Resident Evil 4: The Movie

[Biohazard EX]

That's true, but equally, there is no need to have one main character and a bunch of minor characters.

Look at Firefly and it's movie, Serenity. There are nine characters with Mal as the lead but, interestingly, all the characters are strong and have there own ups and downs, and each has a vital role. Especially in the movie. You couldn't cut one of those guys out. And yes, then there were minor characters, and even some extras. But the main cast was important.

Which could have happened in the RE movies. Nemesis could have been hunting Jill, Calros could have had a bigger role, Claire could have had a bigger role doing something other than shooting a couple of folk and deciding to go to Alaska. But they didn't.

Well, I didn't say Extinction was a work of genius. Serenity was a work of genius.
Resident Evil is a casual action flick. Movies like that I don't watch for their deep, and engaging storyline. I watch them for the action, and special effects. The side characters and their moments are just a bonus.

Serenity, is completely the other way around. The movie could've had no action in it whatsoever. I watched Firefly and Serenity for one reason: The characters.

Darkmoon I give up, I think he is having us on there is no way he really liked the movies, specially the 3rd its impossible he just trying to get to us.

Umm... Yeah... I'm trying to get to you...
Here's a question. Why do you even care the slightest about what I think? Or what I have to say?

[Darkmoon]

Just because it is an action movie doesn't automatically mean the damned thing had to be Alice, Alice and a bit more Alice with a light sprinkling of supporting characters. Hell, they didn't even need to put them on the same level. As with the example of Jill...was it so hard to make Nemesis hunt her as well? It stays that little bit truer to the origional, makes her character that much more important, and doesn't effect Alice in any way because in the end of the day it was still Matt and she could still covert him.

After reading the script of the first game, the one Dot put up, I can see how it all happened because Anderson is clearly a touch obssesed with the character of Alice, although I dunno is Milla was cast for the part at the time of writting. That doesn't mean it makes a good movie, though, or that it's a good idea.

And the fact the others really did get such minor roles when they could have easily made them bigger and more important is quite...frustrating.

[Biohazard EX]

Look, EVERY movie could be improved in retrospect. But you're only looking at the negative. What about the fact that Nemesis or Jill or Carlos were in it at all? What about the fact that unlike certain second best selling movie in history, RE movies didn't drag on. They were fast paced (2 and 3, anyway), they had good effects, great action, and they weren't made to be summer PG-13 blockbusters where you got some punk kid who's always played by the same damn actor, saving the day in the end, even if the movie wasn't even about him.

I could give you plenty of way every other action movie in the world could be improved. I could tell you how the Silent Hill movie could've been improved, but that doesn't change the fact that it was still a good movie. Especially for a Video Game adaptation.
At the end, it was simple. I watched the movie, and without overanalyzing every little piece about it, I simply said to myself. "Was it enjoyable?" And yes, I found all of them to be very enjoyable. As a matter of fact I saw Extinction in theaters three times. Got the Blu-Ray on release date (which was January 1st, New Years day), and looked in 3 different places before I found a copy, which I watched about 3 or 4 times since, and enjoyed it very much.
Since I did, I'm looking forward to the next one. It's as simple as that.

[P Anderson DIE]

Dude id rather if Jill and Nemesis werent in it at all infact id rather have no Resident Evil movie made I wish it was that easy. Why couldnt he just release his own frachise called "My Misses Is Well Ard"

[Biohazard EX]

And I'd rather RE4 had T-Virus, Zombies and Umbrella in it with pre-rendered camera angles, but we can't all get what we want. You enjoy your games, I'll enjoy the movies, it's as simple as that.

[Darkmoon]

Yes, I am. But, in this case, it's because the bad overwhelms the good for me. I personally felt that it would have been better if Jill, Carlos and Nemesis weren't there at all. I honestly feel the characters were so under used it would have made very little difference.

And yes, the movies are well paced, although I think another ten minutes for character development not related to Alice and such wouldn't have hurt them.

I watched the movies, especially the second and third, assuming they'd be of at least similar quality to the first. Hell, I even rented Apocolypse as a special birthday treat with a bunch of other horror movies. It was, without a doubt, the worst one there. Probably because I disovered too late it wasn't a bad horror, but a bad action movie.

Simply put, I couldn't get over the wall around the city, how unimportant Jill was, and a few other things. I do admit it improved in a few other ways, like the zombie death ratio, and Alice does show a lot more emotion than most of the videogame characters. But just as you enjoyed it as a relatively mindless action movie I couldn't enjoy it at all, probably because it's a relatively mindless action movie.

And, of course, you also make the same mistake I do, focusing entirely on the bad points of RE4 where as the good points are it plays like a dream, it looks stunning, it is a great action game...

...and a bad Resident Evil. But it does have it's good points.

[Biohazard EX]

Yeah, but in the case of games, I wasn't looking or a great action game. I was looking for Resident Evil. In the case of games, I was looking for something that I could say, "Yeah, I can see how they lead to this particular part of the storyline." Not something completely foreign to the franchise.
And I played RE4 and at first, I enjoyed it, hoping that maybe they'll at least correct the path afterwards. But after the hype died down, and especially after playing Umbrella Chronicles, I saw the way it was going and I hated it. I mean, I could've cut myself off at UC, but then I just figured, there's really no point in following RE4, if I'm not gonna follow the rest of the series. The bad outweighed the good, and I simply cared too much.
Especially now. You say plays like a dream, looks stunning, great action game, shoot lots of angry spanish people... For all I know you're talking about Uncharted. So if that's the only redeeming qualities of RE4, I might as well just take Uncharted as an alternative.
The merchant/weapon system, the new characters, the monsters, and the backstory of Las Plagas, were all extremely heavy bad points which tainted the series for me.

Like I said, there's a simple line which Paul Anderson didn't cross: He didn't try and intertwine the game storyline with the movie storyline.

[Darkmoon]

No, although the games seem to be taking more from the movies.

And I'm in essentially the same position with the movies. The bad far and away outweighs the good. They're not just bad Resident Evil movies though, they're bad movies outright as far as I'm concerned.

[Biohazard EX]

That's harsh. There's nothing wrong with the films aside from the fact that Alice takes a little too much focus. But that's like saying Neo takes up too much focus in The Matrix Reloaded.
Either way, the games are a lost cause for me, so this is all I have to look forward to, unless Perry decides to write another novel and it's not based on RE4 or UC.

[Foggle]

Look at Firefly and it's movie, Serenity. There are nine characters with Mal as the lead but, interestingly, all the characters are strong and have there own ups and downs, and each has a vital role. Especially in the movie. You couldn't cut one of those guys out. And yes, then there were minor characters, and even some extras. But the main cast was important.

Serenity was a work of genius.

Serenity, is completely the other way around. The movie could've had no action in it whatsoever. I watched Firefly and Serenity for one reason: The characters.

You both are officially now on my "cool list." Which doesn't really exist, but whatever. Firefly was so amazing that it practically oozed quality out of every orifice.

Okay, that was kind of nasty.