Not Bad, Not Too Great

Rating: 8/10 (16 September 2002)

8/10
***Spoilers***
Let's make this clear: I'm a huge fan of the video-game, I've played Resident Evil 1, 2, 3 & the dissapointing Gun Survivor. So I was really looking forward to this one. Which falls on every common spot and/or cliche in horror movies, like only two survivors (the chick and the guy), a fast wipe out of the rescue team and the facility overtaken by the zombies. Alright, this time I'll let this one go 'cos it's just the same plot as the video game, which, OK, IS a bit dumb (Blame Capcom!). But I was anyway surprised--very-- by the directing. Paul W.S. Anderson has always been giving us only crappy work except perhaps for the mediocre Event Horizon, so aside the fact that I love the Videogame, he didn't do such a bad work. Specially when it comes to the environment, I mean specifically the blue and grey lighting which fitted really good in this very claustrophobic movie, and the filming location is a bit similar to those from the games. Which this movie gets close enough to, hopefully it will be even more faithful in the sequel, after all it's gonna have some characters from the games.
So, basically this is the best...no... only good videogame to screen conversion to date. It is not as scary as other films, or even less then the VG, but this is probably due to the predictable nature of it.
Minor stars, but good looking ones (don't get me wrong, I only have eyes for Milla Jovovich; hey, I even have a wallpaper from this movie with her on it) and perhaps with a bright future. But who knows.
Anyway it has some good moments and is very well done for a budget that wasn't that big. I just liked it and recommend watching it with an open mind, specially if you're a die hard fan of the RE saga or a die hard fan of B movies.

Yes, it's more flesh eating zombies vs (not that) good guys. Nothing new to the genre but nothing bad either.