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Apr 8, 2020

What Happened to the Gay Subtexts in "Resident Evil"?

I sat through the first two Resident Evil movies, looking for gay characters or at least gay subtexts among the gratuitous female nudity, and came up empty.  We can go through the others on fast-forward.

Resident Evil: Extinction, the third in the franchise: the evil virus accidentally released by the Evil Corporation has destroyed the world, not only transforming most people into zombies, but destroying all the plant and animal life and "drying up the lakes."  That's one powerful zombie.

A caravan of survivors, like the Happy Friends Do-Gooder Club from Fear the Walking Dead, is traveling around, helping people. And in the head truck, ex-soldier Carlos (Oded Fehr) and ex-comic relief L.J. (Mike Epps) from the last movie.

Still together after all this time?  Could they be a gay-subtext couple?

Nope. Once they stop for the night,L.J. flirts with a woman. Then he gets bitten by a zombie and zombifies. Then Carlos gets bitten by L.J. and dies.

Resident Evil: Afterlife, the only one in the franchise that doesn't show Hot Girl naked every five seconds (must be a different director): Hot Girl and sidekick Claire Redfield are flying around, looking for survivors.  They find some at a prison in L.A., including former movie producer Bennett (Kim Coates) and his former intern Kim (Norman Yeung).  The two hang out together and sit at the same table at dinnertime. Could they be a gay-subtext couple?

Nope. Bennett turns out to be evil.  He steals the plane to fly himself to safety, leaving Kim behind.

Well, what about Chris Redfield, Claire's brother, a major character in the video games?  Many fans of the video games think he is gay because he never dates women.

Impossible to tell.  In the movie, he never interacts with a man.  Maybe intentionally, so audiences won't get the impression that he is...you know.


Resident Evil: Retribution, hopefully the last of the series, with gratuitous female nudity upped 3,000%: Hot Girl (well, it's been ten years since the first movie,so Hot Girl is now Hot Middle-Aged Mom).  Anyway, Mom destroys yet another  of the Evil Corporation's huge underground facilities while rescuing her clone daughter and fighting the Red Queen, who now wants to destroy all of humanity.

Wait -- the Red Queen is a security system who wanted to destroy the original base so the virus wouldn't spread and destroy humanity. And now she wants to?  The rules keep changing!

In this rehash of the first movie, Mom teams up with Leon (Johann Urb), Luther (Boris Kodjoe), and Barry (Kevin Durand).  Could any of them be a gay-subtex couple.  Nope, no pairing off of any sort in their interactions.

Gay, anyway?  Barry is killed before he can say or do anything, and Luther is interested in Mom.  Leon is my last best hope...until...in the last scene, he makes a sleazy come-on to one of the women.

I can hear the writer:  "Wait -- we forgot to demonstrate that Leon is heterosexual. Better add something.."

All of humanity dies.  Are we done yet?

No.  There were survivors after all, who appear in Resident Evil:The Final Chapter, released in the U.S. in 2017, 15 years after the first: Hot Mom has to destroy yet another Evil Corporation underground facility.  She hooks up with bff Claire Redfield, a lot of other women, and two guys: Doc (Eoin Macken) and  Razor (Fraser James,)/

Gay subtexts:  No.  No mutual interaction.  Razor is killed right away, and Doc turns out to be evil and spends his scenes trying to kill Mom.

Why was this series popular?  Every movie had the same plot,with sutpid plot holes everywhere, retconning everywhere, characters who die and come back to life, with or without explaining that the other one was a clone.

And absurd attention paid to the naked, prone body of Hot Girl/Mom Milla Jovovich.  Director Paul S. Anderson married her, so it's understandable that he likes seeing her naked, but why show the rest of the world?  "Honey, it is essential to the plot that you be naked in this scene.  And this one.  And this one.  Well, just keep your clothes off throughout."

And the utter absence of any gay characters or the slightest of gay subtexts!  Is Paul S. Anderson a blathering homophobe?

Maybe not.  Milla Jovovich has a gay best friend whom she calls her "gay husband," and she and Paul were guests at the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center's "Night of Women" in 2014.

He just directs what he likes, and assumes that everyone else in the world will like it, too.

5 comments:

  1. Didn't watch any of those movies, I do like Mila, though.

    The Fifth Element was somethin' else, alright!

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    1. I found "The Fifth Element" offensively ludicrous. A half-naked, bandage-wearing, babbling young girl is "The Supreme Being." Come on -- this person is Master of the Universe, Creator of Heaven and Earth,Yahweh, Adonai, Allah? I don't believe it for a second. George Burns makes more sense.

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    2. It would make more sense with nudity. Picture God walking with Adam, both nude as God feels no need to adorn His image and considers doing so a sin in and of itself, explaining his place in the new order as God's Number Two, that all other beings should approach Adam as if he were God Himself.

      One of those beings hears this, fears that God ordered then to commit the sin of idolatry, and is troubled by this.

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  2. Hmm...2007 was still a bit pre-"bawwww, gamers are the only truly oppressed group", so I can't blame that.

    I'd say gay denial becomes a thing? (Thinking about George PĂ©rez saying a character intended to be gay was "all about the ladies".)

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    1. They've had gay denial for many years. You can have the character do everything but wear a sign stating "I am gay!", and the producer/writer/actor will still say "We did not intend for them to be read as gay." Remember that the Village People claimed that they had no idea that gay people existed before fans began "misinterpreting" their songs.

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