the other other mr. anderson

I am always willing to hold unpopular opinions, but there is a particular thrill when you hold an unpopular opinion and then you find someone else expressing the same opinion and even making additional arguments that you hadn’t thought of.

I felt that way when I encountered this article about Paul W. S. Anderson.

Who is not the Paul Anderson who made The Master and There Will Be Blood (that’s Paul Thomas Anderson, also known as P. T. Anderson). Nor is he Wes Anderson, who directed the wonderful Moonrise Kingdom.

Paul W. S. Anderson is the writer, producer and sometimes director of the Resident Evil movies (among others). I’ve talked about the Resident Evil movies here (particularly on the incredible range of female characters, point #4) and here (about Anderson’s use of 3D, which has only got better since I wrote that).

But this article brought up some things that I hadn’t even thought of. And, yes, Anderson always makes sure you understand the geography of the spaces you’re in, and he stages and shoots fights scenes so you can understand them (it sounds like not a big deal until you think about how many movies fail that test), and, yes, it is a pleasure to watch Alice (Milla Jovovich) think her way through the fights.

And it is unusual (maybe even unique) to have an action movie where my only real complaint was that the male characters were so totally outshone by the female ones (the top five actors in the credits are all women) that the movie was a bit out of balance (you know, in the opposite direction from the vast majority of action/superhero movies 🙂 ).

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