Resident Evil (DVD)

Movie title: Resident Evil
Certificate: 15
Sales and distribution: 20th Century fox and Pathe
Other information: widescreen version 16:9 based on Capcom's popular video game Resident Evil.


Resident Evil has come from game to movie. Usually game to movie projects doesn't have much of a positive following. The likes of Street Fighter, Tekken and Final Fantasy have flopped, big time. Though even with a mixed ...
...previous projects. Though not perfect, Resident Evil is fun, action packed and most important, full of zombies. If you're a horror or zombie fan you will enjoy this film, if you are a hardcore Resident Evil fan then you may be disappointed. I will explain the good and bad points of this film as I have a mixed view on it but for one reason, I am a devoted Resident Evil fan. So on with the film and all its goodies.


From game ... more

Movie title: Resident Evil
Certificate: 15
Sales and distribution: 20th Century fox and Pathe
Other information: widescreen version 16:9 based on Capcom's popular video game Resident Evil.

Resident Evil has come from game to movie. Usually game to movie projects doesn't have much of a positive following. The likes of Street Fighter, Tekken and Final Fantasy have flopped, big time. Though even with a mixed view on Resident Evil I do believe that this one has been successful compared to previous projects. Though not perfect, Resident Evil is fun, action packed and most important, full of zombies. If you're a horror or zombie fan you will enjoy this film, if you are a hardcore Resident Evil fan then you may be disappointed. I will explain the good and bad points of this film as I have a mixed view on it but for one reason, I am a devoted Resident Evil fan. So on with the film and all its goodies.

From game to movie: the idea of the Resident Evil movie had been in the air for some time. The first game was released in 1997 and was a massive hit. Shortly after Resident Evil 2 hit the shelves in 1998 the rumour of the Resident Evil movie became apparent. But this idea for the movie was not followed up. Only minor snippets of information were available in Playstation magazines and the internet. I originally read this in one of these magazines and was very excited. After about a month or two of the frequent teasing of the movie being made the idea was forgotten about. Then 4 years later now 2002, Resident Evil got its movie debut but with unexpected views. For Resident Evil fans the movie was a flop but for plain horror fans it wasn't that bad. An action packed film to say the least.

The story line: Umbrella, a well known and trusted pharmaceutical enterprise. Though supposed to be practicing in medical cures and medicines, information has leaked into the outside that Umbrella has also been practicing in viral and genetic bio weaponry. As quickly as this information became apparent, Umbrella's underground facility The Hive was struck down with a deadly viral outbreak. In response to the threat, the hive's main frame computer system, The Red Queen shuts down and seals the entire facility to prevent the spread of the virus to raccoon city. The cause of the outbreak is unknown but the facilities employee casualties were severe. The virus was feared to be Umbrella's own T-virus, with the T-virus's ability to regenerate dead cell tissue, what effect would it have on the now dead research team from the hive?
Alice wakes up and remembers nothing. Alice is a security guard for Umbrella and is now alone with no knowledge of how she ended up at this cold, lonely mansion. Alice is shocked by a sudden breaking of glass as a commando team enters the mansion in there own special way. One of the commandos asks Alice for her report but she remembers nothing, she is told that this could be an effect of the Red Queen's security system. Alice is informed that the Red Queen has detected a viral outbreak and has initiated her fail safe system sealing down the hive. They later discover the former workers for Umbrella are not as dead as they first thought. The workers have turned into ravenous zombie like creatures and they are hungry. One bite or scratch from one of these creatures will cause immediate infection and worse, transformation into the walking, flesh eating dead. Alice and the team must now fight there way through the masses of un dead and find out the cause of the viral outbreak, but most important of all………..stay amongst the living.

Actors and characters: Well the acting is not the greatest I have ever seen for this film. But due to all the action in the film it can be over looked. I feel the acting does get better towards the middle to end of the film, I suppose this could be due to the increased pace of the film and the feeling/emotion that goes into these scenes as Alice starts to experience flash backs of her past and how she was be trade. The main star of resident evil is Milla Jovovich. You may remember her from her quite popular role in the film The Fifth Element. Milla Jovovich is very fluent in martial arts in spare time and it shows in her acting. Her hand to hand combat scenes are fast, cringing and well acted, the run up the wall to round house kick is really cool. Milla plays the main character Alice. Alice is a very mysterious character; she wakes up naked in the shower and remembers nothing. How she got there? Why she is here? And what does she do? She later finds out that she was working for umbrella as a security guard for the underground facility and was knocked out by the facilities fail safe system. This caused her sudden memory loss as umbrella wanted no one to know about there goings on. Alice has now been pulled in to an ultimate nightmare, zombies, unimaginable monsters and psycho computer systems. Alice must now survive the nightmare and recover her lost memory.
Another well known actor is Michelle Rodriguez. Michelle Rodriguez is well known for her tomboy, almost manly roles, she also tends to have a serious attitude problem when it comes to the personality of her characters. One of her best acting roles you may remember her from would be The Fast and The Furious. Michelle Rodriguez plays the character Rain. Rain is one of the commandos sent in to the hive to disable the Hive's computer mainframe the red queen. Rain is a strong, dominate character in resident evil. Her witty but serious attitude to her mission makes Rain a great additional character to the film. Other characters are Spencer played by James Purefoy; you may remember James Purfoy from a knight's tale and Matt Addison played by Eric Maubius. Both have their reasons for being there at the time and there true motives are reviled later in the film. As you know there is something amiss with these two characters this will keep you watching, just to find out the real reason why these two characters are here.

The writer/director: The script is not that well written either. Originally written by the god and creator of zombie films; George Romero. His films being Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead all thriving with popularity from horror fans to this day. George Romero seemed to be the perfect candidate for the job of putting resident evil on the big screen, but his script was scraped due to its gory nature and was not considered mainstream. It was later reviled that the writer/director would be Paul W.S. Anderson, his most popular films being Mortal Kombat and the long awaited Alien verses Predator, Mortal Kombat being another game to movie project though this time very successful. Due to the experience and success Paul W.S. Anderson has had with the game to movie projects, I do believe that he has no real flair for the zombie horror side to this film, his script was a bit confusing and not really accurate to the game, also his general look on the horror side of the film was not very scary or gory which I think was its down fall. I do believe that making George Romero the writer/director, resident evil could have been a massive hit.

The sound: I felt the sounds and music deserved its own section for one reason, I have to say it was one of the excellent additions in the film. The music to the film was scored by Marco Beltrami and none other than Marilyn Manson. Ok so you may be thinking, Marilyn Manson? Oh going to be thrashed, death metal sort of music. You would be wrong; Marilyn Manson and Marco Beltrami have scored the music very well. They have made it fit into every scene. At times the music is very electronic but in a soothing melodic way with soft stringed sounds and almost bell like melodies and when the action and paste picks up, so does the music. It will suddenly change to a thrashed, metal guitar riff that fits exactly with the emotion that goes into the scene. The lucky band to have there new song associated with resident evil are Slipknot. There new song My Plague was the featured song for the resident evil movie and featured clips from the film in there video. I can safely say that the music that is scored in this film, you will enjoy. And will come to know the sort of music that will kick in each scene.

The zombies and the licker: ok I've done this section on the zombies and the licker just to say that they were quite terribly put into the film. The zombies were not really scary accept for the scene were they come down in a massive group in a lift and grab the nearest victim, but this is not that scary, if anything its not expected after a previous battle with the zombies. The zombies are not greatly acted either. Yes they groan and move in a dead sort of way but they are not acted as "dead" as zombies are supposed to be. A rotting, moving corpse that has its cloudy, white eyes set on feasting on your flesh is I imagine quite scary to witness, this is by far not portrayed in this film. The other and sadly only other monster in resident evil is the licker. The licker appeared in the game resident evil 2 and had the reputation of pant wetting reactions when encountered. The licker was the apparent result of the T-virus being injected into live tissue and due to shutting down The Red Queen; the licker was released from its cryogenic status. The licker was put into the film using CG and to be honest was not the best to grace the big screen. I don't think it looked dare I say "real" enough. I know something like this could not be possibly real but the feeling of it being real was not there. On the whole the zombies were terribly acted and the licker was not portrayed as a formidable foe. Also the licker was not seen until the final showdown which I thought was disappointing.

The DVD extras: the extras for this DVD I thought were very good. There's lots of making of information and interviews with the team and cast. The extras are as follows.
- cast and film makers commentary
- making of resident evil
- 4 featurettes. They are:
- Scoring resident evil
- Costumes
- Set design
- Zombie camera tests
- Teaser trailer
- Theatrical trailer
- Scene access
- Interactive menus
- Easter egg - slipknot music video
As you can see the extras are of a plentiful quantity. As for the Easter egg - slipknot music video, I know the Easter eggs are supposed to be hidden but this one is cruel, I will explain how to view the video as believe it or not I have only just found not 5 minutes ago. A little symbol will flash on and off just to the top right of the screen, blink and you will miss it so keep your eyes open. Next select this when it appears and this will take you to a numeric lock, the same one in The Red Queen's chamber in the film. You now have to solve a 6 digit code and only have 27 seconds to do it, if you don't solve it in the set time limit you will be taken back to the main menu, but all you have to do is keep pressing the different numbers and it will give you access to view the video, enjoy!

Where to find: You can pick this film up now from most places. As for price you can pick it up for as little as £5.99 brand new from play.com and you may be able to pick it up cheaper from any DVD stores. There is also a box set available accompanied by Resident evil apocalypse.

Overall: even though being a hardcore resident evil fan myself, I have to say that this film wasn't that bad, I did enjoy the film but was disappointed at the same time, due to the inaccurate crossover. I think with the right direction this film could have been so much more. If you have no experience with the resident evil games you will enjoy it but for all you resident evil fans, leave it well alone it will only make you cry.

Story line and build up: 2/5
Acting: 2/5
Sound: 5/5
Action: 3/5
Horror/scariness: 1/5
DVD content: 5/5

Overall: 18/30

Other information:

Language: some, strong
Sex/nudity: infrequent, mild
Violence: frequent, moderate
Other: moderate horror

Run time: approx 97 minutes
Language: English
Main feature subtitles: English for the hearing impaired

If I have missed anything then check out these links for additional information.

www.residentevilthemovie.co.uk

www.fox.co.uk

www.pathe.co.uk

www.roadrunnerrecords.com

www.play.com

thanks for the read and give this film a chance.

Thanks again

G-virus
Aka James

 

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