What a Shame.

Rating: 5/10 (29 June 2005)

It's disappointing when a successful computer game franchise is brought to the screen in a disappointing fashion and that's exactly what's happened here. When a Resident Evil computer game comes out, it's a bit of an event especially to the die hard fans of the series. I, myself own Resident Evil 2 and have played every single title at some point down the years. This, you would suggest does not classify me as a die hard fan and you're correct but what I am quite a large fan of is survival films such as '28 Days Later', 'Shaun of the Dead' and 'Dog Soldiers' so watching 'Resident Evil' was pretty compulsory, fan of the games or not.
Everything was set up nicely, the situation was clearly established as it must've been tricky to do a first Resident Evil film, especially after several games; 'where do you start?' springs to mind. However, what follows is a case of 'where do we continue from?' The film seemed to get into a gear and just stay there the whole time. I grew tired of the same location over and over and the way all of the characters look the same. There was no real suspense, no real monsters from the games, no real proper weaponry, in fact the whole thing just dug itself in and stuck itself there for two and a bit hours, a real shame as there was some potential what with the games creating such a success. We aren't treated to many of the games characters either and for most of them, I couldn't really care less if they survived, there is even a temptation to hope that they all snuff it anyway.
In fact, the ultimate irony is when they actually get up onto the street surface which is where I wanted the film to take place. This would be fine except: it happens right at the very end of the film! A lot of damn good that is! The REAL survival starts just as all the other rubbish ends. I really can't see the point of this film as from what I understand, with the second film street based, this is just a break in for the absolute non-fans of the game who won't mind not seeing the characters and monsters from the game because they won't even have played it! Where as for the fans, no matter how large or how small they are; they're guaranteed to be disappointed.
How ironic- aiming a film based on a successful gaming series at people who AREN'T fans of the games.
I didn't enjoy this that much, I'm afraid.