Here’s how to tell the new Underworld and Resident Evil trailers apart
October 8, 2016 5:33 PM Subscribe
Dark, confusing times have come to America. Times of turmoil. Times when difficult choices must be made. Times when the latest entries in two surprisingly long-lived actress-centered undead-fighting action series—both due in theaters next January from the same fucking studio—can release new trailers on the same day, both featuring their respective heroines on motorcycles.
But... they are both on motorcycles! And wear boots! Who could tell them apart?
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:53 PM on October 8, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:53 PM on October 8, 2016 [4 favorites]
I wish Kate Beckinsale was still doing Jane Austin and things like Cold Comfort Farm. She was so good. Bet she'd show well in Oscar Wilde and Noel Coward, too.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 5:54 PM on October 8, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 5:54 PM on October 8, 2016 [3 favorites]
Man, I very rarely see a trailer as rough as the RE trailer. It's just... bad, and unpleasant to watch. Say what you will about the Underworld trailer but it looks like professionals moved the cameras around and selected shots and dressed the sets.
There's something uniquely "off" about films with a lot of commodity CG and I'd almost rather watch backyard wrestling on Youtube... at least the people involved have feet that seem to interact with the plane of the ground in a way that doesn't make my head hurt.
posted by selfnoise at 6:04 PM on October 8, 2016 [4 favorites]
There's something uniquely "off" about films with a lot of commodity CG and I'd almost rather watch backyard wrestling on Youtube... at least the people involved have feet that seem to interact with the plane of the ground in a way that doesn't make my head hurt.
posted by selfnoise at 6:04 PM on October 8, 2016 [4 favorites]
Man, I very rarely see a trailer as rough as the RE trailer.
I thought it was a parody or a joke at first, that's how rough it is.
posted by gloriouslyincandescent at 6:40 PM on October 8, 2016
I thought it was a parody or a joke at first, that's how rough it is.
posted by gloriouslyincandescent at 6:40 PM on October 8, 2016
The key distinguishing feature is that Milla doesn't do Superhero Landings. Kate Beckinsale can't STOP doing them. When she gets out of bed in the morning, she does a Superhero Landing.
Also, it's a little rough on Milla to say that she "was basically born for this role." Come on, she played Leeloo in Fifth Element, providing the world for all time with an easy Halloween costume that can be made entirely out of toilet paper. Say "mooltypass" to anybody and they know what movie you're talking about. Nothing quotable is ever gonna come out of the Resident Evil movies if they make forty-seven of them, which they probably will.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 6:52 PM on October 8, 2016 [11 favorites]
Also, it's a little rough on Milla to say that she "was basically born for this role." Come on, she played Leeloo in Fifth Element, providing the world for all time with an easy Halloween costume that can be made entirely out of toilet paper. Say "mooltypass" to anybody and they know what movie you're talking about. Nothing quotable is ever gonna come out of the Resident Evil movies if they make forty-seven of them, which they probably will.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 6:52 PM on October 8, 2016 [11 favorites]
S'funny, 'cause the Resident Evil series actually gets a lot more attention from some hardcore film geeks out there, with Paul W.S. Anderson being championed by some as a serious auteur, or a "Vulgar auteur" to use the parlance of some of those supporters.
While I maintain some distance from those assessments myself, I do agree with then that the Resident Evil series has been the far more interesting and that holds even for these trailers, which make the new Underworld seem mostly conventional/generic, while at least the Resident Evil trailer has some personality to it. Nothing of great importance to me, but I find it all sorta interesting anyway.
posted by gusottertrout at 7:20 PM on October 8, 2016 [2 favorites]
While I maintain some distance from those assessments myself, I do agree with then that the Resident Evil series has been the far more interesting and that holds even for these trailers, which make the new Underworld seem mostly conventional/generic, while at least the Resident Evil trailer has some personality to it. Nothing of great importance to me, but I find it all sorta interesting anyway.
posted by gusottertrout at 7:20 PM on October 8, 2016 [2 favorites]
S'funny, 'cause the Resident Evil series actually gets a lot more attention from some hardcore film geeks out there, with Paul W.S. Anderson being championed by some as a serious auteur, or a "Vulgar auteur" to use the parlance of some of those supporters.
The first and third are enjoyable junk food films. The fourth is all right. The second is an empty nothing. The fifth is soooooooooooooooo baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaadddddddddddddddddd. It stands out as being notably incoherent even in comparison to the others. So I'm not hopeful for the new one.
Underworld, on the other hand... It just bores me. I haven't been able to last through five minutes of any of them. So, yeah, there's some kind of ineffable quality that the RE films occasionally possess that the Underworld films simply don't. (In my opinion.)
posted by tobascodagama at 7:29 PM on October 8, 2016 [4 favorites]
The first and third are enjoyable junk food films. The fourth is all right. The second is an empty nothing. The fifth is soooooooooooooooo baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaadddddddddddddddddd. It stands out as being notably incoherent even in comparison to the others. So I'm not hopeful for the new one.
Underworld, on the other hand... It just bores me. I haven't been able to last through five minutes of any of them. So, yeah, there's some kind of ineffable quality that the RE films occasionally possess that the Underworld films simply don't. (In my opinion.)
posted by tobascodagama at 7:29 PM on October 8, 2016 [4 favorites]
I plan to see RE. I do not anticipate seeing Underworld.
They did, however, miss the chance to sync the engine RPMs/shifts with the first three iconic power-chords in Paradise City despite just barely missing lining up the 1-2 shift. This offends me. It would have been so cool!
posted by stet at 7:32 PM on October 8, 2016 [2 favorites]
They did, however, miss the chance to sync the engine RPMs/shifts with the first three iconic power-chords in Paradise City despite just barely missing lining up the 1-2 shift. This offends me. It would have been so cool!
posted by stet at 7:32 PM on October 8, 2016 [2 favorites]
with Paul W.S. Anderson being championed by some as a serious auteur, or a "Vulgar auteur" to use the parlance of some of those supporters.
I edge that way but would only say that Anderson makes B movies that, mostly, are substantially better than they had to be. Good crap. Not cynical crap, not maximize-the-return crap.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:03 PM on October 8, 2016 [4 favorites]
I edge that way but would only say that Anderson makes B movies that, mostly, are substantially better than they had to be. Good crap. Not cynical crap, not maximize-the-return crap.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:03 PM on October 8, 2016 [4 favorites]
CheeseDigestsAll, if you haven't, you should check out Beckinsale in "Love and Friendship" from earlier this year. She does make a great Austen heroine!
posted by of strange foe at 8:17 PM on October 8, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by of strange foe at 8:17 PM on October 8, 2016 [3 favorites]
I wish Kate Beckinsale was still doing Jane Austin and things like Cold Comfort Farm. She was so good. Bet she'd show well in Oscar Wilde and Noel Coward, too.
I take it you haven't seen Love and Friendship? She's incredible in that. There are actually a bunch of great performances in it but she's particularly great.
I recently re-watched Underworld and it's the most late 90s thing ever (I know it came out a couple years after the 90s ended but come on - the lead actor is pretty much the singer from Creed and her boots! haha). I cant' believe they're still making them in this day and age is what I'm saying.
posted by fshgrl at 8:18 PM on October 8, 2016 [4 favorites]
I take it you haven't seen Love and Friendship? She's incredible in that. There are actually a bunch of great performances in it but she's particularly great.
I recently re-watched Underworld and it's the most late 90s thing ever (I know it came out a couple years after the 90s ended but come on - the lead actor is pretty much the singer from Creed and her boots! haha). I cant' believe they're still making them in this day and age is what I'm saying.
posted by fshgrl at 8:18 PM on October 8, 2016 [4 favorites]
The Underworld movies I've seen, three of them I think, are pretty standard plot driven things. Nothing really all that compelling unless you find yourself caught up in the characters or just really love neo-goth-action. They seem as much designed as fertile ground for fanfic or role playing as they do movies in themselves. Pretty much text book high concept filmmaking, vampires vs werewolves. "Nuff said!
The Resident Evil movies, on the other hand, are almost ideally suited to Tumblr criticism, where coherence is pretty much beside the point, screen shot and gifs can provide the essence of one's appreciation for the films. Anderson is, at his best, a fairly dynamic image creator, using strong lines and symmetry to make "nothing much" seem visually powerful.
Holding him up as an auteur, a designation I always have problems with for almost any director, comes from this, at times, strong visual flare along with the sense of investment people who like him put into looking at his films. Once one's attention is captured, then one can more readily find further "proof" of value by further, more intense, examination. This is true for any director or artist. Interest drives meaning and value at least as much as any meaning being simply "there" in the work.
But, even as much as this appreciation is like old school auteurism, it is also more streamlined now, where appreciation of the craft of directing and the ability to capture images from films has pushed some criticism into a more pared down method of evaluation. It, basically, ignores much of the plot and character information like dialogue, for presentation values and then reads those values as the meaningful element of the film, disjointedly connecting the more literary elements of the narrative to the visuals only when necessary for explanation purposes.
So by that standard, the more recent Resident Evil films, Retribution and After Life, can be seen as even better than the earlier ones since plot coherence simply isn't a major element in judging their aesthetic success. It's an assessment I agree with to an extent, as I found the more recent film comparatively better too for those reasons, but I draw a line at then saying they're then "good" in any larger context. They have a nice look, a few clever ideas and some nifty moments and that's better than most movies out there, but that's pretty much it for me.
posted by gusottertrout at 8:39 PM on October 8, 2016 [3 favorites]
The Resident Evil movies, on the other hand, are almost ideally suited to Tumblr criticism, where coherence is pretty much beside the point, screen shot and gifs can provide the essence of one's appreciation for the films. Anderson is, at his best, a fairly dynamic image creator, using strong lines and symmetry to make "nothing much" seem visually powerful.
Holding him up as an auteur, a designation I always have problems with for almost any director, comes from this, at times, strong visual flare along with the sense of investment people who like him put into looking at his films. Once one's attention is captured, then one can more readily find further "proof" of value by further, more intense, examination. This is true for any director or artist. Interest drives meaning and value at least as much as any meaning being simply "there" in the work.
But, even as much as this appreciation is like old school auteurism, it is also more streamlined now, where appreciation of the craft of directing and the ability to capture images from films has pushed some criticism into a more pared down method of evaluation. It, basically, ignores much of the plot and character information like dialogue, for presentation values and then reads those values as the meaningful element of the film, disjointedly connecting the more literary elements of the narrative to the visuals only when necessary for explanation purposes.
So by that standard, the more recent Resident Evil films, Retribution and After Life, can be seen as even better than the earlier ones since plot coherence simply isn't a major element in judging their aesthetic success. It's an assessment I agree with to an extent, as I found the more recent film comparatively better too for those reasons, but I draw a line at then saying they're then "good" in any larger context. They have a nice look, a few clever ideas and some nifty moments and that's better than most movies out there, but that's pretty much it for me.
posted by gusottertrout at 8:39 PM on October 8, 2016 [3 favorites]
Aw man, the first Resident Evil movie is a legitimately, uh maybe not great film, but it's definitely interesting and it's 100% stood the test of time for me. The sequels have moved on to something other than what I find appealing.
The wierdo Marylin Manson soundtrack/soundscape alone makes the original worth a look, but it's an astonishingly competent B movie aside from that.
posted by figurant at 9:28 PM on October 8, 2016 [6 favorites]
The wierdo Marylin Manson soundtrack/soundscape alone makes the original worth a look, but it's an astonishingly competent B movie aside from that.
posted by figurant at 9:28 PM on October 8, 2016 [6 favorites]
Well....I liked the RE trailer. It made me smirk in a couple places, and the Underworld one just made me roll my eyes and wonder why I even pressed play.
posted by greermahoney at 9:42 PM on October 8, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by greermahoney at 9:42 PM on October 8, 2016 [4 favorites]
If that really is the "final chapter" of the RE franchise, I will eat my hat. At any rate, the trailer basically showcased everything that I want to see in the movie. Motorcycles, Milla, ridiculous action, ridiculous bad guys, and hey let's throw in some old school Guns n Roses from my childhood. I'm sold.
posted by Literaryhero at 10:52 PM on October 8, 2016 [7 favorites]
posted by Literaryhero at 10:52 PM on October 8, 2016 [7 favorites]
Incidentally, I have a hard time telling the RE movies apart, so was googling to try and remind myself of what was what when I stumbled across this gem of a site: The IMFDB.
posted by Literaryhero at 11:01 PM on October 8, 2016
posted by Literaryhero at 11:01 PM on October 8, 2016
Here’s how to tell the new Underworld and Resident Evil trailers apart
Um...One has a title that is a complete lie, and the other doesn't? "Final Chapter" my ass. Okay, okay...maybe it really is a final chapter. Up next, RE: Coda.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:48 AM on October 9, 2016
Um...One has a title that is a complete lie, and the other doesn't? "Final Chapter" my ass. Okay, okay...maybe it really is a final chapter. Up next, RE: Coda.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:48 AM on October 9, 2016
I had no idea that they were still making Underworld films. I know that I saw the first one in the theater, maybe the second one but I don't remember much about them other than that they featured a lot of teal.
posted by octothorpe at 6:24 AM on October 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by octothorpe at 6:24 AM on October 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
Yep. Saw "Love and Friendship." Want more.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 6:56 AM on October 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 6:56 AM on October 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
I had no confusion telling the the trailers apart from each other having watched them back to back. I was more interested in picking out the various "Game Of Thrones" actors past and present in each trailer.
posted by tipsyBumblebee at 8:53 AM on October 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by tipsyBumblebee at 8:53 AM on October 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
I wish Kate Beckinsale was still doing Jane Austin and things like Cold Comfort Farm. - CheeseDigestsAll
Kate Beckinsale can't STOP doing them. When she gets out of bed in the morning, she does a Superhero Landing. - Sing Or Swim
I hope the two of you are sharing a very serious you-got-your-chocolate-in-my-peanut-butter moment right now.
posted by mhoye at 1:38 PM on October 9, 2016 [3 favorites]
Kate Beckinsale can't STOP doing them. When she gets out of bed in the morning, she does a Superhero Landing. - Sing Or Swim
I hope the two of you are sharing a very serious you-got-your-chocolate-in-my-peanut-butter moment right now.
posted by mhoye at 1:38 PM on October 9, 2016 [3 favorites]
Resident Evil: Retribution is a trailer for itself. There are no parts of this movie that are not trailer-worthy. The movie is all one good part and all the good parts are terrible.
And throughout, fighting. All the fighting all the time. The fighting never stops. This is hyperactive stuff; it feels like falling downstairs forever whilst screaming but on a screen, if you get me. There are chain fights and pick fights and gun fights and fire fights and fights in houses and fights in lifts and fights in corridors and fights in cars on stairwells in the Russian underground system.
posted by Sebmojo at 2:36 PM on October 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
And throughout, fighting. All the fighting all the time. The fighting never stops. This is hyperactive stuff; it feels like falling downstairs forever whilst screaming but on a screen, if you get me. There are chain fights and pick fights and gun fights and fire fights and fights in houses and fights in lifts and fights in corridors and fights in cars on stairwells in the Russian underground system.
posted by Sebmojo at 2:36 PM on October 9, 2016 [2 favorites]
Put me in the annoyed at the AV Club camp. Their joke seems to be that two action movies starring women are being released and that, what, all women look alike? All movies starring women look alike? I mean, seriously, what is the joke here other than "hur dur, can't have two wimmin at once"?
What mostly stood out to me is how omnipresent that blue/orange thing is. Film editors really, really, like over-saturation in one of those colors these days.
posted by sotonohito at 2:39 PM on October 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
What mostly stood out to me is how omnipresent that blue/orange thing is. Film editors really, really, like over-saturation in one of those colors these days.
posted by sotonohito at 2:39 PM on October 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
Came in to say there is no way RE: The Final Chapter is actually the last one. I see I'm not the only one with that reaction. But seriously, Milla will be making these until she's 90 and in a walker. Maybe even then: Resident Evil: The Most Definately Final Chapter. We're Not Kidding This Time.
Kate Beckensale has said something similar about doing Underworld in perpetuity.
I love these movies (5th RE not withstanding). They're camp, but they're joyful camp with strong female leads played by actresses that clearly enjoy the fuck out of their characters.
Count me in as someone who is annoyed with the A.V. Club and positively bubbling with glee about these two movies.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 3:30 PM on October 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
Kate Beckensale has said something similar about doing Underworld in perpetuity.
I love these movies (5th RE not withstanding). They're camp, but they're joyful camp with strong female leads played by actresses that clearly enjoy the fuck out of their characters.
Count me in as someone who is annoyed with the A.V. Club and positively bubbling with glee about these two movies.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 3:30 PM on October 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
For fans of both of these franchises, and I consider myself to be first among both, I can tell you an insiders view (as can I'm sure half the people in this thread. C'mon, you know that deep down inside, you love one of them just a little bit. I mean with eleven films and one still yet to come, and a billion and a half dollars between them, ya gotta play the odds.)
Resident Evil and Underworld both had absolutely fantastic first films. Rock solid scifi/ fantasy/ horror. Both had well known actresses doing films that were ostensibly beneath them, and obviously enjoying the hell out of it. One was a fair homage to a beloved video game, the other was a glorious bigger than life Vampire: the Masquerade campaign.
Resident Evil was a great zombie movie before that had become a thing again. Hell, you could make a really solid argument for it being the reason for the resurgence in zombie films. I'm sure its success was no small part of Dawn of the Dead being remade, and that is unquestionably one of the films that made zombies the monsters of the hour. (Shawn of the Dead is a top contender here as well, coming out the same year, as DotD but I suspect Pegg and Wright would have made that regardless. It needed to exist.)
Underworld was just fun. It was the Ventru vs the chronos-form lycans. Kate Beckinsale cutting holes in the floor with Beretta 93s? Yes please, I'll have some more of that. An antediluvian hitting werewolf so hard their face cracked. Yep, more of that as well. The awesome drop from the top of the tower in the first scene not into a hero's pose was the best thing ever. (i make this point because her getting up and walking like it was no big deal made so, so much more cool than a fist down cratering hit.)
As they went on the Resident Evil films dropped off in quality and were kind of a hodgepodge of ideas all competing for center stage, all gleefully ignoring questions like why the fuck Umbrella would intentionally... never-mind. Discussion for another time. But the fighting was always fun and Milla was in them, so I was there.
I do have a high threshold for bad movies, so it is understandable if some people dropped out without seeing them all, but there was some real gold in there among the excellent dross.
Underworld never had this problem in my mind. It always had a good story to tell, and did some really innovative things - the third or fourth movie brings back characters from the first to go back 800 years and show how it all began. That was completely bad-ass from a filmbuff standpoint. This wasn't some straight to video thing, it had a good budget and it nicely wrapped up several threads. That is a baller move for a movie several deep into the series.
Then they went to the future. Oh fuck yeah!
I mean, there was some awful cheese in there too, but I have to love everyone involved from both franchises for not giving a fuck and continuing on with something that clearly had moved into this-one-goes-out-to-the-fans...
Plus, Milla and Beckinsale are 40 and 42 respectively. And they are fronting reasonably large budget theatrically released action movies. I think they are both ageless rock-stars, but Hollywood has a way of always looking for the younger and newer when it comes to actresses. I like to think that these movies are in some very small way a fist of leather clad defiance in the face of studios who have, historically been really shitty about this kind of thing. Not only do the leads still kick ass, their characters are fully formed, complex protagonists who by the by, happen to be beautiful women. That's not nothing.
I know I'll be seeing them both. Hell, who am I kidding, I've been thinking about re-watching both series just to that they are fresh in mind.
posted by quin at 3:58 PM on October 9, 2016 [9 favorites]
Resident Evil and Underworld both had absolutely fantastic first films. Rock solid scifi/ fantasy/ horror. Both had well known actresses doing films that were ostensibly beneath them, and obviously enjoying the hell out of it. One was a fair homage to a beloved video game, the other was a glorious bigger than life Vampire: the Masquerade campaign.
Resident Evil was a great zombie movie before that had become a thing again. Hell, you could make a really solid argument for it being the reason for the resurgence in zombie films. I'm sure its success was no small part of Dawn of the Dead being remade, and that is unquestionably one of the films that made zombies the monsters of the hour. (Shawn of the Dead is a top contender here as well, coming out the same year, as DotD but I suspect Pegg and Wright would have made that regardless. It needed to exist.)
Underworld was just fun. It was the Ventru vs the chronos-form lycans. Kate Beckinsale cutting holes in the floor with Beretta 93s? Yes please, I'll have some more of that. An antediluvian hitting werewolf so hard their face cracked. Yep, more of that as well. The awesome drop from the top of the tower in the first scene not into a hero's pose was the best thing ever. (i make this point because her getting up and walking like it was no big deal made so, so much more cool than a fist down cratering hit.)
As they went on the Resident Evil films dropped off in quality and were kind of a hodgepodge of ideas all competing for center stage, all gleefully ignoring questions like why the fuck Umbrella would intentionally... never-mind. Discussion for another time. But the fighting was always fun and Milla was in them, so I was there.
I do have a high threshold for bad movies, so it is understandable if some people dropped out without seeing them all, but there was some real gold in there among the excellent dross.
Underworld never had this problem in my mind. It always had a good story to tell, and did some really innovative things - the third or fourth movie brings back characters from the first to go back 800 years and show how it all began. That was completely bad-ass from a filmbuff standpoint. This wasn't some straight to video thing, it had a good budget and it nicely wrapped up several threads. That is a baller move for a movie several deep into the series.
Then they went to the future. Oh fuck yeah!
I mean, there was some awful cheese in there too, but I have to love everyone involved from both franchises for not giving a fuck and continuing on with something that clearly had moved into this-one-goes-out-to-the-fans...
Plus, Milla and Beckinsale are 40 and 42 respectively. And they are fronting reasonably large budget theatrically released action movies. I think they are both ageless rock-stars, but Hollywood has a way of always looking for the younger and newer when it comes to actresses. I like to think that these movies are in some very small way a fist of leather clad defiance in the face of studios who have, historically been really shitty about this kind of thing. Not only do the leads still kick ass, their characters are fully formed, complex protagonists who by the by, happen to be beautiful women. That's not nothing.
I know I'll be seeing them both. Hell, who am I kidding, I've been thinking about re-watching both series just to that they are fresh in mind.
posted by quin at 3:58 PM on October 9, 2016 [9 favorites]
This seems like as good a place as any to link to (a page linking to) a Resident Evil vid set to Li'l Jon's "Get Low".
Kate Beckinsale has certainly had one of the weirdest careers in recent memory, going straight from a Henry James adaptation to Underworld.
posted by praemunire at 5:19 PM on October 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
Kate Beckinsale has certainly had one of the weirdest careers in recent memory, going straight from a Henry James adaptation to Underworld.
posted by praemunire at 5:19 PM on October 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
"Final Chapter" my ass. Okay, okay...maybe it really is a final chapter. Up next, RE: Coda.</em
Resident Evil: Afterword
Resident Evil: Footnotes
Resident Evil: Works Cited
Resident Evil: Acknowlegements
posted by GenjiandProust at 1:16 PM on October 10, 2016 [3 favorites]
Resident Evil: Afterword
Resident Evil: Footnotes
Resident Evil: Works Cited
Resident Evil: Acknowlegements
posted by GenjiandProust at 1:16 PM on October 10, 2016 [3 favorites]
As far as overlapping movies go, a few years back I watched one of the Resident Evils (maybe the first one?)* on the same night as Æon Flux. Now that was a hard pair of movies to tell apart (though the gin might have had something to do with that).
I'm not entirely sure why RE managed to kick off a franchise where AF didn't (if you'd made me guess I'd say the combination of expectations for video game movies being so much lower than adaptations long-running, well loved comic book/animated series Alice being the perfect role for Milla Jovovich, while Charlize Theron can do many and better other things).
To me, there's a genre of attractive-woman-wears-tight-clothes-fires-guns-and-kicks-ass. Sometimes, there's a goth component (see: Underworld), sometimes, she's the villian (see: Catwoman), sometimes, there are lots of them and the director thinks he's making a statement but fails on all levels (see: SuckerPunch) but the genre is defined by the fact that there's nothing much more to them than a Taylor Swift video and you could sub any of the money shots from each movie into the other**. Which is fine! A lot of these movies are a lot of fun!
But to try to deny that they are kind of samey because one has werewolves just isn't super meaningful. It's kind of like trying to claim that Jason Bourne is totally unlike Daniel Craig's James Bond because Bourne is American. (I say this as someone who loves Bond and Bourne movies).
Anyways, I assume that this A.V. Club author stole the joke from this month old Cracked Responds video.
*I'm realizing at the end of writing this comment that the line up might have had Æon Flux and Ultraviolet. Which pretty much just proves my point.
**well, at least one of the Underworld films doesn't fit the mold.
posted by sparklemotion at 1:21 PM on October 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
I'm not entirely sure why RE managed to kick off a franchise where AF didn't (if you'd made me guess I'd say the combination of expectations for video game movies being so much lower than adaptations long-running, well loved comic book/animated series Alice being the perfect role for Milla Jovovich, while Charlize Theron can do many and better other things).
To me, there's a genre of attractive-woman-wears-tight-clothes-fires-guns-and-kicks-ass. Sometimes, there's a goth component (see: Underworld), sometimes, she's the villian (see: Catwoman), sometimes, there are lots of them and the director thinks he's making a statement but fails on all levels (see: SuckerPunch) but the genre is defined by the fact that there's nothing much more to them than a Taylor Swift video and you could sub any of the money shots from each movie into the other**. Which is fine! A lot of these movies are a lot of fun!
But to try to deny that they are kind of samey because one has werewolves just isn't super meaningful. It's kind of like trying to claim that Jason Bourne is totally unlike Daniel Craig's James Bond because Bourne is American. (I say this as someone who loves Bond and Bourne movies).
Anyways, I assume that this A.V. Club author stole the joke from this month old Cracked Responds video.
*I'm realizing at the end of writing this comment that the line up might have had Æon Flux and Ultraviolet. Which pretty much just proves my point.
**well, at least one of the Underworld films doesn't fit the mold.
posted by sparklemotion at 1:21 PM on October 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
If that really is the "final chapter" of the RE franchise, I will eat my hat.
I would actually be a weensy bit surprised if they made more movies with Milla as Alice(s), but I wouldn't be surprised to see another movie centered on Claire / Leon / Jill, or a Wesker origin story, etc.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 1:29 PM on October 10, 2016 [2 favorites]
I would actually be a weensy bit surprised if they made more movies with Milla as Alice(s), but I wouldn't be surprised to see another movie centered on Claire / Leon / Jill, or a Wesker origin story, etc.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 1:29 PM on October 10, 2016 [2 favorites]
So, they do RE: Final Chapter and then reboot the series? Sounds about right.
posted by tobascodagama at 2:17 PM on October 10, 2016
posted by tobascodagama at 2:17 PM on October 10, 2016
This is like when all those volcano movies came out at the same time in the mid-90s.
posted by turbid dahlia at 8:45 PM on October 10, 2016
posted by turbid dahlia at 8:45 PM on October 10, 2016
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posted by poffin boffin at 5:43 PM on October 8, 2016 [8 favorites]