Nothing special

Rating: 6/10 (26 June 2003)

Having never played the Resident Evil' video games this was all new to me. Many of my friends have berated this movie for ignoring the storyline of the games, but having never experienced them myself, this was a totally new experience to me.
The plot for this movie centres around the headquarters of one of the world's largest companies. After a chemical container is broken and the contents released, the super-computer in charge of the place immediately takes over the facility and locks everybody in. A few hours later a small military force is sent in to try and regain control but unfortunately for them, the computer is not their only concern.
In my opinion, Resident Evil' is an average zombie/action movie with a few interesting and exciting moments, but equally as many downfalls. There is an over-abundance of poor and unrealistic CGI throughout the movie which really harms the atmosphere that is trying to be created by director Paul W.S. Anderson. Combining some interesting camera work with some chilling visuals Anderson is able to bring the viewer into the movie; however the viewer is quickly snapped back to reality once one of the unrealistic CGI effects makes an appearance. This is a major floor, for the same price as the CGI the makers could have just as easily bought the materials to make great artificial effects such as those from The Thing' (1984) or Hellraiser' (1987) but alas, in these days of Hollywood big-budget horror, the brilliant effects of yesteryear are being replaced with mediocre CGI effects which can seriously damage a movie.
The use of flashback images was also utilised in the movie, and while I feel that some were used to good effect and added some much-needed history to Resident Evil', I have to think that many of the flashbacks were filler used to generate a quick scare, as they were generally accompanied with loud music (as per all Hollywood horror movies).
The screenplay also has some major flaws too in my eyes. Milla Jovovich was fairly good (though far from perfect) as Alice in the movie, but her part seemed to be written so ineptly. Considering what events are portrayed that revolve around her in the movie the script doesn't seem to fit the events. I found it hard to believe that she would not be more on edge and questionable, instead she seemed to just take a c'est la vie approach and accept what was going on too easily. I think there was a lot missing from the script that should have been included; a little more character interaction, for instance, would have aided this production in my opinion.
The rest of the cast were average at best. I never have been a fan of Michelle Rodriguez's acting abilities. Once again she plays the typical `tough chick' roll that has so far been so predominant in her career, yet she continues to irritate me in this role as she also did in The Fast and the Furious' (2001). I'm not really much for her at all and can see her career fading out pretty fast unless she can break out of the roll she has now been typecast in. Martin Crewes, who I remember from the Sky One UK TV series Dream Team', played the part of Chad Kaplan very well in my opinion. I wasn't previously a fan of him as an actor but out of the actors in Resident Evil' I found his to be the best performance in the movie as he did manage to attract some sympathy for his character and, in my opinion, managed to hold the production together.
There were some good and entertaining action scenes in the movie. One scene in the Red Queen's Chamber was particularly exciting and even slightly intense, but these moments of 'Resident Evil' were few and far between which was a shame. Unfortunately the makers seemed to try and highlight the subtexts of the movie rather than the plot in hand which led to a rather poor lack of action and excitement.
This film was a little of a let down and is definitely not anything new in the horror genre as it recycles some of the successful elements of Romero's Dead' trilogy and adds a 21st Century perspective. Resident Evil' is somewhat unimaginative and I do believe that more could have been done with the film. Little tension or suspense is eventually built despite the attempts by Anderson to create an atmosphere; in the end the usual loud noise scare tactics of all modern-mainstream horror productions were resorted to and unfortunately damaged what could have been a great movie. It's worth checking out once, though I'm not sure if I will ever personally come back to this movie. My rating for Resident Evil'  6/10