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Movie Forums :: Reviews :: Mose Reviews "Resident Evil" |
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Posted on 3/16/02
Mose Reviews "Resident Evil"
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Resident Evil is a movie I really wanted to like. I love the games, I am a fan of the two stars (Milla Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez), and I even liked Directory Paul Anderson's previous picture, Event Horizon. Despite all these positives Resident Evil came across as being a disappointment that attempts to make up for its lack of a story and character development with snazzy action sequences and loud music, lots of loud music.
The story centers on Umbrella Corporation, the world's largest corporate entity who seems to have their greedy hands into everything. Unfortunately they choose to supplement their respectable businesses with the ever dangerous practice of biomedical research for the government. Their newest creation, the T-virus, has the ability to essentially reanimate the dead by sparking a very subtle electrical charge in the brain that allows the individual the most basic of motor skills and desires. Someone gets the bright idea to not only steal the virus, but to release it into the lab before he/she (I'm not giving it away that easy!) leaves. The computer who controls “The Hive” recognizes the danger presented by the virus and decides to kill everyone in the lab and seal it off from the world. Umbrella Corporation is understandably concerned by this and sends a team to investigate, and that's when the fun begins.
To borrow a phrase from The Arrow, I am a bit of a “style whore.” This means that I can often overlook plot holes the size of Ebert's ass and really do not need things such as character development and other normally essential aspects of film making, providing, of course, that the director makes up for these missing links by using tons of style and atmosphere. This is one of the reasons why I am a fan of Paul Anderson, whose previous effort Event Horizon is the epitome of a "style whore" movie. Unfortunately Resident Evil just didn't do it for me. The style was there, but not enough of it to make up for the films shortcomings.
One thing I have noticed about Anderson's films is that they are never truly original, but instead combine aspects from other films in a manner that creates a truly unique movie going experience. Event Horizon is a great example in that Anderson combined elements of classics such as 2001, Alien, Hellraiser, and The Shining to craft a space/monster movie that was unlike anything I had ever seen before. Resident Evil, however, borrows from mediocre movies (Day of the Dead and Ghosts of Mars) to create yet another average movie to further pollute the genre poll. One cool looking scene I want to mention involves a corridor and lasers. I bring this up because most of the audience seemed to enjoy this scene and I heard several people comment on the originality behind it. Now I know this is probably an overreaction, but I have to mention that the scene was an obvious rip-off of the much better Cube. Perhaps Anderson should note that if he borrows from better films (like in Event Horizon) the end result of his movie will be much more positive.
Before I discuss the film's good points I should probably finish with the bad, mainly the sound and how Anderson chose to frighten the audience. So many movies today rely on the unimaginative technique of having a person jump into the shot from off-screen that 1) we expect a person to jump in and 2) after the initial "ahh!” the audience feels cheapened. After having watched Event Horizon the night before I really had expected more from Anderson. Instead he chose to resort to the cowardly technique of having people jump in from off-screen and playing the music at almost painful levels to create "atmosphere" Yeah, right! Does he really think we are that stupid?
By now you may be thinking that I didn't enjoy this movie at all, but that could not be further from the truth. Sure it's rating is a 2.5, but if you check out my rating scale you'll see that I rated this film as being average. In order for a movie to be average it has to have some redeeming values, and Resident Evil was no exception. I certainly enjoyed the performances from the cast, the special effects were solid, and the movie followed the game closely enough to appease even the most die hard video game fanatic.
Surprisingly both of the lead actresses prove that while they are certainly easy on the eyes, they should also be taken seriously as practitioners of their craft. Being that I have only played Code Veronica I can only compare Milla to Claire, and I must say that I was impressed. She delivers a solid performance and is completely believable in the role, particularly when the camera zooms in on her eyes. The other female lead, Michelle Rodriquez is also solid though she plays more of a bad ass soldier along the lines of our beloved Ripley. Something I should mention is how refreshing it was to see two attractive women playing strong characters who were not dependent on men for their survival. I've been watching quite a few movies from Hong Kong as of late and they almost always feature an ass-kicking heroine who is not only sexy as hell, but dangerous as well! Of course, while the acting was surprisingly good, a beauty like Milla is not cast without her looks in mind. She spends most of the movie running around in a skimpy red dress and even gives us guys an eyeful in the beginning of the film, even if it is from the side. The rest of the cast was solid, though none of the guys really stood out. Part of this can be attributed to poor character development, but the performances did nothing to help raise the bar.
Something else I enjoyed in the movie was the FX work. t times it was obviously computer generated, but for the most part it flowed with the movie and never took me out of the story. The big three scenes that stand out are the dogs, the Licker, and the zombies, all of which were solid. I do miss the old days though. I was always more frightened when masters such as Tom Savini created completely believable monsters through the use of makeup. I always knew that there was a real actor under there and that scared the hell out of me. If you go see movies like this for the FX work you won't be disappointed, providing you do not expect any groundbreaking work.
Overall Resident Evil was an entertaining flick that translated reasonably well from video-game to movie, something most titles are unable to do. If you are fan of either zombie movies or Ms. Jovovich I suggest you check this one out in the theater, but everyone else can probably wait until it's released on video. While it certainly does not compare to classics such as “Dawn of the Dead”, it is nevertheless an enjoyable entry into the horror genre, though nothing really stands out that raises it above mediocrity.
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