One of the best computer game to movie transfers

Rating: 7/10 (18 July 2002)

Let's start off with where I'm coming from on this one: I haven't played the game. I know a little about it but I'm coming at this movie from a movie viewer's perspective not a video game player's perspective.
Well it's a computer game to movie adaptation so expectations are not running high, given the travesties this usually produces. We'll just sit back and await the simple plot to be explained in the first 5 minutes, watch the CGI bad guys get cut down by the good guys and, after the fight with the big bad boss at the end, watch the heroine and hero walk off into the sunset in victory ... err, well "No" actually!
A swift overview of the film, avoiding any major spoilers, has the evil Umbrella Company  developing bio weapons and the like in a huge underground facility called "The Hive". The Hive is controlled by Red Queen (a computer with hologram, personality and voice based on the designer's daughter), which has gone psycho and killed everyone. In response a company SWAT team, armed to the teeth, have been sent in via the secret 'mansion entrance' to shut it down aided by their two operatives who guarded the entrance (both of whom have lost their memories due to being stunned by a nerve gas with that side effect) and a policeman who was present at the mansion when they arrived. In they go so let the movie commence ... with us, of course, knowing that one of those bio weapons is loose so they'll be facing more than just a computer ...
Obviously I'm not going to tell you that the plot was intricate and complex, that the acting and dialogue was academy award stuff and that there was no sex and violence.
With regard to the plot? It was actually well developed throughout the film from the original premise by quite clever use of the lead characters' memories returning as time passed, adding new twists the more they remember. I was pleasantly surprised by how well this engaged me by revealing a new facet each time you thought you knew it all. The fact that some people have accused there of being too little plot while other have talked about too much plot development before the main action kicks in just goes to show they've probably got a decent balance :)
With regard to the acting? While it was pretty wooden this actually makes sense within the context of the film  people on 'SWAT teams' and people without memories are not the most likely to be emoting or bonding. As the film goes on, logically, more relationships appear in the surviving team members and the emotions start to show. Alice (Milla Jovovich - 5th Element), as the heroine was the only character who really *had* much character but, two of the SWAT team members, Rain (Michelle Rodriguez - Fast and the Furious) and Kaplan (Martin Crewes) did pretty well with their limited dialogue too. Alice's co-guardian Spencer (James Purfoy - A Knight's Tale), SWAT team leader James Shade (Colin Salmon - last 3 Bond movies) and the policeman, Matt (Eric Mabius) were the others who basically managed to hold up their part of the deal along with a few good lines by the holographic Red Queen (Michaela Dicker).
With regard to the dialogue? Yeah, OK, it was poor and quite sparse but it was good enough for a film like this  you know the sort of thing:
Surviving Team Member: "I can't believe [???]'s going to get away with it"; Red Queen computer: "I don't think so ... I've been a bad, bad girl..."
Red Queen: "The zombies can be stopped by severing of the spinal column at the base of the skull or by massive trauma to the brain"; Surviving Team Member: "You mean we shoot them in the head"
With regard to the sex and violence? It's a zombie/monster movie with Milla Jovovich as the gun-toting heroine wearing a short skirt and long leather boots (yes, she looks stunning) ... what do you think!

OK, onto a few things I did and didn't like. Some of the early action set pieces seemed very bitty' and not very co-ordinated, but this improved as the film went on and the number of protagonists dropped! While there were a good few jumpy moments Paul Anderson's directing (Mortal Kombat (!), Event Horizon) sometimes allowed the tension to drop off a little too much when it should have been sustained which is a shame. In part I think for me this was due to the zombies being all over our heroes in one scene and then, once eluded, they don't appear (or even feel like they might) until the next 'zombie set piece' and any reasons for this are often not well explained. The film managed to avoid a 'linear' feel which I thought was good for one based on a computer game and actually done better than many other 'we have to escape from the monster' films. It also didn't use much obvious CGI and that which it did use was pretty well done (except the first time we see the CGI beast for some reason). The SFX in general were pretty good and though there were lots of rumours of the gore factor being seriously cut down to keep the certificate as low as possible unless you are expecting a total gore-fest then the violence level was suitably high. The only thing they really cut down on was the level of 'pumping blood' which was actually explained by the fact that deaths were often as a result of lasers (in which case wounds were cauterised) or of zombies (where the blood had coagulated and wasn't being pumped because they were dead already). To me the worst thing about the deaths were that too often you didn't know the character well enough to care but that's a common problem in films like this and only the best in the genre overcome it totally. That copes with the image so a word on the sound. The Marilyn Manson soundtrack worked pretty well, though I don't think it's been popular with people used to the in-game music, and generally sound and were well utilised to enhance the atmosphere and should come out well on a DVD surround sound set-up.
So, the ending ... well I think it would have worked better not only as a self-contained film but also as a set-up for the inevitable sequel (slated for 2003) if it had been cut off a few minutes earlier. However it's certainly not the Hollywood happy ending I expected and I for one will be interested where it goes from here.
So to sum up. I think this is easily one of the best, if not the best, computer game to movie transfers that has taken place so far. OK not that that's saying much but if you're looking for a shoot-em-up monster movie with decent action, decent plot and sexy heroine and you're willing to suspend a bit of disbelief, this should be worth a look!
7/10