Since it’s first chapter in 1996, the Resident Evil series has remained one of the most memorable Video Game franchises of all time. And you know what that sometimes means…well not sometimes, ALWAYS means: who’s gonna make the movie? While not nearly as disappointing as say the Super Mario Bros. movie or Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, Resident Evil, the first in a series of six films, isn’t recognized as a historic breakthrough for the genre. It’s not Detective Pikachu or Sonic the Hedgehog…it’s just ok. Sometimes that’s enough but in this case…it should’ve been amazing.
The film is directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, who brought us another decent guilty pleasure Video Game flick with Mortal Kombat. Unlike that film, at least Anderson has the ok to roll with a gory, hard R presentation. That’s something Resident Evil has going for it: it has that classic RE experience feel to it. Endless hordes of zombies stumble about and threaten to overwhelm the rescue team who themselves don’t have nearly enough ammo to handle them all. Intense stumbles through claustrophobic hallways and dangerously unstable catwalk crawls show that this isn’t a random shoot em up. This is survival horror, which means using anything and everything you can to…well survive. It’s also good to see some of Resident Evil’s more recognizable monsters added to the mix like the Zombie Dogs and the Lickers (though the effects on the latter haven’t aged well at all).
So the overall vibe works but where the film really
stumbles is the cast. The original
mainstays of the franchise are nowhere to be seen (yet). Instead, we get a fresh cast of new faces,
some of whom will become synonymous with this take on Resident Evil. Few actually stand out and even fewer
actually have names (other than…you know, Zombie Victim #1, #2 etc.). It’s always good to see Collin Salmon in any
movie, no matter how short his time is.
Michelle Rodriguez is definitely the best character, bringing her brand
of bad ass feminine action icon to the mix that she’s perfected so well thanks
to the Fast and the Furious Franchise.
Rodriguez even gets to show a bit more of an uncertain side when things
start getting really bad for the dwindling group of survivors. Womans got range and is one of the best
action actresses on the planet. As
original character Rain, Michelle Rodriguez truly shines.
The biggest problem is one that will trouble the
franchise from beginning to end: Alice.
Alice is an original character with no video game counterpart and she is
front and center from the get go. Sure,
a couple of characters get a subplot.
But the spotlight is on Alice a great deal of the time…and she’s
boring. Can she kick ass? Sure but is it memorable, no. Alice’s amnesiac storyline feels unoriginal,
especially since when this film was released, The Bourne Identity came out
months earlier and did it so much better.
And honestly, this isn’t the main character anyone wants to see on
screen. Where the hell are Chris
Redfield, Jill Valentine or Barry Burton aka the main characters of the
original Resident Evil game? Lacking
familiar faces can hurt an adaptation.
But including one who doesn’t leave the best first impression…that’s
very troublesome.
It's easy to hate Resident Evil because it lacks characters and plot from the source. However, if I were to look at it as a stand alone adaptation…it’s ok. The atmosphere is good. Some of the actors give a better performance than the movie deserves. And it does feel like Resident Evil, far more than other video game movies have felt compared to their source materials. It’s not breaking any barriers for the genre but this isn’t bad…it just should have been better.
6/10
Oh boy, the RE series.
ReplyDeleteIt's probably the largest videogame adaption when you count all the films, and I wonder if you could argue if its the most successful adaption at least $$$ wise. Of course, at adopting the actual videogame elements and story, it definitely falls flat.
I can't recall if I saw this in cinema or just later on DVD, but I always remember finding it just a bit 'meh.' I'm like, well it's a movie, it has zombies like in the game and a weird monster, so guess it's like RE? Overall the first movie is fine, and prob the closest they get to the feel of the games, but it's funny how much off the rails things go later on.
I can't recall at the time if I knew Alice wasn't a character from the games or not. I wasn't familiar with RE when this came out other than the base elements (zombies, evil corporation, not enough ammo and you needed a strategy guide to beat the damn game). I prob just assumed she was, and didn't learn until later. Even still, she's not the most engaging character in the film as you said, and that's going to only continue as we go forwards.
Good review dude, should be fun to see your thoughts on all of these.