The first "Resident Evil" film is a very, very guilty pleasure. Dopey (if not just plain dumb) beyond belief but a TON of fun.

Rating: 6/10 (11 January 2014)

The world of Video-Game-to-Film adaptations is a very dark place in the world of entertainment. Over the past 20 years, starting in the 90's, video-games have become increasingly elaborate, cinematic and sophisticated in terms of storytelling, often delving into deep plots and rich character development that rivals the best in Hollywood filmmaking. Especially in recent years, with the release of games like "Uncharted", "Heavy Rain" and many others, which feel more akin to interactive films than they do like old-school video-games.
Yet, Hollywood has yet to figure out how to properly release a video-game adaptation. Starting with the abysmal 90's adaptation of "Super Mario Bros.", the studio system has displayed once major flaw over and over again that has plagued every video-game adaptation since: Studios do not understand, nor do they make any effort to understand, video-games and gaming culture.
Studios (and many modern producers, directors and writers) seem stuck in a very 80's mindset that games are merely mindless entertainment without stories, and/or can somehow be made "better" by violently altering the source material's stories and characters. And thus so many video-game to film adaptations are released that bear little-to-no resemblance to their source material. Yes, almost every single video-game film has relied on making radical and unneeded changes to their source material, under the delusion that they need to change things to make it work. To date, there have been virtually no video-game movies that have actually resembled the original games.
And Paul W.S. Anderson's "Resident Evil" is definitely a major offender in this respect. Yes, it is a film that almost exclusively alters, disregards and even disrespects its source material, turning the original slow-moving and deliberate Romero-esque video game into a goofy, pseudo-James Cameron-inspired action extravaganza.
But you know what? Looking past how much it disrespects the original "Resident Evil" game franchise... it's actually not too terrible a film. Oh, it's bad. Pretty darned bad. But it's also wildly entertaining, and is clearly full of the rampant eye-candy that Director Anderson relishes in. And in terms of sheer, unadulterated entertainment value... you could do much worse.
We follow Alice (Milla Jovovich), an amnesiac woman who awakens in a seemingly deserted mansion. After encounter another survivor (Eric Mabius) and a group of commandos (including Michelle Rodriguez), she is whisked away into "The Hive", a technologically advanced underground compound below the mansion, run by the "Umbrella Corporation." Alice, Matt and the commandos are forced to investigate the complex, in order to figure out why it was sealed off, and survive when they realize researchers and scientists of The Hive have become ravenous, zombie-like creatures.
The acting isn't too shabby. Jovovich is a lot of fun in the role, underwritten though it may be. Mabius does come off a tad boring, though. And Rodriguez, who I've actually quite admired in some films as a touch-yet-sexy chick, is pretty good in her role.
The production is also pretty decent. If there's one thing writer/director Anderson knows, it's how to make pretty pictures on screen. The production design is convincing enough, giving us sleek quasi-futuristic designs, and the production design does lend to some cool action sequences and even a couple of reasonably intense horror segments. I did find some of Anderson's choice in shots and compositions to be over-done at times, though.
Unfortunately, the writing is pretty dreadful. Ignoring the fact that it essentially disregards the original video game (save for a few character names and passing references), it's way too fast, and the dialog is very wonky.
But still, this is one of those movies where you care more about the images than the written words. As mentioned above, Anderson is a king at making "pretty pictures", and here, asides from his more over- the-top visuals, he delivers on some great action beats and decent sequences of suspense. So I can't say the film is a total loss just because the script kinda sucked. Anderson seemed to have the mindset that he wanted to make a fun action-horror movie. And I think that's pretty much what this film is.
It's criminally stupid at times. It's under-written. But there's enough guns, gore and even some exploit-o-riffic nudity in a few sequences, so I'd say audiences looking for a good time should get what they're pay for. I like it as dumb fun as a 25-year-old male, as do my college-aged friends and even my 50-something-year-old mom. So that should tell you that it's worth checking out once for sheer dumb- fun.
I give it a 6 out of 10, just for entertainment value. However, if you are looking for a film that is very well-made or true to the video-game source material, you will be very disappointed.