Review of Resident Evil (2002) by Spangle — 15 Nov 2016

Undeniably entertaining, Resident Evil often mirrors a schlocky and campy science fiction film from the 1980s. With campy dialogue and cheesy effects, Resident Evil has a fantastic time creating an interesting universe in which businesses are evil and do everything for the bottom line. Not sure where they got that idea. We are all about serving stakeholders (business major joke). That said, though entertaining, its thematic undertakings are done via force feeding. Additionally, the film is plagued by cliches, poor dialogue, bad writing, bad acting, and now aged effects. When Resident Evil hits, however, its tension is hard to deny.

First, the negatives. The writing - both in the dialogue and character development - is horrific. Apparently Milla Jovovich is named Alice in this film and Michelle Rodriguez is Rain. Maybe I missed that, but even their names are barely developed here minus a few mentions here-and-there. The film tries to play this off by having Alice suffer from amnesia in the beginning, but this barely works when the audience does not even really know who Alice is either. This prevents the audience from being able to really develop any form of connection with her character, beyond the primal need to survive. The bad dialogue in the film is accentuated by poor delivery at times that really pulls you out of the moment. For example, the final sequence on the train has Generic White Male Character #3 yell something to Alice and both of them totally blow their lines. This really kills the momentum of an otherwise tense sequence by pulling you out of it. Essentially, the acting in Resident Evil makes you realize it is a film.

The cliches are far too many to list out, but obviously, Resident Evil's approach to zombies is hardly unique. Every other zombie movie has headshots as the means of death and it has been to death at this point. Fortunately, the film felt the need to try and revive this cliche. The film also lumps in a malevolent computer system, poorly behaving corporations, superviruses, hidden antiviruses, and "unexpected" zombie transformations to the cliche equation. The film's cliches even do brush against its thematic elements. Not only are these anti-business elements spelled out for the audience by explaining that businesses never learn and never care about others, but these are wildly typical. Resident Evil is hardly profound in this arena and makes the film feel all the more cliche. By the time this film came out, audiences had been introduced to the concept that businesses were evil sometimes and did not need to see this mentioned here. Director Paul W.S. Anderson is hardly pulling the wool away from the audience's eyes here, especially since the Enron scandal happened in October 2001. Of course, this is hardly the first business scandal on the books. Films that try and have some kind of thematic element need it to actually be, well, worthwhile. When everybody already agrees and the film spells it out for you, it is highly likely to fall on deaf ears as it does here.

All of this said, Resident Evil can be a highly successful film at times and is undeniably fun. For action junkies, Resident Evil will deliver the requisite adrenaline boost. With great scenes of horror blended with good music and good action sequences, Resident Evil can really leave you on the edge of your seat, waiting in dread for what is around the next corner. Many love Anderson's work on the horror film Event Horizon (have yet to see it myself) and it is easy to see why here. Resident Evil definitely scares and use the mystery of the situation its protagonists finds themselves in to really ramp up the horror and the tension.

Overall, since it is an action film, I feel the need to be lenient on Resident Evil. Its action set pieces are great fun and really well-executed. For all of his faults as a director, Anderson knows action. Sadly, the film simply has nothing else below the surface to survive and simply self-destructs.