With Resident Evil: The Final Chapter closing the book at the film series, some fans are now clamoring for Hollywood to resurrect and reboot the film franchise. However, much like the T-Virus from the games, this isn’t a good idea.
The Resident Evil film franchise is one of the most, if not the most, successful video game movie series ever. With a total of six feature length films under its belt and raking in over one billion dollars worldwide, fans of Capcom’s landmark survival horror video game franchise are sad to see the entire film series end with the release of Resident Evil: The Final Chapter.
Oh, who am I kidding? No true-blue Resident Evil fan loves the movies! These films are an abomination to the games! The films have virtually no connection to the games they are supposed to represent. The action is hokey and the acting is just as bad. But I can’t blame Hollywood for keeping the series as long as it had as they do make a ton of cash. But finally, with Resident Evil: The Final Chapter it’s all going to end. And some fans are looking at this to be a possible way to reboot the Resident Evil film franchise, start from scratch and actually make some really good movies that follows the events of the games.
Well, I for one am against the idea. I say let the Resident Evil movies die with The Final Chapter. I say get a shotgun, aim it at the head of any possible chances of a reboot and fire. Let the live action movie series rest in peace finally.
First off, can we all admit that live action film adaptations of video games generally suck? Movies based on video games have a stigma of being incredibly bad and deservedly so. Ever since the first video game movie, Super Mario Bros., was released in 1993, we’ve been getting really terrible big screen adaptations of our favorite video games and even more than two decades later, nothing’s changed. When the best live action video game movie is the incredibly silly and cheesy Mortal Kombat, you know things are bad. With things still in a shambles, I don’t rebooting the Resident Evil films now would change things.
Also, I don’t think Capcom is really all that interested in making sure that the movies based on their video games are of any good quality if history is to believed. Besides Resident Evil, Hollywood already tried to make another film franchise based on one of Capcom’s successful video games, Street Fighter. Not once, but twice!
Everyone remembers the first movie based on Street Fighter. It was the one that starred Belgian actor as the all-American soldier William Guile, the karate masters Ryu and Ken as con artists and was the final film role of the great Raul Julia. It’s a terrible movie and, for a film based on a video game that’s all about fighting, there were hardly any fights. I will admit that there is a part of me that enjoys Street Fighter for the dumb movie that it is. Mostly because it’s utterly ridiculous but also because it has one of my most favorite movie quotes ever. “But for me, it was Tuesday” indeed.
However, most people forget Capcom and Hollywood’s second try at making a Street Fighter film. That film is the much maligned Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. Say what you will about the first Street Fighter movie. At least that film had charm, cheese and the great Raul Julia in it. The Legend of Chun-Li wasn’t good. It wasn’t even one of those “so bad, it’s good” films. It was just bad, period. What’s worse, the film even hints at there being a sequel, with Gen telling Chun-Li of a great fighter named Ryu who can help them.
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li was supposed to be a reboot of sorts, totally wiping out the events from the first movie. You know how many years were in between the making of these films? Fifteen years. So, Hollywood and, essentially, Capcom, had fifteen years to cultivate and approve a screenplay that was rich in Street Fighter lore and history, visualize and choreograph some fantastic fight scenes, hire and get special effects artists that could produce all of the CGI needed so they could also produce all the special attacks from the games. And they still couldn’t do that during those fifteen years. I’m thinking they’d probably do the same for a Resident Evil film reboot.
But to those who are still clamoring for a reboot because Resident Evil deserves better than those Paul Anderson written, produced and directed by disasters, to those that want to see movies based on the games that are faithful to the story and the characters, well, there are already some rather decent films out there. Look no further than the animated Resident Evil film series from Japan.
Much like in the same way Toho decided to make Godzilla movies again after Hollywood produced its own version of the King of Monsters (for the second time), Japan made their own Resident Evil movies, this time, using 3D animation. They’ve released two films so far, Resident Evil: Degeneration and Resident Evil: Damnation. Both films don’t actually cover the events of any of the games but they do follow the continuity and its lore. They’re essentially side stories and relay the events and stories in-between the games.
While these Japanese produced CGI feature films aren’t anything really special, they are decent. They’re definitely much better than the live action brethren. The Japanese produced Resident Evil films more than pay homage to the source material and are respectful to the characters of the games. The action is pretty fun as well. Basically, these are the Resident Evil movies that Hollywood should have been making in the first place. So, if there are already two good movies based on the Resident Evil franchise and a third film on the way, is there really a need to actually make another live action film series based on it? I don’t really see the need anymore.
Like you, I would’ve wanted the live action Resident Evil movies to be financially successful, critically acclaimed and faithful to the games. This did not happen, however. With the film series finally ending, I say let it end. Much like the zombies and monsters in the Resident Evil games, I hope Hollywood will refrain from raising the movies back from the dead. Let it die, I say.
