Why Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil Is Being Called the Best Video Game Movie Ever

The useful part

" would make a fine alternate title for Cregger's new movie, the eighth adaptation of Capcom's Resident Evil, a franchise that has somehow become the standard bearer for video game cinema. It is our longest lasting, highest-grossing game-based series, one now manned by one of the most exciting young American genre directors working today. What he's pulled off with this latest installment is, without any qualification, the greatest video game movie ever made.

How it works

• Resident Evil, however, has none of this message-mongering, allowing us to revel in virtuosic, button-mashing craft.
• The video game film is now a 30+ year old genre that began with the batshit Bob Hoskins Mario Brothers adaptation in 1993.
• Cregger junks much of the fan service that has dragged down many of the infamous critical and/or commercial bombs that define the genre, but has made a film that relishes in the gamification of cinematic...
• It's making a lot of money, too: $60 million domestic and $108 million globally in its opening weekend.
• Legitimate competition in the video game movie field has been historically weak.

What to take from it

Cregger has succeeded where his predecessors have failed over and over again because he has little to no interest in mythology or dimensional characterization and instead saves all his imagination and energy for the primal experiential thrill of gameplay mechanics. Cregger, after all, has expressed no interest in returning, though the film's considerable box office success could tempt him to change his mind. Even if he doesn't, he's dramatically recoded what the video game movie is and can be.

Example or evidence

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Details worth keeping

Abrams holds his arms aloft in victory and screams: "Yeaaaahhhh!!!!! I've alternately enjoyed and struggled with Cregger's first two major features, Barbarian and Weapons, expertly made classic structures with an iron-grip on tone but a hammy, burdensome way of conveying their thematic preoccupations. As a result, this is my favorite of Cregger's films by a wide margin.

Related coverage

• Polygon: Zach Cregger's Resident Evil adaptation captures the spirit of the video game series in an unexpected, but very faithful way.
• Polygon: Zach Cregger's 'Resident Evil' adaptation has the highest Rotten Tomatoes rating for a movie based on a game.
• Arstechnica: Director Zach Cregger's clever reboot strikes perfect balance between horror, humor, and over-the-top gore.