Resident Evil
2002 / d. Paul W. S. Anderson
It’s flawed, it’s silly, and it certainly disappointed fans who were expecting the film to better utilize the story-line and characters of the original video games; however, if you’re willing to look past all that, RESIDENT EVIL can be an extremely enjoyable viewing experience. The nefarious pharmaceutical corporation known as Umbrella secretly develops a biological threat known as the T-Virus; its regenerative effects cause the reanimation of the dead into blood-thirsty zombies. When the T-Virus is released in the underground research facility known as “The Hive”, all hell breaks loose and a team is deployed to assess and fix the situation before it becomes uncontrollable. In an effort to make a true video-game adaptation, director Paul Anderson employed shots and camera angles which resembled those from the video game — plenty of areal and point-of-view scenes. Followers of the game get teased by the mansion as well as the creatures (notably the “Lickers” and the zombie dogs) but that’s about as close as it gets to following the original story. An edgy techno-metal soundtrack by Marilyn Manson drives the film along, and adds to the overall video-game feel.
Co-editor of The Blood Theatre, Matthew T. is also an artist who plays a mean piano and enjoys preparing for the zombie apocalypse.
Game to movie adaptations, as everyone knows, rarely fare positive reviews. Considering it is a movie based on a video game, this flick didn’t fare too bad, in terms of integrity. case in point: Doom (worst $9 I ever spent). My point being it could have been a lot worse and it wasn’t. It’s just too bad I can’t say the same about the rest of the saga.