The film's music is very hardcore, grinding, and violent. It's electronica with teeth, and it's perfect for the film.

Rating: 8/10 (23 February 2009)

It was just another day in the Hive- a high tech, underground bioengineering facility- that is, until a deadly virus, know as the T-Virus, is unleashed amongst the workers. A government supercomputer seals the Hive killing everyone left inside. However, it doesn't end there. A group of commandos are sent in to shut down the Hive for good, and at the mouth of the Hive they find Alice, a woman suffering from amnesia after being exposed to nerve gas. It seems becomes clear however, that not all is what it seems in the Hive, and shutting her down soon becomes the least of the teams worries...
I am a huge fan of the Resident evil game series. My first exposure was playing Resident Evil 2 on my Nintendo 64 in the dark hours of the night, and jumping out of my skin when a licker crashed through a window, or a zombie that appeared down and out suddenly grabbed at my ankles. I remember playing Resident Evil 3 and being in absolute awe of the Nemesis creature. I remember the dark atmosphere,the ambient soundtrack. I remember the puzzles, some easy, some hard, and some just plain frustrating.
The Resident Evil film offers something quite different then we saw in the video games, and many fans were displeased with this. Sure, the T- Virus plays a central role, and a few enemies from the film make appearances ( Those pesky Cerebus, the undead killer canines who often jumped out at random to attack your character and almost always traveled in packs, make quite a memorable appearance), but as a whole this doesn't look, feel, or sound like Resident Evil. And though I love the games, I really liked the slick action and stylish tone of this flick, and despite it's shortcomings, I enjoyed this flick.
A soundtrack can make all the difference for a film, or even a video game. Gone are the spooky, eerie, piano ditties that populate the game. To match the high tech tone of the film, shock rocker Marilyn Manson and Marco Beltrami teamed up to create a totally new kind of musical score that adds so much to the film. The film's music is very hardcore, grinding, and violent. It's electronica with teeth, and it's perfect for the film. It gives the film an extra layer that a lot of films, especially action/horror films, lack.
The film offers us no game characters, so we see no Jill Valentine, no Leon S. Kennedy, no Albert Wesker. A whole new slew of fresh faces fill this horror show, and this is one area where the film lacks. Many of the characters are disposable, secondary characters that receive no characterization. Even the main players, namely Alice, Rain, and Eric, receive little substance. Milla Jovovich does a good job as a lead action heroine, her merodic acting is forgivable because this girl has so much presence. Milla's charm make a poorly written character shine. Michelle Rodrigues, who I am not terribly fond of, does a great Vasquez impression (from the Aliens film) and it works. She deliver my favorite line of the film, after dispatching a zombie for the first time. Matt Addison is decent as the wide eyed pretty boy. Also, not to be forgotten, is Michaela Dicker, who's voice work for the Red Queen, the homicidal supercomputer of the film, is superb.
Paul W.S Anderson does a fairly good job in directing this film. The film looks very vibrant, with bright colors, mainly reds and blues, contrasted with more darker scenes. There are some very cool shots, and some nice visual references to the game.
I suppose one thing that bothered me was some of the CGI. Most notably was the licker creature. Slightly different then the lickers found roaming the walls of the RPD in Racoon city, I was quite disappointed in the final result. The licker is one of my favorite Resident Evil creatures, and this film did him no justice. The CGI licker looked terrible, and the animatronics are not much better. Also tied in with my disappointment at how the licker looked, and behaved, was the idea that the licker was the 'boss' creature. When I play Resident Evil, a few shotgun or bow gun rounds take down most lickers I run into, so the idea of the licker as a boss creature is a little silly.
Overall, I really liked this live action Resident Evil. What Paul W.S. Anderson and crew did was simply take the structure of the the Resident Evil story and create an entirely different universe. As a fan of the game, I can say that I truly grooved to this new presentation of Resident Evil. A pulse pounding score, slick visuals,some exciting stunts and a quirky sense of humor all give reason to watch this film. Resident Evil's shortcoming's, mainly a lackluster script and a habit of relying on CGI, are forgivable.
And that ending... wow.
8/10