Hacker Cinema
Resident Evil
2002 · Film · 100 min
Part of Resident Evil Collection
Directed by Paul W. S. Anderson
When a virus leaks from a top-secret facility, turning all resident researchers into ravenous zombies and their lab animals into mutated hounds from hell, the government sends in an elite military task force to contain the outbreak.
14 positive6 negative24 neutralfrom 44 commenters
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47 comments on Hacker News
The quality is quite high, but an observation is the direction they're taking these models correlates heavily to the usage demand of China vs the West. Specifically, they're immensely focused on t2v for action / high effect shots. There's one human reference shot in the entire release page, and that one doesn't focus on dialog at all.
For filmmakers I've talked to in the US, one of the biggest demands they have is v2v where they can carry over an actor's performance and insert it into whatever world they want. The movie market in China is somewhat different though - it's heavily oriented towards high action / high special effect movies. Consider this list of hollywood movies that have flopped in the US, but did great in China:
Warcraft (China: $225m box office, US: $47m)
Resident Evil (China: $159m, US: $27m)
xXx: Return of Xander Cage (China: $164m, US: $44m)
Pacific Rim: Uprising (China: $99m, US: $59m)
One read of this is that action movies / visual spectacles translate more universally than dialog-based movies. Another read is culturally China prefers that type of content in general. I suspect that for Bytedance, their focus is on action / special effects because thats where they see the demand.
It is an interesting idea.
For me, somewhat older with iffy eyesight it is hard to use. The fonts are really small. The map could use more real estate on the screen. Right now it sits inside a container that only uses a portion of the screen.
What is confusing is why I see science fiction movies depicting recent history periods but not movies made in the period this SF movies claim to show. E.g. why include Resident Evil on Alcatraz island, but not Dirty Harry (the 2nd)? Time period movies such as Dirty Harry are precious time capsules of what San Francisco and Marin looked like at the time.
Graphic novels and manga qualify as media mail ("books"), but smaller comic books do not.
RPG books (Dungeons & Dragons) qualify as media mail ("books"), but boxed RPGs (Dungeons & Dragons) do not (except for book sets.)
Movies (Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, etc.) qualify as media mail ("film") while games (Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, etc.) do not.
Optical discs of educational software are permitted, but "video games" are not. It isn't clear to me which side educational games fall on.
In that dilemma we are definitely god, you merely debate the competency.
Some folks thought to develop some semi-lethal virus in a lab in Wuhan because "we can/why not" and we know what happened next. Many of us have watched every Resident Evil movie or the 12 Monkeys.
Steve Gibson keeps saying "what could possibly go wrong". Our (commoners'/plebes') fates have historically been determined by warmongers, "hawks", ruthless immoral people who play chess with real humans.
I am not surprised that something will definitely happen. I will be surprised on the "when". I am semi-prepared for the morons to eliminate 90% of the world's population some way or another. I just hope that if/when that happens either "I go out" it will be quick and painless, or I will have the chance to 'activate my plan' and perhaps live a simple life in a forest away from the destruction.
I'm not sure about the first point. I grew up watching zombie films, playing resident evil, all those games, and have no feelings of going out and doing it to actual people.
Yes, graphics were worse when we grew up (assuming same rough age) but we still looked at them and said "Wow so realistic!" so I don't think that the issue is that people now see realistic zombie films and think, great, I'll go stab someone on the bus for disagreeing with me.
I think its more the case that people are living in dangerous neighbourhoods, so they carry a knife for protection and are amped up ready to use it and so at the first sign of confrontation, they do. What used to be a fist fight is now a knife fight. What used to be a sore head is now a dead body.
But, I do agree with the poverty link. I grew up in poverty, I saw the lifestyle, the way people act, the way they aren't raised by their parents. It's been this way for thousands of years. It'll never change.
Reminds me of the Resident Evil's scene of the Hive schematics used through out the film. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktn8w3-RyNs
The reality is that fo 3/4 reached more people than 1/2 ever did. Hence the popularity.
In any case... People need to write stories vs just rehashing all the ones we already got. I mean how many resident evil movies and shows are there? Far more than there should have been.
Good Luck! Hope you get to see the film eventually! I'd recommend to start searching Fandango for local theaters that show classics or have a 70mm/35mm projector (as they will likely use them for classics) and then keep those places on your radar so you can catch some good classics. There has got to be somewhere in NC that values the classics and has the equipment to show them!
NYC is kind of a exception since there is so much competition: you end up seeing tons of classics played here all the time. If you are ever in NYC, another place that is wonderful is the roxy theater as well as BAM. I saw Terminator 1 & 2, Hackers, Resident Evil 1 all this year in 35mm at these theaters.
It's kind of interesting to read about contemporary reactions to Night of the Living Dead, which included "it's obviously a commentary on the Vietnam War" and "a critique of American capitalism". The closest anyone got to racial issues was the observation that at the end, the (black) main character is killed by a (white) posse led by a sheriff -- which seemed to some people to be an obvious commentary on the Civil Rights Movement and the recent assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcom X.
The modern (21st C) vogue for zombie apocalypse movies pretty clearly stems from two sources: Japanese video games in the 1990s; and a pair of British films in the early 2000s: Resident Evil (based on one of the aforementioned Japanese video games) and 28 Days Later. (It's a bit hard to argue that both the Japanese and the British were acting out some deep-seated fear of a black slave uprising.)
Two years later China still the source of Resident Evil movie clips.
I can agree the elden ring isn’t narrative driven but I do think it has lots of story and lore that you have the option to dig into. One player could play it and see no story at all while another reads everything and knows the history of the land.
I suppose I did forget about arcane, although I feel like that’s an exception and an outlier.
I disagree that the movies are arguably better and have a more fleshed out story. In the case of resident evil, the story of the games is leagues ahead of the movie franchise story. I think so much so that’s it’s not actually enjoyable for fans of the video game.
The Witcher is another good example. Amazing game, fantastic story that has rich lore. The show is decent, and does do a fairly good job. It just guts the story though, and I lost interest in season 2 as it got more off track.
The author would say that the Witcher TV series is better than the games, story wise, but anyone who’s played the games always says the same thing, the shows not nearly as good.
I honestly think they are two mediums you can’t really compare. One is a passive media consumption, whilst the other is a engaging media consumption. A game puts you in the drivers seat and makes you feel like you’re in control. You may have limited control, but you can still feel like you have an outcome on the story. I think that’s a powerful tool that can’t translate to movies or tv shows. When I watch the Witcher, I’m watching Gerald fight monsters and roughly follow the same lines as the books. When I play the Witcher I am Geralt and I have control in how my Geralt comes across. You just can’t replicate that in tradition media.
Elden ring is absolutely not story or narrative driven.
There is plenty of lore in the game but the actual narrative is basically nonexistent.
> how come every time Hollywood tries to take a video game IP and make a movie it comes out terrible? Resident evil, hitman, assassins creed
There are good and bad examples here. The recent Mortal Kombat movie was well received. Arcane is fantastic.
The real answer is that people have actual standards for movie/tv show stories. The resident evil games and movies are a great example.
The movies arguably have a better and more fleshed out story than the video games but because they are being judged against other movies, they seem terrible.
I really don’t understand the meaning behind this article. It’s just so weird and doesn’t really make sense. Does the CEO of EA write for the Atlantic?
Seriously though time and time again story driven single player experiences crush sales records. Elden ring is the latest, ghosts of Tsushima before that, and god of war before that. All these games are considered masterpieces and have a captivating story. I’d argue the story and lore of elden ring is more in depth and expansive than most movies or TV shows made now a days.
Not only that, if this where true, how come every time Hollywood tries to take a video game IP and make a movie it comes out terrible? Resident evil, hitman, assassins creed. If movies and TV and books are such superior medium they should produce better content with that IP. Of course they don’t, because a video game is a much more intimate experience than a movie or TV show and the author somehow missed that.
I don’t know just a weird article that doesn’t really make sense to me
Thank you for the correct analysis of my thoughts at the moment I started Project Alice :-) Often people will think that Alice and the Red Queen is an easy mix and a wrong shortcut to Resident Evil. But indeed, the Red Queen, in the MOVIES, is at the image of Alicia. When RE last part came out, I wanted to include the white queen in Project Alice' mood, but that's not done yet
I realize it's used as a tongue in cheek reference to Resident Evil, but the "Umbrella Logo" is, among other things, trademarked[1][2][3].
I'm not sure about corporate ownership status here, but it would appear that someone's idea of movie merchandise was to sell firearms by registering a company called "Umbrella Corporation Weapons Research Group" in the real world. I could find several "licensed" arms in online stores. Possibly they're doing that to protect their IP, not out of any profit motive.
The name of the project won't be a problem, but you might want to steer clear of that particular logo. Entertainment companies can be very touchy about their IP and are known to be litigious.
[1] https://trademarks.justia.com/owners/umbrella-corporation-weapons-research-group-1320147/
[2] https://trademarks.justia.com/owners/umbrella-corp-4226588/
[3] Possibly more, but there's thousands of logos labeled "Umbrella" and I don't want to spend all day looking.
I'm just saying that things flying out of the screen rarely add value to the movie. I had 3d tv and my only shows for it were some documentaries, Avatar, Paddington bear, and 3d adventure of tintin.
2 kids movies
1 animated movie
some short but interesting documentaries.
(horror movies runner up (mostly resident evil lol)
Not exactly market crushing content.
The main problem with 3D tv was the content. 3D really only works with bad movies like resident evil. You are not going to have need or want 3d in a movie that is an oscar contender.
(Avatar as the single exception)
I watched Captain Lou Albano play Mario in the 80s.
Resident Evil? Pokemon? Mortal Kombat? It's already here. I actually don't care, as long as they are good. Not all MCU is bad (and I might even say little/none of it is bad).
Maybe a different comparison: a lot of movies now feel like processed food. Consistent and made-to-please, but limits to how great it can be. It is not ideal to live only on processed food.
The lock down in the first Resident Evil movie seemed quite effective, until the response team reset the security system to get out.
Our computer room had emergency breathing masks on the wall , asked why it was there I was informed about the halon gas fire suppression system.
Needless to say whenever I was there I kept having flashbacks to the first Resident Evil movie.
If they are typical zombies who have to spread the contagion via bites and scratches, and are slow and stupid, then my guess is the remaining humans would find it relatively easy to reduce the infection rate below 1. Zombie movies and shows are for drama, not realism. You'd need 28 Days Later or Resident Evil style zombies to overwhelm well armed humans who employ strategy. But this is a fictional scenario we're arguing about.
> things you can binge watch for a month?
this should get you through March :) ...
The Seventh Seal (1957) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050976/
The Last Man on Earth (1964) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058700/
The Omega Man (1971) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067525/
The Andromeda Strain (1971) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066769/
Dawn of the Dead (1978) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077402/
Outbreak (1995) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114069/
12 Monkeys (1995) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114746/
Cabin Fever (2002) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0303816/
Resident Evil (2002) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120804/
28 Days Later (2003) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0289043/
Children of Men (2006) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0206634/
28 Weeks Later (2007) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0463854/
I Am Legend (2007) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480249/
Blindness (2008) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0861689/
Carriers (2009) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0806203/
Daybreakers (2009) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0433362/
Black Death (2010) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1181791/
Contagion (2011) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1598778/
Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2011) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4500922/
World War Z (2013) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0816711/
Maggie (2015) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1881002/
Train to Busan (2016) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5700672/
The Girl With All The Gifts (2016) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4547056/
93 Days (2016) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5305246/
Cargo (2017) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3860916/
It Comes At Night (2017) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4695012/
Rabid (2019) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5628902/
The Hot Zone (2019) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4131818/
edit: There is actually a Wikipedia page for the genre (duh!): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Films_about_viral_outbreaks
Top 5 Video Game Movies That Aren't That Bad:
1. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (2010)
2. Resident Evil (2002)
3. Doom (2005)
4. Mortal Kombat (1995)
5. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2003)
This headline is clickbait. Everyone knows that the first good feature film licensed from a video game was Resident Evil (2002).
> well crafted & inspired movies.
Applying those words to the Resident Evil sequels surely is some form of crime against humanity
All of Paul W.S. Anderson video-game movies are entertaining AF. Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil, Alien vs Predator. ALL well crafted & inspired movies. They're not going to win Cannes Palm d'Or, but they will hit the spot.
I liked Resident Evil, both as a movie its own merits, and specifically as an adaptation of the video game.
Wreck-it Ralph is a good movie. And so was the first Resident Evil movie.
Mostly because videogame plot lines aren't as good as we give them credit for. Videogames are great at being interactive diversions, but their stories leave a lot to be desired and are really just thin background dressing for the real reason we play videogames: for the gameplay.
The most successful videogame movies tend towards genre films like Mortal Kombat (the film) and Resident Evil (the series).
Of course, let's not forget that it can be hard to make a good movie, period.
There have been good video game movies, but the number is vanishingly small. Many are "so bad it's good" such as anything Uwe Boll makes, but there are a couple that seem to be created by directors who genuinely love the source material and take it in interesting directions (e.g. the first Silent Hill film, the first Resident Evil film, arguably Final Fantasy: The Sprits Within).
Also, Mortal Kombat (1995) is a good film.
Now you're talkin'. True security theatre.
I would also add a laser that slowly scans the room, combined with the voice from the first Resident Evil movie.
Would you get sued for him tripping over your coffee table because of the fog or my lasers?
In a rural area, they would just shoot the drone (I still really like your idea). You could blanket the area with inexpensive trail cams.
"Female hero? How boring!"
How can you consider your views as non-sexist? You're clearly defining roles based on gender.
Edit: First story off my head is the first Resident Evil movie. She wakes up in chaos without memory. From what she can discern her would be lover and she are accosted by zombies. She fights her way through as the hero. Ultimately I think she remembers her lover betrayed her and started the outbreak or some such thing. Point is, it wasn't boring.
This sounds like the opening scene of a resident evil movie...
Personally I am paying for the experience of seeing a movie in the theater, and I don't like 3-D. Last weekend I wanted to see Resident Evil. The local theater has seven 3-D showings times, and only two 2-D showings. If a theater is only going to mostly offer 3-D showings, I might go of the price was the same. Since I'm not interested in paying a premium for 3-D, I simply won't see the film if there isn't a 2-D option. If it is reasonable to not offer the product I want to buy, then so be it.
What I want that Plex doesn't already to is to be able to define TV-like channels.
I have 6 Resident Evil movies or 100 episodes of Futurama and I want them to play in a loop on their respective channels, and when I tune in whichever one happens to be "on" is what I watch, even though it's the middle of an episode/movie. DVR-like functionality where I could "rewind" back to the start of a 30-minute buffer would be good. Pandora-like skipping would be good. But those features wouldn't be essential, compared to creating the programming grid.
I still want what Plex does and what Streama does, to navigate to a specific movie or episode and start it manually. Sometimes I watch media because I want to watch one specific thing. But often I just want my favorite media on in the background while I work or do other things. I don't want to navigate through a library of 200+ titles to pick just the right one or a pseudo-"random" one.
Is there anything that would let me do this?
Clicking around the website, this is most likely not an actual company but a spoof of the evil conglomerate from the Resident Evil games/films: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Resident_Evil_characters#Umbrella_Corporation
>"put on that Wes Andersen movie where they ride on a train all the time"
starts playing 'Resident Evil'
I think you're looking at the wrong metrics for 'did well'.
Tomb Raider was successful, for the studios, successful enough for them to give it another go. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=tombraider.htm The second one lost money, and it looks like that was the end of the franchise.
Resident Evil has been a mixed bag, but clearly the studios were willing to risk it. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/search/?q=resident%20evil
Max Payne also seemed to make a bit, http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=maxpayne.htm
"provide an equal number of counterexamples, then."
Equal number to what? What is the number we are looking at - did anybody even count anything here? I already mentioned several female action heroes in other comments, like Underworld, Resident Evil, Buffy, Dark Angel, Aliens, Aeon Flux, Nikita. If you only count movies that are actually worthwhile, the comparison to male hero movies is not bad (I can only compare to mostly worthwhile movies).
Also some things don't make sense, as somebody pointed out, WW2 didn't have that many female soldiers, so why would you expect 50% of WW2 movies to be about female soldiers? You could go on and complain that there are too many WW2 movies, but that is hardly convincing as a feminist issue.
"Your last paragraph is blatant sexism, fyi."
It's not actually. Would "women have boobs" also be a controversial statement? It is very obvious that it is easier for women to reproduce than for men, and it is statistically proven. Just because you can't see it (like boobs hanging off a person) doesn't mean some difference does not exist.
Men get to do the life threatening jobs because men are more expendable. Women are the limiting factor in reproduction (only about one baby can be produced every nine months per woman).
It doesn't mean that women can't do life threatening jobs, just that there is a reason they usually don't have to.
If it is sexist to assume that there are differences between men and women, then maybe it was sexist. Then I'd have to say I'd rather be sexist and stick to science than give up logic for ideology.
Edit: I wonder what is the feminist explanation for less women doing risky jobs? The patriarchy doesn't want women to be cannon fodder because they could start believing they can be aggressive and revolt against men? Or really just the media - if more female warrior movies were being made, women would be flocking to the military by the millions?
There are many, many movies with women as the main actrice. Even female heroes.
What do you mean by hero, somebody who carries heavy guns and mows down lots of enemies? Even those exist, for example Resident Evil (totally unrealistic of course).
Have you even actually counted the movies with male and female heroes, or do you just have a gut feeling that there are only few female heroes?
While you are counting, you could also count how many men die as collateral damage ("guards") vs how many women.
Edit: some more I remembered in the meantime: Underworld series, Alien series, Aeon Flux, Buffy, Dark Angel, Nikita
It's interesting that the adaptations of both Mortal Kombat and Resident Evil were directed by the same person.
I am not a gamer but I love the resident evil movie series, very entertaining (have never even seen the game!)
Why the heck is JJ Abrams the only person Hollywood can go to though? That's crazy and I am kinda exhausted from his style.
Now if they can make a mystery movie based on portal, I'd watch that.
You could argue the Resident Evil movies are successful. They've made 5 of them, and most of them have made a ton of money worldwide...
Honestly though, I think video game movies right now are like Comic Book movies were 20 years ago. Back then, they all were terrible until someone came along and made one (with an appropriate budget) that took the material seriously, and now it's a massive profit engine.
I think there are many video game based stories worthy of movies, it just takes someone to do it right.
The fact that GoDaddy recanted is significant because any other internet companies will think twice before supporting SOPA, atleast publicly but that matters a lot. Maybe if US citizens could get more aware of the situation, they can make a dent in Media moguls' purses as well.
PR matters a lot to companies, if general population shows this kind of activism, SOPA can be defeated. Good luck US, the rest of the world is waiting for you to nip this censorship in the bud before it spreads like the virus in Resident Evil movies.
In my mind the best zombie films are - Dawn of the Dead (modern version) - The first Resident Evil - 28 Days Later
The common theme in them is they are different and "non cheesy". I hate cheesy horror films (Scream made me laugh so hard ;)).
Dawn of the Dead has fast zombies in (Day of the Dead failed partly because they slowed down :() which is a great idea. The "gritty" camera work also works well with that (the sort of hand camera filmed look) speed as you really get the horror etc.
Resident Evil was just epic full stop. Verged on cheesy but elegantly avoided it. Not particularly scary but the sexy lead kicking ass = good :D Also it was somewhat intelligent - it explained the Zombies fairly logically (and mixed in an acutally good storyline - the memory loss etc.) and crucially kept them locked into one location. None of this "spreading across the world" thing. It could happen :D
28 Days Later is far and away one of the best. The Zombies only make up a small portion of the film and the rest focuses on humanity facing the end of life as they know it. It was an extremely good story (really, very very simple but hugely effective) and didnt push the reality enevlop too far.
So IMO what makes a good zombie flick?
- Realism (as far as possible)
- Good, sensible, logical story (it could happen!)
- No cheese (OMG were all gonna dieeee)
- Hot lead optional
- Gritty (camera work and writing)
Hope that helps :D
EDIT: oh yeh make it logical. Slow zombies are never really a threat - I always hate those films where they fail to avoid lumbering zombies. Please :(
Also, I never thought Shaun of the Dead would count. If it does this pips 28 Days Later as my fav zombie film. The writing/story is pure brilliance and the production is very very good. It nails it's genre perfectly.
28 Days Later is the best Zombie movie I've seen. It could stand up to a film-class analysis, on top of its scariness. The "sequel" was terrible, though.
Runner up, for me, would be Dawn of the Dead (2004). Resident Evil isn't bad, either.
I like Action Zombie films, like Resident Evil (Milla doesn't hurt either), and don't really like Horror Zombie films (or really most Horror films)