Resident Evil is a comedy first and a thrilling nightmare second
Resident Evil is a comedy first and a thrilling nightmare second
《生化危机》：首先是喜剧，其次才是惊悚噩梦
Zach Cregger’s take on Capcom’s zombie franchise is a testament to how video game movies have evolved. 扎克·克雷格（Zach Cregger）对卡普空（Capcom）这一丧尸游戏系列的改编，证明了电子游戏电影已经进化到了何种程度。
When Paul W.S. Anderson’s Resident Evil hit theaters in 2002, video game movies were largely seen as a niche. Films like Mortal Kombat and Tomb Raider had proven that big-screen game adaptations could be successful, but the commercial and critical failure of projects like the 1993 Super Mario Bros. still cast a long shadow. And while Anderson’s vision of Raccoon City might have captivated audiences on the whole, many hardcore fans of Capcom’s games were left disappointed by the way the original movies wildly deviated from the source material. 当保罗·W·S·安德森（Paul W.S. Anderson）执导的《生化危机》于2002年上映时，电子游戏电影在很大程度上还被视为小众题材。《真人快打》和《古墓丽影》等电影曾证明大银幕游戏改编作品可以取得成功，但1993年《超级马力欧兄弟》等项目在商业和口碑上的惨败，依然笼罩着长久的阴影。虽然安德森对“浣熊市”的构想总体上吸引了观众，但许多卡普空游戏的硬核粉丝却对原版电影严重偏离原作的行为感到失望。
Weapons director Zach Cregger’s new take on Resident Evil is a return to the franchise’s fundamentals and a choice example of how video game movies have evolved. Its story is stripped down and its zombified monsters are terrifying. It’s also chiefly a movie that’s trying to make you laugh. Cregger uses humor to amplify his Resident Evil’s horror — his spin on the games’ infected ghouls are meant to be as funny as they are disturbing. The film feels like it could be the beginning of a fantastic new era for the franchise, but what’s most impressive is how well it can work as one and done. 《武器》（Weapons）导演扎克·克雷格对《生化危机》的新诠释回归了该系列的本质，是电子游戏电影如何进化的典范。它的故事精简，丧尸怪物令人毛骨悚然。同时，这主要还是一部试图让你发笑的电影。克雷格利用幽默来放大《生化危机》的恐怖感——他对游戏中感染怪物的演绎，既滑稽又令人不安。这部电影感觉像是该系列开启了一个奇妙新时代的起点，但最令人印象深刻的是，它作为一部独立作品也表现得非常出色。
Though this Resident Evil is peppered with nods to Capcom’s games, it focuses on Bryan (Austin Abrams), a medical courier character created for the movie. Like most people living in his mountain town, Bryan knows that a drive over to Raccoon City in the middle of winter can be hell, but a last-minute, high-paying delivery gig is enough to convince him to make the trip. Even with the treacherous weather and spotty cellphone reception, Bryan’s journey with his mysterious cargo is mostly uneventful as he first sets out. But he begins to understand what kind of danger he’s wandering into when he accidentally runs over a shambling woman (Andrea Miltnerová) who doesn’t seem to realize that she’s just been hit by an out-of-control car. 尽管这部《生化危机》中点缀着对卡普空游戏的致敬，但它聚焦于布莱恩（奥斯汀·艾布拉姆斯饰），一个为电影原创的医疗快递员角色。像他所在山城的大多数人一样，布莱恩知道在隆冬时节开车去浣熊市简直是地狱之旅，但一份临时的高薪快递工作足以说服他踏上旅程。尽管天气恶劣且手机信号时有时无，布莱恩带着神秘货物的旅程在刚开始时大多风平浪静。然而，当他意外撞倒一名步履蹒跚的女子（安德烈亚·米尔特内罗娃饰）时，他开始意识到自己正陷入何种危险之中——那名女子似乎根本没意识到自己刚刚被一辆失控的汽车撞倒。
Resident Evil’s first big scare almost immediately establishes the sense of humor Cregger leans into throughout the film. You can feel the fear oozing out of Bryan as he trudges into the woods looking for the woman, but that tension momentarily evaporates as the film smash-cuts to him coaxing her into his car so that he can get her the medical help she clearly needs. The same dread rushes to the fore when Bryan witnesses how Resident Evil’s infected humans can mutate into creatures that feel like nods to Katamari Damacy and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. But it’s hard not to laugh when Bryan muses about how interesting the zombies’ transformations are to see up close. 《生化危机》的第一个大惊吓点几乎立刻确立了克雷格在整部电影中运用的幽默感。当布莱恩蹒跚走进树林寻找那名女子时，你能感受到他身上渗出的恐惧，但当镜头猛然切换到他哄骗她上车以便提供急需的医疗救助时，那种紧张感瞬间烟消云散。当布莱恩目睹《生化危机》中被感染的人类如何变异成让人联想到《块魂》和《塞尔达传说：旷野之息》中的生物时，同样的恐惧感再次涌上心头。但当布莱恩感叹近距离观察丧尸变异过程是多么有趣时，你很难不笑出声来。
Cregger knows that while viewers might not be familiar with Resident Evil’s lore, we can all appreciate how horror movies need their characters to make poor decisions. Abrams plays Bryan with a wide-eyed guilelessness that’s charming, but what really makes the character work is the way each monster encounter forces him to evolve into someone with better survival instincts. 克雷格深知，虽然观众可能不熟悉《生化危机》的背景设定，但我们都能理解恐怖电影需要角色做出糟糕的决定。艾布拉姆斯饰演的布莱恩带着一种天真无邪的魅力，但这个角色真正成功之处在于，每一次遭遇怪物都迫使他进化成一个拥有更好生存本能的人。
By building the film around a civilian instead of highly trained special agents, Cregger and co-writer Shay Hatten give themselves the ability to tell a story that leans into the survival aspect of survival horror. Because Bryan is a bit of a dolt who’s constantly screaming in terror and fumbling his bullets when he’s scared, it often feels like the movie is replicating the experience of playing (or watching someone else play) a Resident Evil game for the first time. Bryan finds a couple of guns and a very limited number of bullets, but they’re nowhere near enough to make him feel safe as he trudges toward Raccoon City making the occasional stop to search seemingly empty buildings in hopes of finding a way to call for help. 通过围绕一名平民而非训练有素的特工来构建电影，克雷格和联合编剧谢伊·哈滕（Shay Hatten）得以讲述一个侧重于“生存恐怖”中“生存”层面的故事。因为布莱恩有点笨拙，总是惊恐地尖叫，在害怕时手忙脚乱地装填子弹，这让电影感觉像是在重现第一次玩（或看别人玩）《生化危机》游戏的体验。布莱恩找到了一些枪支和极其有限的子弹，但这些远不足以让他感到安全。他艰难地向浣熊市跋涉，偶尔停下来搜寻看似空无一人的建筑物，希望能找到求救的方法。
The movie’s indoor scenes where Bryan’s rifling through drawers and tiptoeing down dark hallways are its most suspenseful because Cregger establishes early on that danger is always lurking just around the corner. Those moments are when it really seems like Cregger is channeling the essence of Capcom’s games, but you can also feel the director winking at his audience whenever Bryan talks about video games teaching him how to navigate his situation. 电影中布莱恩翻箱倒柜、在黑暗走廊里蹑手蹑脚的室内场景最为扣人心弦，因为克雷格很早就确立了危险总是潜伏在转角处的基调。在这些时刻，克雷格似乎真正捕捉到了卡普空游戏的精髓，但每当布莱恩谈到电子游戏教会他如何应对当前处境时，你也能感受到导演在向观众眨眼示意。
There’s a general straightforwardness to Cregger’s Resident Evil that sets it apart from many other recent video game adaptations. The film isn’t as concerned with overall character development as The Last of Us and its set pieces aren’t as large as The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’s. But those qualities work in the movie’s favor because they help draw your attention to all of the imaginative ways Cregger interpolates classic elements of Resident Evil storytelling and gameplay. 克雷格的《生化危机》有一种直截了当的风格，这使其区别于近期许多其他的电子游戏改编作品。这部电影不像《最后生还者》那样关注整体的角色发展，其场景规模也不如《超级马力欧银河》电影那样宏大。但这些特质反而成了电影的优势，因为它们有助于将你的注意力吸引到克雷格融合《生化危机》经典叙事和游戏玩法的各种充满想象力的方式上。
Especially coming after Weapons, Resident Evil feels like Cregger putting his mark on a beloved gaming property while breathing new life into a film franchise that was always fun, but lost its way as it grew in scale. Cregger has found a way to make the world of Resident Evil seem primed for more cinematic exploration, and to show us how far video game movies have come. 特别是在《武器》之后，这部《生化危机》感觉像是克雷格在这一备受喜爱的游戏IP上打下了自己的烙印，同时为一个虽然一直很有趣、但随着规模扩大而迷失方向的电影系列注入了新的活力。克雷格找到了一种方法，让《生化危机》的世界看起来已为更多的电影化探索做好了准备，并向我们展示了电子游戏电影已经取得了多大的进步。