Resident Evil (2002)

Based on the popular video game, Resident Evil is about a group of paramilitary soldiers fighting against a supercomputer, and a whole load of zombie-like scientists.

Starring Milla Jovovich as the amnesia-stricken Alice, who wakes up to a bunch of armed professionals storming her house after she wakes up without any idea of her past. The “house” though, is actually a secret entrance to an underground city, where the evil Umbrella Group are carrying out genetic and military testing for weapons which will be both expensive and devastating to mankind.

However, the city has been wiped out by the computer, Red Queen, who turned on its population with gases and flooding. Now, the group of soldiers, accompanied by Alice and a few other stragglers, head for the computer’s HQ with the idea of shutting her down. Once inside though, things get very Dawn of the Dead very quickly. Flesh-eating scientists appear and attack the group, whilst the computer tries to defend itself with some amazing weapons of its own.

It is an average film with a few brilliant bits. You could take a couple of the sequences and put them into one of the other billion zombie films, and it would add a great deal to it. However, Resident Evil is not much more than a mediocre gore-thriller. The plot, whilst perfect for a game scenario, is extremely flat within a film, as it takes what should be a very simple story, and stretches it out until it becomes very flimsy and see-through. Milla Jovovich is the saving grace, both within the plot and the film, her performance is worth mentioning, and her character is definitely the most interesting part of the film. Apart from Jovovich, the performances are pretty mundane, although I would give credit to Michelle Rodriguez who plays Rain, who manages to give some depth to what is otherwise a very shallow group of supporting actors.

Furthermore, it is not very often that you could criticise the acting of someone playing a zombie, but within the film, many of the extras were very much slow on the uptake. Some made half-hearted grabs at the heroes, others were barely paying attention, which made the threat seem farcical.

A few good scenes include the part where a laser shoots from one side of the room to the other, slicing anything that gets in its way. It was fantastic to see part of someone’s face just slide off! Another was when Alice learned of her abilities to kick ass, and twisted one of the mutants necks with her legs…superb.

Worth a watch if you love zombie flicks, but I can think of several others worth watching before this one!