The Resident Evil Retrospective Part 2 – Or: Only 5 Months Late! But Just In Time For Retribution

The Resident Evil Retrospective: Part 2

In Resident Evil: Retribution, evil goes global – or so says the tagline. With the imminent September 14th release of Retribution, it’s time to revisit the franchise thus far…

Fine, I’ll cop to it: This article is way overdue. In my defense, I had important things to take care of in the interim, like… my cats and other… life stuff. Hey, I have a life outside of bowing to the Evil Tormenting Bosses’ every whim! I also bow to the every whim of my cats. Sigh.

Anyway, when we first started down this path with The Resident Evil Retrospective Part 1, things were very different. It was a difficult period, a dark time. The latest season of Mad Men had yet to start and The Walking Dead had just closed out Season 2. Kids were playing out in the streets, totally fearless of the bogeyman people would come to know as… ROMNEY and I had a full head of lustrous, wonderful hair. No more… I blame myself. What? I like to hang around nuclear power plants, alright?

Actual file photo of TheMatt, now with refreshing lime flavor.

But I digress, which you, my faithful readers have come to expect from me due to my irradiated state and/or insanity. In the first part of our Resident Evil Retrospective we surveyed the breadth of the franchise’s video game releases, which covered the core of the series’ storyline. This time, in honor of the fast approaching Resident Evil: Retribution, we here at Yell! Magazine thought it would be a good idea to recap all four of the filmdom’s attempts to translate the undead adventures of Chris Redfield and company to a big-screen movie adaptation.

Actually, I thought grabbing a quick nap was a good idea, but the Evil Tormenting Bosses made a compelling argument for knocking out this article before Resident Evil: Retribution hit Netflix. See, digression.

Pictured: A compelling argument.

So, without further ado, because we all know I can ado something fierce, here is Yell! Magazine’s long awaited Resident Evil Retrospective, Part 2! Now read it before those bastards shoot my cat! THIS I COMMAND!

Pre-Resident Evil Movie (Late ’90s)

It seemed like a no-brainer, which is appropriate considering we’re discussing a zombie franchise. Take the man responsible for the world’s most (only?) highly respected zombie film series and hand him the reigns of the cinematic adaptation of the world’s most important zombie video game series and watch as the money and the geeks roll in. What could possibly go wrong? Heck, not only was Romero perfect for the project, he’d also previously directed a live-action commercial for Resident Evil 2’s console release.

Granted, it’s not exactly Schindler’s List, but considering the director’s limited output it certainly showed that he was onboard with the project, even going so far as to write a complete script. Sadly, barring a minor miracle, the world will never know what a George Romero-directed Resident Evil would look like since Capcom honchos eighty-sixed his script in favor of a more action-oriented approach.

With Resident Evil: Retribution on its way, it’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years since the first installment.

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