From Dusk Till The Ghosts of Mars

Rating: 5/10 (22 September 2002)

"Resident Evil" follows the all too familiar path of a couple other recent movies: "From Dusk Till Dawn" and "The Ghosts of Mars." All three start with an interesting plot but end up just being about zombies instead. (Or vampires. Or whatever.) It's as if in all three cases the writers got bored halfway through and said "Oh, heck. Let's just throw in some zombies." (Or vampires. Or whatever.)
I don't mean to suggest that "Resident Evil" is terrible. It's okay. But the frustrating thing is that, like those other two movies, it could have been so much more.
In fact, the initial plot is rather intriguing: We are set in a secret, underground facility where biological weapons are being created. But something has gone seriously wrong and the computer that controls the facility has started killing off the people who work there. Now an outside team must penetrate the facilities defenses and attempt to take control of the situation.
And then...! And then...! Zombies!
Milla Jovovich stars as a helpless female who needs protecting at first but soon becomes a tough chick with moves that would do Jackie Chan proud. Okay, her transformation is explained by a memory loss that is slowly regained, but it seems the producers wanted it both ways: Helpless and tough at the same time. Michelle Rodriguez is at least consistently the tough chick throughout. But her constant "I'm tough, get out of my way" routine gets old quickly.
In fact, it is interesting that Rodriguez is second billed in this movie. This seems to be the case only because there was no one else to give second billing to. The male characters are all poorly drawn and very difficult to keep track of. I kept forgetting which one was supposed to be the bad guy.
Sure, some of the action sequences will keep your interest. Milla's battle with some zombie dogs make the movie worth giving a chance if you have nothing better to do some evening. Still, the next time I decide to watch a zombie movie I think I will pick one that is a zombie movie all the way, and not one where the zombies were thrown in because the writers got bored.