Great In most respects..Finally a Game/Movie to be proud of.

Rating: 8/10 (22 April 2006)

(Its long....So I'm obsessed..oh well.
OK a simple start, I loved the games, Have played the main 4 and own some of the comics, I have been waiting for this film since I heard it was going to be made (Ages but it seamed WAY to long to even measure), And even though I could hardly contain myself at every moment something was referenced from the games and then some !!! (Pyramid Head's scenes!!OMG).
Despite all that I don't rate it a 10...it has flaws, and yet lives up to just about every expectation, and blows some of them away with ease.
Just to prove how effective it was as a whole in recreating the emotional depth of the games (I speak mainly of SH2), I still feel emotionally numb because of the unclear ending...and have spent the last 2 hours searching the board for some explanation that makes it all clear so I can lose this strange melancholy feeling.
STORY
The story is a mix/rehash of games 1 and 3 with our favourite monster from number 2 for good measure, although seemingly predictable in its entirety but not in the detail's to a lot of the game fans I found myself forgetting the game plot and only pointing out the connections in glee. While there are some definite changes form the games, primarily the Cult who have switched sides and are trying to stop evil as opposed to bringing about its birth, the story is very true to the games, and to the critics its at least truer than say "resident Evil 1-2" so it could have been a lot worse!!!!
The story plays at a fairly consistent speed and the change from talking to small snippets of action/attack from overwhelming odds, and back to talking for ages I think was handles superbly,(Gans has a nice way of doing this).
And the story in all only lags in a few places, mainly I am referring to the explanation of Alessa's past and the subsequent old style film that brings the audience up to date, but this might be due tot he fact I have played the games and know most of this already so...I cant really fault the story as a whole, while the board has borough up some interesting questions about characters ages.
CHARACTERS
Other than the change of male to female for the lead role and taking Dalliah from the head of the Cult the cast hasn't changed much from the games, and for the most part they work, there is a little bit of the horror movie character stating the obvious but besides that they are generally rock solid. The character that are additional I found only added, either taking on the role of someone else (Cristabella for example) or giving some insight that would have otherwise been missed/plus giving us named characters to watch get killed off :D. As a general rule all the acting was spot on or half decent, but surprisingly I found the male roles in the film lagging behind the female, As a supporting fan of Sean Bean i'm surprised to say he was only OK...nothing more.
VISUALS
Besides the odd bit of bad makeup/cgi the visuals were wonderful and had me cringing from time to time, in general the use of CGI was superb as the simpler effects and makeup.
The only two points I could pick up on were the CGI bugs, they were fine swarming but a few were alone in-front/around the pack looked as if their legs didn't even move...and what I thought was a bad bit of make up on Alessa's burnt skin when she butchers the church congregation (A few clear edges were visible), but nothing that REALLY distracted much, just me being picky.
HIGH'S
Watching Pyramid head rip the skin of poor Anna (I believe it was her), And the appearance of just about every monster/character/game reference throughout the film.
LOW'S
Other than the numb feeling that the film ended and I have to either watch it again,of wait for the DVD release....
The lack of the classic Cult symbol, but I guess that changed when the role of the cult did so..
CONCLUSION....
Overall a great film just not perfect...worth at least watching once even if you don't play the games...just remember its a thinking man's film not a brainless gore-fest.
More than deserving of a sequel..
Null.