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A covert US paramilitary unit is sent into Racoon City to
shut down a powerful super computer that is out of control.
It has already trapped hundreds of scientists and office workers
at the Umbrella Corporations secret underground facility and
the paramilitary unit is under orders to find out what has
happened...
Oh
no! Yet another console game spin off. I remember when the
movies came first and the computer games cashed in on the
popularity of them. Now it is the other way around. We have
already been subjected to The Mario Brothers movie,
Final Fantasy and Tomb Raider. All where dire
- only loosely following the plot of their games and in the
case of Final Fantasy having nothing to do with the
game whatsoever.
That
is where Resident Evil differs. For all its faults
(and believe me there are plenty) Resident Evil manages
to achieve what it sets out to do. One of the charms about
the games are that they are extremely claustrophobic. This
is achieved in the movie by having our heroes trapped inside
an underground facility. And all you favourite monsters are
present and correct - the zombie humans and dogs as well as
the "licker beast".
The
film starts strong with the computer seemingly going mad and
killing everyone after someone releases the T-Virus into the
facilities air conditioning. The
movie's director, Paul Anderson, openly admits to being a
huge fan of the original games and this shows in all the little
details that make this about as good as it could possibly
get.
Once
the paramilitary unit investigate into the dark recesses of
the facility I noticed that, like the game, between each scene
there was a shot of a door being opened while we are waiting
for the action to build. Whether this was intentional was
not obvious, but if so it was a brilliant artistic touch.
Some of the music seemed to be borrowed from the games as
well - although the heavy techno rock music is a little too
loud in places making it hard to hear the dialogue.
It will make you jump and squirm and there are more than a
few surprises in store. Possibly the most talked about movie
moment this year will be how Colin Salmon meets his end -
destined to become one of those cinematic all time great moments.
None of the characters are taken from the games, which I thought
would be a problem. But there is a reason, as this movie is
set before the start of the Resident Evil 2 game -
and if you are a fan of that game the ending to the movie
will send a shiver down your spine as the movie's place in
Resident Evil history becomes clear.
There
are countless set dressings which could have been lifted straight
from the game. Of particular merit is the scene where our
hero wanders into the facilities empty kennels to be met with
the sight of blood and mangled cages.
The
most likeable characters are the two leading ladies, Milla
Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez, the rest of the cast (with
the exception of Colin Salmon) were merely set dressing. In
fact, some of the Zombies had more likeable personalities
and the end monster wasn't really that impressive.
The
extras on the DVD are pretty average but the biggest sin is
that Michelle Rodriguez, and Milla Jovovich to a lesser extent,
has to be the worst person to have on an audio commentary.
Director
Paul Anderson and one of the producers, Jeremy Bolt, are trying
hard to fill the commentary with interesting bits of information
and Rodriguez keeps interrupting and talking about what she
did last night. And wouldn't it have been an idea to brief
them before hand about the fact they were doing a commentary?
After
10 minutes of spouting rubbish Rodriguez (or it could have
been Jovoich) sounds surprised to hear that they will be watching
the whole film and are supposed to offer comments on the scenes.
As
the commentary continues things settle down a little and there
are more than a few interesting bits about the film making
revealed - although Paul Anderson stops short of talking about
the set and effects design telling us that there will be an
additional commentary track by the designer. Sadly there isn't.
While
this is a long way from being a great movie it is by far the
best game to movie conversion yet.
Darren
Rea
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