Resident Evil

Reader M. Grochmal writes with his brief review of Resident Evil, below. Yes, Resident Evil the game has been turned into Resident Evil, the movie. You have been warned.

The latest in a line of video game adaptations, Resident Evil was released over the weekend. While past conversions such as Super Mario Brothers and Street Fighter were box-office flops, Resident Evil has the chance to break the game-to-movie-flop habit. While the movie is not a straight port of the game, it can still offer a good viewing experience.

The movie takes place in Raccoon City, USA, within a secret underground research lab called The Hive. The lab's work on a cell regeneration medicine ("the T-Cell serum:) for the Umbrella Corporation has a very negative side effect: it reverts the donor into a creature with basic instinctive needs. A lab experiment causes the virus to be released in the air circulation system and, after a logic snafu from the Red Queen (The Hive's AI), this AI quarantines the lab and kills everyone who may have been exposed to the virus.

A SWAT team (not STARS, for the Resident faithful), is sent to find out what's going on. After finding Alice (Milla Jovovich), they break into the HIVE. The Red Queen's traps have fun with the troops, and one they figure things are going their way, the dead scientists of the HIVE are released. On top of that, they're all thirsty for blood.

From here, it goes into a Night of the Living Dead shoot-and-scream-a-thon. There are some genuine scares, but most of them are peppered with shouting and running. There wasn't enough time to get to know the characters before they start getting killed off. The movie tries to be like Aliens in some respects, and sometimes it works.

Plot notwithstanding, the movie still offers a good viewing. It is a shame that George Romero didn't take the project, as was the original plan. Instead, it was taken by Paul Anderson (Soldier, Event Horizon, Mortal Kombat), whose influences show with strobe lights, dark passageways, and a loud soundtrack. Go and see it during the matinee, or wait for it on video. AfterThought: For those who are also fans of anime, here is a video you may wish to download: Resident Eva . It uses the trailer's audio track and makes good use of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Re:RESIDENT EVIL!#$&!#()$&

[turacma]

Obviously you and I did NOT see the same movie. I thought it was complete and utter garbage. There were a few moments I would have walked out had I not paid the full ticket price.

Reasons why RE sucked big hairy gonads:
1. The movie would just not end. Every time you figured the movie would end, they slapped on an extra 5 minutes of footage that help set up RE2.

2. Entirely too many characters are just thrown in and out of the movie, apparently, on a whim. Characters are apparently left for dead, only to reappear for a brief moment, before being killed in earnest. (This may be a problem with the genre in general, not this specific movie)

3. There's only so many times I can get hit with the shock scare of something popping out of a window before I start seeing it come from a mile away.

It wasted a complete waste, there is a brief couple moments of Milla nude, and a couple of the first death sequences are just plain gory fun. After the first 30 minutes though, you might as well tune out. Just my $.02.

Bleh

[LafinJack]

I must not be geeky enough to hate good movies, I'm sorry. I thought FF was pretty good, the Time Machine wasn't bad, Star Wars Ep. 1 was fun, etc. I haven't seen Resident Evil yet, but I can't see myself hating it. You guys/gals expect too much from these movies, and once your overinflated expectations aren't met, you blame the movie.

I think you would enjoy movies (and life) more if you didn't do that. :)

Re:7/10? POSSIBLE MINOR SPOILERS

[Paolomania]

Who directed this flick: Hey pal, load noises and sudden appearances on screen only work if you use them SPARINGLY. No audience is going to jump every five minutes at that shit.

Apparently you never saw "Event Horizon" - it is also directed by Paul Anderson. Absolutely everything happens suddenly in that movie. At times it seems like sudden loud noises and sudden flashes of gore are the only horror devices that director Paul Anderson knows how to use. And "Soldier" was such an honest effort - oh well.

Anyone up for Zork: The Movie?

[totallygeek]

You know, as many hours (days, weeks) as I spent working the games, it might be nice to watch the dynamics in a three-hour movie. Not a bad story, to boot.

Re:7/10? POSSIBLE MINOR SPOILERS

[Paolomania]

i agree that it was not really all that gory. my problem with it was that _absolutely_everything_ happened suddenly - such that it was an assault on one's eyes and ears. it was like watching a two-hour long commercial or music video with too many quick cuts in rapid succession. it just wears down the attention span after a while when absolutely everything is emphesized as attention grabbing. there is something to be said for the nagging growth of a pit in the stomach of the viewer due to a horrific realization that comes slowly.

over the course of watching "event horizon", i found myself scared - but the fear had nothing to do with the plot or characters. there was no empathy for the characters, no dramatic tension in the plot. it could have been a blank screen for all i cared. my fear stemmed from knowing that there would be a sudden, disturbing visual or auditory stimulus arriving at an unknown random interval - probably some kind of poisson ditribution for expected sudden horror.

it would be interesting to study the frequency and distribution of sudden loud noises and sudden flashes of disturbing imagery in this film to see just how formulaic its horror content was.