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A good (not great) movie on many levels

Christopher Wyer | Berlin, WI USA | 03/25/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Resident evil is a movie that will be liked by several different audiences. There are aspects that will be liked and disliked by horror movie fans, as well as fans of the game. For a movie based on a video game, it was very well done. For the most part the story stayed true to the video game's plot. Some of the characters from the game were missing which I'm sure will upset more than a few. But all in all, the feel of the video game runs true. There was a scene where Milla Jovovich wakes up in the shower with a temporary case of amnesia. She starts looking through the drawers in the room and you can almost picture "There is nothing of interest here" printed across the bottom of the screen. For the horror fans in general there are some nice shock tactics used at times and the creatures are really well done. It's very worth seeing.As plot goes, the premise for the movie is better than the final movie turned out to be. The main story revolves around an artificial intelligence system that exterminates the entire staff of an underground biochemical lab when one of there super-virus' secrets is compromised. A team of soldiers, sent in by the Umbrella Corporation, is sent in to uncover why the A.I. system malfunctioned and to shut it down. A single agent (Milla Jovovich) and her partner/husband, were in charge of guarding the secret entrance to the underground lab and are both left with no short term memory about the incident. As the story is told the plot twists somewhat, but the overall feel of the movie is that it's been done before. Several of the characters line up to be "next to die" in a series of creative deaths that parallel "The House on Haunted Hill." The one outstanding thing that I did like about the story was the way the movie ended. I won't give away anything, but the way the ending was filmed left you craving for a sequel. At the same time, it didn't feel like this particular movie ended early either. The special effects alone, make up for any monotony in the story-line. There are several shots that reminded me of "The Matrix" and "Swordfish." The living dead dogs were very realistic looking and the zombies makeup and costume design was very good. Milla Jovovich was absolutely beautiful in her role and her supporting cast was very well chosen, although without a lot of star appearances. The scenery throughout the movie gave it a very creepy feel. Even though the movie takes place in a high tech office building, it gave off a very haunted house feel to the picture. Marilyn Manson's scored songs added greatly to the eeriness and would be a great addition to any haunted house. All in all a good movie to see, but not necessarily one to watch again and again. And in my mind, if you combined the start of "House on Haunted Hill" with the ending of "Resident Evil" you'd have a near perfect horror movie. The Breakdown:
1. Plot- 8 (solid story with a few twists)
2. Characters- 7 (nice main character, but supporting cast was very cookie cutter in nature)
3. Flow- 8 (movie seemed to be moving on a different time frame than the characters were)
4. Atmosphere- 10 (very creepy scenery and music)
5. Cinematography- 10 (awesome special effects)
6. Entertainment factor- 9 (kept you paying attention with no real slow spots)
7. Replay factor- 7 (watch again for the effects but the story is a once in a while type movie)
8. Casting/character depth- 8 (Good casting for roles, but not a lot of character detail)
9. Relevance to genre- 8 (Atmosphere and the ending made this a good horror movie)
10. X-factors- 10 (Ending made you want a sequel now, but also left you satisfied with the outcome)Total: 85/100"