Resident Evil remains the exception rather than the rule for female-led action franchises

From there, the story spins out threads involving corporate espionage, romantic mysteries, and more Red Queen shenanigans, although, as with most of Anderson’s screenplays, it all barely hangs together in the moment, let alone when you try to piece it together afterwards. The point is just to have something to sustain the zombie thrills and game-style challenges. In fact, given Anderson’s focus on kinetic imagery over coherent plotting, there are times where Resident Evil almost plays more like a silent film than a modern sci-fi adventure. 

Thankfully, he found the ideal lead in Jovovich, who has the perfect face to be a silent movie star. When we talk about what it means to be a good film actor, we often undervalue the X-factor of magnetism. Especially when it comes to action movies, being a presence is often more important than anything else. And with her piercing blue eyes and quiet sense of confidence, Jovovich has that ineffable star quality. She keeps your attention even though Alice has absolutely zero characterization. 

Indeed, the fun of Resident Evil is that it doesn’t have aspirations to be more than it is, yet it also feels like everyone involved is invested in what they’re doing, which is a hard balancing act to pull off. Jovovich’s steely yet empathetic performance is key to that. So is Colin Salmon in the small but memorable role of “guy who gets cubed by lasers.” And so is Michelle Rodriguez in one of the most effective uses of her own brand of tough-talking onscreen charisma. 

In fact, if Resident Evil does anything truly revolutionary, it’s not its vague anti-corporate sentiment or even the role it played in revitalizing the zombie genre—it’s the fact that it’s the rare female-led action film to feature another ass-kicking woman as a major supporting player. It’s something that no other American film I’ve covered so far in this column does. (And another place where Hong Kong action cinema was ahead of the game.) Even Wonder Woman had Diana ditch the Amazons as quickly as she could. 

When other women exist in a female-led action series, they’re usually there as villains or to draw a softer, more innocent contrast to our tough female lead. In Resident Evil, however, Anderson lets Rodriguez’s Rain Ocampo serve as a tough-as-nails ally and teammate for Alice without worrying that one female character will overshadow the other. It’s something the series would continue to do (to varying degrees of success) with the likes of Sienna Guillory and Ali Larter in the sequels. 

Of course, for every progressive beat, there’s plenty of sheer goofiness too, like the fact that Alice wakes up with amnesia and immediately throws on a strappy red dress and knee-high boots as her daywear. But that’s part of the B-movie fun. Resident Evil serves up a handful of genuine jump scares, some surprisingly dynamic camerawork, and a few memorable set pieces while getting in and out in 100 minutes. Watching it in a vacuum, it feels like there should be dozens of schlocky female-led franchises like it. It’s baffling that it’s more the exception than the rule, especially when you consider its ongoing financial success.  

With an average budget of around $45 million each, the six Jovovich films and the franchise’s 2021 reboot have collectively grossed over $1.2 billion. (Jovovich’s sixth and final film earned an impressive $314 million just on its own.) Yet time and again, Hollywood seems to view female-led franchises as a gamble, or see the failure of one film as a warning sign for all. I suspect the fact that Anderson and Jovovich’s recent action collaboration In The Lost Lands flopped will be held against women-led action movies in a way that, say, the latest Indiana Jones movie flopping won’t be held against all male-led action movies.

Though I joked about it earlier, it actually does feel notable that the Resident Evil and Underworld franchises were spearheaded by husband-wife creative teams. Presumably, those duos had more of a personal vested interest in keeping those franchises and their stars going than your average Hollywood executive might. (In contrast, both the Terminator and Alien franchises have tried out other, more male-centric perspectives at various points.) You have to wonder if part of the reason Hollywood hasn’t produced more ongoing female-led action franchises is simply because male execs, producers, and directors don’t feel compelled to push for them in the way they do for male-driven star projects. 

Otherwise, I really don’t know how to explain it. Resident Evil and The Hunger Games have proven that female-led action franchises can make upwards of a billion dollars. Yet even though Charlize Theron’s Atomic Blonde outgrossed the first John Wick, that movie never got a sequel while John Wick is heading towards its fifth installment. There’s a disparity that goes beyond cold, hard financial logic, especially when stars like Theron and Jovovich are clearly champing at the bit to work in the genre. If Hollywood is an Umbrella Corporation making irrational decisions in the name of domination, it’s fitting that Resident Evil is one of the few series that tried to overthrow that system. 

Next time: As Thunderbolts continues Yelena Belova’s story, we look back at the 2021 Black Widow movie that introduced her