The Resident Evil games are a beloved icon, one of gaming’s most noteworthy series, standing tall to this day with a brand new entry underway dubbed Village. They, alongside Silent Hill, paved the way for horror gaming as we know it.
However, the films paint a different picture. They weren’t the best received and changed an awful lot from their source material, inventing a brand new character to stand in as the protagonist. For all intents and purposes, these films are beginning to fall off the radar, especially in light of the CGI animated tie-ins to the games and the upcoming Netflix series, but that’s not to say that they are without fans.
6 Resident Evil (Metascore 33)
The Resident Evil movies kicked off at the start of the 21st century with director Paul W. S. Anderson at the helm and Milla Jovovich in the lead role of the brand new character Alice. The story was an adaptation of the game by the same name, although a lot was changed.
The mansion made its appearance and the underground lab facility had a significant overhaul, but that’s about as far as the parallels go as the film opted for action more familiar to Resident Evil 5 and 6 than the survival horror the series was renowned for, as Alice ventured into a spy-thriller romp in the secret lab known as Hive that rested beneath Raccoon City.
5 Resident Evil: Apocalypse (Metascore 35)
There’s something about blockbuster Hollywood films and the suffix Apocalypse, with X-Men’s own entry falling to the wayside with a meager 52 whilst Resident Evil took a hit of its own, sitting at an abysmal 35.
The film’s premise is a somewhat loose taking on the events of Resident Evil 3, the game, as Alice wakes up in Raccoon City to find it overrun with the bioweapon horde of zombies, taking Jill Valentine’s role from the game.
4 Resident Evil: Afterlife (Metascore 37)
We met Jill Valentine in the second installment of the Resident Evil film franchise which left our pal Chris Redfield waiting on the bench. Captain Cold himself, Wentworth Miller, jumped into the fold to take on the role, and critics seemed to prefer this entry over the last, continuing the trend of a steady incline in score, although it was still nothing to write home about.
Afterlife was about a group of survivors making their way to Alaska to find refuge, but they’d soon find this to be a trap intended to lure them into being infected. Much like in the games, Chris is the brother to Claire Redfield but, unfortunately, she has amnesia, so she can’t verify this right off the bat. Naturally, Alice is somewhat apprehensive.
3 Resident Evil: Retribution (Metascore 39)
Barry Burton, Jill Valentine, Albert Wesker, Leon S. Kennedy, and Ada Wong all make an appearance in Retribution, so it’s jam-packed with characters from the games but the focus is still, unsurprisingly, on Alice. Nonetheless, it was yet another step towards a better score, although it still only found itself at the bottom of the barrel with a 39 from critics.
Much like the last installment, this film continues the trend of the world rapidly becoming overrun by those infected with the T-virus whilst Alice, the supposed last hope humanity has, is on her war-path to uncover her own past whilst also charging headfirst into finding those at the helm of what went wrong.
2 Resident Evil: Extinction (Metascore 41)
In the games, the founder of the Umbrella Corporation is an older British billionaire by the name of Dr. Oswell E. Spencer. After all, the mansion in the first game was owned by none other than him, clearly indicated by its name. The mansion in the movie, however, was simply known as the ‘Arklay Mansion’ so it was clear from the get-go that things were going to be different.
Extinction introduced audiences to Alexander R. Isaacs, founder of the Umbrella Corporation in the films. He isn’t the only one who brought this tyrannical business into fruition however as James Marcus was the co-founder but, unfortunately, Wesker was sent to murder him by none other than Isaac over a disagreement on the mass-production of the T-virus.
So, he’s not a good guy, and that’s why he’s the main bad of Extinction, even going so far as to turn into a ghastly tyrant. The plot beyond his seat on the throne of villainy is simple - Alice becomes superhuman, giving Chris Redfield and his boulder-punching antics a run for their money, and sets off to stop the virus once and for all, supposedly.
1 Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (Metascore 49)
So, the films, at least in the eyes of the critics, improved over the years right up until the end, as The Final Chapter took home a score of 49, an improvement upwards of 8 from the last, but it still didn’t quite reach the halfway mark, so perhaps we should count ourselves lucky that this was the end and that Netflix has a show in development whilst a new game, Village, is underway.
The Final Chapter sees the Umbrella Corporation unleashing the T-virus all across the Earth, leading to zombies and monstrous foes that Alice must deal with in her last attack on Umbrella. Like the last film, this is seen as the swan-song, the final hurrah against the evil plaguing mankind, but surely by this point, it’s too far gone at any rate. The film franchise surely was, as audiences weren’t too pleased, giving it a measly 5.1 out of 10.
NEXT: Resident Evil 8: 10 Unresolved Questions “Village” Needs To Answer
