The True Resident Evil Move [spoilers]

Rating: Null/10 (12 September 2004)

The original Resident Evil movie was a fine movie in it's own right, but one which had barely the right to carry the Resident Evil monkiker. In this sequel we really get to see the series come into it's own on the big screen.
Everything seems much more well done, and adheres much more to the storyline of the games, while still keeping continuity with the first movie.
Resident Evil follows loosely with the events of Resident Evil 3 (psx, pc, Dreamcast, Game Cube), while taking some inspiration from all of the other games (most notably Resident Evil Code Veronica).
Joining Alice from the original movie is game star Jill Valentine, donning her Resident Evil 3 outfit, and a number of other supporting characters. While the actress portraying Jill Valentine's performance was spotty at best, it adds a bit of camp value to the film, and will have long time fans of the game series reminiscing of the B-Movie style acting present in the first game.
The special effects are top notch and really put most other modern zombie movies to shame, with Matrix-esquire action sequences, classic Romero style zombies, and a few other CG effects which are absolutely spectacular.
!!!warning - spoilers!!!
The main baddie of this movie is the nemesis, a no-nonsense killing machine reminiscent of a bio-weapon version of the Terminator, rocket launcher and chain fed mini gun included. Both Jill valentine and the nemesis are reproduced faithfully from Resident Evil 3, every detail from clothing down to the staples across the face of the nemesis monster is present in their big screen counterparts.
Sadly, the character of these characters is not reproduced as faithfully as their appearances. Jill Valentine, who was portrayed in the game series as the ultimate heroin, takes a back seat to the T-Virus enhanced super-alice, and ends up being a character who, if it were not for her prominence in the game series, would be all together forgettable.
The nemesis on the other hand, is just as strong in the movie as he was in the game, but serves a much different purpose. In Resident Evil 3, the nemesis was the silent stalker who could, and would, show up at the most in-opportune or unexpected moment, only to inspire sheer terror in the heart of the player. The movie counterpart to this silent stalker fails to instill the sense of horror that was present in the game. Our characters only have a few ruins with the nemesis, culimnating in the ultimate showdown between nemesis and Alice, but we never feel like the characters are truly being slowly, surely, hunted.
Overall, this movie is much better than it's predocessor, yet still fails to capture the survival horror feeling in the game. While the resident evil game series will have your heart pumping and sweat glands working overtime, this movie merely shadows the depth of the game world with some nice special effects and good action sequences.
Best scene - Alice takes on a group of lickers in a cathedral.
Most glaring flaw - We see Angela stuck inside of an overturned and badly damaged car, next thing we know she is holed up inside of a school infested with zombies and Cerberus's (zombie dogs), with no explanation of how she managed to get out of the car and make it there in the first place.
Best Strait-From-The-Series scene - zombies rising out of the dirt in the graveyard, ala Code Veronica.
The Bottom Line **** (4 out of 5 stars) - While there are a few glaring plot holes, the script still manages to be very engrossing. Although the Jill character seems to have some pretty bad acting at times, Mila Jovovitch is spectacular as Alice, bringing a level of depth to the character which many other actresses might not have been able to pull off.