Resident Evil

mrs. watson? which one?

~ Anthony Lee Collins ~ Leave a comment

If you’re the sort of person who worries about that sort of thing, the timeline of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries is really tangled. For example, when was Watson married and how many times was he married? Internal evidence is not possible to reconcile.

Most readers don’t seem to care — Holmes and Watson are still (by far) the most popular fictional characters in the English-speaking world over the last 120+ years.

Some people, of course, do obsess about these sorts of things (I can see The Annotated Sherlock Holmes, by William Stuart Baring-Gould, two large volumes in a slip case, from where I’m typing this), but Arthur Conan Doyle obviously didn’t.

He just wanted to tell a good story.

In a recent blog post, I talked about the freedom I felt once I decided to hop back in time to an earlier period in the mystery-solving career of the great detective Jan Sleet and her loyal assistant Marshall. I’ve already written about 7,000 words of a new story (a few notes but mostly scenes — I’m not much for notes).

I’m not going back to reread A Sane Woman either, and I’m not even sure if this story happens before that book or after it. I’m just writing.

 
On another subject, I really enjoyed reading this interview with Paul W. S. Anderson: “How the Mastermind behind ‘Resident Evil’ Kept the Franchise Going For 15 Years“

Here are some specific quotes that struck me:

I always had it in my mind that we would eventually come back to The Hive and kind of give away the secrets that I’ve been holding for 15 years now, the truth about the Alice character. The truth about her face, about the Red Queen, the real agenda of the Umbrella Corporation. These are things that I was aware of when I was writing and making the first movie.

I was pretty sure that the big reveal about Alice had been planned for a while, but even I didn’t realize that Anderson had thought of it right at the start. He hadn’t even told Milla Jovovich (the series star and his wife) — I’m sure because he didn’t want her to play the part with certain facts in mind.

I’m really, really proud of the movie. I think it delivers not only the big action that people have come to expect from the franchise, but it also has these great narrative reveals, and as a result of them, I think it also has an emotional undertow that people might not normally associate with a Resident Evil movie. Even me, as a kind of stiff upper lip, repressed British person … I’ve seen the movie 100 times. I still start tearing up at the end of it.

I kind of do, too, I will admit.

I had a strong female lead back in the day when that was absolutely not acceptable in mainstream Hollywood movies.

Always worth remembering, now that everybody else seems to be, finally, maybe, starting to catch up.

And, as I’ve pointed out before, the really great thing about these films is the number and variety of women in them. In the fifth one, the top six actors in the credits at the end are all women, and in this one Anderson obviously decided to have the major heroes all be women and the major villains all men, maybe to see if anybody would notice.

(To be precise, one of the “women” referred to in the last sentence above is gender-fluid actor Ruby Rose, whose character wears a T-shirt saying “Not All of Us Are Under Control” — a very Resident Evil thought. The link is to a video that you probably shouldn’t watch if you’re at work.)

final chapters can be okay

~ Anthony Lee Collins ~ Leave a comment

I like quite a few movie franchises. Some of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films are good. Some of the X-Men movies, too, (although the last couple not so much). I’ve enjoyed some of the Fast & Furious movies, as I’ve talked about before.

But when a new Resident Evil movie comes out, I really feel, “Okay, this is my franchise.”

The current one, which probably is “The Final Chapter,” as the title claims, has many aspects — some good and some bad.

1) It’s a very satisfying ending (with the door slightly open for more). This never happens in the superhero franchises, where the urge to keep the franchise generating cash outweighs any other considerations, you know, like telling a good story.

2) It includes two big revelations, one about the protagonist (Alice) and one about the antagonist (the Umbrella Corporation). They are satisfying, and I would imagine that Paul W. S. Anderson (writer, director, co-producer) has had them both in mind since at least the third movie (this is number six).

In fact, I was expecting one of those revelations to show up in the last movie, but obviously Anderson thought it was better to delay it until this one. I think that was a good decision.

I didn’t feel at all let down when it came, by the way. Sometimes when there’s a Big Reveal which you’ve been expecting for a while, it can be a disappointment when it finally arrives, but sometimes it can come as a welcome affirmation that you’re in tune with the story.

The other reveal, about the Umbrella Corporation, was a surprise, but it explains a lot that didn’t completely make sense before. (And it reveals — no spoilers — that there’s something in the world today which alarms Anderson almost as much as huge, multinational corporations.)

4) The Red Queen, the homicidal supercomputer that runs the huge underground complex called the Hive (where the whole story began, so it’s come full circle), has a major role in the plot. This may be related to the fact that she’s performed, as a hologram avatar, by Ever Gabo Anderson, who happens to be the daughter of Paul Anderson and series star Milla Jovovich.

And, yes, at a key moment she utters the Red Queen’s signature line, “You’re all going to die down here.” As I remember it, she almost throws it away, finishing a statement, turning away, then turning back to add, “Oh, and by the way…”

5) Iain Glenn, the best villain in the franchise, is back. Ali Larter, as Claire Redfield, the best of Alice’s partners, is back. Yay.

(By “partner,” I mean that, within the wide range of interesting women these movies always have, there is always another tough, competent woman for Alice to work with. In addition to how good both actresses are, Claire has always been a particularly good complement to Alice since she’s very much a leader, and Alice is much more a lone wolf.)

6) The fight scenes are definitely a step back from the best, though. Fast edits, shaky-cam, no idea what’s going on. Anderson has always favored fast cuts, but this is way beyond the earlier movies. This may be the first episode in the franchise where the dialogue scenes are way better than the fight scenes.

7) Some of the non-fight visuals are striking, though. Anderson is a master of the use of 3D to put the audience right inside claustrophobic interiors with the characters. Confined spaces, preferably underground, are his favorite settings. There is also a wonderful, almost medieval, sequence with gasoline and fire deployed as a weapon.

Here are some links:

1) This is a sentence I never thought I’d read in the New York Times:

Because their director, Paul W. S. Anderson, is an exceptional talent in action cinema, and because their star, Milla Jovovich, is a charismatic, exceptional and very credibly kinetic action performer, the movies in the “Resident Evil” franchise, of which this is the sixth, have always been a terrific time.

Wow. I guess it’s true, to paraphrase the movie Chinatown, that politicians, video game movies, and ugly buildings all become respectable if they last long enough.

2) From Slate, about video game franchises:

Where did Resident Evil go right where… so many others went wrong? The answer is Alice, whose rage and passion drives Resident Evil further than any female-led survival horror or science fiction action series before it. She’s a compassionate, wily heroine whose fury, once kindled, never lets up.

3) And here’s Ms. Jovovich, reminiscing about all six movies, including that the moment her husband fell in love with her might well have been when she sat him down and demanded that he give her back all the action scenes and stunts that had been hers when she’d signed on with the movie, but which had later been mysteriously given to Michelle Rodriguez instead.

One of the pleasures of the series is that Milla does virtually all of her own stunts, and she’s not giving up even one of them without a fight. 🙂

the other other mr. anderson

~ Anthony Lee Collins ~ Leave a comment

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 🙂 ).

three things i like

~ Anthony Lee Collins ~ 7 Comments

1. I'm already liking Brave on the Page. I went right away to the "flash essays" and found a bunch of things that seemed like they should be the beginnings of conversations.

Robert Hill wrote a good essay callled, "Why I Write Out Loud'" which reminds me that there's nothing like hearing words out loud. Of course, when I hear my words out loud these days it's my Kindle reading to me, but I've learned things from that.

Steve Denniston wrote this great paragraph:

My church has been an endless source of material. Recently at coffee hour I overheard someone say, "That gun I bought last month? That thing shoots better than i do." I wrote that down because I instantly knew which of my characters would say it and even the chapter it belonged in

My two comments would be:

"So, I'm guessing you're not a Quaker. I don't remember ever hearing anything like that at coffee hour when I was growing up."

and

"I do know the feeling, despite my complete lack of knowledge of guns. I had to borrow a guitar once, when mine was in the shop and we suddenly got a gig we hadn't expected. I borrowed a Strat, from the best guitarist I've ever met face to face. That thing played better than I did, that's for sure. After the gig, he said to me, 'I liked how you played my guitar.' Nicest thing anybody ever said about my guitar playing."

A piece called "Fish Lake, Yo" by Bart Kind is funny all through. I won't quote it. If you buy a copy of the book, check it out.

Emma Burcart has a piece callled "Wherever I Am." That's where I write, too.

Brian M. Biggs writes "It's All Right to Write and Not Publish." Very true. If you write, you're a writer. People have been telling stories for millennia. The idea of being published is comparatively recent. In a century or two, people may not even remember what "being published" means. But they'll still be telling stories, in some form or other.

Stevan Allred loves Lamy pens. So do I. Pretty much every word I've written for the last ten years (or more) has been written with a Lamy pen.


2. I really liked reading this article: "Dial M for 3-D: Hitchcock’s primer for depicting the third dimension."

This was my argument when Avatar came out and people said 3D was a gimmick. It can be a gimmick, of course, as anything can be, but it doesn't have to be, and Hitchcock demonstrated that in 1954. Seen in 2D, the movie is rather small and stage-bound (I'm trying not to say "flat"). Good and entertaining, yes, but definitely second-level Hitchcock.

In 3D, though, as it was made to be shown (and in a theater, as I was lucky enough to see it a couple of decades ago), everything works and everything makes sense. It is probably still a smidge below Hitchcock's best (what isn't?), but it is a major work of art.

The other pleasant surprise at the end of the article linked to above was this: "There are a tiny handful of modern movies that use 3-D effectively, often those that linger in or return to a fixed set of environments: Henry Selick’s Coraline, Chris Butler’s ParaNorman, Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, James Cameron’s Avatar, even a few sequences in Resident Evil: Retribution."

I thought I was the only person noticing how Paul W. S. Anderson (the director of the last two Resident Evil films, in 3D, and not the same Paul Anderson who directed The Master) has taken to 3D and how well he's using it.

Of course, nobody devotes any critical attention to the Resident Evil films, but there have been really strong sequences in both of the last two, utilizing both 3D and slow motion very effectively.

This movie (Retribution, #5) has some very effective sequences. The beginning gives you pretty much what you expect – a resolution of the cliffhanger that ended the previous movie – but it delivers this in reverse and in slow motion (and in 3D), which could be a gimmick but it's not. And there is also an excellent chase scene (in which Alice rescues the crew of guys who had been sent to rescue her). If you've ever looked at an escalator and wondered what it would be like to drive down one in a car – this is the chase scene for you.

Also, as I talked about before, the RE series has always had a wide variety of female characters, and this movie extends that to include a villain (two, really), a liberal suburban housewife, and a mother. And a daughter. But the problem is the men, who are really not a very interesting lot at all. So, that's a weakness.

But it is a worthy addition to the series, which is (from what I read) going to have one more installment, which is probably about right. It's clearly building to a climax, and you can't sustain these things forever (a series like Star Trek or james Bond is one thing – where each movie is basically a self-contained story – but five or six movies is a long series for movies which basically tell one long story).


3. I read all the time about writers who love writing first drafts and hate editing (or who bravely assert that they love editing, but you can tell they don't).

So, it has come as somewhat of a surprise to me that what I really want to do now is edit. I have an idea for a new story, I have some scenes, I even have an idea of the shape, but I'm not really ready to start. There are two things you need to start a serial story. One is a title, the other is a point of view. I could come up with the former, but I'm still working on the latter.

And, as I think about the new story, what I find myself really thinking about is editing the Jan Sleet mystery stories. I have a lot of great beta feedback, and I know (finally!) what order the stories should be in. So, I'm going to start polishing them up a little ahead of schedule. I know I said I'd wait a year, but the first one ("The Hospital Mystery") was written in 2008, so that's way more than a year.

So, coming soon, "The Hospital Mystery."

storytelling lessons from the zombies and vampires

~ Anthony Lee Collins ~ 4 Comments

Continuing from my earlier post, "Storytelling Lessons from the First Class," I decided to post about some things I've learned from watching the Underworld and Resident Evil movies. These lessons apply mostly to writing series, but the last one applies more generally.

For those who may have not seen the movies in these two series (and why not?), I'll say this in brief: The Underworld movies are about a centuries-long war between vampires (who are very aristocratic) and the "Lycans" (werewolves) who used to be their slaves. There's a Romeo and Juliet angle, and some plot elements which seem to have been borrowed by the Twilight books (based on what Wikipedia tells me).

The Resident Evil movies are based on the popular video game series, and they portray a world gradually taken over by zombies.

Both series are centered around strong female warrior characters: Selene (Kate Beckinsale) in the Underworld movies, and Alice (Milla Jovovich) in the Resident Evil movies. Both series have now gone to four movies, with the most recent one in 3D, and the fifth Resident Evil movie is coming in September.

Here are the lessons I've learned by comparing the two series:

1) A series shouldn't be a series of the same thing over and over.

I just saw the current Underworld movie recently, and it had advantages over some of the predecessors (better direction in the action sequences, for example), but it was clearly More of the Same. You liked the earlier ones? Well, here's some more. We might refer to this as Iron Man Syndrome (AKA "don't rock the boat"). Even the look of the movie is the same, that nearly black and white (or black and dark blue) color palette that has been there since the first movie.

The new movie is set in the U.S. for the first time, but everything still looks the same, and also the change is less striking than it might be because it was never clear where the earlier films were taking place anyway. There's less romance and more ass-kicking than in the first two movies (the third was a prequel, not featuring Selene, and so it sort of sits by itself), but it's still just a continuation.

The Resident Evil films have each been quite different. The first was almost all underground, very claustrophobic. The second was in a city, over the course of one night; the third was in a desert and mostly in bright sunlight; and the most recent was in a variety of settings. Throughout the series, the zombies have become less and less of a plot element as the series has transformed into an action-adventure story. So, not just more of the same.

2) Who am I rooting for again?

With the Underworld movies, sometimes it seems we're rooting for the vampires (because the main character in three of the movies is a vampire), though the vampires are pretty rotten to the Lycans and their entire power structure is based on lies. In the third movie, about the slave rebellion where the Lycans freed themselves, we're clearly rooting for the Lycans, but with the new movie we're back with Selene. It seems that ultimately we're rooting for whoever is the star of the movie.

From the beginning of the most recent movie Selene kicks mucho ass, including killing a lot of people (she isn't called a Death Dealer for nothing), but, aside from the badassery of some of the fights, I did start to wonder if all the people getting killed actually deserved it. The whole thing works better if you don't think about it very much (even apart from the fact that the plot of the most recent movie was very confusing – at least until I figured out that they were using the same plot as the movie Ultraviolet, which made it much easier to follow 🙂 ).

With Resident Evil, it's much clearer. The Umbrella Corporation (a huge multinational corporation specializing in consumer products, medicine, viral weapons, and general nastiness) are evil. They (admittedly somewhat accidentally) wiped out most of humanity, and are still experimenting with the same viral weapons that turned most of the world into a zombie disaster area. So, they're evil. Alice (and whatever few survivors are grouped around her in each movie) are generally good, though not uniformly. As for Alice herself, she's my answer when people complain (with reason) that all the current superhero movies are so boy-oriented. Where are the female superheroes? Well, here's one. She doesn't wear a cape and she doesn't have a letter on her chest, but otherwise she fits all the criteria.

3) Challenge your protagonist.

As I say, the action in the most recent Underworld movie was the best so far, but at this point Selene is so powerful (and so pissed off, and now even immune to sunlight) that there's not much tension in the fights. The Lycans she's fighting get bigger and bigger, but you know she'll kick their big shaggy asses sooner or later.

The smartest thing the Resident Evil people did with the most recent movie was de-power Alice right at the beginning. She was originally one of the Umbrella Corporation's bio-weapons, with all sorts of special powers, but this also made her increasingly difficult to challenge. So, Umbrella "took back its property" and left her as an extremely capable soldier. This was, as I say, a really good idea.

This applies more generally. In mysteries, for example, the reader loses interest if the detective is never stumped.

4) Remember the Bechdel Test.

In some ways the most striking difference between the series is that the Underworld movies are basically "Selene and the boys." There are no other strong female characters, and (as far as I can remember) movies #2 and #3 have no significant female characters at all other than the leads.

(By the way, one of the weird thing about these movies is that we never see any female werewolves at all. And nobody ever mentions it. At least the Lord of the Rings movies mentioned the Entwives and the apparent lack of female dwarves.)

The Resident Evil films always have a variety of female characters: scientists, soldiers, a TV reporter, a student, a doctor, a nurse, an actress, a cop, and a girl named Kmart. The women in these movies have many conversations, about many subjects other than men. One of my favorite scenes in Resident Evil: Apocalypse is on a deserted street, in a disabled bus, where three women basically analyze their desperate situation and their limited options, each one bringing different expertise to bear, while the only male character protests in vain that things aren't really as bad as they actually are.

This is not a scene you're going to see in the upcoming Avengers movie, or the last X-Men movie, or pretty much any other mainstream superhero movie that I'm aware of.