This is Sci-Fi For the Cinematically Impaired.

Rating: 5/10 (17 December 2005)

We have to thank the MTV and video game culture for bringing us the rapid-fire montage of seemingly unrelated images and cartoon-like sequences that came out of the AEON FLUX canon. We also have to give George A. Romero another handshake -- because of him the story of people turned into mindless, shuffling zombies whose sole intention it is to rip other people apart (and of course, always the lingering question: why not themselves and the healthy humans prevails, always without an answer) has become something of a mainstay even for more serious features (28 DAYS LATER...).
So here we are in RESIDENT EVIL. Much like NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, the aforementioned 28 DAYS LATER..., and a not-too-subtle nod to ALIENS, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, and ALICE IN WONDERLAND, there is a viral plague released in the confines of an organization called The Hive which turns its corporate employees into (you guessed it) hollowed-up corporate employees. So predictable! Except there's a super-employee, call it the monster in the closet that every company of the likes of Enron has, and it's out for (you guessed it again) blood and guts. Which made me ponder, "Don't they feed this thing?" Of course not: being the product of greed, it always wants more, and Michael Douglas did say once upon a time in a much better movie, "Greed is good." Oh well, telling you more about this story is frankly, fruitless. Been there, done that, not particularly shocked when the shocks arrive.
Now, into some interesting aspects. Being a product birthed from a video game, the appearance of a killer laser that operates (surprise) like it would in a video game, even changing into a grid. Why is it included? Oh... let me see... Oh, I can't think straight right now. But there's something else. The never-named Alice (Milla Jovovich, proving that acting is beyond her but looking smashing) and Matt (Eric Mabius) learn that there is a conspiracy. Cut to a nifty computer image as-seen from the outside of The Hive, then to them going back to where their friends are, being pursued by the zombified corporates. Where's the transition? Some neat touches, though. The use of what could be the ugliest soundtrack in movie history provides a boost to erstwhile predictable moments of terror. Some composition shots, such as the transition between the prologue to the Mansion where Milla emerges or when Milla, walking down a murderous hallway (the one with the laser with a mind of its own), is interposed with the image of scientists performing unnatural acts, bringing back "important details." The revelation of what we missed in the prologue emerging later on when one character's true motives are exposed.
However, there is the saying that any film can be elevated into the levels of an instant classic with a good director with a strong hand. True. But again, this is a movie version of a video game and I'd like to know if there ever has been a (movie version of a video game) that has ever been more than vaguely adequate with a good dose of shrill.