Thought I'd finally get round to reviewing one of my most favourite film series and video game adaptions; Resident Evil, so here is the first one that started it all. SPOILERS in this because it will be in depth and this is the kind of review for people how have seen this film and the others.
Resident Evil begins with the outbreak of a virus, called the T - Virus, in an underground facility called the Hive. It is owned by the pharmaceutical company Umbrella; one of the largest companies in the world and basically owns the town of Raccoon City that is located above it. The highly intelligent computer program that runs it, the Red Queen, decides to shut down the Hive and seal everyone of the employees down there. The main protagonist Alice (Milla Jovovich) awakens in a mansion with no memory of who she is but is soon dragged into the Hive by an Umbrella commando team led by One (Colin Salmon). Alice must now survive the horrors inside the Hive, try to recover her lost memory and figure out what exactly happened to cause the outbreak.
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| Some zombie killing action! |
Resident Evil was directed by Paul W. Anderson and while I know he has had his fair share of criticism I think he is a really solid director who has a few gems (Mortal Kombat, Event Horizon). While this film is an adaption of the video game series it features a completely original plot not found in the games but none the less uses it's universe. Now this could have been a really bad move but I think it worked for this film because the overall plot was still similar to the games.
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| Damn, that laser sure made a clean job of it |
To elaborate on this it borrows heavily from the story of Resident Evil 2 i.e. a virus outbreak in an underground lab that turns people to zombies. However instead of the virus infecting the city straight away they decided to set it in the laboratory and Anderson himself stated that he didn't want the film to feature any game tie ins because he felt that "under-performing movie tie-ins are too common and
Resident Evil, of all games, deserved a good celluloid representation". Meaning he wanted to avoid too may links to the game as possible for this first adaption at least.
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| Oh Yeah!! |
Now did I like that move that Anderson made? Yes I did and that is because I like certain adaptions that create their own story based on original material. If the story is well thought out and done right then it can be great and personally I really enjoyed it; it just felt like Resident Evil to me while not showing an exact same story from the games. There are some things however that I admit must follow the original material exactly because the story is too important to change drastically (Game of Thrones) and there are examples when it is done wrong (almost all original material in The Walking Dead).
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| "Oh hell no!" |
I really liked the cast for this film with my favourite being Milla Jovovich as Alice because she is my all time favourite actress, in this she is smart, sexy and kicks a lot of zombie ass! She does ask a lot of questions but that is because of the loss of memory and a way for the other characters to explain what is going on. She is likable and a strong female protagonist which of course suits the horror film genre, plus we get to see her in some shower scenes and wearing that red dress throughout the film - what's not to like :). She may not be based on any Resident Evil character but she is really well thought-out and woven into the story really well as an Umbrella security agent. In fact before I continue thought I'd point out that the characters is mostly made up of Umbrella personnel and that is probably one of the big appeals in the film for me; a point of view from people working for Umbrella not those who are against it.
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| Shot them in the head Rain |
As for the rest of the cast we have One the Umbrella team leader who I felt was really underused and that was annoying because he is played by such a great actor but at least he has one of the coolest film deaths ever involving the really cool laser grid scene. There's Michelle Rodriguez as Rain a member of the Umbrella team and even though she plays the same character type in everything I've seen her in (a no - nonsense badass) she is one of the ones so good at it that you don't mind. We also have James Purefoy as Spence who is the films antagonist who does a great job but then there is Eric Mabius as Matt Addison a person against Umbrella who even though is good in it I felt his character was just shoved in there so they have someone who is not an Umbrella employee. Lastly there is Martin Crewes as Kaplan the Umbrella team computer expert who I think is a real stand out; he did his part so well and I just found him really likeable.
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| It may be a short scene but the zombie dogs are badass in this |
As for the zombies and other creatures in this film it is all done really well and that is because for the most part it is not done in CGI but with make up and I like that the best for zombies/horror films. It may not be as gory as I would have liked it to be for an adaption for the Resident Evil game but for the most part it does the job really well. The zombies all look the part of zombies even if there is a lack of missing limbs and trailing guts from any of them but I guess there really hasn't been any time for that is they have all been stuck in a lab. I also liked the movement of all the zombies and I guess that is to be expected since they hired professional dancers to play them.
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| Poor b*****d |
The zombies dogs however is adapted perfectly from the video games; not only do they look like the same breed but they sound and act like the did in the games as well. They where never done in CGI (expect to erase an ear or eye) instead they got professional trained dogs and covered them in fake blood and meat that made them look as though they were skinned. Lastly I am glad they chose the Licker for the final boos in this because it is one of my favourite creatures but for the first few scenes it is in it is done in CGI and you can obviously tell that it is. Luckily for the mutated version of Licker they created a full - scale model with actual moving head, lips and tongue that just looks so much better.
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| You are one ugly mother-! |
As for stuff that I admit they could have done better (I mentioned lack of gory but that is really minor) is a proper antagonist. I know Spence turns out to be it but this only happens at the very end of the film because of his loss of memory for the majority of it (plus is motivation is just money). I know that the Red Queen was the one who sealed the Hive but I really don't consider an A.I. to be a real villain in just about anything. However as much as she seemed to be a homicidal b***h it is said early in the film that she was only doing what she was programmed to do to preserve life, even if it did mean to killing a lot. Every Resident game has a proper villain; 1 - Wesker, 2 - The Birkins, 3 - Nicholai/Nemesis, CV - The Ashfords/Wesker, Dead Aim - Morpheus and 0 - Marcus. Those are the only TRUE Resident Evil games in my opinion and I just wished we had one here.
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| Soaking wet Milla Jovovich - oh yeah! |
Two more things that I think could have been changed was that I wish the final fight with the Licker could have lasted longer and been a bit more interesting. I think that they focused just a little too much with the fight between Matt and zombie Rain when we could have seen more of the Licker. However the overall fight was pretty damn cool, really fast paced because it was set on a speeding training and I liked the music that they used to. Lastly even though I really like the cast I kind of wished they could have included just one character based off the video game instead of just a cameo of William Birkin by Jason Isaacs at the end. I think HUNK could have worked really well in this and he could have been part of the Umbrella team.
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| You can make it Kaplan! |
Overall while it may not be perfect I think this film is a great start to the Resident Evil film series even though I know it hasn't appealed to every fan because of how original the plot is compared to the games. Maybe the could have made it more gory and gave the film a better overall antagonist and final fight but I enjoyed it immensely. It is as a lot of some cool gunfights and fist fights against the zombies and the laser scene is just so memorable. This film also worked thanks to the great cast, action and story that I found to be just as good as the games and I like that they have a great set up to the squeal at the end that obviously looks based on Resident Evil 3.
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| "Just when I thought I'd got out you pull me right back in" |
SCORE: 7/10
The great screenshots of the episodes where provided by the great site Screencapped. You can look for yourself from the link below;
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