Summary
Capcom is opening up the Hive once again, asanotherResident Evilmovie reboot is on the cards. There have been seven live-action movies, four animated ones that stick closer to the source material, and even one maligned live-action Netflix series. Still, while theResident Evilfranchise started out strong on the silver screen, one major mistake doomed it to fail.
Paul W. S. Anderson kicked offResident Evilwith the 2002 movie of the same name. Coming six years after Capcom’s first game, the originalResident Evilveered away from the games and made a star out ofMilla Jovovich’s Project Alice– a brand-new creation for the movies. While Jovovich led all six movies, several infamous characters from theResident Evilgames were introduced along the way. Sadly, where the series was originally praised for telling its own story, its decision to completely disregard the games led to its downfall.
Fans Can’t Forgive Resident Evil: The Final Chapter
Released in 2016, Paul W. S. Anderson returned forResident Evil: The Final Chapterto round off Alice’s story. Although there was the notable return of Ali Larter’s Claire Redfield and Shawn Robert’sAlbert Wesker,The Final Chaptermade the divisive decision to kill off most of the mainstay characters who’d been introduced in previous entries. There was a five-year gap between Anderson’sResident Evil: RetributionandThe Final Chapter, but with the former making an impressive $250 million on a $65 million budget, there was always going to be another outing.
While Jovovich’s Alice was the focus of the movies,Resident Evilintroduced a number of video game favorites across its run. From Sienna Guillory’s Jill Valentine toWentworth Miller’s Chris Redfield, even the fan-favorite Leon S. Kennedy eventually found a place in the series. Unfortunately whileResident Evil: Retributionwas panned for not including Miller’s Chris Redfield without explanation, this was nothing compared to whatThe Final Chapterdid. The cliffhanger ending ofRetributionset up a dramatic last stand where Alice was joined by Jill, Wesker, Leon (Johann Urb), and Ad Wong (Li Bingbing) atop the White House, but there was little payoff.
Jumping forward toThe Final Chapter, the movie opened in the ruins of Washington withJovovich’s Alicebeing a seemingly sole survivor. It was never explained what happened to these characters, withThe Final Chapterquickly glossing over the fight to follow Alice’s reunion with Claire and mission to take down the Umbrella Corporation. The novel was vastly different and explained what happened to each of them. While Ada, Jill, and Leon were killed by the flying Melange in the White House battle, Becky (Aryana Engineer) survived and was eventually rescued by Alice at the end. Instead, the movie ended with Alice having her memories restored, Umbrella being bested, and her riding off into the sunset as an antivirus was slowly spreading around the world.
Resident Evil: The Final Chapterlived up to its name, and while there was a chance for Alice’s story to continue, it felt like a logical end to the franchise. AlthoughThe Final Chapterwas critically panned, it’s actually the highest-rated entry of the six movies on Rotten Tomatoes and netted an impressive $312.2 million box office. Speaking toScreen Rant, Anderson said he’d always plannedThe Final Chapterto conclude the series:
“This is very much something that I’ve been planning for a long time, to kind of close the circle on the franchise, to bring it full circle, to bring Milla back to where it all began, back to the Hive, to finish the job she started fifteen years ago.”
Saying that there was a six-movie arc planned from the beginning, he sawThe Final Chapteras the endgame. Anderson said he was ‘done’ with the franchise and was looking forward to the eventual reboot, and for him, there wasn’t long to wait.
What Went Wrong With the Resident Evil Franchise?
For many,Resident Evil: The Final Chapterdropped the ball and the franchise has never recovered since. Jovovich explained toColliderwhy mainstays like Jill and Leon weren’t technically killed off, and instead, their fates were left up in the air:
“Characters from the game can’t die because you they are owned by Capcom and we’re not allowed to kill any of them off. So you know Ali Larter’s character won’t die or Sienna Guillory who plays Valentine won’t die, so Paul (W.S. Anderson) has to think of some cool characters that people are going to like and root for and who do die in a spectacular fashion.”
Although this means that Jill, Leon, Ada, and even Chris live to fight another day, it doesn’t make it any better for fans who were disappointed with how the studio handled these gaming favorites. Even though there wasn’t long to wait until some of them appeared again in aResident Evilmovie, it wasn’t exactly a win.
There was plenty of hype about Johannes Roberts’Resident Evilreboot, withResident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon Cityhoping to emulate the success of the games by sticking closer to the source material. Instead of being lauded,Welcome to Raccoon Citywas slammed for trying to condense the first two games into one outing. In a different corner, Andrew Dabb released theResident EvilTV series that was led by the late Lance Reddick and tried to tell its own story. As well as confusion about whether it was canon, the series was slammed for its pacing and schlocky dialogue. Unfortunately, live-actionResident Evilprojects continue to languish in the shadow of their video game counterparts.
That’s not to say there haven’t been some good outings, with the animatedResident Evilmovies expanding the story from the games. Despite disappointment that Claire had been MIA sinceResident Evil 6,Resident Evil: Death Islandis considered canonand teamed up a crack team of favorites from the games. The rest of the animatedResident Evilmovies are equally beloved, with 2012’sResident Evil: Damnationhaving a rare 100% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. There’s renewed interest in the series, and while Roberts’ plans for a sequel failed to come to fruition,Barbarian’s Zach Creggeris directing another reboot. With fans having been burned before, they’re hoping it will be third time lucky for theResident Evilmovie franchise.
