With less than two weeks to go, it's the big day for fans of the "Resident Evil" series - "Resident Evil 4 Remake" is officially released.
Given the importance of Resident Evil 4 in the history of the series and video games, if nothing else, the remake is likely to be another topical masterpiece.
For an IP that has gone through 26 years, movement itself is a good thing. What's more, this movement also covers "sea, land and air": in addition to games, "Resident Evil" movies, animations and live-action dramas have gone hand in hand in recent years, and if you count further, the branches and leaves that extend are not only here.
From radio dramas to novels and comics, even stage plays and musicals have also been involved. Of course, due to factors such as audience and era, these derivative works have not been able to spread outside Japan, and their influence is far less than that of common film and television works.
Musical Resident Evil: Gaia Voices
In terms of film and television adaptation, "Resident Evil" is in a special position. It is not without successful cases, but I don't know when it started, its film adaptation works all died in battle, becoming the negative teaching material of IP adaptation, like some fantasy "bad film curse" at work, the only thing on the right track is the game itself.
When users of other IPs are full of expectations for the adaptation, the fans of "Resident Evil" are a little afraid to avoid the adaptation, and even begin to worry about whether these bizarre adaptations will destroy the good reviews accumulated by the game and bias the public's impression of "Resident Evil".
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In fact, the biggest contributor to the fame of "Resident Evil" in China is not the game itself, but the live-action movie.
The first few games were successful one after another, and after fame and fortune gained reputation, the first opportunity for film and television adaptation was also won by German Konstantin Pictures, aiming to create a classic zombie movie like "Night of the Living Dead".
Unfortunately, due to many reasons, many people in China have not been able to catch up with the original "golden age" of the game, and there is a blank gap in the history of biochemistry. In this context, live-action movies have become the biggest publicity of this IP, but the way is not to attract people to the cinema.
Around 2004, although many people had contact with movie theaters, "going to the cinema" as daily entertainment was still a little extravagant in people's spiritual consumption lists, and it was not a mass entertainment item. It is clear that contact with foreign films needs to be found in other ways.
In recent years, broadband advances have brought about the fast train of the Internet. More and more video websites have been established, and in the initial lack of supervision environment, along with all kinds of unauthorized film and television resources, online movies have become the new darling of netizens.
In the field of "zombie movies", there are not many choices left for the audience at this time. Whether it is the quality of shooting or the quality of the script, Paul Anderson's "Resident Evil" is better than many of the same kind that are still at the level of cult films.
In an era when the film's expressiveness was still untapped, the first two films presented some slightly advanced bridges that left a deep enough impression on countless audiences, such as the Red Queen and her laser matrix, which are very representative examples.
People may forget the monster with its teeth and claws, but the scene of "artificial intelligence using laser fancy slaughter" is enough to be called a classic. The shooting of this clip did not rely on simple special effects, in order to present the "disintegration" more realistically, the crew specially produced equal human body portraits, vividly showing the scene of the human body turning into pieces in front of the camera.
Many of the special effects in the movie rely on physical models, which can be regarded as ingenious
In addition to the ingenuity of the scene production, the film also opens up a different way in shaping uniqueness. Counting the game itself, the charismatic and popular characters grabbed a handful, and Paul Anderson obviously did not intend to recreate it all, but instead used an original character Alice.
The director deliberately made it into a brave and courageous Valkyrie image, out of commercial considerations, in order to maximize the display of the Ukrainian actor's good figure, the crew deliberately let him wear a thin red dress and fly in the tide of corpses.
As far as the end result is concerned, these arrangements are indeed very effective. Before the "Resident Evil" game entered the country, the image of the evil Umbrella Company and the "God of War" Alice came to people first.
For example, the common "umbrella" car sticker, as for whether the owner knows the "umbrella" is another matter
So far, the film adaptation of "Resident Evil" has been completely successful both at the box office and word of mouth. However, this precise rhythm control between loyalty to the original and bold innovation came to an abrupt end in the third film.
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For film creation, if the shooting of a film begins to follow the steps, just mechanically one after the other, in most cases the quality of the film is not surprising. Of course, Constantine Pictures will not stop there, but the next road is not as easy as before.
Coincidentally, the "Resident Evil" game itself, as the material library of the movie, ushered in a huge change in the fourth generation, from the system design to the overall style, and also made the zombies retire from the stage and replace them with a cult group full of exotic styles.
Although the game is now considered a classic, the "controversy battle" around the game was quite lively at that time.
The drastic changes in the game repelled the idea of imitation by the crew, and after that, Paul Anderson's film ideas were not far behind, upgrading the stage directly from "Raccoon City" to the world. From the third movie, the whole world has turned into a doomsday wasteland, and the thinking of the movie has changed significantly.
Since then, the film has completely abandoned the development of the game story and driven to the fixed Hollywood routine - relying on hot action scenes to support the scene, but also bringing an assembly line-like plot.
Departing from the plot of the original work, the heroine Alice has become the core of supporting the movie. In the movie, she has become a perfect "superman", who can defeat almost any enemy and deal with any problem, and Alice in the movie is obviously better than the famous villain Wesker who fused and evolved with the virus in the original work, which made the game fans sigh.
The strongest villain in the game is only beaten in front of the protagonist of the movie
Constantly focusing on Alice's "handsomeness" will inevitably lead to the script having no time to care about the portrayal of other characters. Although the movie constantly arranges new supporting roles for the heroine Alice, "death and oblivion" is probably their only end, and such a weak role creation makes Alice almost the only character who can be remembered.
Even an important game character like Nicolai can easily "take the bento"
It is also helpless that the movie refuses to give up the bits and pieces of the game, and still more or less inserts game elements in subsequent movies. The most direct is the "joining" of various classic game characters, with well-known characters such as Leon, Chris and King Ida taking turns.
Lyon's temperament is not very reductive, but Li Bingbing's Ida King does conform to the imagination of many people
However, in order to make way for the heroine Alice, whether in appearance or inside, most of these characters are not in line with the original game. These disrespectful arrangements for roles have further become "criminal evidence" for the director's mess.
As time goes by, the audience at this time is no longer as easy to fool as before. On the one hand, after the baptism of the previous films, the shock of the original "plasma, monsters" is no longer fresh, and more and more people are beginning to realize that the "Resident Evil" movie has coped with things, and the effect of the emotional filter is no longer obvious;
It's just that even in the last two films with the worst reputation, the box office of the movie is still good
On the other hand, as "Resident Evil 4" landed on almost all platforms, especially for domestic players, more people came into contact with the original game, and people began to understand the more rigorous plot setting. Looking back at the movie, it is inevitable that there will be a gap.
And just when game fans sighed "what is the film", perhaps out of operational strategy, or dissatisfaction with the increasingly uncontrolled plot of the movie, Capcom finally entered the film and television adaptation track in person in 2008.
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Unlike live-action movies, Capcom's choice is closer to the game itself – CG movies.
Because it is a CG production, the action scenes on the screen are more capable in terms of fluency and look and feel than live-action movies, and the pace is fast, while the information density is not low. Although director Makoto Kamiya said that he considered the feelings of the general audience when filming, it is clear that there is a lot of fun in the whole movie, and fans of the game may enjoy it more.
"Ordinary female college student Claire"
Capcom himself is not only sure that the story of the game is under control, but also the benefits of having a connoisseur in charge: it allows familiar characters to show their charm. "Get Down" when Leon and Claire meet again is enough to make fans smile.
Goodbye again "Get Down"
The official personally supervises, in addition to making the plot of the animation highly consistent with the original setting, more importantly, the plot in the movie can also be included in the history of the world view. Compared with marginalized live-action films, its significance to the creation of the entire series IP ecology is obviously more practical.
The movie previews the villains of the next game
Although it was flawed in its performance as the first experimental work, the considerable commercial returns – the film exceeded 40 million yen at the box office in two weeks of its release in Japan – proved the viability of this path.
The official did not forget to spoof the characters in the movie, and several famous memes were born
With the first attempt, soon Makoto Kamiya's second film was launched. This time, the director is more daring, taking the worldview pattern a step further, rising to a biochemical war between state powers.
The tough guy image of Leon in "Resident Evil 6" is further depicted in this film
As an extension of the game's plot, the movie also presents some scenes that cannot be seen in the game, such as the battle between "licker" and "tyrant", and the "love interaction" that fans love to see, and the second "Curse" can be said to be the pinnacle of CG movies.
The movie still does not forget to carry some interesting "private goods"
However, "two more than three times", after 2017, this road of expansion gradually fell.
For some reason, Capcom changed production teams. However, the new director and screenwriter are not "biochemical experts", which are reflected in CG animation, that is, they only know the general "paper talk", and they are instantly timid in details and other aspects, so that even Capcom's supervision is powerless.
In the third CG movie "Resident Evil: Revenge", the opening rescue scene can directly give the audience high blood pressure. As a BSAA unit that specializes in dealing with biochemical disasters in the setting, even under the leadership of the protagonist of the series, Chris, it is as if he has never heard of "zombies", and the logic of behavior when encountering enemies deviates from common sense, and it is easy to get a bento box at the beginning.
The more the audience watches, the more they can find that the crew does not know enough about the game. For example, the understanding of each character is too superficial, whether it is Leon's unconvincing decadence, or Rebecca's panic that does not match her experience, even the villain is no longer decisive and has become an arrogant and indecisive character.
Under such a stumbling block, the latest CG movie trailer came as promised. But after a few "wolves", Capcom, who should have understood what players think best, has not escaped the curse, and it is not easy to regain the confidence of fans of the series.
This time, the official is ready to bring all the famous people together
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When other games use "adaptation" to expand the user group, the "biochemical" of "sorrow and joy are not connected by merger" relies on the game to provoke a reputation and accumulate more and more popularity. This means that this IP will be more active in the future, and it also means that the relevant adaptations will not stop.
Sadly, the inability to make convincing changes and the unwillingness to respect the setting of the original work became a common problem in subsequent series adaptations. If the front can still be called the advantage is overturned, then the next two can only be called a collapse.
In the adaptation launched by Netflix last year, the story boldly adopted a dual timeline that was completely different from the original. But instead of complementing each other, the two story lines are so bad that they have their own merits, piling up a lot of tired American elements.
The heroine is obviously engaged in the research of zombies, but the barren risk awareness is shocking, not only casually putting herself in danger because of some small things, but also easily harming others, which can be described as walking the path of the protagonist, but making the audience hate like a villain.
And when the camera cuts back to the past, it is more of a templated routine. The opening scene is the ever-changing "school bullying" opening, emphasizing the loose and speechless "bear childism", combined with the original and the great casting, for the audience who is more and more disgusted with such formulaic combinations, it is basically a "perfect disaster".
In addition, in this story that is poorly related to the original story, there are also many setting changes based on "political correctness". Of course, rather than disgusted with "political correctness", people are more repulsed, in fact, they still come wantonly under the "right banner", but the behavior of fish and beads has been seen a lot, which inevitably attracts the audience.
Konstantin Pictures, which failed to close the end last time, also performed a "crash into the south wall" on the road to the magic reform, yes, it is the aforementioned live-action film producer, in 2021 they decided to start a new stove, this time their slogan is mainly "restoration".
"Authentic"
Perhaps they naively thought that today's film market and audiences would be as tolerant of themselves as in the past, but compared with Paul Anderson's film series, it became a step backwards.
The characters not only do not match the temperament, but the relationship between the characters is also made out of nothing
The movie not only makes a boring calculation in character creation, but also gives the characters a lot of stereotypical new characters that do not belong to them. In terms of plot, he also failed to fulfill the promise made at the time of announcement, and pulled multiple networks to forcibly bring the protagonists to a table. After watching the movie, it is even difficult to accurately judge which game is adapted from this "original" movie. The behavior of "saying one thing and doing another" has caused word-of-mouth backlash.
The IMDb score is miserable
What is the secret of IP adaptation may not be explained in three words, but after the destruction of bad film collections over the years, we at least know that for "Resident Evil" with "characters" as the core, self-righteous fabrication is by no means a good strategy.
Perhaps, as the famous line goes, "The greatest obstacle to survival is never weakness, but arrogance." ”