Review: Resident Evil (2002)

Resident Evil

IMDB rate: 6,6

Genre: Zombie

I finally watched Resident Evil. I'm a bit ashamed to say this, but I've never seen it before. I have the first four Resident Evil movies on DVD but I never got around watching them. I also watched the second part, Resident Evil: Apocalypse and of course a review of that one will also be up, somewhere this week. I'm planning on watching Extinction and Afterlife too, but I'll probably have to wait for the fifth one, Retribution, a while longer since I haven't got that one on DVD. I could download it but most of the time it's shit quality so I'd rather wait for a cheap DVD.

I really enjoyed watching this movie. It was definitely not what I expected from it. I expected a lot of violence, zombies and not so much story but the movie was actually quite good. The second one however was a big disappointment to me, but I'll come back to that in my next review. After seeing the first two movies, the first being good and the second being not so good, I'm a bit afraid that Resident Evil will become one of those never ending stories (Saw, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween etc.) since there's also a sixth part coming next year. Of course, I can't judge this yet since I've only seen two of them. I did hear that the third one, Extinction, was a lot better than Apocalypse so we'll see.

A virus has escaped in a secret facility called "The Hive," turning the staff into hungry zombies and releasing the mutated Lab "Animals" that they were studying. The complex computer shuts down the base to prevent infection. The Parent corporation sends in an elite military unit, where they meet Alice, who is suffering from amnesia due to exposure to nerve gas. The military team must shut down the computer and get out, fighting their way past zombies, mutants and the computer itself, before the virus escapes and infects the rest of the world. Alice must also come to terms with her slowly returning memories.

I really enjoyed this movie. It's a whole different concept compared to the usual zombies, which is actually quite nice. The acting in this movie is really good. I'm not really familiar with Milla Jovovich, I've seen her once or perhaps twice in a movie but I don't believe they were big parts, because I can't remember her well. Anyway, I did like her in this role. She really seemed badass but also with a good and sweet side. Her acting is great and as I already mentioned, I didn't like the sequel that much, but it definitely wasn't because of her. She fits this role perfectly and also the casting of her coworkers is solid. The only one that I didn't like was Michelle Rodriguez, it's not really because she's a bad actress or something, I just don't like her. She always plays the same kind of girl and it's really boring after a while.

I don't think this movie resembles the game a lot, of course I'm not sure since I only played the demo version of Resident Evil 4 or 5 and couldn't even survive that, so I couldn't really tell for sure. I does not really mind I guess because if the movie resembles the game too much, people might only watch the movie instead of playing the game. So that's not a bad thing, but again, I'm not sure.

 The only thing that could have been better is the zombie-screen-time. It's said that The Hive is a company with thousands of employees, and yet you only see fairly small amounts of zombies. Most of the time, the hallways are clear, so a bit more zombie action would have been great. This being said, I'm not sure if Resident Evil is a real horror movie. I see it more as an action movie, but with zombies. There is not much suspense and it's definitely not scary.

This movie was definitely better than what I expected. Everyone that like a good horror/action movie this is an excellent choice. Milla Jovovich is a great choice for portraying Alice and when I'm honest, I don't think she could have been portrayed better. While the sequel, Apocalypse, was not that good, I'm still looking forward to see Apocalypse.

My personal rate: 8/10