James Cameron is one of the biggest directors working today. He’s won multiple Academy Awards, scores colossal budgets and regularly breaks all-time box office records. With all that under his belt, you might think that he’d be quite the cinema snob. Well, think again, as Cameron has just revealed that he’s a big fan of 2002’s Resident Evil.
The Paul Anderson-directed first entry in the long-running film franchise isn’t generally thought of as a great (or even good movie), though by the standards of the average video game adaptation, it’s Shakespeare. But why does Cameron have such a love for this film in particular? Well, he revealed all in the newest edition of Empire Magazine, in an interview for their ‘Celebration of Cinema’ issue, where he said:
“One of my guilty-pleasure films that I actually think is quite beautifully made is Resident Evil. Watching Michelle Rodriguez in that film, moving like this feral creature, is joyful.”
Given Cameron’s well-documented love of tough chicks that don’t take crap from anybody wielding big guns, this actually isn’t a huge surprise. Indeed, Michelle Rodriguez’s character in the movie is pretty much in the mold of a Cameron action heroine like Aliens’ Ellen Ripley or Terminator 2’s Sarah Connor. Plus, while Resident Evil may not be one of the great motion pictures of the modern era, it does have that sweet scene where a guy gets diced into chunks by a laser grid, and that’s a damn sight more memorable than most movie deaths.
The Resident Evil series came to an end with 2017’s Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, though pre-production is now underway for a new cinematic take on the property. Casting rumors indicate that it’ll stick a little closer to the games’ story than the previous films, hopefully taking a leaf out of the excellent remakes of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3. And if James Cameron likes Michelle Rodriguez kicking ass, wait until he gets a load of Jill Valentine and Claire Redfield.
