The Highly anticipated movie is finally here...

Rating: 10/10 (21 April 2006)

To start off, I've been a long-time fan of the video game series. I've played the games so much that I could literally memorize, recite, and interpret the story lines for each. As you can tell I'm pretty obsessed. What made me a big fan of the games was not so much the action, but the story... and the mystery behind the creatures that attack the protagonist in each story. Then when the movie was first announced a couple of years back, and I was really excited about it. Three years have passed since that day, and today I had the chance to see it on it's first showing in theatres... Well, I saw it and I've emerged from the theatres with mixed emotions. The movie was different from what was expected when watching the previews. To be honest I was a bit disappointed with some aspects of the movie, but surprisingly enough... I was happy with what I saw. The movie somewhat mimicked the cutscenes of the videogames when it came to presentation, because all the music in the movie was taken directly from the soundtracks of the games. And I thought the special effects were awesome. This movie wasn't like any other video game-based movie that I have ever seen, in that, the movie did not focus solely on action and the killing of strange looking monsters, and the storyline was pretty accurate to that of the first game (with a few exceptions to the plot, of course). In the movie, some things were changed in terms of the plot, for example, the way Dahlia is portrayed in the movie is quite different from how she's viewed in the game, and the connection between Sharon/Alessa (movie) is different from the connection between Cheryl/Alessa (in the video game). The plot to the movie answered a handful of questions that fans of the game may have had regarding the creatures that dwell in the town and how things came to be. There were certain instances in the movie that got me worried, but around the end I found peace with those worried areas in the plot... and the ending gives off a hint of a possible sequel... Personally I found the movie to be most entertaining and I cannot wait for the DVD release, and if there is indeed a sequel I can guarantee that I will be the first one in line to see it, as I was today. But keep in mind that I am a die-hard fan, and my opinion of this movie may vary from those that don't know much of the series and walked in expecting to see an action-packed monster movie, or some imitation of any of the Resident Evil movies. If you are one of those people that fit into that category and expect the movie to be like Resident Evil, then you will be very disappointed. But if you are a fan of the games, or at least as big of a fan as I am, then you will be pleased with the movie and at the very least think that it's pretty good. The only problem that I found with the movie is that I thought it deserved more action sequences involving the monsters, but we can't always get what we want (don't get me wrong, the movie had action sequences that were pretty sweet, and besides if there's a sequel I'm sure they'll decide to make more use of the monsters). And when looking back at the movie I'm always reminded that it COULD HAVE BEEN A LOT WORSE ... and as a closing statement... THANK GOD UWE BOLL DIDN'T HAVE A CHANCE TO DIRECT IT...