For a series that places little emphasis on plot, the 'Resident Evil' movies sure have a lot of it. With 'Resident Evil: Retribution' (the fifth film in this never-ending franchise) hitting theaters next month, someone at the marketing department decided that a handy dandy recap of the entire series to date was in order. And they were right. This series has been nothing but a series of left turns into Crazytown and the clip below showcases elegantly how the (comparatively) small first film evolved into something as big and bizarre as the later entries.

Remember the first film, which was pretty much a standard cops VS monsters movie, with most of the action relegated to dark underground tunnels? The image at the top of this post should indicate just how far we've come from those days. Although the various films have wildly fluctuated in quality (ranging from "goofy and dumb but fun" to "loud and awful and an absolute chore to endure"), each one has upped the stakes in a ridiculous fashion while contributing to the series' increasingly convoluted and hilariously complicated mythology. This attention to continuity, coupled with the near rejection of coherent storytelling, has always been the charm of the 'Resident Evil' films.

'Resident Evil: Retribution' will arrive on September 14.

 

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