Last time we were here, we were discussing Rey from "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" and why her character didn't deserve the title of "Mary Sue." At the end of that article, I hinted that I would give an example of an actual "Mary Sue" in film and today I deliver on that promise.
If you haven't seen any of the "Resident Evil" films then I suggest you stop reading now (or not, I doubt anyone cares enough about these movies to watch for spoilers). The "Resident Evil" movies are pretty bad (a video game movie is bad? Stop the freaking presses). They're bad for several different reasons (bad effects, bad acting, bad script, bad dialog), however one of the more infuriating problems is with the main character of the franchise Alice (Milla Jovovich).
The character of Alice has one massive flaw, she has no character. While watching these films I wasn't able to notice anything resembling a personality, aside from the fact that she is stoic and spout cliche action one-liners (which feels like a contradiction in my book). She just comes across as an uninteresting and unstoppable tank of a character, and I feel like that last part is why I find her so annoying. There is nothing to her character that makes her anything more than a glorified self-insert character. This idea is reinforced by the fact that Milla, in real life, is married to the director, Paul W.S. Anderson. It makes sense that he would want his wife to look awesome and unstoppable, but this comes at the expense of tension and character in these films.
For example, every character that isn't Alice feels like dead weight. Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory), who was a major character in the video games of the same name, was introduced in the second film "Resident Evil: Apocalypse". She looks like the game character and acts like her too. However, she is constantly upstaged and side lined for the "real" hero of the film (a.k.a. Alice) there is even a moment in the film where Jill almost does something cool by throwing a lit match at leaking gas to save a girl from zombie dogs. However, the match goes out and Alice has to save the day by lighting a cigarette, throwing it at the gas in slow motion (Anderson tries WAY to hard to make her cool), and saving Jill and the girl. When it comes to scenes like this I often wonder why any of the other characters are here, because they are almost constantly upstaged by Alice or seen as incompetent compared to Alice.
Alice, due to a special virus, was granted super powers. She has special mind powers that make her almost indestructible and that's the problem. She is so overpowered and competent that I don't care about what happens in the film. The tension is gone and I find myself wondering when Alice will get herself out of a situation not if Alice will get herself out of a situation. There is even a moment in the fourth film "Resident Evil: Afterlife" where she loses all of her powers, but it doesn't really matter because we see her, later in the film, leap off of buildings to take out zombies by duel wielding shotguns without struggle. Alice with powers feels no different than Alice without powers. Say what you will about Superman, at least he has weaknesses like kryptonite, magic, and the occasional emotional weakness. The reason we love a hero like John McClane (Bruce Willis) from "Die Hard" is we enjoy watching someone struggle against impossible odds and come out on top. It gives the audience a greater sense of accomplishment and makes them hope that the hero succeeds. Alice just makes makes me bored and wishing that the fight wouldn't take so long.
I could probably forgive all of these faults if Alice was at least an entertaining character, but she isn't even that. She has no personality outside of serious and stoic tough girl. She occasionally spouts, supposedly, awesome one-liners to give the illusion that she has a character, but these are really bad one-liners (after an enemy shoots an Alice clone another clone says "is that any way to treat a lady") and they come across as a really forced way to make Alice seem cool and awesome to people. However, this is overcompensating for the fact that there is not character traits their to latch onto to make us like her. It also doesn't help that Milla (a great actress) gives such a wooden performance that she could give Queen Amidala a run for her money on how fast they could put someone to sleep due to their constant monotone. Alice from the "Resident Evil" films is a prime example of how trying too hard to make a character cool and competent only makes an overpowered, unrelatable, and boring "Mary Sue".
