Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil film understands that video video games are ridiculous, and that is why it is nice.
Video video games are ridiculous. The Resident Evil sequence is an ideal instance of this. One second you’re operating in terror away from a comically outsized trench-coated tank of a person in a tiny hat; the subsequent, you’re messing round with digital chess items in an effort to open a door. These are fully alien conditions that, by some means, these video games make us really feel compelled to navigate via rational thought. That is what Zach Cregger understands about Capcom’s genre-defining sequence so nicely. His Resident Evil film is aware of that that is all ridiculous, and so the movie has its lead, Brian, progress via its 90-minute rollercoaster simply as we’d if we had a controller in our arms. It’s a implausible translation of the feeling that enjoying a survival horror sport grants us, by no means forgetting to incorporate every bit of superb nonsense that comes with it.
