Resident Evil

Reader M. Grochmal writes with his brief review of Resident Evil, below. Yes, Resident Evil the game has been turned into Resident Evil, the movie. You have been warned.

The latest in a line of video game adaptations, Resident Evil was released over the weekend. While past conversions such as Super Mario Brothers and Street Fighter were box-office flops, Resident Evil has the chance to break the game-to-movie-flop habit. While the movie is not a straight port of the game, it can still offer a good viewing experience.

The movie takes place in Raccoon City, USA, within a secret underground research lab called The Hive. The lab's work on a cell regeneration medicine ("the T-Cell serum:) for the Umbrella Corporation has a very negative side effect: it reverts the donor into a creature with basic instinctive needs. A lab experiment causes the virus to be released in the air circulation system and, after a logic snafu from the Red Queen (The Hive's AI), this AI quarantines the lab and kills everyone who may have been exposed to the virus.

A SWAT team (not STARS, for the Resident faithful), is sent to find out what's going on. After finding Alice (Milla Jovovich), they break into the HIVE. The Red Queen's traps have fun with the troops, and one they figure things are going their way, the dead scientists of the HIVE are released. On top of that, they're all thirsty for blood.

From here, it goes into a Night of the Living Dead shoot-and-scream-a-thon. There are some genuine scares, but most of them are peppered with shouting and running. There wasn't enough time to get to know the characters before they start getting killed off. The movie tries to be like Aliens in some respects, and sometimes it works.

Plot notwithstanding, the movie still offers a good viewing. It is a shame that George Romero didn't take the project, as was the original plan. Instead, it was taken by Paul Anderson (Soldier, Event Horizon, Mortal Kombat), whose influences show with strobe lights, dark passageways, and a loud soundtrack. Go and see it during the matinee, or wait for it on video. AfterThought: For those who are also fans of anime, here is a video you may wish to download: Resident Eva . It uses the trailer's audio track and makes good use of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Comments

Not all video game movies are flops

[TrollMan 5000]

While past conversions such as Super mario Brothers and Street Fighter were box office flops

Tomb Raider grossed about $131 million. Not a superhit but definitely not a flop.

Angelina Jolie probably helped that one out.

Decent movies stand alone

[bbk]

Even if you've never played an RE game, the movie turns out to be a decent horror flick. Producers finally figured out that you don't just have to retell a game - you just have to get the feel of the game - the RE movie does this well. Even without the Resident Evil name, it's a decent movie.

In terms of production, the special effects were so-so (and erred on the side of cheese a couple times), and the audio was a bit badly mixed (might have been the theatre). The acting was great, as were the costumes. It doesn't go for cheap scares like most horror flicks, which is a welcome change.

Worth going to, if you don't mind gore, or just want to see a lot of zombie killing

BBK

Faithful adaptation

[JohnLi]

I'm not quite sure where all the bad reviews of this movie are coming from. I planned to see this movie last Saturday, but before hand, I looked up a few reviews. They were about 80% negative, so I decided to not go see it. The next day, a friend of mine pressured me into seeing it anyway, and it was awesome. The atmosphere was exactly like the games...sure there is some filler/fluff, and most of the characters die 20 minuets into the movie, but again, that is just like the game. If you haven't seen it, for sure don't post opinions, and at least give it a chance. To put this movie in the ranks of Street Fighter, or Super Mario Bros. is just silly.

My (better) Review

[jabber01]

Resident Evil, starring Milla Jovovich (yummy), is based on the video game of the same name. I've never played the game, but I assume it's pretty much the same general idea..

The plot is mind-numbingly simple: The Umbrella Corporation is the biggest company in the US. It makes all sorts of consumer products, and is involved in military tech, and viral and genetic research.

Deep underground beneath Raccoon City (yep, that's what it's called) is The Hive, Umbrella Corp's secret research facility..

The movie opens with someone stealing what turns out to be a mutagenic virus from one of the labs, and leaving a broken vial of the nasty stuff to cover their tracks. In response to the contamination, the facility AI brain seals all exits and kills all occupants.

There's really not much more to it than that.. We get to see Yummy Milla passed out naked in a shower stall, in a nice mansion, due to having been gassed by the Red Queen (the AI code name) defense system. We get a gratuitous nipple shot, and then the action picks up as an Alien's-style special forces team arrives to figure out what hapenned in The Hive.

What follows is a joy-ride of mindless violence, cool special effects and lots and lots of zombies.

There's a few plot-related explanations that strangely hold together pretty well, but 'plot' is not what this movie is about.. It's about action, suspense, effects, soundtrack, and of course, Yummy Milla in a short evening dress doing acrobatic fight scenes.

It's been said that "Every Breath You Take" is the perfect Pop Song.. It's devoid of content, but it has everything a great pop song needs to succeed. A good beat and melody, plenty of rhyming and easy to recall lyrics, and a simple structure that doesn't test even the most mundane of brains.

This movie is the perfect Popcorn Movie. It's got a non stop mix of suspense and shock, which alternates with loud gunfire, growling monsters, and the occasional computer-screen overlay.. It's a study in brilliant, yet vapid, entertainment.

It's Night of the Living Dead, on Methamphetamine.

And best of all, it's more than just a movie about the game "Resident Evil". All you need to do is replace Yummy Milla with a male, and the openning "virus theft" sequence with an experiment in trans-dimensional travel, and suddenly, it's also a movie about the game "Doom".. Seriously, right down to the final scene, except there isn't a bunny-head on a stick anywhere in sight..

If you've got $8.50 burning a hole in your pocket, this is a fun, albeit mindless 2 hours on which to spend it.

Great Zombie/slasher/creep flick

[nordaim]

There was one scene in this movie that was a typical kind of horror scene, where you know where you know what is about to happen. My roommate and i were sitting there in a row by ourselves in this dark cold theatre and we had a short dialogue that went like this:

Him: Oh god, it's going to happen.
Me: What?
Him: She's going to open her eyes.
Me: What?
Him: Look, it's going to happen, oh god oh god.
(At this point he was more or less drooling on himself with fright)

3 seconds later, what he was drooling in fear about, which we both knew was going to happen, happened, and we and everyone else in the theatre jumped.

The acting was not overly great or in anyway different from what I was expecting, but we made sure we checked our brains at the door. Doing that allowed us to have a great time and really enjoy a strong Zombie flick.