No-one should be immune to enjoy this movie for what it is

Rating: Null/10 (23 August 2002)

It's a computer-game-to-movie-flick. They're always bad. Is this an exception? Not really but it is a lot of fun. It entertains you for a while and there's something to be said for that.
Plot? Does it matter? Everyone in a top-secret research base dies. A group of elite marines are sent in to find out what happened. They're helped by Alice (Milla Jovovich), who is suffering amnesia. There're are also two other men suffering amnesias. As they womble along, they uncover the shocking truths of what happened and the even more shocking truths of who they themselves areSo, as you can see, the plot's a load of garbage. However it's kinda fun. Some lamented the fact the movie didn't opt for a tongue-in-cheek approach of `Dog Soldiers' but I'm perfectly happy with that. We've enough post-modernism now that a good-old fashioned zombie-fest is welcome. Sure there are elements here which leave you thinking, `Why did they do that?' but you can forgive it all because it's entertaining you.
Acting? While Michelle Rodriguez is good as action-gal Rain, the cast just barely hold themselves. Sure the characters are as one-dimensional as their video-game roots but what the heck. Seeing as how we know most of them are going to be whittled away, this doesn't really matter to us. Since when did a pure-horror movie have good acting?
Directing? How does it gel? Paul Anderson does some stuff here. There's a surprisingly decent amount of jump moments. Sure they are somewhat queued in advance, but they're still fairly effective. The hard-pumping metal soundtrack also works well in a cheap sense. The usual separate-the-characters routine works grand and no character is particularly neglected to any detrimental effect. The action sequences are good, with enough tension and testosterone to make you smile. It's what we want  a brainless action-flick that's fun.
It's by no means a great movie, or even a good movie. However it doesn't have false pretensions about it's worth. It's entertainment, it's a `switch off' brain moment. It's an enjoyable way to spend ninety or so minutes of your life, and it had enough of that to make me see the sequel when it gets released. 6.5/10.