The 3rd RE live action movie that debuted in 2007
Milla Jovovich is set to return as Alice from the real live action films based on the universe of Capcom’s Resident Evil series. The new movie, “Resident Evil: Afterlife” will begin filming late in the end of the year and set to come out in 2010. Rumored to be in Afterlife is Resident Evil 2’s Leon S. Kennedy played by Jensen Ackels from Supernatural, Jason O’ Mara as Albert Wesker, Johnny Messner as Chris Redfield, and Austin Peck as Kevin Ryman.
It will be interesting to see how these characters are introduced and developed as many fans of the RE series have mixed feelings about the new faces that may be seen in the fourth movie. The Resident Evil movies have early on strayed from the direction of the games. Many viewers feel that the cameo appearances of favorite characters such as Jill Valentine, Claire Redfield, and Albert Wesker were either short lived, nothing like the characters they original loved, or not satisfactorily completed with their counterparts.
For example, Jill Valentine, played by Sienna Guillory, appeared in Resident Evil Apocalypse. She seemed similar to Valentine in physical resemblance and attire, but the most obvious missing trait was the existence of her partner, Chris Redfield. There are three main factors that are a known tradition in the Resident Evil games.
The first is that there are generally two playable characters, one man and one woman. For example, in Resident Evil 1, the main characters are Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine. In RE2, the player has the choice of choosing Leon S. Kennedy or Claire Redfield. In the minds of hardcore RE fans, “you can’t have one without the other.” The second characteristic is that there is a large grotesque mutant or tyrant that poses as the immediate main antagonist in the game. The third factor that many fans look forward to is the giant explosion in the end that ultimately destroys the lab/city that the previous events have taken place.
A basic review and refresher course in Resident Evil.
1) Resident Evil 1- main characters are Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine. RE1 also serves as Albert Wesker’s first appearance. The majority of the game takes place in Spencer Mansion.
2) Resident Evil 2- main characters are Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield. RE2 introduces Ada Wong and Dr. Birkin (creator of the G-virus) for the first time. The game takes place in Raccoon City and its police department.
3) Resident Evil 3: Nemsis- main characters are Jill Valentine and Carlos Oliveira. The timeline with this game is directly related to RE2.
The movie adaptations are not even close. They are only similar to the games in terminology and two or three main events. One example is the destruction of Raccoon City and the debut of Nemesis. Characters do not have the same personalities, timelines and backgrounds are mixed, and Milla’s character, Alice, is completely fictional. Do the Resident Evil movies live up to the standards of cinema’s horror genre? Yes. Do they live up to the standards of the Resident Evil/Biohazard universe? No. That much is evident when the first movie came out.
In the most recent movie, RE: Extinction (2007), Alice developed a supernatural ability. To some, Alice’s newfound ability completely severed any ties between the movies and games. While her powers were pretty to see on screen and gave the CGI team a special project to work on, many RE fans believe it was a disappointing turn for the movies to take. However, despite the reviews, Extinction was able to rake in roughly $150 million worldwide, breaking the records of its prequels, giving life to the creation of a fourth film.
Resident Evil: Afterlife’s script is said to be complete, but there is no way of anticipating its plot. New characters will be introduced, leaving the question if any older faces will make a reappearance, and considering the resolution of Extinction, the fourth installment of the RE movies can easily be full of plot twists. However, it is not so hard to see that “Afterlife” will be another zombie horror film that just happens to be named Resident Evil.
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