Evil in Residence

[trinityvixen]

I watched the entire Resident Evil series, minus the new one, this past weekend. I still think the first one is fun and all, though I was struck--repeatedly--with how bad an idea the whole "Let's go in physically to investigate why the computer killed everybody!" plan was. I mean, the computer killed everybody, and you want to go walk into its kill zone to find out why? It's an artificial intelligence! Couldn't you just call it up and go, "So, Robot PMS or what?" No one asks questions until they're in the middle of the shit storm. Okay, fine,  you didn't know there were going to be zombies. YOU STILL FUCKING KNEW THAT THE COMPUTER KILLED EVERYBODY AND WALKED INTO ITS LAIR TO FIND OUT WHY.

As hslayer  put it, you can believe Umbrella is evil enough to dick over its private military dudes, but how the fuck did they get to be so goddamned powerful making such brilliant decisions? The genius only got better in the second movie where, rather than pop some fucking Dom over the fact that they managed to genetically engineer not one, but two superior killing machines and set to work assigning them assassinations best suited to their individual skills, they decide to make them fight to find out which was better. You have two killing machines that work pretty fucking good! You should be celebrating, not playing DeathMatch! Go take over the world! (Some more! Apparently!)

This all makes me want to finally put pen to paper on a zombie story I've been kicking around in my head where people do not act stupidly. It's such a little thing to ask, right? That people in the zombie apocalypse--not all of them, mind you, but definitely the ones who make it past the first culling stage--not be blithering idiots. Gawd.

Comments

[neo-leviathan.livejournal.com]

Well... the main character from Zombieland does a pretty good job of acting smart, right up until the hormones kicked in :)

I know what you mean though, it'd be nice to have a movie where people are a little genre-savvy and don't do completely idiotic things.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

It's not like it takes much, you know? In the Dawn of the Dead remake, you had some pretty with it people there for a while. And then they just let the guy hide his girlfriend away from all of them so she can get and develop the zombie. And then they chase after the stupid girl who went to save a dog that was in no danger, and then and then and then...

See, I don't mind some stupidity, but I want to see people hold it together towards the end of the movie, too. You tend to see the build up of competence occur early--they square themselves with shelter, ammunition, food, etc.--and then something happens to have it all fall apart. Rarely do you see the build up hit at the climax. I think 28 Days Later is one of the few where that happens--everything that happens to Jim beats him thoroughly until he wises up enough to manipulate the situation to his advantage. I'd like more of that, please. Too bad its sequel had the brilliant idea of "Let's go back to zombie island!"

[droidguy1119.livejournal.com]

I watched all of them too. I liked the second the best because it wasn't as dull as the first one and Witt seemed to be aware he was making a dopey movie, so he made a fast-paced one with relatively cool action.

The new one is probably second best, I suppose. It opens with some okay action and then you have to wait 25 minutes for it to get going again but it's fun enough. But I never played any of the games.

I liked 28 Weeks Later better than 28 Days Later. I just thought the characters were more interesting. And I think as far as the repopulation of London goes, it makes enough sense. Since the military is there, it seems to be the government's idea, and I definitely buy that all of these displaced Londoners have been dumped on someone and that person wants the hassle to go away, so they end up cleaning and re-opening the cities as an "I don't want to deal with this anymore" problem. I also would have to guess it was voluntary for the survivors; I can't imagine every survivor HAD to return to London. From there, the infection spreads thanks to some dumb kids, which I also buy. I also liked Rose Byrne and pre-fame Jeremy Renner quite a bit.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I like the first one best. It's the one I can rewatch often and not have a problem with it. As to which is the best movie, well...

And I didn't mean to imply that going back to Zombie UK was mandatory, just that it's a fool's errand, period. I like that the original cast member-survivors were asked to come back and said no. Them's some smart survivors.