Review of Resident Evil (2002) by William C — 05 Sep 2015

How do you make a video game adaption work, hire Paul W.S Anderson? No that's not it, what about cast Milla Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez? Well no but it feels more promising, oh I know actually, lets just make an all out crazy movie with little realistic dialogue and some poor acting. See that seemed to do the trick because this movie is a poor one, I didn't find it completely bad but it's still pretty bad anyway. You know I'm the kind of film fan who can truly enjoy movies with a premise like this but when they cast the wrong people behind the camera and on it, you just can't forgive the producers for this one. Resident Evil is based on the popular video game of the same name and definitely see's the kind of action you might expect from such, not all together a really un-enjoyable ride, but just a movie that is unlikeable.

We see Milla Jovovich waking up and not knowing what the hell is going on, we also see James Purefoy with the same old predicament and both seem to need to know what's going on. In steps a whole team of people who have been sent in to investigate a thing called the "Hive" an underground facility that seems to have done some bad things to test subjects and even employees. The film is packed full of insane action, kick ass stunts and zombies (including zombie dogs) and really does pack quite a punch. I didn't feel this film was bad because of the action actually, it is what makes this slightly exciting and at least the movie has a certain horror element too it and can make you kind of jump.

It wasn't the directing that made me cringe, it was the writing which seems to rip this movie apart, the cast can seem almost lifeless at moments with this script and the small talk is well, none existent. The cast do give it their best at certain times but in others it can feel as if they are trying too hard to make this dramatic and Anderson does nothing to help them. I think the only real redeeming factors in this are that it is not awful and not even maybe fully bad but still just poor, as I said the fighting and all the things like that are the only things that keep this a float before it sinks into the abyss of movie garbage.

As for the actors themselves I can't say I liked any of them, Jovovich is not bad but she fails as her role to lead the movie and ends up in moments being second fiddle to more exciting characters. Michelle Rodriguez is probably more exciting than her but even she can not make this any better, coupled with the writing too, I just couldn't forgive this movie and felt disappointed. The story is played out well kind of full blown just go for it which does work in it's favour somehow, I didn't want any plot for large parts of this because I was enjoying the fighting, there are way too many obstacles set in this movie but I can say at least you get a few thrills and that's what is important.

So all in all it is Anderson who truly damages the film, not as much with Jovovich or the cast as they are just sucked into the director's work. I think in fact I know for a fact many will enjoy this and think me crazy for saying this is poor, but just look at the film properly and really don't let it take you for a ride without first showing you its poor skills. I do however recommend this to all horror fans and action aficionados as it basically will do what it says on the tin really, scare and thrill.