George Romero's Resident Evil

The horror movie we could've gotten

[align=center] In 1998, Romero returned to the horror scene, this time with a commercial. He directed the live action commercial shot (promoting the videogame Resident Evil 2) which was shot in Tokyo, Japan. The 30-second advertisement was live action and featured the game's two main characters, Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield, fighting a horde of zombies while in Raccoon City's Police Station. The project was a natural for Romero, as the Resident Evil series has been heavily influenced by Romero's "Dead" projects. The commercial was rather popular and was released in the weeks before the game's actual release, although a contract dispute prevented the commercial from being shown outside Japan. Capcom was so impressed with Romero's work, it was strongly indicated that Romero would direct the first Resident Evil film.

He initially declined, stating in an interview, "I don't wanna make another film with zombies in it, and I couldn't make a movie based on something that ain't mine", although in later years he reconsidered and wrote a script for the first movie. While many were impressed with the script (which garnered positive reviews), it was eventually rejected. So he was fired from the project and the studios made the movie more watchable and watered down to appeal to the teenage male audience. So, after firing him they enlisted action director Paul Anderson (Mortal Kombat) to re-write the script and water down the movie. The movie wasn't as good as audiences guessed it would be, and when fans discovered this crime, they instantly protested. Though, George Romero's vision was never given to the American audience, his script still lives on in the internet.

There are a rash of mutilations on farmers in the countryside, when a team of S.T.A.R.S ops go to investigate, they are ambushed by demonic zombie dogs who kill off the entire team except for skilled op Jill Valentine who manages to seek refuge in the deserted mansion where experiments have been run. Along with Chris Redfield, Jill's boyfriend, a new team of Ops must go into the belly of the beast and save Jill along with a scientist who holds the secret to an antidote if the virus contained in the mansion were to ever spread. When they discover the scientist has been turned into a flesh-eating zombie, the mission is altered and everyone (including Jill) must now survive the mansion and escape from the automatic lockdown or they will be stuck in the house with all types of flesh-eating monsters.

I was rather intrigued to discover that stupid studio execs let George Romero, and when I also discovered there was a script available of his vision for the movie, I just had to read it. For the last two days, my eyes were pasted onto the screen as I read Mr. Romero's vision for "Resident Evil". First off, this is probably the first script for a movie where it's almost one-hundred percent accurate to which the property it's based. Usually, feature films based on video games are hardly faithful to the game (i.e. Super Mario: Luigi is a young man, Street Fighter: Guile has short hair) and I can forgive the changes in this. In the script, the changes are rather minimal and they improve the story rather than hurt it. Chris Redfield who is an officer in the original first game, here is Jill's boyfriend who follows the team into the mansion.

He is also part-native American who treasures Raccoon forest and Raccoon city and often disputes the other team member if it should be destroyed. I excused this little character change due to the fact that it not only added well to the story, it also increased character tensions as Chris discovers Jill was with him only as cover for her secret mission. The characters are well represented as we'd want them to be. Chris is a ballsy warrior who often knows what to do and when to do it while Jill provides and excellent double as the gutsy tough soldier she's supposed to be. In the script, Jill and Chris play off well with each other as the tension is noticeable throughout the entire script. We have strong supporting characters we can root for and a villain within the team that makes for great plot twists and turns. Romero has really done his homework on this as the script perfectly mimics the game.

We get the biggest thing like zombies, demon dogs, and large plants all the way down to the assorted color keycards that enable you to move throughout the mansion. I was rather shocked to discover Romero created his own vision for a horror movie while respecting the fans and the game's concept. The script doesn't talk down to us and become condescending as the theatrical movie did. In here there's no karate fighting with dogs, there's no fully-cleaned zombies and there's no two-dimensional characters as the movie had. We also get an excellent sequence in which the team must face off against the bad-ass Tyrant; a bio-organic nearly invincible creature who is bigger and more deadly than anything you can imagine while he destroys everything in his path. In the script there's no annoying Red Queen watching the team yet the entire script leads up to the confrontation with Tyrant the humongous beast.

In the script Romero makes great use of the large mansion in which the story originally takes place and makes use of the laboratory. In the movie you saw, the house was merely suggested to the audience a few times and most of it took place in the chamber below it. In here, the mansion and labs are a character within itself providing obstacles for each of the characters, but don't blame Paul Anderson for the flub that was the Resident Evil movie, you can blame the studio executives for it. Paul Anderson does tend to pay homage to Romero throughout the movie he made: the net like laser that slices the troops in pieces is written in this script and Paul puts it in his movie, the demon dogs shooting scene towards the middle is also in the script. In the script Romero gives us a lot of everything letting fans of the video game feast while giving general audiences a good ol' time.

While the script is practically flawless, there were some aspects in this I wasn't too happy with. First off, each of the character's are interesting, but the dialogue is pretty lame. Maybe this was a fist draft or something but I found myself cringing at some of the dialogue Romero gave us in this. At times some of the supporting characters that provide comedic relief for the movie often provided poorly timed sarcastic comebacks and quips. I was rather disappointed.

So, if you love Resident Evil, didn't like the movie or are curious to see what Romero had in store for us check it out; his script is practically flawless and while the Resident Evil movie we saw in the theater's wasn't exactly terrible, it wasn't as good as the horror movie we could've gotten. We were robbed of Romero's vision folks. Mr. Romero, they have no idea what they've done to us.

If you liked his script allot there is a fan page you might like to join here is the link.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/George-A-Romeros-Resident-Evil/138446819499757

Hope you enjoyed this article and found it interesting.

Comments

I liked the movie.

The best Videogame Film adaption has got to be Mortal Kombat haha.lol And maybe Silent Hill, but it was alittle to clean and polished for it's own good.

I started out with the very first Resident Evil and have played all of them, however I stopped playing the newer ones as they just get further and further from the "scare the shit out of me" feeling so now I dont go beyond RE3, the movies are an absolute disgrace! Period.

I enjoyed the first Resident Evil movie, but I did never have the opportunity to play the game. If I had, I probably wouldn't have enjoyed the movie as much. I guess it's the same when a movie is made from a book, just never seems as good as your own imagination.

RE4: Wii Edition destroys the PS2 version from a graphics stand point AND most importantly control wise, since you actually feel like you're aiming with Leons arms, it's amazing how engaging and perfect it works and how natural it feels. As for RE3, ya it totaly felt like a side game to me. RE2 is the better game by a tad and more memorable I'd say. Yet I'll always love the original the most. Code Veronica is my least favorite of the franchise. The switch to polygon 3D environments was a bad move, since they looked baren, bland, ugly and ruined the atmosphere. The controls and animations even felt like a step below RE3's and the characters looked like plastic squeeky clean maniquins. While the storyline boardered into SCFI territory...It was a boring experience for me. Yet the Remake was a good one, but it lacked the magic of the original, while Zero is underrated and I enjoyed it quite a bit. RE5 on the otherhand was a dissapointment. Sure it had it's moments, wesker was back, Chris was a better lead than pretty boy mr.emo 'not scared of anything' LEON. And most of the cutscenes were simply put amazing and epic. It's just the whole experience was SOOO cut and paste from RE4. Like the animations, some of the Bosses and enemies. But overall I liked it, but it wasn't up to snuff as RE4...But it definitly got super epic towards the end!

On another note, I'm absolutely thrilled for Resident Evil: Revelations for the 3DS. Besides the incredible 3D technology that's blowing everybody away, the in game graphics look phenomenal. The 3DS is a nice hybrid of technologies. It's almost as good as the Wii regarding polygon Power, but what makes it look even better are the PS3/360-like shaders and lighting, which gives the illusion of these being PS3/360 calibur games, all fit nicely on small high resolution screens AND in 3D. SOOO excited hehe. And zombies are officialy back!

I've been a huge Resident Evil fan since I saw Resident Evil: Apocalypse back in 2004 and then I loved the movie so much I went out and bought the first game. Man was I surprised!! However I wasn't that surprised that the game would be be better than the movie as much as the game genuinely scared me a few times and provided me with an excellent game play experience. My favorite game in the series is Resident Evil 2, which I still have a copy of lying around waiting to be played on a on Play Station again someday. I may just pick one up on the cheap just so I can play Resident Evil 2. Resident Evil 3 was decent but it didn't really feel like an original game like Resident Evil 2 felt like from Resident Evil.

It seemed more like a spiritual sequel of Resident Evil 2 but instead of being holed up in the Raccoon City Police Department, you actually got to run around the city and explore a bit. Now I know that conjures up images of a GTA-like game if you've never played it, but trust me, RE3 has its limitations. I kinda wish Capcom would still go back and make a game like that. Just driving around, hunting zombies, kicking ass with huge guns. That game would be unreal.

Now I eventually finished Resident Evil's 1-3 and then at one point I owned both Resident Evil Code Veronica and Resident Evil 4 for my PS2 but both were bitchingly hard even on an "easy" setting. And while RE4 is an insanely fun game, like I said its a bitch. I never felt like I had enough ammo, the health power-ups were far and few, and I always felt that the enemies were f***ing cheap. I mean I love a challenge as much as the next guy but jeez.

That said, I eventually sold my PS2 and all my games (including RE2 and FFVII...argh and I really didn't get what I could've gotten for it) but I've since acquired a copy of the Dual Shock version of Resident Evil 2 again like I used to have. And don't judge me, I admit I liked RE2 because of the cheat where every gun could have unlimited ammo but that just meant once I reloaded each gun once, I never had to carry and thus waste space in my inventory with ammo for the rest of the game. It also meant I could hang on to more important items like First Aid Sprays, Herbs, and Keys/Keycards/Plugs/Gems...etc. You get the idea.

Anyway, Resident Evil is nothing short of amazing. Its as epic as Final Fantasy in my opinion only instead of fighting with giant swords and summoning great beasts to defeat your foes, you're just capping a bunch of zombie thugs and saving the city and ultimately the world from a grisly, zombie eaten fate.

Also I actually enjoyed the first RE movie. Sure it barely relates or has the same vibe as the games, but it had a fantastic score which reaked of atmosphere. Totaly built up tension, and that laser room scene was classic ect ect. The other 2 were just awful though.....Yet mildy entertaining at the same time. The 4th apperantly is actually pretty decent.

I heard a rumor that Capcom axed Romero because he wanted to put silly hats on some of the zombies and even have one even dressed in a clown suit. lol

I like the re movies, but damn... if this had been made it would have been amazing. I knew about this before, but this article was great. Thumb up.

The resident evil movies are so terrible.Zombies movies with no blood what the hell?