Resident Evil

Resident Evil, based on the video game series of the same name, is not what anyone would call high art. It is, in fact, a simple little zombie movie. And to that end it actually manages to do a pretty good job. The story, such that it is, follows an amnesiac named Alice and a team of commandos as they try to uncover what happened to the Umbrella Corporation’s secret weapon facility deep under the innocuous town of Raccoon City. All contact with this military lab has been severed, the employees there are presumed dead, and the A.I. that runs the facility (a scary little holographic girl called the Red Queen) has gone homicidal. What could have happened to the facility? What mysterious and illegal experiments have the Umbrella Corporation been conducting deep underground? And of course, where the heck did all these zombies come from??? These burning questions, and more are addressed in Resident Evil.

Ok, so it’s not a fantastic storyline, but what do you expect, it is based on a video game! Anyhow, for what it is, the story serves it’s purpose. There is enough plot to cover any gaping holes (well most of the gaping holes), and there are well enough excuses for some serious zombie carnage. And really that’s all we want out of a film like this. The only thing really missing is a little more T&A. But on the whole the film works well, and it doesn’t even come close to taking itself seriously.

This film looks actually pretty decent. The zombies are suitably disgusting, the lab complex, called the Hive, is definitely creepy, the characters are cool looking, and the action is exactly what you want when your watching a film like this. One problem that is thankfully avoided in this film is the tendency of zombie fare to be utterly gory. Often these kind of movies are just too revolting to enjoy, but Resident Evil doesn’t fall into that trap. The blood and guts factor has been tastefully toned down, and the story concentrates more on character relationships and peril. Some of the effects should be noted though. The bloody monstrous dogs, something everyone who’s played the games remembers well are crafted particularly well here. The Art Director Jörg Baugarten did an excellent job giving real dogs costumes, as opposed to the more obvious but less creepy animatronic dogs that they could have went with. The big baddie at the end, and you knew there really had to be one, was pretty cool too, although it wasn’t very realistic looking. Anyhow, on a whole there was a pretty decent effort put forth here to create a fun, cool horror action film that looks good. I liked the way it looked, but then again, I wasn’t expecting too much to begin with.

Resident Evil stars the very beautiful Milla Jovovich as Alice, Eric Mabius as Matt Addison (the token love interest turned bad buy), and Michelle Rodriguez as hip commando chick Rain. Not to diss any of these fine actors, but this film doesn’t really play to their strong suits. The acting isn’t anywhere as bad as it could have been; but it’s a long way from good. Then again the dialogue is fairly weak, and no one in their right mind should be coming into this film with the idea that this is Oscar material. No, they do their part, and it’s fine. Nothing fancy, nothing horrendous. Just fine.

I give credit to the director Mark S Johnson. He has a pretty good track record with these types of mid budget action films, and I suspect that he made money on all of them. His previous works include the likes of the very cool video game film Mortal Kombat. Here he is definitely up to his usual standard of fun action, decent horror, and cool fighting. You might think throwing a film like this together would be simple, but I’m sure it really isn’t. Johnson has produced a fine movie, it’s light hearted, easy to watch on a Sunday afternoon, and takes very little brain power. It’s also just cool, how can you not get behind rampaging zombies and über tough marine types duking it out. It’s just too fun.

While I really can’t say this was a good film, it certainly is entertaining. And zombie flicks have a special place in my heart. Give it a shot if your laid up sick some weekend, or just want to space out on some good popcorn fare for a while.