Movie Notes: Resident Evil
= 2 stars
Starring Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez,
Directed by Paul WS Anderson
Synopsis
A virus is released in “The Hive,” a secret underground research library run by the all-powerful Umbrella corporation. As all hell breaks loose, Alice (Milla Jovovich), suffering amnesia as to her identity, is thrust into the hive along with a commando team to stop the contagion.
The Good
- Has a pretty amusing visual style.
- Milla Jovovich is pretty hot.
- For some reason, this film reminded me of several others: Aeon Flux, Final Fantasy, and 28 Days Later. It’s better than the first two but crappier than the last one by far.
The Bad
- You can literally see the writers struggling to flesh out a video game into a motion picture scenario. The proceedings are very sequential, and watching characters struggle through these obstacles felt like watching someone else play a video game, resulting in not much fun.
- Making Milla completely amnesiac certainly helped the writers avoid writing back story, but it’s hard to make any emotional connection to folks whom we know nothing about, and even less so if they don’t even know who they are themselves. Plus, how exactly does one portray a blank character? I guess stand around and look hot.
Conclusion
Having no knowledge of the video game made the movie a mighty confusing experience at first, but things got better as I realized this was just a ridiculous zombie flick. The added appeal of Milla Jovovich in skimpy clothing didn’t hurt. I’ll rent the sequels although I hear they’re even worse, and probably more frightening than anything contained in the hive.
IMDB: Resident Evil
Wikipedia: Resident Evil
Rotten Tomatoes: Resident Evil 33%
I’ve been a fan of Resident Evil since its debut on the Playstation 1. Milla’s hotness is pretty much the only thing that kept Resident Evil entertaining. I did take some enjoyment out of the second installment, however. If you put up a review about it, I’ll express what I thought about the movie. I don’t want to spoil it for ya. As for the third… well, no comment. heh
Heh — well I have both sequels in my Netflix queue. I’m probably in for some pain but I get a kick out of seeing franchises go up or down or nowhere in particular. And an attractive lead doesn’t hurt
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