NOTE* This is in no way a sum­ma­tion of a subject’s life, a biog­ra­phy or a spe­cific view on one man’s move­ment in Hol­ly­wood. It is quite sim­ply, a rant of sorts :D

So, let’s get to it.

This is Paul W.S. Ander­son (not Paul Thomas Ander­son, who is a far supe­rior direc­tor.) Paul, as we shall call him has made watch­able ‘genre’ films, such as: Mor­tal Kom­bat, Sol­dier, Event Hori­zon, Res­i­dent Evil.

But then he went and made a deal with the devil as best I can under­stand and sud­denly things started to look a LOT bleaker for the watcher of Paul’s flicks. It began with Res­i­dent Evil: Apoc­a­lypse which he actu­ally wrote but did not direct. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not as per­haps the direc­tor (Alexan­der Witt) is decent enough — though I doubt it as he’s never directed before or since. So, in essence I guess, at least in my own inter­pre­ta­tion, Paul is still a large rea­son for this piece of shit.

After the sequel to RE, Paul moved onto other pas­tures: Aliens vs. Preda­tor. It’s amaz­ing, comic books have been writ­ten, sto­ries and char­ac­ters devel­oped on the back of a pos­si­ble world where these two mon­ster fran­chises (pun intended) joined but in one fell swoop, and after years of fan­boys dream­ing Mr. Ander­son man­aged to make a mon­u­men­tal piece of film only good enough for prop­ping up your desk. Wow, was this a bad movie.

He fol­lowed up with another writer credit in Res­i­dent Evil: Extinc­tion, and read­ers of my blog will know how much I loved that turkey. Guh, the guy has no idea although appar­ently a mas­ter at suck­er­ing top movie stu­dios into shelling out cash for paper-weights (although the lack of depth in ALL of these movies would do lit­tle to hold down any­thing substantial.)

My main gripe, I guess, is just HOW DOES HE DO IT? I’m prob­a­bly jeal­ous — although I’m no direc­tor or wannabe-director — because I just do not under­stand how he gets the back­ing, the tal­ent… the peo­ple and every­one else to join in his skewed view of these oppor­tu­ni­ties. His scripts, his direc­to­r­ial attempts… I mean, he’s mar­ried to Milla Jovovich and the woman’s stun­ning to look at. It must be a Beck­ham thing: two worlds col­lide only with less talent.

I guess it’s just another Hol­ly­wood odd­ity and unfor­tu­nately this one is closer to home. Paul is Eng­lish you see, as am I, so I would usu­ally offer my sup­port and good luck (not that I’m an ANYBODY in ANYTHING related to this man’s world) but he’s just made so many stinkers when he’s had the oppor­tu­nity to make some stun­ners (maybe.)

Next on his list I see another writ­ing credit for a movie adap­ta­tion of a game and a direct­ing effort at… a movie adap­ta­tion of a game. Some­thing has just struck me, and it should have struck me sooner: the man has no orig­i­nal­ity, he’s pos­si­bly even a hack as opposed to just stu­pid and blind.

Res­i­dent Evil — movie of game.
Res­i­dent Evil: Apoc­a­lypse — sequel to movie of game.
Res­i­dent Evil: Extinc­tion — sequel to sequel of movie of game.
Aliens vs. Preda­tor — third film of Preda­tor fran­chise, fifth of Alien fran­chise.

Wow, I never put 2 + 2 = 4 before. I just hadn’t noticed and now with his new flicks being more game-to-movie endeav­ours it’s painful to notice some­thing so… point­less. Isn’t film mak­ing about (in my view) imag­i­na­tion, cre­at­ing orig­i­nal­ity and explor­ing new sit­u­a­tions? Yet Paul just likes to visit (and revisit) cur­rent intel­lec­tual prop­er­ties over and over that (don’t) need a do-over for the younger audience…

…oh shame.

I think I’m about done on this one.

I feel bet­ter, and Paul I hope you do too — wher­ever you are (though I know he’s just had a baby with Milla Jovovich so with that I wish him the very best.)