like Super Mario Bros. and Sonic the Hedgehog are fun flicks for an audience, but their purpose is to make money and fanboys can obsess over its representation in the media. However, they don’t capture the essence that only video games can capture.
If there is one filmmaker that only captures the energy and understands the groundwork that video games have is Paul W.S. Anderson. From Mortal Kombat and his latest outing Monster Hunter, he captures the aura that these games have established themselves as, and it’s up to Anderson to pave a road for Hollywood to follow along. For Mortal Kombat, it’s the corny executions and dialogue used in the games. And for Monster Hunter, it is the big cosmetic weapons and huge battles with humans and monsters. But what if I told you that Anderson’s Resident Evil franchise is one of the best film franchises out there, and that the fifth installment, Retribution, is not only the most accurate video game film, but ranks among the best blockbusters i’ve ever seen.
The Resident Evil franchise preceding Retribution follows an outbreak caused by employees by the big corporation known as the “Umbrella Corporation.” It causes humans to turn into morphed zombies, and by the fifth film, the outbreak has mutated to the rest of the world. Society, minus a few extra survivors, is turned into zombies. And it is up to Milla Jovovich’s Alice, to save the rest of society and defeat the head of the Umbrella Corporation, Albert Wesker.
Resident Evil: Retribution is a film displayed in levels, all told in a compelling way about the fight for control in a male dominated world, told by a man whose wife (Jovovich) has carried a franchise on her entire shoulders. It is a hyper-conceptualized post-modern work that feels lightyears ahead of its time. The action sequences feel big and acrobatic, while feeling very small scaled at the same time. What film this century will you find two women fighting two big men carrying 20 foot axes? The world building introduced by the previous films feels very insignificant here, making the formalist views in Afterlife feel obsolete like it was chewed up and spit out. While everything feels like it takes place on a physical landscape, many feel virtual and understanding the ideology of what video games have to offer. And every climactic fight feels like the heightened reality of boss fights seen across video games. Nothing feels like wasted time. There feels like a sense of urgency like games do.
Resident Evil: Retribution feels like the only film of its kind that understands the topic it’s covering. Sure, the characters are written differently, but Anderson is going less for accuracy and more environmentalist realities. He understands different types of filmmaking styles, and it is seen throughout the franchise, but Anderson truly proves himself as a master with Resident Evil: Retribution.