The Entropy Pump

directed by John Carpenter

An adaptation of an old John W. Campbell story, The Thing is an effective horror-science fiction mix about a group of researchers in an Antartic research station fighting an alien whose ship crashed over hundreds of thousands years ago and who has only been recently thawn out of a block of ice. The alien, unlike humans, is made up of parts that can and will act independently to survive if the whole body is threatened. There’s one well done scene where the humans use this ability to find out whether the blood from each of them is still human or already taken over by the alien thing. This is another of the skills of the alien biology, it takes over other lifeforms, absorbs and duplicates and supplants them.

Preliminary estimations by one of the humans say that once the alien reaches civilization, it will take over all life in around three years. What follows is a hunt the alien movie, complicated by the fact that everyone of the humans could already have been taken over. Everyone is in full paranoia mode, but it still isn’t enough to save them and at the end we get an ambivalent scene that doesn’t make it clear whether the humans have really won or not (since the alien obviously can survive deep freeze).

But the best thing about the movie, which is odd to say in these days of rampant CGI-special effects, are the monster transformation scenes, they really look well done and are, in a bizarre sense, really beautiful. Best scene of the movie, hands down, was the jaw in the belly scene. Or was it the spider head scene? Can’t decide, there were both cool.

Rating: 4/5

Directed by Russell Mulcahy
3rd Resident Evil movie

Earth has dried up and nearly all life zombified, since the containment of the virus in the second movie hasn’t worked. Some survivors try to find a secure place to survive this catastrophe.

Two things about the movie:

1) I felt like watching bits and pieces from other movies. Many big parts of the structure and theme reminded me strongly of Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. Other movies that came to my mind: The Birds by Hitchcock (I actually liked that scene), Alien Resurrection (cloning Alice again and again) and Day of the Dead.

2) The spreading virus dries rivers up. What the fuck? I sat through the movie, my mind always coming back to this completely inane idea. How does a virus dries up rivers. I can understand if they meant it completely kills all biological live in rivers (that’s far reaching, but still could somehow work, as the virus has shown to be very resilient and spreading to any species available), but drying them up. How? And what’s up with Alice somehow having gained mental powers. That’s just stupid. And why can the zombies move for years without the need to eat, do they convert sunlight? All in all, there are movies that gloss over scientific inconsistencies by at least trying to make some sense and some that embrace bullshit completely. This is one of them.

As for the movie. I’m not a fan of post-apocalyptic movies and this one is no exception. But as I summed up above, there are other problems. I enjoyed some bits, was entertain by some parts, but overall my enthusiasm for this series has completely dried up.

Rating: 2/5

Directed by Alexander Witt
2nd Resident Evil movie

As can be expected from every horror movie sequel, everything that was done in the first movie to contain a released evil has achieved nil. The zombies are on the run in Raccoon city, the zombiefication-virus slowly but steadily spreading.

This one wasn’t as entertaining as the first one. I think it wasn’t a smart move to integrate another female main character (Valentine), not because I have something against female characters that kick ass, but because it’s never really clear who is actually the main main character in the movie. Makes for a screwed dynamic, as if the movie isn’t sure itself on which character it should concentrate. That’s a general problem of the movie, too many characters running around. The first one was a very compact and tightly scripted action fest, this one has the same level of action and violence, but it’s not nearly as tight and compact. The plot seems to fray as the movie goes on, and so does the concentration of the viewer.

The introduction of the Nemesis monster also completely changed the nature of the movie, taking over too much space of the movie to the detriment of the zombie-action. The first movie also had a big monster, but it only got space to act near the end.

And there’s Alice’s transformation from mere human to ass-kicking superhero, something that reminded me very strongly of Ripley’s transformation in Alien Resurrection (the third movie also has bit of that and other movies as well).

Rating: 3/5

Directed by Paul Anderson
1st Resident Evil movie

Loosely inspired by the game series with the same name, this sports an zombiefication-virus outbreak in a secret laboratory complex deep under Raccoon city. Some hours later after the whole complex has completely shutdown, a special unit arrives with the task of finding out what happened.

I actually enjoyed this one (which I didn’t expect after reading some reviews). It doesn’t aspire to be anything else than a slick and fast-moving action movie, but this it does very well. You’ll have the unit and some other characters going into the complex, slowly finding out what happened, and also getting killed one by one. It’s not very original, but the execution is nicely done. There’s also the temporarily memory loss of two main characters that allows some neat story-twists for the last part of the movie. There’s plenty of action and violence, zombies all around and a neat monster for the final.

Funny thing about the movie: everything the benevolent acting human characters do is endangering the long-term safety of mankind, while everything the emotionless and logical AI of the complex does is trying to guard the safety of mankind in the long-term. Alas, in every computer system humans are the weak link.

Rating: 4/5

Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo

It’s not often that I feel a sequel is better than the original, but it happens from time to time. Maybe because this time the core idea was much more original than that of the first movie. While trying to repopulate parts of London after the outbreak of a zombification virus in the first part (as far as known most zombies have died from starvation), a second outbreak occurs. Putting aside questions of why anyone would try to repopulate a city that has once been infected with a virus that could spell the end of the world and not nuke the place, this idea felt rather fresh.

While most of the time in the movie is occupied with running away, like in the first part, the pacing is much better. In the first part, after the survivors left the city, it became much slower and less interesting, here the action never slackens. Noticeable is also the lack of cardboard bad guys, like the army guys from the first part. Sure, the army guys here shoot everyone after the outbreak, infected and non-infected alike. But those actions make sense. In comparison the bad guys from the first movie were cast as the bad guys because the plot had run out of steam and needed something to fill the gap until the good guys were saved. So, if you weren’t impressed by the first part, take a look at the second.

Rating: 4/5

Directed by Danny Boyle

The strongest part of the movie is the first part, with one of the main characters walking through a deserted London. These few minutes really made a chill run down my spine. Not that this is something completely original, many post-apocalyptic movies that deal with deadly viruses or something similar (depopulating, but not destroying the cityscapes) evoke those pictures (think of the recent trailer for the “I Am Legend” remake”). Watching 28 Days Later just for those few moments is worth it. Sadly, the rest of the movie is less interesting. The zombies are a neat update to the slow walking zombies of past movies, but overall the movie becomes more generic with every second. Find other survivors. Find other survivors who set up their own demented kingdom. Escape. Let the cardboard bad guys get zombified. Find salvation at the end. Nothing new here, go along please.

Rating: 3/5