The most boring horror movie ever

Rating: Null/10 (16 March 2002)

If you've ever seen a TV commercial for the video game this movie is based on, you've seen the movie. Resident Evil is (or tries to be) an action-thriller in the style of Alien/Aliens, but all the suspense and intelligence that made those movies good was left out of this film. In fact, this movie is so bad that it feels like someone took a good script and intentionally took out the good parts and filmed what was left over. Shocks are telegraphed from miles away. Somebody needs to tell Paul Anderson that zombies haven't been scary since the 60s. The one possibly entertaining monster was dispatched with ridiculous ease in 5 minutes. Even the gore was surprisingly tame - for all the killing going on (and there is plenty), there's very little onscreen blood. The acting, with the possible exception of Michelle Rodriguez' smoldering glares, was awful. The story is barely there, with elements lifted from a dozen much better movies mishmashed together without thought for consistency, clarity, or pacing. The ending sets up the sequel with such insulting transparency that they may as well have named this film Resident Evil I. The only things this film have going for it are not-too-shabby special effects and decent set design, but in a way it's too bad - they're wasted on a movie this awful.