Welcome! My original posts are generally writing-based whether that's fanfic, meta, or just some general thoughts. I like to reblog things I find amusing, art, nature/scenery, the occult, and vintage fashion. I enjoy old TV shows and manga, video games and books, sci-fi, fantasy, and horror. I go by "Bemused" or "Em." Please check my pinned post for more information about this blog. Here are some other places you can find me: Archive of Our Own Dreamwidth Pillowfort
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Here are some quick reviews of the RE films, along with a few notes on which timeline I think they belong to, which is part of a larger piece I'm working on discussing why I think we should see the RE universe as two separate timelines in general (based mostly on characterization). Timeline references are from over here. Lots of series spoilers below.
Degeneration
This is a decent enough film, where I would say the highlight is Claire. In general, Claire's depiction over the years hasn't changed much, so the Claire in Degeneration feels more or less like the same Claire we meet even in the RE2 remake. It's a level of consistency most of the other RE characters haven't achieved. She's kind, good with kids, and determined to see justice. Alyson Court does a good job with line delivery as well, and Claire's animation is allowed to be expressive, so she's fun all around.
As for Leon, he is in stoic agent mode for the majority of the film, and quite monotone. I'm not entirely sure what happened; Paul Mercier did a great job with Leon in the original RE4, so I'm assuming voice direction itself wasn't very good. Leon's animation is also pretty stiff; his expressions are as stoic as his vocal delivery, I guess. XD
On the whole, I really like the animation of this film, though. It's obviously dated at this point--it came out in 2008--so it's like a polished version of a really good PS2 game, which is an era of animation I enjoy, so no complaints. I think everyone's hair looks nice and shiny, and outfits are fun.
At any rate, this film takes place after Code: Veronica, so Claire has finally found Chris, and it leads into The Darkside Chronicles, which I never got a chance to play--maybe if it comes to GOG?--but ultimately it's before RE4, and leads into Leon's backstory with Krauser. Basically, Leon has already been dragged into secret agent service.
None of this is really tackled in the movie, though, or if it was, I did not pick up on most of it. This is more of a oneshot film dealing with Claire and Leon meeting up with each other once more to deal with a zombie incident, and for that reason, I really think we needed a lot more of Leon and Claire actually talking to each other. Probably the most touching moment of the film is when the two of them have a moment to just be around each other and talk about how they're handling the aftermath of Raccoon City. Leon praises her for trying to help people instead of fighting the way he and Chris do. Really, it's two sides of the same coin, but it was sweet of him to be so supportive of her chosen path, and shows he is reflecting on his own path, and perhaps his misgivings related to it.
We aren't going to get any more reflection on that in this movie, though, so don't get your hopes up. XD
This movie might also be the intro of Hunnigan, but I'm not positive on that front.
At any rate, Claire's storyline focuses on her joining up with TerraSave, and her determination to save a girl, Rani.
Leon's focuses on him being the agent sent by the government to help the Special Response Team (SRT), and the relationship he forms with one of the officers, Angela.
Honestly, in terms of character development, I'd say the most important part of this film is simply that Claire continues to be awesome, saves Rani, and works with TerraSave. As for Leon, he gets the start of a romance with Angela (never continued), and he's shown that he cares about saving people, which becomes relevant in the next film.
My favorite part of the film is Claire investigating the science facility, and Leon's fight scene at the end of the movie.
I'd place this film solidly in the original timeline, not the remake's, although Leon's characterization is generic enough to fit into both. The slightly more positive/determined outlook on life matches up with the remake at least.
Damnation
This film was, in my opinion, a downgrade from the last one. I thought having Leon as the protagonist would be more fun, but Leon was not in a fun mood for the entire duration of this movie. In Degeneration, he was way too stoic. In Damnation, he finally has a personality outside of just being an agent again, but that personality has settled on doom and gloom. He does, admittedly, still have some fun one-liners. This takes place during (?) Revelations 2 and leads into Resident Evil 6, which might explain some of Leon's general downer-ness. :/
The side characters also leave something to be desired. He spends most of his time with J.D., a rebel fighter who borders on a weird mix of fanboy and serial whiner. Sometimes he was fun, but he was edging way too close to annoying. Hunnigan is there at the start of the film, but then Leon goes off on his own, so she doesn't show up again till the end.
Matt Mercer's take on Leon is pretty good, especially with line delivery, but I really ran into the problem where his take on Leon sounds too close to his portrayal of Edér in Pillars of Eternity, so it's losing some of the Leon vibes for me for that reason, although Leon is being such a stick in the mud in this movie it might not matter either way. XD
Anyway, this is one of the few times Leon is paired up with a man instead of a woman, and I feel like if this is how his interactions with men generally go, we're a lot better off keeping him paired up with women instead. There just wasn't any fun factor with J.D., and his interactions with Sasha were downright dismal and confusing. The only woman he interacts with, Ada, is also annoying, so maybe it's just that this movie is bad.
I don't know, there's a lot that went down in this film, and there were a lot of politics, but I'd be hard-pressed to tell you how any of this is relevant to the franchise as a whole outside of Leon's dwindling desire to do anything in life whatsoever. I still need to play through all of RE6, though, so maybe I'll revisit this with a fresh take after that, but at the moment: ouch.
Also, the politics are lousy. I can only assume they were considered ridiculous at the time, but today they mostly just hurt to watch. The film ends with the U.S. and Russia joint invading a (fictitious) Eastern European country, the Eastern Slav Republic, so they can set up a temporary government to bring stability and stop their civil war. I don't think I need to explain why everything about that sent shivers down my spine.
But, focusing back on Leon, the part of the film I really didn't get was his final exchange with Sasha where he stops Sasha from committing suicide, which I wrote down in the hopes it might somehow make more sense to me:
I'd feel the same way if I was you. But the option of taking our own lives no longer belongs to us. Once we start using these [guns], we owe it to the people who died alongside us. We have to continue living. Even if it means living the rest of our lives without the use of our limbs. That is my answer, and your answer, buddy.
There is exactly one part of this monologue that I get: Leon sees himself as trapped in his job, his position in life, and he knows he's not living his life to its fullest (living without his limbs, in other words). He also feels a responsibility to keep going, to not kill himself, because of the people around him he's fought alongside. I'm sure Sherry plays a part in this, since he's taken it upon himself to keep her safe from the government (information that does not get nearly enough focus in the actual games).
What I don't get is why he then shoots Sasha, and condemns him to using a wheelchair the rest of his life. Is it punishment for Sasha failing to save his people? His friends? Or maybe for releasing the virus in the first place? I have no idea, but Sasha technically saved his life. Seems like lousy repayment, even if Sasha technically started a lot of these problems in the first place. Also, Sasha was infected. How is he not infected by the end of the movie?
Again, if this is how Leon's interactions with men are going to go, we need to keep him around women. XD
Hunnigan makes a reappearance at the end, where we see her and Leon talking outside of work for a change, although it looks like she might actually still be on the clock, so she's taken it upon herself to answer Leon's angsty phone calls even when she has other things to do, which is a noble effort. She's mostly defending the government, though, insisting they (the DSO?) didn't know what the plans were for the Eastern Slav Republic, which might even be true. I believe Hunnigan didn't know if nothing else. Leon is in full angst mode, though, and doesn't pause to appreciate that he has a friend who will answer these kinds of calls, and just comments that nothing has changed before hanging up.
Oh, Leon. Appreciate this woman who probably had to do all kinds of cover up for you after you went rogue, yet still talks to you like you're a reasonable human being.
I'd place this film in the original timeline. Leon's characterization seems to have no relevance for the remakes whatsoever. Feels a little far afield from the original RE4 as well, but I can at least see how it relates to RE6 from the little I've played.
Vendetta
I honestly didn't have high hopes for this movie after the last one, but I came away thinking this is the best of the bunch for the sheer quality of the action scenes if nothing else. This movie takes place after RE6 and leads into RE7 (kind of... I mean, that is Ethan's story, but Chris is technically there).
Everything about this movie is ridiculous: the plot is extremely over-the-top, our characters are all doing terribly, we have a villainess in a low-cut, high-heeled catsuit and some hulking monster dude as her father, some other scientist guy that wants revenge and to force a marriage with Rebecca, and yet it's also the most fun out of the three movies by far. I don't know what to make of that.
The dialogue flows way more naturally in this film, and we have several main characters on screen at the same time, actually getting to converse with one another: Chris, Leon, and Rebecca. This is already a big upgrade from the last movie. The animation is also superior to the last two films, and my personal favorite even with Infinite Darkness and Death Island out there. It's just very smooth, all the characters have a range of facial expressions, and their movements flow excellently. No weird stiffness in this movie. Voice acting is solid all around even if Leon still sounds a bit like Edér.
Leon is still in the Bad Place at the start of the moive, and is drinking his sorrow away, but he's also infinitely more entertaining about it than he was in Damnation, so I still prefer this characterization between the two. He has an argument with Chris that basically boils down to "my life sucks, and I don't want to be involved in your rescue operation" whereas Chris's point is "so?" Ironclad logic, Chris.
Okay, more fairly, his point is "we're all going to die because of this virus," but at this point in the series, I think they really need to pursue some kind of political action against corporations, implement some heavyhanded laws, all that jazz, because the corporations in their universe are next-level evil, and they just keep going. The DSO and the BSAA don't seem like enough defense against them, so I can kind of see where Leon is coming from.
Regardless, Rebecca calls them both selfish, gets them on board with everything, and is promptly kidnapped. From this point onwards, it's basically nonstop action while Chris and Leon try to rescue her and stop yet another virus from breaking out, and the action is where this movie shines. To make up for Leon's previous dour mood earlier in the film (and the last film...) they make sure to give him the flashiest fight scenes possible, and I approve of this immensely. I think it's also the first time Leon uses a motorcycle, which is now a staple of the character.
Chris's scenes are also very cool, but notably not quite as involved as Leon's. Perhaps this is supposed to show a level of practicality on Chris's part that Leon doesn't have? Or simply shows that Leon is willing to do completely insane things to save the day once he's on board with the mission? Maybe both.
The weakest part of this film is simply that once Rebecca is kidnapped, she's really not given much to do. :/ She has some interesting dialogue with the main villain, but I would have preferred a little more action on her part as well to better fit in with the fellas. It wouldn't have to be at the level of insanity those two are engaging in--she's a medic and a scientist after all--but maybe a solid escape effort at least.
I also would have preferred both Vendetta and Damnation to depict our heroes as caring even a little bit about minimizing casualties. This movie came out in 2017, which is right around when we all started caring about that sort of thing (I feel like talk about the insane casualty rate of action movies started up around 2013 with Man of Steel), but not yet when there was a big shift of any kind, and video games (or movies based off them) are probably not where we're going to see a ton of realistic logic on this front, but I still find it noteworthy how the Leon of Degeneration went from insisting he save anyone he could to Damnationwhere, fittingly, he doesn't give a damn, to Vendetta where he and everyone else are throwing grenades around in busy streets.
Yeah. The action scenes are still fun if you ignore that, though. I feel like we have started to see a shift once more in the remakes where Leon is back to caring about saving as many people as possible, so I guess we've come full circle.
Pretty sure Hunnigan made a brief appearance in this film, but for the life of me, I cannot remember in what capacity. I'll also say that Chris's team was a lot of fun, and we need more of them. You cannot introduce such surprisingly fun side characters and not have them show up in a future game. Maybe the expansion of Requiem?
Ultimately, I'd say this movie is in the original timeline only; it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense in the remake's timeline since RE Engine!Leon hasn't demonstrated a great deal of conflict over his job, saving people, or a propensity towards drinking. Also, Chris just doesn't seem like the Chris of RE7 or RE: Village, but I'm not totally sure what is going on with his characterization in the newer games in general. I need to revisit his sections since it's been a bit.
Anyway, on the whole, watching these was pretty entertaining. I don't think they'd be much fun for anyone who's never played a single RE game, but if you have, I think you can expect a decent time, except for with Damnation.
oh my god i talk a lot of shit about getting back more of daleks master plan but its actually happening there's a clip on the article and everything. oh my god it's 1am. i have work in the morning.
Peter Purves, who played the Doctor's assistant Steven Taylor, was invited to the Phoenix Cinema in Leicester on Wednesday under false pretenses to view the two episodes, and he said: "My flabber has never been so gasted."
Daleks Master Plan was broadcast once in the UK in 1965/66 and then never again bcos it was never picked up for overseas broadcast. there were 2 copies known to exist total. this is genuinely incredible news I knew we were getting a missing episode return but I can't believe it's actually DMP oh my god
