Another Disappointing Movie With Zombies

Rating: 5/10 (17 January 2005)

What is it about zombie movies ? The Romero movies had good scripts but were let down by the technical aspects while LIFEFORCE and 28 DAYS LATER were brilliantly directed but had woeful scripts . I thought after watching the first ten minutes of RESIDENT EVIL someone had got the balance right with the opening hook featuring some impressive novelty deaths . The problem is after this good start the movie then spends the next forty minutes going nowhere . We know what's going on because most the audience is aware of the computer game so we have to put up with some seriously uneeded exposition about Alice , the combat team and the Red Queen computer system . What makes it all so annoying is that you're left with the impression that the producers wanted the movie to appeal more to a mainstream audience rather than fans of the game then at the very last minute abandoned their initial instincts
There are a couple of good aspects that stop RESIDENT EVIL being a total flop , it's good to look at on a visual level while a mainly British cast do manage very convincing American accents , and not all the main characters survive ( watch out for those lazers ) which makes the movie unpredictable . But again I have to point out the movie would have worked better still if the producers ignored the fan boys and made a movie with a wider mainstream appeal . As it stands perhaps the 1970 DOCTOR WHO story Inferno is the greatest piece of fiction featuring zombies