As there appears to be an increase in the levels of popularity and trends currently on show for the Zombie sub-genre I thought it might be apt to review some Zombie movies this week. And today is the turn of Paul W.S. Anderson’s Resident Evil adaption.
Video game adaptions to me are often very badly put together. But there does seem to be a rise in the amount that studios are churning out at the moment. In fact Uwe Boll seems to be single handedly taking them all on. But as with all adaptions, whether it is from existing literature, video games or television the problem is the comparisons. People who have never played Resident Evil can enjoy this movie on different levels (no pun) from those who are familiar with characters and concepts from the gameplay itself. It always feels like a spot the similarity contest once you’ve got this game world in your mind.
But, with that said, Resident Evil is one of the much better video game adaptions. It doesn’t shove the Zombie premise down your throat. It’s a long time before we see the first Zombie on screen and even more impressive is the fact that the word Zombie is never even muttered throughout the entire movie. And with that it gives you that realness.
Like other movies in the same vane, Resident Evil revolves around an escaped virus. The virus is contained for the time being in a secret facility called ‘The Hive’ but turns all researchers into hungry zombies and releasing their mutated lab animals. And now Alice (Jovovich) and an elite military task force have three hours to contain the virus before it escapes and infects the rest of the world.
Its a decent plot and relies on Alice’s memory loss to help the audience pick up on the details of the underground facility. Why its there, what it does, and why the workers there are now braindead eating machines. Resident Evil has a great glossy look about it from beginning to end. The locations, the offices, the train all look fantastically new and shiny. Unlike the common delapidated style of post apocalyptic events.
Jovovich does a good job, looks good, and seems very competent at pulling off the action femme fatale. The rest of the cast hold their own too even though they’re having to keep a straight face during the sometimes shaky dialogue. The effects are decent too, that is until we meet the Licker. A hideous mutated creature as featured in the original game. But it falls on the shoulders of CGI to bring this beast to life and it just looks a little shoddy and unrealistic.
But as I previously said the locations and sets look fantastic. The zombies also are frightening and eerie. The digital effects are seamless but the Licker under par. A bit like the alien creature from Alien3. And the fact that practically none of the action in this movie takes place outside of this facility is great and gives an overall claustrophobic feel that you would experience watching Aliens or other sci-fi classics that take place on board a ship in outer space.
So the plot and action moves along and the unanswered mystery’s unravel towards the end. The last couple of sequences leads us nicely into the position of anticipation for the upcoming Resident Evil: Apocalypse. Nice job Mr Anderson.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Video games are fantastically imaginative and incredibally put together nowadays. Its a shame that the games creators can’t use this creative flair to maybe try and develop some movie ideas from. Movies based on video games always come across as gimmicky merchandise bonanzas. Resident Evil is different and its intentions are clear. Scare, thrill and entertain. In addition, wouldn’t you just love to see a ‘Halo’ movie in the pipeline. Maybe one day.
