195: Paul W.S. Anderson: Not as Bad as Uwe Boll

[Graeme Virtue]

Paul W.S. Anderson: Not as Bad as Uwe Boll

Paul W.S. Anderson has directed nearly as many videogame-based movies as his notorious German colleague, yet his reputation remains relatively intact. How did he manage this feat? Graeme Virtue puts himself through a survival-horror gauntlet of Anderson's films to find out.

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[Talendra]

It's a bit of the case of, you don't need to be faster then the tiger, you just need to be faster then the guy beside you. He is faster then Uwe Boll, and we are all happy to see the tiger get Uwe . That being said, I did enjoy many of he's films, and agree with you that they are not bad, but wish for something more.

 

[Nimbus]

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...I liked the FPS secence in Doom...

 

[L.B. Jeffries]

I liked the FPS secence in Doom...

Ditto...but I felt guilty about liking it.

Hell, the guy made Event Horizon, which is still one of the scariest sci-fi horror films I've ever seen. Maybe he just needs to ditch zombies and do something in outer-space.

 

[HardRockSamurai]

This was a pretty good read. I liked how you examined each movie from different perspectives, it made the whole thing much more enjoyable to read.

It's funny that many people actually consider Anderson to be one of the few directors worse than Boll, but if Event Horizon showed us anything, it showed that at least Anderson knows how to make a good film.

Personally, I think all directors should stay away from video games. The interactivity of video games is what makes them special, and removing that can only result in disaster.

 

[Silent Biohazard Solid]

Wow... That's a pretty crappy conclusion to the article. I mean, personally, I'm a fan of Anderson's work. I take it for what it is, and it serves its purpose well. It's always entertaining, with nice special effects, good music, and keeps me from being bored.

But if the article said that Anderson was a hack who's in it for the money, I would've accepted that (provided there was a legitimate argument), or if the article said that Anderson loves games I would've accepted that. But to say that he's a hack who does it for the love of it is so inconclusive... It's an editorial, you're allowed to have an opinion.

 

[domicius]

I liked the Resident Evil trilogy, without ever having played the game. It's got neat little character flourishes, and overall the three movies work well together which is an achievement in and of itself. The fact that the series wasn't just a money spinner is evident.

And Event Horizon sucked sucked sucked sucked sooooo bad.

So, really, meh.

 

[ShadowKirby]

But to be fair, he did what he could with the source material. RE doesn't have a stellar story so keeping to it would not have yielded a better movie.

 

[GyroCaptain]

I didn't care too much for Event Horizon, but least the rest of his oeuvre is stupid to the point of being silly rather than stupid to the point of offending. Quite frankly I liked the first RE movie a good bit more than Transformers because Anderson at least realizes when a scene is falling flat and knows when to add crazy. Transformers came from Michael Bay and still managed to have gag-me-with-a-spoon smarmy scenes like "have you been wanking, lol?" and "oh those wacky Autobots" moments that were dead inside. Paul Anderson cuts out his cheese-festery a little bit better; Armageddon from Bay I liked but that was due to being carried by Willis and Buscemi.

 

[Grand_Poohbah]

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...I liked the FPS secence in Doom...

I enjoyed it too. I just wish they wouldn't of goofed with the story line so much!

 

[atv_chic_18]

I loved Resident Evil: Apocalypse. The first one was not my favorite but the ending was fun. I loved some of the fight scenes in Extinction too. I'm such a Resident Evil junkie though. Games or movies and you have me. I can't get enough of it, even if I wasn't a fan of Alyaiah (sp?)'s acting.

 

[Sylocat]

I think one of the things that make Mortal Kombat a decent movie was that he directed it but didn't WRITE it. I actually quite like him as a director, it's his screenwriting that I think blows. That's why I think that having someone else direct the RE sequel films was a bad idea, they should have had someone else write it and him just direct it.

Count me in among the Event Horizon fans, though...

 

[Ronwue]

For a person who's never played a Resident Evil game, the movies were quite fun

 

[Samoftherocks]

I will never forgive Uwe Boll for House of the Dead. That was the WORST movie ever made. If they made a B-Movie about the life of Barney the Dinosaur which included two hours of chanting and a graphic sex scene with a Teletubbie...it would STILL be better than the gigantic turd called House of the Dead.

Fuck Uwe Boll. Gimme my two hours back!!!

 

[ThaBenMan]

It's a bit of the case of, you don't need to be faster then the tiger, you just need to be faster then the guy beside you. He is faster then Uwe Boll, and we are all happy to see the tiger get Uwe

The mental image... it pleases me...

Interesting article. I liked Mortal Kombat pretty well back in the day (although, I was, like, 10). And I'm not too much of a RE fan, games or movies, so I can't really comment on that. I just wish the majority of the films examined weren't all the same franchise - I'm curious if he'll make any more video game-based movies in the future that we can dissect in a similar manner.

 

[cj_iwakura]

Every film that W.S. Anderson has directed(again, directed) has been very enjoyable to me.

That's why the second AvP and the last two REs sucked compared to the originals. Every time he pawns his work on other directors, the projects turn out badly.

 

[aeros320]

UWE BOLE IS THE MOST ARTISTICALLY CHARGED AND VISUALLY ENGROSSING DIRECTOR IN CINEMATIC HISTORY.......bahahahaha

 

[cj_iwakura]

W.S. Anderson actually plays the games he adapts, and tends to treat the source material respectfully.

Uwe Boll just looks at the name, and comes up with crap at random. (And I do mean crap)

 

[Onyxblackwolf]

W.S. Anderson actually plays the games he adapts, and tends to treat the source material respectfully.

If you think the RE movies are a respectful rendition of the source material then you're crazier than W.S. Anderson. The Alice character is a Mary Sue that's even stronger than the crazy super-speed bullet dodging Wesker of RE5 but without any of the Wesker charms. She's entirely unlikable, but she's our protagonist?

Oh, and in the RE2 movie Anderson turned Jill Valentine into a second class character - behind Carlos in importance, and Nemesis CRIED at the end.
End of debate.