The video game movies Roger Ebert hated the most: “An utterly meaningless waste of time”
Can a video game be transformed into a good movie or television show? Various titles, like The Last of Us and Fallout, have proved the answer to be yes, while others, such as Uncharted, suggest otherwise. As long as the movie retains the video game’s spirit of creativity instead of simply shoehorning in lots of action sequences, it has real potential to stand alone as a great piece of work.
Film critic Roger Ebert was open to watching all kinds of films, ranging from the most arduously long pieces of slow cinema to stoner comedies featuring enough jokes to have a ten-year-old boy laughing for days on end. He covered all genres, and with a critical eye, he wrote sharply humorous reviews – never afraid to be ruthless with his opinions.
During the many years that Ebert reviewed movies – becoming one of the most well-known critics in America – he shared his hatred of many films. He particularly hated a certain video game movie franchise that never fared well with critics, although it was popular enough with moviegoers to spawn countless sequels. Resident Evil, directed by Paul WS Anderson, was released in 2002 and starred Milla Jovovich as Alice. While many of us have seen the film, we wouldn’t exactly jump to call it excellent cinema, and Ebert didn’t hesitate to criticise it either.
Based on the Japanese video game of the same name, the movie managed to gross a whopping $103 million despite being made on a budget of $33m. Still, Ebert gave the movie just one star, writing, “Resident Evil is a zombie movie set in the 21st century and therefore reflects several advances over 20th-century films. For example, in 20th century slasher movies, knife blades make a sharpening noise when being whisked through thin air. In the 21st century, large metallic objects make crashing noises just by being looked at.”
He continued: “The characters have no small talk. Their dialogue consists of commands, explanations, exclamations and ejaculations. Yes, an ejaculation can be dialogue. If you live long enough you may find that happening frequently.”
Ebert liked the sequel, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, even less. Awarding it half a star, he explained, “The movie is an utterly meaningless waste of time. There was no reason to produce it, except to make money, and there is no reason to see it, except to spend money. It is a dead zone, a film without interest, wit, imagination or even entertaining violence and special effects.”
The critic doubled down on his hatred for the film, warning parents, “If you encounter teenagers who say they liked this movie, do not let them date your children.” The Resident Evil franchise has churned out seven live-action movies, none of which were any good. There were even four animated movies, proving that if producers think an idea will make money, they’ll really rinse it until there’s nothing left, with no creativity or originality in sight.
Ebert had some questionable opinions, such as disliking classics like The Elephant Man and A Clockwork Orange, but he was definitely right about Resident Evil.
