Resident Evil, Dagon, other stuff

[Andrew]

Tonight I watched "Resident Evil" and must say that I liked it.  Not great, nor ground-shaking, but an entertaining movie.  Definitely better than the word of mouth seemed to reflect.

First, I have to admit, and Kate knows it, I absolutely love Milla.  Ever since "Fifth Element" I have been a man smitten.  The well-thought and placed "amnesia" twist had me guessing right away that she would be a martial-arts badass, but it was also what I wanted to see.  The zombies were good and I felt genuinely sorry for the one agent pulled into their midst.  The dogs...good to go.  I didn't think they would pull off the dogs, not even in a short scene.

There was also some nice homage to the games, without sticking the said homage in your face.  Like the one scene with Milla and the dead security guard.  That looked just like the scenes with the one guy in the police precinct in the second game.

"Dagon" was interesting and atmospheric.  I think my only real complaint was that I wanted the scene in the hotel played off exactly like it had been in the story.  It was okay (the hotel siege), but you could take the action exactly as it transpired in the story and drop it right into the movie.

Some might find the squid girl loving Paul and saving him from certain death to be cliché.  However, things work out like that in any number of Lovecraft's stories.  The luckless person is not immediately killed by the eldritch forces, but kept alive because they want something from the human.

Oh, I also bet that Paul wished he had not jammed the winch.  That looked like it hurt.  Good scene though, that whole little section.

I added a "Date Reviewed" to the reviews at long last.  I had been populating the field for some time when writing, but had not updated the actual code that displays the reviews.  The info was there, just not being used.

The T-Shirts are coming along.  Hopefully those will be done in about ten days.

On the personal side, I am turning 29 this Saturday and going to tear out the old deck attached to my house on Sunday.  The latter tidbit is just an excuse to purchase a new Porter Cable reciprocating saw.  Well, that and I need to build a new deck, because the guy who built the original was obviously insane.

[Will]

What a coincidence....I saw Resident Evil tonight. It was better than I thought it would be, but I was still a little let down, as always, by that damn CGI zombie makeup and gore effects.  The story was a little slow for an action piece like this. Nary a zombie until 50 minutes in? That's a little bizarre...

Still, Milla had a good look going for her, and I too liked the homages to the game (and a few quick visual quotes from previous...um...influential, let's say, zombie movies).

[J.R.]

I loathe RE. It probably has something to do with my belief that Paul Anderson is a great whore of Satan . What if Romero had done it? What if... Speaking of that, let's hope George gets working on Dead Reckoning soon. He's getting up there.

[Mofo Rising]

I must say that I also enjoyed RESIDENT EVIL.  Came as a surprise to me, because I was fully expecting to hate it.  It may have something to do with the fact that I am very willing to overlook the flaws in a movie for the sake of my own entertainment.  (REIGN OF FIRE, I'm looking in your direction.)  Anybody played the GameCube remake of the first one?  It's really good.  (I like my GameCube a lot.)

I'll also see DAGON eventually, but I have to get around to reading the story first.  I have a stack of thirty or so books that are in the way of that.

Anyway. . . Hey, Andrew!  Looks like we share the same birthday.  I'm turning 24 this Saturday.  I'm planning on celebrating by. . . working all damn day.  Oh well, birthday dinner tomorrow and maybe I'll trick somebody into going to the Todai Seafood Buffet with me on Saturday.  (Free meal on your birthday.)

[Neville]

About RE: J.R. , I see you don't give up! I agree with everything Andrew says about it, but I found it could have been really scary, but for some reason they didn't exploit that angle. A pity. About Romero's approach to RE, you can get Romero's script in the web (check www.movie-page.com). I have read it and, personally, I think Anderson's script is way better.

About Dagon: Agreed, atmosphere is one of the best things in the movie. Music and cinematography are top notch. I really liked the squid girl, it wasn't cheesy at all, and she is so goddam inhuman... And I also liked the way Gordon advanced some things beforehand, such as the inhumanity of the villagers (that hotel clerk that doesn't blink... just like a fish) or the sea as a source of evil (Paul injured by a hook when he leaps into the fishing ship). Also loved the shipwreck scene, so deliciously cheesy.

If I had to say anything negative about the movie, it would be about Ezra Gooden's performance. Not umbearable, but almost.

And what about the skinning scene? I was really shocked and scared.



Things I learned watching this movie (c) Andrew:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

1) Squids are sexy.

2) Women and Laptop PCs are incompatible hardware.

3) Life is NOT a binary system.

4) Mobile phones have anti-zombies features built-in.

5) Nothing like a Miskatonic T-shirt to face rain and cold.

[Future Blob]

  Does anyone know where I could get a Miskatonic shirt? Or one with the symbol of Dagon would be nice. Don't worry, Andrew, I'll buy yours too.

[Gerry]

Gotta agree with the positive comments on DAGON.  I really liked it.  I loved it when Ezra Godden stopped running and started cutting.

The atmosphere and makeup effects more than made up for the occasional bad CGI.

[pharoah chromium]

The hotel sceen in the original story (Shadow Over Innsmouth) was one of the creepiest things I've ever read.  I would also have liked to have seen more of it translated to the screen, but on the other hand it was also good to see a Lovecraft movie with any recognizable Lovecraft elements at all.

I also liked Resident Evil.  It was fun, Milla was hot -- what's the problem.  I really didn't understand all the negative press.  And as far as regretting Romero's non-involvement, I've heard nothing but bad about his script.  I revere Romero's Dead films, but I have to wonder if he still has it.  Dead Reckoning sounds stupid, and Bruiser sucked.

[J.R.]

<< It was fun, Milla was hot -- what's the problem. >>

Well, it was kind of fun to spot all the parts completely stolen from other films, but Milla being hot isn't really a surprise. Who hasn't seen her nude a dozen times or so?

[Andrew]

>   Does anyone know where I could get a Miskatonic shirt? Or
> one with the symbol of Dagon would be nice. Don't worry,
> Andrew, I'll buy yours too.

No worries, I'm not printing t-shirts for the money.  My only desire is not to have umpteen t-shirts sitting around, since I have to pay up front for the shirts.

http://www.pegasuspublishing.com/cart/lovecraft--cthulhu_merchandise.html

I picked up a pair at Dragoncon last year, but found the above link.  They do not have my favorite, which is for the "Miskatonic Summer Games" and it shows figures running and swimming with tentacles after them.

I've never seen a Dagon symbol shirt.  That would be pretty cool though, even just as an embroidered emblem over the breast.

[Andrew]

Mofo Rising wrote:
>
> Looks like we share the same birthday.  I'm turning 24 this Saturday.  
>I'm planning on celebrating by. . . working all damn day.

Happy birthday!  I very nearly had to be at the unit today, but luck prevailed and I just need to be there at 0630 tomorrow.   Today looks like a good day for watching movies and other pleasant pastimes...

[John]

>Tonight I watched "Resident Evil" and must say that I liked it. Not great, nor >ground-shaking, but an entertaining movie. Definitely better than the word of
>mouth seemed to reflect.

 I felt the same way. I know nothing about the games other than the general premise, so I have no idea how faithful it is to them, but I thought it made a decent horror movie.

>Element" I have been a man smitten. The well-thought and placed "amnesia"

 I wasn't that crazy over the "amnesia" part. Maybe I'm missing something, but what was the point of spraying knock-out gas into the mansion? Were the people in the hive sprayed with the same thing? If so, why did they say that the computer killed everyone? To me, it seemed like a convenient way to include an exposition scene.

>twist had me guessing right away that she would be a martial-arts badass, but it

 I guessed that when I saw her bouncing off the walls in the ads.

 This is a little off-topic, but can anyone recommend the computer ports of the RE games? Most of the reviews I've read say that they're straight ports with all the frustrating drawbacks of the PSX versions (limited saves only at certain points, camera angles that often hide the action etc) and that you can't play them effectively unless you use a game pad (the most vile piece of game hardware ever created). Can they be played with a joystick?

[Drezzy]

>  I wasn't that crazy over the "amnesia" part. Maybe I'm
> missing something, but what was the point of spraying
> knock-out gas into the mansion? Were the people in the hive
> sprayed with the same thing? If so, why did they say that the
> computer killed everyone? To me, it seemed like a convenient
> way to include an exposition scene.

Methinks the point of it was to protect the secrecy of The Hive. It's top-secret, and only Umbrella employees and employers know of it, so why would the company want the guards to know about it and call the authorities, when all of the research being done is illegal?

Yeah, pretty loose, but at least it wasn't one of those "I fell and hit my head" things.

And, sadly, Resident Evil also has one of the strongest plots for a game-to-movie I've ever seen...**ctrl 5 AIM smiley**

[Andrew]

> Yeah, pretty loose, but at least it wasn't one of those "I
> fell and hit my head" things.

I can cope with the house having knockout gas and one of its possible side effects being short term amnesia.  Like the gent said, it was nice to see the idea worked in with more intelligence than "hit on head."  It also did keep you guessing about who betrayed who.  I was pretty sure Milla was the good agent, but could not be dead certain.

The weakest part of the plot was that the Red Queen did not somehow alert Umbrella (or the inserted team at the very least) about why she killed everyone in the Hive.  She should have done that as soon as she could.

[Mofo Rising]

Well, it falls victim to one of the worst cliches in any bad movie.

There's always that tense moment where tempers are flying high, and a decision needs to be made right now!  Of course, no one ever resorts to that five second explanation that would save the whole movie a lot of trouble.  Nope, it's always "just do what I say!", never "if you turn off the computer the entire complex will be overrun by zombies created by the chemical weaponry we were testing here!".

It's depressing how many movies do this.  I blame lazy screenwriters.  I mean, I know if they gave everything away at the top there would be no movie, but there's got to be a better way than "just do what I say right now!".

Oh well, if you're a fan of b-movies, you've got to learn to live with this malarkey.

By the way, Andrew, hope you had a happy birthday.