Resident Evil's first cinematic adaptation roughly follows what could be one of the game's stories without any specific character or location mentions (apart from Raccoon City), and this lackluster adaptation only provides viewers with zombies, Cerberus, and Lickers from the games, and nothing else.
Who is this you ask? She could be Jill? Maybe. She kind of looks like her. Is she any of the game's kick-ass heroine's??? The simple answer is no. And we game fans are suppose to want to follow her adventure through the film, even if we have no attachment to her at all, and could give a rat's ass what happens to her in the end. This, my friends, is Alice. The film series' main star. But wait, shouldn't Chris or Jill be the main star. Leon, Claire, Rebecca, Wesker... they should be, but they're not. She is. Instead of the great characters and story lines that fans have fallen in love with since 1996, we get her, a random lab, some laser-death corridor, and a holographic homicidal bitch. Does this sound like a Resident Evil story to you? Disregarding RE4 and Umbrella Chronicles attempts to blend these elements into the games, none of this should appear in a Resident Evil story. But it does. And it's little more than a steaming pile of shit. |  |
Perhaps I'm being a bit too harsh. The first film is enjoyable, and out of all of the films so far, is the only one that remotely feels like survival horror. The movie works well as a sort of side story to the games, a kind of spin-off, if you will. But we all now how bad Resident Evil spin-offs tend to be. Survivor/Dead Aim ring a bell, anyone. Not that anyone will really care about the small group of survivors we're forced to watch during this movie, that begin dying off one by one, and we're meant to care about them. But we don't. At least I don't.
 | Let's get down to what the movie gets right. The monsters are treated with so much respect, they are almost literally pulled from the game's, with nothing being sacrificed in translation. While the zombie's seem somewhat generic, the dogs and lickers are perfect, right from the games. One problem I have with the monsters is that the licker is mutated and turned into the "final boss". What the hell?! Where's my Tyrant?! The movie also has some questionable music, that would fit in better in a nightclub then in a Resident Evil movie. The story is very incoherent, and once again generic, for Resident Evil. This movie feels too much like a bad spin-off, than a truly great adaptation. |
The movie tries really hard to be a good Resident Evil enrty, but fails miserably. Spending an hour reading George A. Romero's original script for this movie is a much better way to spend your time, then to sit and watch an hour and a half of what Paul W.S. Anderson shit out.
2.8
Adaptation Value - 2.5 out of 5
Movie Value - 3.0 out of 5
Story - 2.4 out of 5
Direction - 2.7 out of 5
2nd Viewing - 3.1 out of 5
