This is NOT Resident Evil...

Rating: 1/10 (21 August 2002)

Here's a thought: if you're going to make a movie about zombies, put them in more than two scenes. I am not a big video game buff, but I'm familiar enough with the first two RE games to know that they were scary as hell, had fantastic atmosphere, and much better characters than this piece of trash. Guys- all you had to do was stick to the games! Most of the audience has never played them and you could have thrown in enough surprises for those that had. There is not one suspenseful/scary/emotional scene in this big empty glitter ball of a movie. There's also a surprising lack of gore for a zombie film. And the zombies themselves are laughable...not frightening. At some points you might be confused as to who's a zombie and who isn't because the human characters get about as much development as their undead enemies. Let's start with Alice played by Milla Jovovich. Being that she wakes up with total amnesia, how in the hell are we supposed to give a rats ass about her? Just bc she looks hot in a little red dress? Give me a break. Then there's the cookie cutter cliche group of soldiers. Note to Michelle Rodriguez: wearing a permanent scowl and rolling your eyes halfway back into your head does not make you look tough... it makes you annoying. If she made that "tough bitch" face one more time in this film I was going to scream. Eric Mabius has gone from great films (Black Circle Boys, Welcome to the Dollhouse) to all out crap (The Crow: Salvation). Eric, you're a talented boy... stop sinking so low.
What is redeeming about this movie? Not a damn thing. The special effects are horrid, the zombies look lame, and there is no sense of dread or danger that the games handle so masterfully. What's the most tragic is that this movie had so much potential. Instead of sticking to its source material they decided to make a horrible little genre pic and stick the RE name on it. Oh, and the film boasts one the single most irritating commentary track you'll ever hear. At one point the director says this isn't a zombie movie. Then Mr. Anderson, you should have let someone who thought it was take the reigns of the film bc it's based on A ZOMBIE GAME. And I have completely lost all respect for the very unintelligent Ms. Jovovich who doesn't even understand how a commentary works until twenty minutes into the whole thing. In a word: insipid. Look it up. If I dislike the movie before the commentary, I HATED it afterwards.
Few so-called horror films have ever been this uncreative... and given some of the garbage that's come out lately that's a hard thing to achieve. The bottom line is the movie is not scary. You can throw in the train from RE2... you can plaster some walls with Umbrella logo... hell, give us a few undead dobermans... but that a good RE film does not make. There is no tension, creepy atmosphere, or any believable threat. Fans of the game should skip this travesty. Those unfamiliar with it should not expect anything more than your typical Hollywood, soul-less, no IQ horror/action film. It's too bad original director George Romero wasn't behind the camera. Oh, what might have been...