Review Detail

This is a 5-to-1 edit, or more accurately, a 5-to-2, since the final edit is divided into Episode 1 and Episode 2. The original 5 are all the Resident Evil films, except the 1st one. This is a smart choice, as the 5 films include a lot of flashbacks and retells of the same events, and almost all of these were cut effectively, creating a single chronological story.

In terms of narrative, the end-result is spot-on. Most of the way-too-crazy moments, the whimsical “retcon” sections and simply the poor writing bits are gone. The story became cohesive, and it actually felt like a complete trilogy (if this edit is watched after the original 2002 film, as intended), instead of the disjointed film series the originals became.

My gripes with this are fully because of editing, particularly related to the audio. More than a few audio cuts were very noticeable, way too abrupt and jarring. Most of these were in Part 2 / Episode 2, like at 1h10m47, 1h12m16, from 1h14m47 to 1h16m55 (for this entire fight, the audio was all over the place), 1h33m46 and 1h47m01, just to give the more obvious examples. The many sudden audio changes (all where new cuts were introduced) definitely affected my viewing experience.