Of course it isn't great, but it does enough to please its intended audience

Rating: Null/10 (31 January 2005)

The Umbrella Corporation is one of the largest companies in the world; nine out of every ten homes has at least one of their products, usually health-care, medical or otherwise. However their main profits come from military projects and weapons research, with one such facility being The Hive  an underground series of secret labs, employing 500 technicians and controlled by an AI computer called the Red Queen. When the computer detects a viral outbreak in process she seals the Hive and kills everyone. A team are dispatched to find out what happened and shut down the computer; along the way they collect Alice and Spence, sentries to the Hive entrance, who have lost their memories and a cop. They follow their mission but quickly learn that things are not as straightforward as they had planned for.
Although I like to think I'm a cinema elitist, I am pretty much a sucker for dumb action movies but when this came out at the cinema I just couldn't bring myself to go and see a video game movie that seemed to be universally slated by the critics. Also, I am easily freaked out by zombie movies and these factors all meant that I didn't bother. With the film coming onto television recently I decided to give it a go and found it to be as weak in certain areas as I had expected but was surprised by the way I actually enjoyed bits of it. The plot is interesting on paper but in reality is used just like a video game  the characters working though each level with some getting picked off on a regular basis. As a story it is no use but it does enough to set up some exciting moments. The film's big corporate edge and sense of foreboding is good at the start but as the film relies on gore and effects it becomes increasingly ineffective right up till the usual big monster at the end.
Of course this is not to say that it is a wonderful film, because it isn't. Rather it is a derivative piece of noisy trash that is aimed at teenage boys and those that just like things to go "bang" regardless of the narrative but, as such, it works, pushing all the right buttons for people who enjoy this sort of stuff. The cast are average at best, thanks in part to the video game direction and lack of interesting lines/characters. Jovovich is usually worth watching and she is a fairly enjoyable action heroine here but she has nothing more to do than that. Likewise the support cast features some solid, gruff performances from Rodriguez and Salmon but the others just about do what is asked of them. The creatures are not that scary, only gory and the direction fails to provide consistent scares; trust me, I'm easily scared by zombie movies and this one failed to do anything for me  especially when they end the film chased by what looks like a mix of bad cgi and rubber.
Overall this is not an awful film, just a fairly average one that will only really appeal to its target audience. Outside of teenage boys (and their adult equivalent) the weaknesses here will be too much but for those of us that just want a bit of mindless action without being too demanding will find this watchable if hardly brilliant.