(Somehow, I remember there being more zombies in the video game...)
CAST: Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Eric Mabius, James Purefoy, Martin Crewes, Chad Kaplan, Colin Salmon, Ryan McCluskey, Oscar Pearce, Indra Ove, Anna Bolt.
DIRECTOR: Paul W.S. Anderson
WARNING: Some SPOILERS and irregular hemlines on zombie warrioresses - straight ahead...
You don't have to be a hardcore gamer to be familiar with Resident Evil video games. Even a passing acquaintance with PlayStation's oeuvre in the mid-to-late 90's was enough to alert anyone to this exciting new game series - which pretty much gave birth to the brand-new gaming genre termed "Survival Horror."
In essence a video game version of the George A. Romero "living dead" movies, the Resident Evil games were an instant worldwide hit - and spawned numerous similarly-themed games. Soon enough, plans for a movie adaptation were set in motion. At one point, Romero himself was attached as a writer/director. Ultimately, though, it was Paul W.S. Anderson - director of the interesting misfire EVENT HORIZON - that got the honors.
Now, given the disappointment that the promising EVENT HORIZON ultimately became, fans of the game were a bit apprehensive. After all, adapting video games into film is almost always a risky proposition, with the graveyard filled with disappointments like STREET FIGHTER, SUPER MARIO BROTHERS, MORTAL KOMBAT, and TOMB RAIDER. Happily, RESIDENT EVIL the movie does not suck. While it's not the best video game adaptation out there (that would RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE - review coming shortly), it manages to hold its own by capturing the spirit of the games - but also adding something new to the RE mythos.
RESIDENT EVIL kicks off with a scene in the underground labs of the Umbrella Corporation. In what appears to be a ruthless act of bio-terrorism, a masked someone steals some sinister looking vials - then cracks one of them against the lab floor before hightailing it out the door. The lab's security system senses the breach and automatically shuts the entire place down. This spells trouble for not only the employees of the facility, but also a handful of poor bastards on the elevator, who get to know first-hands what it feels like to be a can of sardines dropped from a really great height.
After this eerie opener, we cut to a bathroom with a hot blonde chick passed out on the shower floor. No, this is not a sorority house after a Mega-Kegger. The chick is Alice (Milla Jovovich) - except we don't find out her name is Alice until much later. She's got amnesia, you see, and doesn't remember how she wound up on that shower floor. Again, I must emphasize this is not a sorority prank involving roofies. Anyhow, wanders around the creepy house, which looks about as warm and inviting as a giant mausoleum.
Alice doesn't have much time to admire - or condemn - the house's rather clinical decor, because she's interrupted by a hot-in-a-nerdy-way guy named Matt (Eric Mabius). Before the two can get further acquainted, the windows basically explode inward and spew a bunch of special forces dudes and dudettes. This crew grabs Alice and Matt and drags them down to the mansion's basement where they all board a train that takes them to the lab from the opening.
The head of the team, One (Colin Salmon), tells Jack and Jill, er, Matt and Alice that there has been an "incident" at the Umbrella labs, and they are going to check it out. According to the them, Alice works for Umbrella - but she has no memory of that. Further compounding the mystery is another they stumble across at the lab's entrance. He is Spence Parks (James Purefoy), and apparently he is yet another employee of the Umbrella Corp. who can't remember a goddamned thing. What the hell have these people been smoking.
Anyhow, the team and their three tag-alongs explore the deserted facility, and eventually reach the computer mainframe. Voiced by what sounds like a know-it-all British brat, the computer basically taunts the team members and tries to off them with lasers when they try to shut her down. After a few casualties, they manage to give her the figurative bitch-slapping she's been asking for.
With the little brat no longer thwarting their plans, the remaining team members shut down the computer - which deactivates the security system. Which opens all the locked worked areas. Which releases several hundred ravenous, flesh-eating zombies into the hallway.
Fuck. Maybe that little brat was right in the first place.
Anyway, their mission suddenly a hell of a lot more exciting now, our team members scramble to rise up against the legions of the undead. Evidently, the vial that the unidentified bio-terrorist cracked against the lab floor was a super-germ that kills its victims - then reanimates them as zombie with - to say the least - a disdain for mixed vegetables. If you get my drift.
Oh, and just because things aren't exciting enough, the facility has self-destruct mechanism that has begun counting down. So, not only do our heroes have to escape the zombie hordes, they also have to be quick about it. Otherwise their collective asses will be scattered to the four winds - literally.
Who is the bio-terrorist? What role does Alice play in the whole scenario? Or Spence? Or Matt, for that matter? Will Alice regain her memory in time to help the special-ops folks battle the zombies? Will they escape the explosion? Why is Alice's dresses missing the front part of the skirt? Is Eric Mabius available on Friday night for dinner, a movie, and a spanking back at my place?
All these answers are, um, answered at the end of RESIDENT EVIL. All except that last one. I'm still waiting, Eric.
BUT, SERIOUSLY: As I mentioned in the intro, RESIDENT EVIL could've been far worse. While it could've used more zombie action, you have to give Paul W.S. Anderson credit for not going the obvious DAWN OF THE DEAD-clone route. Instead, he weaves in elements of THE BOURNE IDENTITY (Alice slowly recovering her memory and deadly skills) and THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN (killer virus escapes and threatens to wipe out humanity) - and sprinkling it with some unsettling zombie set-pieces.
Also, he manages to create some effectively eerie sequences. Alice's introduction in the mansion, where she wakes up on the shower floor and wanders about the deserted place, have the uneasy quality of a nightmare. You know? Similar to taking a nap in the afternoon, and then waking up just after darkness has fallen? That same queasy feeling of disorientation that grips you for a second? As if the world had changed while you were asleep, and you have to find you brearings? That's what this scene imbues in the audience.
Another creepy scene is when the team manages to finally shut down the computer. A lesser director might have blatantly shown the zombies barreling out of the offices and into the hallways. Anderson wisely hints at their presence - through eerie sounds from off-screen, and weird shadows and light shifts on glass and metal - as... things... begin to move. It's even more frightening than seeing the zombies themselves. And, of course, there's that ending. That final shot of Alice looking at... well, you'll just have to see for yourselves, won't you? Let me just assure you, a chill will go down your spine.
The main players are all commanding and nail their respective roles. Milla Jovovich engagingly captures Alice's sense of disorientation - and her gradual awareness of not only her role in the mystery, but her own lethal skills, as well. Yet, she is also able to play from a tender place, too. Her scenes with Eric Mabius crackle with buried chemistry - and a hint at some hidden embers burning.
Speaking of Mabius, he makes Matt geeky, attractive, and formidable - all at the same time. He more than holds his own against Ms. Jovovich. As Rain, the tough-as-nails special-ops chick, Michelle Rodriguez is smashing. She is a nice, fiery counterpoint to Alice's more cool and measured lethality. Colin Salmon and Matt Frewes bring both handsome composure and kick-ass intensity to their roles as Rain's team members. The rest of the cast is competent and ably do that they need to do.
Verdict: RESIDENT EVIL is good adaptation because of the unexpected route it goes down. Instead of delivering a replica of the George A. Romero films, it cleverly blends elements of sci-fi and mystery with the main theme of zombie horror. Unfortunately, the next two sequels (RE: APOCALYPSE and RE: EXTINCTION) don't quite measure up to this promising first installment.
Have no fear, though. Because we just saw the latest installment: RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE. And it's even better than this one. Review coming shortly.
