Hiya!
Like my companion over here on this website, I too had a lot of fun with Zach Cregger‘s live-action Resident Evil movie. I do have to agree with him on how it doesn’t exactly feel like a Resident Evil movie. I mean, we don’t get to see any of the traditional monsters we’ve come to expect from the games but it did free up Zach Cregger to create his own unique horrors which do work for his vision. It was scary but not exactly the same type of scary you would see in Capcom‘s successful survival-horror franchise.
What I don’t agree with is his opinion regarding how funny the movie is. While I can kind of see his point of view in that it’s weird for anything officially associated with Resident Evil be this funny, I can also see what Zach Cregger was going for. I can see his intention and his intention is to show how absurd Capcom’s video game franchise really is if you really think about it.
Before I do continue on and try to explain, I do have to say I will be talking about some SPOILERS from the movie and from the games. It is kind of integral as Zach Cregger does some specific things in the film which do seem to poke fun at gameplay elements we kind of take for granted when we do play a Resident Evil game. You have been warned.
So, Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil movie focuses on Bryan, a regular guy. He’s hired to deliver a package to the hospital located in Raccoon City. Unfortunately for him, he just so happened to be going there just as the outbreak occurs as seen in Resident Evil 2 and he has to try to find a way to survive the hordes of virus infected monstrosities who are out to eat him… or worse.
Now, it’s important to note Bryan is just a normal guy. He’s not someone who knows how to handle a gun or gone through intense combat training. Basically, he’s generally not equipped to handle the situation, making him more like you and me. He’s not like Chris Redfield or Leon Kennedy or even Claire Redfield as they’ve all gone through some form of self-defense training or how to handle a gun. He’s more like Ethan Winters from the start of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard… and we all remember what happened to him, don’t we? If you don’t, it’s actually revealed in Resident Evil Village that he died after his fight with Mia Winters and he only resurrected because he got infected by the Mold. This is why he could regenerate despite receiving fatal injuries, such as blood loss from getting his hand cut off.
As such, Bryan is definitely more helpless than pretty much everyone you take control of in a Resident Evil game. Even when he gets a gun, he can’t aim properly and he would miss most of his shots. He’s not athletically gifted so even the simple act of jumping over an electric fence, moreso jumping out of the window of a second story barn window, takes a lot out of him. In a rather hilarious ironic twist, there is one thing Bryan is better at than Chris Redfield, Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield. He is much better at running away from danger! Most of the time, the characters you control in a Resident Evil game can run but they usually look more like they’re jogging than sprinting. Bryan knows how to book it and this makes him actually more realistic. I don’t know about you but I know I would be trying to run away rather than trying to shoot at zombies if I were in a Resident Evil type situation!
Bryan also has no patience for puzzles, something we’ve been trained to handle in the video games. Several times during the movie, he would run across padlocks. Now, in a game like Resident Evil, this is pretty much our cue to go ahead and search for the key or find a tool to break the lock. We know it’s gotta be around the vicinity because, well, it’s a video game. It’s an intentional roadblock put in there to block our progress and it’s our job to find a way to overcome it. However, like a lot of adventure games, Capcom would go out of their way to make it incredibly unrealistic on how to do so. At times, the puzzles can make the characters come off as rather stupid.
A good example is the taped security box you encounter early on in Resident Evil 2 Remake. Okay, someone taped up the switch which opens the game to the west side of the Raccoon City Police Station. Can Leon Kennedy or Claire Redfield, I don’t know, just peel off the tape? No, of course not, silly! They would need to get a knife in order to cut the tape because the adhesive is just so, so, so strong! There are also the huge number of locked doors each and every Resident Evil game has and you have to either find the right key by fighting a boss, pushing a statue onto a floor switch or manipulating various switches in order to unlock it. The Resident Evil franchise is littered with these rather obtuse puzzles and, while Capcom tries to make them somewhat fun to solve but, realistically, who has time for all of that? In a way, Bryan kind of has the right idea as his first instinct is to always shoot off the padlocks. Sure, it doesn’t work the first time but he does get it right the second time when he gets to the hospital!
There’s also that scene where Bryan and the folks from Umbrella are in the car and the soldier gets out but takes the car keys with her, stranding Byran and the Umbrella scientist. Bryan is coaxed to find the soldier and retrieve the car keys. He does find the soldier’s body but, when he tries to get the keys, the body keeps getting dragged away from him. If this were a Resident Evil, this would trigger a huge boss fight in order to get the item needed to progress. You just know Chris Redfield would be eager to shoot up whatever boss monster that gets in his way! Not in Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil! Bryan actually does the sensible thing and decides against trying to get the key. Does he have a plan on how to start the car so he can get away? No, but at least he won’t have to fight some monster! If that’s not relatable to you and me, I don’t know what is!
All of this does show Zach Cregger knows how silly the Resident Evil games are as, if any regular person like you and me are thrust into this same situation, we would be just like Bryan because, in real life, there’s no guarantee there’s going to be a key which will unlock the door in front of us. There’s no way we would be brave or dumb enough to dive into a fight against a monster which we know is nigh impossible to kill. There’s no way we would be able to shoot a gun accurately while we’re afraid for our lives.
These things do make sense in a video game though and, if you really think about it, that’s just plain silly. Zach Cregger managed to depict it on screen perfectly and, while it does seem funny in context as it’s something which is counterintuitive when playing a video game, it’s also something we know, deep in our hearts, is really silly in real life.
Byee!
What do you think of Zach Cregger kind of poking fun at the Resident Evil’s gameplay? Let me know in the comments section below!
