Resident Evil

UK / Germany / France, 2002. Directed by Paul W. S. Anderson. Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Eric Mabius, James Purefoy, Martin Crewes, Colin Salmon.

A military team is sent into a secret underground laboratory known as “The Hive”, run by the sinister Umbrella Corporation. A virus has been released, the staff have all been killed and the central computer has closed off the building to prevent the world outside from becoming infected. The team come across Alice (Jovovich) and Spence (Purefoy), who have amnesia from exposure to the nerve gas, and together they find themselves in a race against time battling against the dead but now zombie-fied scientists, mutant creatures (the experiments the scientists were working on) and the computer itself, which appears to have its own agenda. That description is at best an approximation - trying to review a movie like this is challenging because it’s based on a video game. I guess its core audience is going to be folk who are already familiar with it; I confess my own knowledge in this area is extremely limited. Difficult also to discuss such things as plot and character development as the former follows a predefined path and the latter is non-existent – the characters are merely ciphers and have no inner life of their own. In view of this I would say the acting is satisfactory and the athletic Jovovich (who reportedly did most of her own stunts) drives the movie on with her kick-ass attitude, although I quickly tired of Michelle Rodriguez’s posturing performance. Paul W. S. Anderson, a director not known for his subtlety, wisely keeps the action coming fast and furious. Coming to the film without any previous knowledge or expectation, I quite enjoyed the opening sequences where the scientists begin to realise they’re trapped and Alice wakes up not knowing who or where she is. Therefore I was a little disappointed when it settled down to be a zombie movie, albeit with a few twists, and as the team struggled to get out of the building I began to identify its video game origins. Is it any good? Well, it’s competently made – I have no idea how fans of the game would rate it. Oh, did I mention the soundtrack? IT'S VERY LOUD!