Pointless....with some good FX

Rating: 3/10 (14 March 2007)

First let me state for the record that I have nothing against movies based on video games (or other media). Hell, I liked the "Resident Evil" movies and had never played the games. Whether inspired by comic books, video games, whatever...doesn't matter to me. I judge movies on their own merit.
That said, this movie is an adequately acted, poorly directed, pointless, lumbering, FX-driven brainfart. The entire story was sophomoric hack work with no surprises...and major plot holes. Perhaps it makes more sense to those who played the game. I didn't.
From the trailers I expected to at least be treated to a few scares and maybe a gross out or two. No luck... The "scary" scenes were too predictable. I was sitting there thinking "I'm supposed to be scared now" instead of actually BEING scared. As for the gore, I give it a puke-factor of 5 (being generous) - this was no Hellraiser.
The creature designs were pretty creepy, albeit generic...and the FX were pretty awesome in appearance.
Bottom Line: I want my 2hrs back.