RPD Dispatch 7 - Apocalypse & Extinction

[Skunky]

Good quick summary of the book, Archelon.
I can't remember why the planet dried up either. I read the book before the movie was released, so it's been a while. It's probably not even explained.

Jill's side story should have been included in the movie. It was pretty interesting and would have made the film soooo much better.

I've got some time this afternoon. I guess I should subject myself to watching Extinction again, before listing to the new podcast... If I remember right, the zombie make-up was the best of the 3 films and there was some entertaining gore and effects but I didn't enjoy the movie overall.
I hated how they added a chick called Claire, who had NOTHING in common with the game character. Claire is the most human and caring of the RE characters but in the movie she's a hard ass, military, tough bitch.

[Bertha]

Yeah, Henderson was in Apocalypse. I don't think they reference him by name in the movie, though. And if I remember correctly, Wesker was a CEO for Umbrella.

I barely remembered him if he was in the movie. I mentioned Wesker for the simple fact that it shows how great a difference his history is from game to movie. He's the chairman of Umbrella in Japan. Since he was never apart of STARS, I doubt they'll have any reason to bring Jill back into the movies. And if Chris shows up, he'll probably just be there to aid Claire and the survivors. And yes....Claire does mention Chris in the book.

Good quick summary of the book, Archelon.
I can't remember why the planet dried up either. I read the book before the movie was released, so it's been a while. It's probably not even explained.

Jill's side story should have been included in the movie. It was pretty interesting and would have made the film soooo much better.

I've got some time this afternoon. I guess I should subject myself to watching Extinction again, before listing to the new podcast... If I remember right, the zombie make-up was the best of the 3 films and there was some entertaining gore and effects but I didn't enjoy the movie overall.
I hated how they added a chick called Claire, who had NOTHING in common with the game character. Claire is the most human and caring of the RE characters but in the movie she's a hard ass, military, tough bitch.

I didn't like movie Claire that much simply because she had no character. She could have been a lot better if she had more screen time. And the planet dried up....I believe because of the T-virus killing everything. They didn't take into account that the virus would have had no affect on the plants unless they were exposed to the virus...and in that case they would have just mutated and become deadly. Anderson wanted to create the films to be more like Mad Max so the world became a desert.

[Archelon]

If I remember right, the zombie make-up was the best of the 3 films and there was some entertaining gore and effects

That was one of the things I was happy to see in Extinction.

I remember watching an interview with Anderson on the dvd of the first movie and him mentioning how hard he had to push to make sure the movie got an R rating because of the content of the games. However, I always thought the R ratings for both the first movie and Apocalypse were wasted on pointless swearing and nudity.

Sure, there was some gore, but hardly anything worthy of an R rating. I was really glad to finally see some real gore in Extinction. This is not to say that gore automatically makes for a better movie. Far from it, in fact.

My point is that when you fight for an R rating for the expressed purpose of making a gory movie only to use the R rating as an excuse for constant swearing and assorted nude shots, you clearly need to reevaluate your priorities.

[Rombie]

Going slightly off the current thread, in the last Podcast I made reference to the infamous "Sunglasses on zombies" comment about Romero making the film which was posted online. I think I said GameSpot but it was actually on IGN... in any case, I found the exact quote:

...Romero lacked the feel of Resident Evil. He essentially was turning Resident Evil into Dawn of the Dead, instead of making it new and original, the source added. 'He wanted to put sunglasses on the zombies and do other goofy stuff that didn't fit in at all.'

Interestingly, Extinction has a zombie with sunglasses... the "State Trooper" zombie which attacks LJ. More interestingly than this, in one of the extras they talk to the guy in charge of the zombie makeup, who refers to this "state trooper" zombie as one of his favs because it's a character zombie and then makes the crazy comment that because they go to Vegas it would have been awesome to make a zombie Elvis impersonator and zombie showgirls.

[Becky's Butt]

Hey guys, when you've finished reviewing the RE games, would you ever do the Silent Hill series?
Just wondering. Since this forum has two forums dedicated to these two horror series and I'd say most, or at least half, of RE fans also are SH fans. Just my guess though.

EDIT:
Also, this interview with Leon you guys mention in Episode #4 and 5, did that happen?

[Skunky]

I watched Extinction again on BR. It was a lot better than I remembered it!
In terms of purely visual entertainment, the film really excels. It looks great, is quite well shot, has great effects and has some stunning scenery. The zombies are varied and look excellent, the Tyrant at the end looked a lot better than I remembered and the film is filled with awesome, juicy, splattering head shots. I also enjoyed Alice's hack & slash action with her machetes.
The production values were far above the previous films.
I found it mindless but quite watchable...
My impressions of the story, plot and characters hasn't changed. I thought that side of things was very poor, sometimes just stupid. But I enjoyed it more than when I recently re-watched the first movie.

[Darkmoon]

The plants being infected thing is probably the biggest screw up. You think about and it makes less and less sense. Alright, let's say the T-Virus can easily infect plants. We have no evidence for it, either in the games or the movies, since killer trees aren't stalking the street and houseplants don't hurl there pot as a precuror to attack.

Well, then you have the issue of the plants being infected. Do you see zombies taking the vegetarian option anyone? Ever see a licker gnawing some tree bark rather than human flesh? Nope? Then how is the virus getting to the plants to infect them? The only conclusion is it's either in the water supply or the air, and since virtually all plant life is gone it can't be the water. It would mean any water the survivor's drank that wasn't bottled before the outbreak would kill them.

And as for air...well, that would mean everyone is a zombie. Which doesn't work either.

Of course, one must wonder why the plants simply die rather than mutate as well.

In other words...someone went, "Wouldn't it be cool to do a Mad Max like thing? But how? I know! We'll say the T-Virus did it. No one ever thinks about movies anyway, and we'll have Alice flash them a few minutes later to wipe the explanation from there mind.'

[Becky's Butt]

The T-Virus in the films was able to travel by air and everything else since the first film. I believe the Red Queen explains how it "mutates" or whatnot. Heck, I believe it infected everyone in the Hive by air.

[Darkmoon]

Yes, it did. And then it doesn't. Otherwise Alice would have been a zombie and such. Which I'm pretty sure didn't happen.

If it travels via air to infect plants then Alice would be the last survivor, since she's likely now immune to the T-Virus.

[Dot50Cal]

Alice was in the upper part of the mansion. Neither her or Spence were in the hive, which was sealed off. I guess it dissipates eventually.

[Darkmoon]

That's what I meant, yes. It's no longer in the air when they go down into the Hive. The only way to transmit it is zombie bite. Clearly it's the same situation in other movies, what with people still surviving...which means zombies cows have eaten all the plants?

[Rombie]

The viral change in the original was to explain how the leaked virus, propagated via the air, wasn't going to infect the team once they came to investigate the hive. I don't think you'll ever be able to explain the desert thing except to say Anderson wanted the post apocalptic Mad Max thing as others have mentioned.

Regardless, and a point I or anyone else neglected to make during the last podcast, is should a real team be dispatched to a lab where the company is a pharamceutical base, then it's likely the team would never remove their gas/biohazard masks just in case. Obviously though that wouldn't make for a good movie.

[REmaster]

Sadly I won't be commenting on this podcast. As much fun as it is doing the podcast, I don't think I can handle talking about the sequels. The first one was enough for me, but good luck to you courageous people. I'm always looking forward to Nomad's comments, The Selfish Gene's cool accent and Dot's smooth-Jazz DJ voice.

[Alzaire]

We're still in the middle of recording the podcast. You can tell we, too, obviously weren't very enthusiastic about talking about these movies, haha.

[Becky's Butt]

Well there's still RE Survivor to review after this.
Always a bright side to look at ya know.
[/jk]