Review Detail
8.4 5 10
Enjoyment
8.0
I haven’t seen the original Resident Evil for a while so I’m not sure what exactly got cut, but in any case I enjoyed Aztek’s version better than my memory of the theatrical cut overall, and particularly in its first half, in which it becomes a straightforward action movie with touches of horror and almost no one-liners (I detest one-liners during tense situations, they destroy the mood and show a complete disregard for human behavior in real life, but I must be out of my mind because everyone has to love them, otherwise mainstream cinema wouldn’t be so overloaded with them). Unfortunately, the second half is still too cliche-ridden and has quite too many of those lines still left. As with Az’s previous Biohazard edit of the sequels, I feel like some of the over-the-top stuff left in must for some reason appeal to die-hard fans of the movie series and that’s why it remains. I’m no fan and find those moments ludicrous, so overall I felt the edit was an improvement and a solid effort but still too lite.
Stuff I would have liked to see removed or changed or that bothered me in a way or another:
-After gunning down the first zombie, that extended shot of Rain seems to scream “Hey-just-look-how-bad-ass-a-chick-I-am-keep-looking-and-be-amazed-just-a-bit-more-wow-am-I-tough-and-cool”. Hey, move on, gal. The whole Rain character is written as desperately trying to ape Vasquez from Aliens, and as a result she’s not a character, she’s an imitation of a character, if you know what I mean.
-I wish the Licker had been heavily, and I mean heavily, trimmed. It’s one of the most ludicrous and laughably fake CGI creations I’ve had the misfortune to witness, and takes me out of the story every time it pops up. Reduce it to some fast shots and it might start remotely resembling an effect that works.
-You left in “When I get outta here I think I’m gonna get laid”? Epic facepalm. Probably the most embarrassing line in the whole movie. At least you removed the post-credits reprise of it (the fact that the filmmakers put it there speaks volumes about the “artistic” intentions of the movie).
-The Red Queen’s “I’ve been a bad, bad girl” almost beats the above line. A wisecracking security computer. Genius. NOT. Keeping her cold and “objective”, a bit like HAL 9000, would have been much more effective and made her creepier.
-Bullet time shot. Ugh. Ugh also to many of the physically improbable acrobatics and the slo-mo (or what’s much worse, speed changes within the same shot) during the fights, but I get the feeling that fans like those. To each their own.
Still, a good edit, but one that I wish had gone further. 8/10 overall.
Stuff I would have liked to see removed or changed or that bothered me in a way or another:
-After gunning down the first zombie, that extended shot of Rain seems to scream “Hey-just-look-how-bad-ass-a-chick-I-am-keep-looking-and-be-amazed-just-a-bit-more-wow-am-I-tough-and-cool”. Hey, move on, gal. The whole Rain character is written as desperately trying to ape Vasquez from Aliens, and as a result she’s not a character, she’s an imitation of a character, if you know what I mean.
-I wish the Licker had been heavily, and I mean heavily, trimmed. It’s one of the most ludicrous and laughably fake CGI creations I’ve had the misfortune to witness, and takes me out of the story every time it pops up. Reduce it to some fast shots and it might start remotely resembling an effect that works.
-You left in “When I get outta here I think I’m gonna get laid”? Epic facepalm. Probably the most embarrassing line in the whole movie. At least you removed the post-credits reprise of it (the fact that the filmmakers put it there speaks volumes about the “artistic” intentions of the movie).
-The Red Queen’s “I’ve been a bad, bad girl” almost beats the above line. A wisecracking security computer. Genius. NOT. Keeping her cold and “objective”, a bit like HAL 9000, would have been much more effective and made her creepier.
-Bullet time shot. Ugh. Ugh also to many of the physically improbable acrobatics and the slo-mo (or what’s much worse, speed changes within the same shot) during the fights, but I get the feeling that fans like those. To each their own.
Still, a good edit, but one that I wish had gone further. 8/10 overall.
D