Playing the game is more fun than watching the film, having said that it ain't too bad.

Rating: 5/10 (18 January 2005)

We start with some opening narration (by Jason Isaacs) that goes something like this, 'Confidential Report. Subject: the events leading up to the incident at Racoon City'. The narration continues, 'At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the Umbrella corporation had become the largest commercial entity in the United States. 9 out of every 10 homes contain it's products. It's political and financial influence is felt everywhere. In public it is the worlds leading supplier of computer technology, medical products, health-care. Unknown even to it's own employees it's massive profits are generated by military technology, genetic experimentation, viral weaponry'. The film then cuts to a seemingly normal research facility. An unknown person or persons steal a futuristic looking case of vials containing some sort of top secret green and blue substance. Before leaving they smash one of the blue vials and the substance inside is spread throughout the rest of the building through the ventilation system with horrifying results! A beautiful woman (Milla Jovovich, her characters name is never mentioned but it happens to be Alice so that's what I will call her for the rest of my review) wakes up, lying naked in a shower inside a very posh looking bathroom. Alice has no idea who she is or what she is doing there as she has total memory loss. Alice explores her surroundings, she leaves the bathroom and discovers she is in a large, and seemingly deserted mansion. She sees a note that says "Today all your dreams come true". Alice finds some rather fetching clothes, a long sexy red dress and a pair of knee high leather boots. A heavily armed elite squad of soldiers, Rain Ocampo (Michelle Rodriguez), Chad Kaplan (Martin Crewes), J.D Salinas (Pasquale Aleardi) plus two more whose names are never mentioned (Torsten Jerabek and Marc Logan-Black) burst in through the windows, hey what was wrong with the doors guys? The one in command (Colin Salmon, like Milla his characters name is never mentioned during the film) seems to know Alice. Along with a mysterious man who claims to be a cop called Matt Addison (Eric Mabius) they all get on-board a train and find yet another survivor named Spence Parks (James Purefoy) who also has memory loss like Alice. They all travel on the train deep underground to the 'Hive'. The soldiers explain that the 'Hive' is located under Racoon City being half a mile underground at it's deepest point. It is a top secret research facility owned and operated by the Umbrella Corp. and houses over 500 scientists, technicians and support staff. The 'Hive' is controlled by 'Red Queen', state of the art artificial intelligence that takes on the holographic appearance of the lead programmers daughter (Michaela Dicker). They say they are there on a search and rescue mission as 'Red Queen' went homicidal and killed everyone inside the 'Hive', to try and find out what happened and to destroy 'Red Queen' if necessary. Things don't go according to plan however. There may be a traitor in the group, and a horde of flesh eating zombie office workers created by the Umbrella Corp. developed 'T-Virus' which is what all the fuss is about doesn't help their cause. Nor does the fact that in an hour the 'Hive' will be sealed, permanently with them still inside to stop any potential outside contamination! Will they all make it out in time? Can they put an end to the Umbrella Corp. research and deadly 'T-Virus' it has created and contain it so not to let it spread outside and infect millions of people? Written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson I think playing the game is ultimately more fun and rewarding. All the best ideas in this are taken from the game, the rest come from Aliens (1986) which this film resembles strongly. The script, to it's credit, moves along like a rocket and tries to add some twists here and there but for the most part they are fairly easy to see coming and not surprising. At least it's never dull or boring. I found the horror elements extremely disappointing, the zombies don't turn up until over half way through the film and there is virtually no blood or gore in it at all, apart from a CGI decapitation with no blood. I did like the skinless dogs, but they were taken directly from the game though. As was the big monster at the end which was also quite cool, if a little fake looking. A decent amount of gore would have helped this film no end, the potential was there with zombies Vs heavily armed soldiers but no, just a few bullet hits and that's it. The zombies don't eat anyone either. The action elements are also average at best, a few CGI enhanced fights and a couple of sequences that try to be exciting but generally aren't. I would have preferred the filmmakers to have more of it set in the Gothic cool looking mansion rather than the high-tech labs and offices as it would have given the whole film a much creepier atmosphere. Acting is OK for this type of thing but no-one is going to win an Oscar, and Milla Jovovich is a real babe in that dress and those boots as she kicks but. Everyone else involved has to deal with standard horror stereotypes and clichés. It's not a bad film I suppose as it's well made moves along a nice pace and entertains to an extent but it could have been so much more in the hands of someone with talent and imagination. Resident Evil plays like a cross between the game and Aliens, if the sound of that appeals to you you may like it otherwise you probably won't. Average, but worth a watch none the less.