The Alice Problem

[Oasis]

We all know it, the main problem of the Hollywood Resident Evil movies isn't the fact our beloved characters turn into random, empty camos, it isn't the fact the setting and chronology make no sense, it isn't the fact there's a thousand plotholes, bad rhythm and a terrible lack of ideas or even acceptable mise-en-scène...

No, the main problem is Alice. At the center of the story. An original character created by Paul Anderson, played by his wife, which is basically constant masturbation (and a fake "strong female character"), somehow associating objectification, fetishizing and power fantasy in a single catastrophic being. Alice is nothing, has nothing, wants nothing, yet somehow we're supposed to be interested in her. She has no real past (except for a promptly forgotten marriage subplot in the first movie). She has no dreams. She has no tastes. She makes no choices. And the cardinal sin of both narration and character development: she has no meaningful relationship to any other human being. Because Anderson focused so much on her and on how AWESOME she was, he completely forgot to shape up the rest of the cast. In fact, he manages to make them all INTERCHANGEABLE. I cannot name a single event, a single plot point where ANY character couldn't be replaced by another one following these two simple templates: "hero" or "bad guy". For example, Claire could be replaced with Jill, Chris with Carlos, etc. It doesn't matter. Dr Isaacs could be replaced by Wesker at any given point (or the reverse). These characters do not exist, they are flat lies, simple shadows of human beings. Alice does not establish any kind of special relationship (affection, friendship or even intellectual recognition) with anyone. She only knows three modes of interaction with human beings: Kill, Protect (by Killing things) and Play the Dark Solitary Cursed Individual. She's unbeatable, can instantly drive every vehicle, use every weapon, progress in every environment, she kills monsters with kung-fu and bike acrobatics and if it wasn't enough she's also a psionic.

It's all about Alice, Alice, Alice. There's no background or chronology to Umbrella, there's only Alice. There's no master plan for the bad guys, there's only Alice. There's no other character going through all of the movies, there's only Alice. There's no bioweapons stowed in big facilities, there's only Alices stowed in big facilities... wait what?!

 

[Jen]

I only watched the first... four movies, I think. I agree with a lot of what you said. I can't stand Alice and I can't stand that they bent the series around her character just because Paul Anderson wanted his wife to look badass.

 

[Kayowakimono]

The only Resident Evil movies I really like are first one, ok so first one is truly great imo! It turned out so well, because there was no such thing as Alice with super powers and all that crap! Second favorite is Apocalypse, even tho it was centered on Alice a lot overshadowing Jill and Carols and pretty much rest of the cast, it just felt so Resident Evil because of city and roaming zombies I guess! Anyways that's it, 1st and 2nd are to go, the rest is awful, oh god I can't stand to watch it, Just now Extinction finished on tv, didn't even take a peek.

 

[Oasis]

Yeah, I must admit, I didn't even watch the last two movies, just read the plot, and it was enough, more than enough, what the ****.

 

[Zacmac90]

Honestly when I saw the first movie, ya know the one that resembled Resident Evil more than any of the other movies, I wanted to like Alice, I didn't mind her backstory as I thought it had potential to weave into the main Resident Evil storyline. That died after the second flick

 

[JHJ]

The first film I like, it's fun, doesn't take itself too seriously, and has the laser corridor scene, which is still the best scene in the series.
Apocalypse had a decent-ish idea for a story with a ham fisted execution, poor script and terrible editing. The only thing that saves the film for me is Oded Fehr. Extinction had a better plot, some nice cinematography, and some (not all) decent action beats. I like it almost as much as I do the first.
Afterlife and Retribution (I can never remember which order they go in) are both kinda "meh", the only really memorable bits being both films opening and closing segments, especially the whole "last stand at the White House" reverse zoom shot, and don't really add anything storywise.
And as for The Final Chapter... (Spoilers ahead if, by some miracle you haven't seen it yet... and if so, don't) WTF?! THE ENTIRE PLOT DISREGARDS EVERY OTHER FILM IN THE FRANCHISE!!! It retcons the origin of the T-virus, specifically who created it (instead of Alfred Ashford, which was established in Apocalypse, it's now James Marcus and, sloppily shoehorned in, Albert freaking Wesker, who didn't get introduced in the films until Extinction), there's a pointless time limit that the Red Queen gives Alice to get back to Racoon City, claiming that the last remaining humans will be wiped out by Dr Isaacs (you remember him, don't you? From the third film? Infected himself with the T-virus? Became the Tyrant? Played by Jorah from Game of Thrones? No?) in 48 hours if she doesn't return (but we never see them, or get any info regarding HOW they'll be killed), they not only retcon Wesker'spowers by saying that the Wesker they fought on the boat at the end of Afterlife was a clone, but he goes out like a punk, getting his foot sliced off by a closing door and bleeding out WITHOUT A SINGLE PROPER FIGHT SCENE, they double down on the whole "Alice's clones and/or blood are the key to Umbrellas domination of the world" plot and retcon the beginning of the global outbreak by claiming that Umbrella purposefully released the virus so they could wipe the world clean so that they could rule the world once the virus wiped out everyone else on the planet, give the real, non clone Isaacs an ability that can only be described as "Predictive Combat" (it's as stupid as it sounds), and the film retcons Alice's origin to be that she's actually A F*****G CLONE OF MARCUS'S DAUGHTER, ALICIA, WHICH. IS. THE. COMPLETE. OPPOSITE. OF. HER. ESTABLISHED. CHARACTER. ARC!!

I'm sorry, I had to get that out, it's been building for a while.

 

[Rain611]

I understand the rage, The Final Chapter was so infuriating. I just pretend it doesn't exist. It's pretty insulting, especially from a writing point of view.