Before Zach Cregger’s ‘Resident Evil,’ It’s Officially Time to Revisit the Franchise’s Best Entry
The Resident Evil movies have spent years getting a bad rap. Several of them are clever, funny and genuinely strange, yet they keep getting lumped in with the worst of the genre. Now that Zach Cregger’s reboot arrives this week, it’s worth remembering that the franchise had a real high point — and it wasn’t even the first time the series tried to start over.
Paul W. S. Anderson’s Resident Evil: Afterlife rebooted the series in 2010, and it worked. Three films followed, and the middle one, Resident Evil: Retribution, is the best of them. It’s dark, strange and full of escalating stakes — and it might be the closest anyone has ever come to translating video-game logic to the big screen.
The Long Road to Retribution
The franchise has a complicated history. Paui W. S. Anderson’s initial film is decently regarded, but Alexander Witt’s follow-up is widely, and correctly, viewed as a disaster. Johannes Roberts’ reboot attempt and the Netflix series are best forgotten entirely.
Anderson’s return in 2010 changed things. Resident Evil: Afterlife relaunched the series with Milla Jovovich’s Alice at the center, and the next three films kept that momentum going. Retribution sits in the middle of that trilogy, and the source calls it “the darker, stranger middle chapter.”
What You Need to Know Before Watching
If you’ve played the games, you know the basics. Alice wakes up in the Spencer Manor after a T-Virus leak devastates Raccoon City and then the world. The scope gets bigger as the series goes on, and nothing is quite what it seems. Alice is a clone. Identities shift. Physical spaces turn out to be virtual approximations.
The film opens with a slowed-down, reversed version of an attack from the previous movie. It’s an explosive, sea-bound sequence that’s so immersive that even non-fans should be able to jump in. Then Alice is captured by Umbrella forces and taken to a training base. The movie breaks down into a series of set pieces, with clone-Alice battling through memories of her past and conjured Umbrella spaces designed to test her skill.
Why Retribution Works
Retribution embraces video-game logic from the first frame. Suburban homes under attack by zombies give way to underground facilities and the rain-soaked streets of Tokyo. Continuity is out the window, and Anderson trusts the viewer to keep up — especially the viewer who knows the games.
The set pieces are lovingly rendered, and they reward genre-aware viewers. Each one has an easy point of attachment. The film accelerates toward an explosive, extremely video-game conclusion.
The Video-Game Adaptation That Actually Works
Anderson’s protagonists battle an all-consuming corporate force that has warped and transformed their priorities for years. It’s a subversive take on the game series’ lore, and it’s pure spectacle. It’s just a beautiful series of bloody corridors, and you’re on the side of whoever the “player” character is.
Afterlife, Retribution and The Final Chapter are almost perfect examples of video-game logic on the big screen. The finale is remarkably moving for those who’ve been following along through the series.
Cregger Faces Real Competition
Cregger’s reboot is set to do serious numbers at the box office, as projected by Collider. But he has genuine competition in terms of transposing the feel of a video game onto the big screen.
The history of video-game adaptations hasn’t been kind. The genre has produced some terrible films, and some unintentionally great ones. Few have gotten it as pitch-perfect as Anderson. His original films recaptured streaming audiences’ imagination, and his trilogy remains the gold standard.
The Trilogy at a Glance
| Film | Year |
|---|---|
| Resident Evil: Afterlife | 2010 |
| Resident Evil: Retribution | 2012 |
| The Final Chapter | 2016 |
Anderson’s command of space and blocking was clear from the first entry. He never attempted to emotionally involve viewers in the lore of Resident Evil, but rather drew you into a complete experience — one that comes to fruition in Retribution and, eventually, The Final Chapter.
The franchise has had its share of failures. But the Anderson trilogy proved that a video-game adaptation can work — and that the best of them don’t need to apologize for being silly or loud. Retribution is the Empire Strikes Back of that trilogy. It’s darker, stranger and more rewarding than the films around it.
It’s also the single most accurate and powerful translation of the mechanics and idiosyncrasies of video-game storytelling into cinematic form. If Cregger’s film delivers, it will face a tough comparison. If it doesn’t, the trilogy remains the one to beat.
See the video the story is built around at Collider.
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