Even if the Resident Evil name wasn’t attached to the films, Paul W.S. Anderson’s movies fail in so many different aspects: casting, cinematography, action, scare factor, narrative – the films are fucking lazy in every regard.
The greatest insult to fans is that these half-hearted cash grabs are slapped with the RE label. It was the same case with Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within; fans were handed a film that had nothing to do with the source material and completely failed to capture even the tiniest iota of what made gamers flock to the series.
There’s a new release every year. Just as in video games, how much care and dedication and craftsmanship can be poured into an annual release before it stops being a piece of art and becomes a goddamned product? I give the same raised eyebrow expression to people that claim they love the Fast and Furious films or every Saw movie that litters theaters almost yearly. The Resident Evil films have garnered ever-swelling hate from the games’ fans because every release is worse than the last, shits on continuity hard, and doesn’t try to deviate from anything beyond being low budget action-porn trash from flick to flick.
It’s astounding no one has stepped up and said, “Let’s reboot this bitch,” in today’s remake-centric market. Resident Evil is numero uno on the list for adaptations that crave and deserve new blood.
My rant is only affirming your position but I don’t judge you for liking the films. But there’s a reason you get that knee-jerk reaction from diehards but, alas, it’s all down to preference in the end. People give me shit whenever I admit to liking or, god forbid, purchasing a Dynasty Warriors game. That contempt goes doubly so when I say I’ve owned all three Gundam spin-offs of the series. Sometimes trash is exactly what the doctor ordered.