On Resident Evil: An Open Letter to Sony Pictures

Dear Sony Pictures,

As you know, Resident Evil 6 has just been announced, a stirring trailer accompanying it. The reactions are mostly positive, with some feeling it brings back the over the top gore feeling of the 4th and 5th games, and others feeling a sense of nostalgia that two familiar characters will be sharing the same screen.

Yet, when the trailer for your upcoming Resident Evil: Retribution was released, it was met with an overwhelming collective groan. Unlike the games, the movies have become no more than an excuse to watch Milla Jovovich be gorgeous. The first film was passable, the second one only slightly better if not purely for the familiarity of Raccoon City, but it was just downhill from there.

The Resident Evil films have no direction, they’re neverending and almost nonsensical, playing out like a poorly written fanfiction starring the author’s self insert character.

The Resident Evil films have no direction, they’re neverending and almost nonsensical, playing out like a poorly written fanfiction starring the author’s self insert character. The Resident Evil games have a treasure trove of lore and story behind them, each story and game unique, but still intertwined, still making sense. A series filled out with characters who communicate and work in teams with individual strengths and weaknesses have been placed in a series of films where they either serve as fan folly or are rendered useless by an overpowered character that wasn’t even in the games in the first place.

You had such a wonderful resource with a linear, exciting storyline that contained everything you wanted—action, mystery and romance. Instead, you chose to loosely stick to the canon so you could still leech off the Resident Evil brand while you made up the story as you went along. I watch the trailer for Retribution and my thoughts are somewhere between ‘what the hell does this have to do with Resident Evil?’ and ‘wow, Milla Jovovich is smoking hot.’

Let’s just linger on this Alice character for a moment, shall we? You had before you a plethora of fantastic and well known leading ladies—Claire Redfield, Jill Valentine and Ada Wong. Yet you somehow felt that creating your own character with god-like powers who’s half zombie herself now (I honestly have no idea, it stopped making sense after about the 3rd film) would be a better move.

The worst part is that there’s another Resident Evil movie made by different people that is infinitely better. Resident Evil: Degeneration wasn’t terrible, in fact, I’d even go as far to say it was pretty good in comparison. It made enough sense that you didn’t have to be a veteran of the series to understand what was happening, and they even introduced a few new characters without botching it up like you’ve managed to for five movies. Maybe this had to do with the fact that they weren’t paying millions on millions of dollars to pay actors with—but it can be done. Resident Evil can translate into a movie length narrative and work.

Resident Evil: Degeneration wasn’t terrible, in fact, I’d even go as far to say it was pretty good in comparison.

Now, you might argue that it’s harder to do with flesh and blood actors in a live action movie. I understand there are limitations, of course. Yet, oddly enough, the Silent Hill movie seemed to pull this off quite well. It managed to stick to the source material spare a few small changes, and while it was hardly going to take out any Oscars that year, it was a mighty sight better than whatever it is you’re attaching to the Resident Evil brand now. It’s almost as though you aren’t even trying, like you’re outsourcing writers, taking whatever they give you and slapping a few canon Resident Evil characters in there, hoping it’ll convince the original fan base that it actually has something to do with the games.

Zombie movies may be a little overdone, but there’s a reason why Resident Evil still manages to find success, and drawing the series away from what it was originally about (zombies and sins against nature,) isn’t how they did it. I certainly toddled along to the first Resident Evil movie expecting something—anything like the first game. I attended the second one in the hope that there’d be some kind of resemblance to my beloved Resident Evil 2, only to find that they couldn’t even find space for Claire Redfeild or Leon Kennedy—two staples of the entire series. Instead, you chose to throw Jill Valentine in there—because everyone likes Jill Valentine, right?

If you wanted to make a series that wasn’t so despised by those who adore the original IP, Resident Evil 2 is a movie just waiting to be made properly. Hell, Nemesis in the second film came pretty close to the original feeling of ‘oh god make him stop following me please’ we got from the games - so you’re not incapable of such a feat.

If you wanted to make a series of movies where Alice the test subject becomes an overpowered killing machine who eventually develops telekinetic powers and goes on to fight dragon things (this is what I meant by bad fanfiction,) you should have made that movie.

If you wanted to make a series of movies about Umbrella Corp, zombies, and the group of fighters who become entwined by trying to save the world, you should have made that. It was right there, and it wouldn’t have been hard to do.

Please, just stop. Just put the cameras down and stop. You aren’t fooling anyone.

Sincerely,
Elizabeth DeLoria.