This week I took it upon myself and to go see 'Resident Evil – The Movie'. I’ve been a big fan of the series from its first incarnation to the subsequent releases. I’ve always liked the Survival Horror genre, even if the genre has been reduced to just mean “things break in thru windows”. Regardless, the mood of Resident Evil (or Biohazard for you Japanese gamers out there) has always created that perfect mix of being both the hunter and the hunted. I do loathe the undead, so naturally a game where you get to shoot zombies, would appeal to me on a base level.

The game, for those of you unfamiliar to the series, was setup as follows - you played a member of a special police unit in Racoon City that is sent to investigate strange events at a mansion that turns out to be a secret research facility of the Umbrella corporation, your friendly neighborhood worldwide uber-corp that runs the world, etc. Upon reaching the spooky house, you learn that an accident at the facility has caused the release of the T-Virus, a nasty viral weapon which seems to make the dead walk around and be generally moody all day.

I went to see this live action adaptation of one of my favorite series expecting to experience ninety minutes of under cooked dialogue with a few spicy one liners served with some microwavable explosions, instead I was shocked to learn that at long last a film maker has managed to figure out how to boil water.

Alright enough with the cooking references, I’ve been watching too much Iron Chef lately and it’s beginning to bleed into my style.

Resident Evil impressed me as a gamer. For the first time I’ve witnessed a movie that remains true to the original video game’s ambience. The pace of the film is identical to any of the games in the series, there are several movements of slow story and fast action, along with the typical plot twists. Speaking of plot, it has one – just a heads up to you cynics out there who went to see Tomb Raider for the plot… all four of you.

Like the games, the movie instilled in me a sense of frustration as the main characters are mercilessly thrown from one bad situation to another. At times the film had me grasping for a invisible controller so I could move the actors to a imaginary save point, this would have worked if I had some imaginary type writer ribbon.

Hollywood has a history of ruining of what could be a great film by needlessly inventing story that the viewer doesn’t need to know then spelling it out for them with Duplo block sized exposition. In many video games – Initially the less you know about who the main character is, the better. The reason being is it allows us to get a better feel for that character and as you progress the game, so as the characters learn more about themselves, so does the player. It’s a great vehicle to draw people into games and it’s a shame that it isn’t used in film more often. Thankfully – the makers of 'Resident Evil - The Movie' decided to go with this angle, and ended up creating a film that feels more like a ride.

Man, and what a ride it is, for a fan of the game, the film is all the more enjoyable. References from the games, however subtle are all over the film’s sets. Besides the use of corporate logos, security cards, memorable names/places, and the leveled design of the building, the filmmakers went thru the trouble of creating a detailed recreation of familiar scenes such as a simple manhole with a ladder that is the exact design as in the games.

There are some who feel that Paul Anderson(the director) who seems to be competing with Jerry Bruckheimer to be the new crown price of “Loud Movies”, should not have been handed this project and would of preferred it go to George Romero as originally planned. It's my opinion that Paul did a great job of staying true to the original game, instead of trying to mold it into another cookie cutter Hollywood flick.

To the average movie watcher, Resident Evil may just be another horror / action film to fill their B-movie shelf when it hits DVD, but to a long time fan of the games, the movie is a real tribute to video games.