| Resident Evil (2002) Dir: Paul Anderson Cast: Milla Jovovich, Eric Mabius, Michelle Rodriguez, James Purefoy, Colin Salmon Rated R, Approx: 98 minutes A Screen Gems Pictures Release |
| Matt's Rating: *** 1/2 (out of 5) |
| Reviewed by Matt Serafini 03/17/02 |
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| It's not a terribly easy task to take a wildly popular video game series that borrowed quite heavily from a dozen genre films, and turn it into a genre film which functions as a film of its own, while playing very faithfully to the video games that inspired it. Resident Evil does all of those things, and does them quite well. Director Paul Anderson (who helmed some real stinkers in the past such as Event Horizon and Mortal Kombat) does an excellent job of staying remarkably close to the feel of the video game as well as creating an undeniably exciting and fast paced horror film, which along with John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars, has got to be one of the most kickass action/horror films made in a very long time. When Alice (the lovely Milla Jovovich) awakens in a shower with a case of amnesia in an isolated mansion on the outskirts of Raccoon City, exactly who she is and why she's there she can't remember. After briefly exploring the empty house, Alice encounters a special forces SWAT-type police/military group assigned to infiltrate the hidden laboratory hidden deep beneath the city (called 'the Hive') and shut down the supercomputer (dubbed The Red Queen) which has gone berserk and exterminated all of the Hive's employees. As the team, accompanied by Alice as well as rookie cop Matt (Eric Mabius of The Crow-Salvation), enter the Hive to fulfill their assignment, they discover that the employees have become the undead and a mysterious virus (the 'T' virus, right out of the game) has been unleashed, mutating them into flesh eating zombies. With a computer intent on destroying them as well as zombies seeking them out as dinner, the group must battle their way out of the Hive contending with dwindling numbers and characters hiding shady motivations. It's a nice surprise to see how close Resident Evil stays to the video game and this will delight all fans of the games (the origin of the Nemesis creature from RE 3 is explained in this film and is a great little wink), but a fan you need not be to enjoy this film. While it could've used a bit more in the character development department, the film still entertains us although we don't spend too much time with anybody before they die. In the lead, Milla Jovovich gives a pretty good performance (we also get a few glimpses of her naked body as a bonus) even if we don't know all that much about Alice. As the typical tough gal 'Rain', Michelle Rodriguez (looking like a less attractive Angelina Jolie from Tomb Raider) borders on degenerating into a typically annoying stereotype. She has a few stupid one-liners, but thankfully they're mostly relegated to the first half of the film and Rodriguez becomes more tolerable in the later half. As Matt, the rookie cop with some secrets of his own, Eric Mabius does a good job with lending some likeability to the character for what little he has to do. We spend less time with the rest of the cast (and hardly any time with their respected characters) to write about them here but Anderson does a great job of making the 'survivors list' somewhat unpredictable and that makes the film an even stronger experience (at least the first time out) for the viewer. Perhaps the best aspects of Resident Evil are the action sequences (also of course, Milla Jovovich, never looking sexier!) and the zombie carnage. Although it would've been nice to see some more horror oriented elements in the earlier scenes of the film (the scenes of Milla alone in the house are particularly squandered material) before taking off into the action field, but that's carping. Writer-Director Anderson obviously sought to make a breakneck action/horror picture and in that respect, he achieves success. Some of the film's stronger moments include the first encounter with the zombies (not to mention a subtle but cool homage to the great zombie masterpieces Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead), Alice's fight with the hellhounds (much cooler than it looks on the silly preview) and the climactic battle with the 'licker' (a creature right out of the game and done really well). Aspiring to be more of a second rate Aliens than Night of the Living Dead once it gets going, it never lets up. Anderson claims that some gore had to be trimmed to avoid an NC-17 release, but oddly enough the film isn't especially bloody. There are moments of flesh eating (disappointingly restrained) as well as some other grisly bits, but it would've been nice to see somebody's guts torn from their chests and devoured by a group of hungry zombies, one can only hope more gore is reinstated on the DVD release of this film. Anyone looking for a fun time at the movies is bound to have it with this one. It's still a shame that Mr. Living Dead himself George Romero couldn't have done this film (Romero was originally slated to write and direct but was fired from the project) but at least Anderson's version was worth the wait. This is easily the best realization of a video game on film and to Anderson's credit; Resident Evil obviously wasn't the easiest project to pull off. While it's not as scary as one could've hoped for, it does have some (brief) scares and some nice action sequences (complete with an annoying Matrix-style bullet time effect done for no real reason), although complemented at times by some weak CGI, it's few and far between the good stuff. My hat goes off to the entire cast and crew of this project for finally creating a memorable 'game to film' piece. It's rumored that Anderson has signed on to do the possible sequel as well. If a Resident Evil 2 is in the works with Anderson at the helm, I'll be eagerly awaiting another kick-ass genre adventure, there are far too few done right these days. |