| about
trismugistus.com
and digital-bondage.net
are my web sites.
trismugistus.com
is where I upload my anime, manga and tv&film reviews,
and also where I occasionally post short stories and longer
works I've written.
digital-bondage.net
is my wallpaper site and provides anime, manga and other
desktop wallpapers in a variety of resolutions. I also
have a few tutorials and some resources, such as psds
for you to download.
I also run a site called scan-city.org,
which provides scans from the latest japanese anime magazines
for you to download and use in your wallpapers.
You can also read my blog here
or check out my anime list here. |
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| details |
| The Genre: Action/Horror |
| The Format: DVD |
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| The plot: |
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| opinion |
| I love zombies.
Not in the spittle swapping sense, you understand,
but in the ‘always give me the creeps’
sense. I dunno why, as movie monsters go they’re
actually a bit lame - shuffling, slow, stupid; they
can’t generally even open doors. But they
give me the screaming willies.
Maybe it’s the whole cannabilism thing; maybe
it’s the fact that they’re not mythical
in any sense. Hell, maybe it’s the whole idea
of death that gives me the heebie jeebies, but I’ve
always found zombie movies to be the cream of the
crop in terms of horror films. |
Not that zombie movies are generally any
good. Unsuspecting populace gets eaten alive
by the living dead pretty much sums up the
average b-grade zombie horror, and they are
generally b-grade movies. But there’s
nothing really qrong with that. You don’t
normally watch horror movies to be anything
other than entertained.
Of course there have been some shining highlights
in the genre - Romero’s Living Dead
trilogy manage to slip in a good dose of satire
with the spleen eating and then there’s...
er, well, actually that’s about it for
zombie flicks that are also good films.
So where does Resi sit?
Well, I was quite surprised to find that
it’s much more of a Romerolevel film
than I had expected. In fact I must say I
really rather enjoyed this film. |
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The truth is I had avoided this film for quite
some time. In cinematic terms there are few things
more likely to fill me with distain than the phrase
“based on a video game.” Video games
do not normally make good movies, just in the same
way that movies do not produce good games.
The reason is that they’re so different.
The thing that appeals about games is that you’re
involved in the action. That action can be relatively
mundane and repetive, and yet it can still be a
good game. Plot is often secondary, especially in
video games where they need to appeal to spotty
teenagers with an MTV-addled attention span.
Films on the other hand are all about story. You
watch but you don’t participate. They’re
also a hell of a lot shorter - one and a half to
two hours is a different kettle of fish compared
to 30-odd hours worth of game time.
There are many possible reasons why Resident Evil
is a bit of an exception. First off it’s based
on a very plot heavy game, which has a very movie
like feel to it. There’s plenty in the original
to work with compared to many potential game licences. |
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In addition it makes the quite brave decision
of being based on the game in a relatively loose
way. None of the characters or locations are transferred
directly from the game, although the ‘bad
guys’ in the form of the Umbrella Corporation
and the ‘bad guys’ in the form of the
zombies and some of the more exotic elements of
the game are also maintained.
But, whilst there are a handful of scenes that
could almost be matched to the game these don’t
feel simply like the recreation of game cut-sequences.
It’s also not in any way necessary for you
to be familiar with the game when you watch the
film.
Another reason I was avoiding this was because
in modern times there has been a perversion of the
zombie that I am not at all keen on. Modern zombies
all seem to be fast moving and vicious. Whilst this
certainly adds a new element of fast-paced drama
to me it removes one of the elements that’s
really scary about zombies.
Old school zombies are a bit like the tortoise
from the fable. They just keep going. They’re
the original unstoppable force and no matter how
far you run and how fast you move they will eventually
catch up to you. Ulitmately there’s nowhere
to run and all you can do is hide and hope that
they don’t find you. |
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Modern zombies are more like clubbers on
speed. They can run faster than you and they
want to eat you alive. Now I’m not saying
that isn’t scary, I’m just saying
that it’s not why zombies are scarrey.
The other parts of the game that are here
include the lickers and the dogs. The dogs
are done with some success, but the lickers
it must be said are a bit on the naff side.
Unfortunately, Resi kinda makes the mistake
of showing the monster too early with the
lickers.
Maybe this is just cos I knew what they were
supposed to be, but there really wasn’t
the required level of suspense and chasing
terror that there should have been, and it
was just sort of like “oh, them’s
the lickers then”. I guess part of this
is that when you’ve got zombies doing
your thing it feels like a bit of a over-complication
to do the whole “what’s that scarey
thing behind the door” bit. But still,
bit of an opportunity missed, I fell. |
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There are some great performances in the film
too. Milla jovovovovovitch is rather good, and there’s
a fine turn from the only black man who could play
James Bond. The characterisations are maybe a little
heavy on the video-game 2-dimensional cliche but
you certainly get invested in the characters and
actually give a bit of a crap when they’re
under threat of becoming zombie elevenzies.
Of course, you should bear in mind that you really
won’t like this film if you don’t like
horrors and may well not like it if your unhappy
with video-game sensibilities. If you don’t
go into it expecting the next psycho you shouldn’t
be disappointed.
The only part of the film I possibly wasn’t
so keen on was the end. It felt a bit too “zomg
sequalzor here” to me. I mean, it also had
a whole ‘downing ender’ thing to it,
which is cool. Jury’s still out for me on
it, I think.
The DVD package isn’t bad either with a few
commentaries and a few documentaries that add a
bit of extra bang for the old buck. All in all I’d
really rather recommend this, which I think I’m
more surprised by than anybody. |
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| summary |
| The Summary: Surprisingly entertaining, as it
goes. |
| The Score: 3/5 |
| The Pictures:
(click for larger versions) |
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