I can remember when this came out and I saw it in the theatres, high school Nibs was pumped at this action movie that stayed true to the video game without being too corny, but it was 2002 and we still we were coming down from our 1990s-syndrome of terrible plots and storyline disconnect (seriously, go re-watch die hard or american pie, you'll shake your head. And execs are wondering why a new Arnold movie flopped).
So how does it hold up now?
Well, 1990s-syndrome with action movies typically involved a very weak plot, and a white male who inexplicably guns his way through 200 guys until he gets to last bad guy who earlier in the film double-crossed him/stole from him/framed him/slept with his wife. The original Resident Evil film is the pinnacle of this formula, albeit with a female lead.
I'm not going to dissect the movie like I'm an upper class sophisticated reviewer who has chosen to review Resident Evil as his first project, but I'll run through the main ups and downs.
The plot was somewhat thought out, but there is an excessive amount of quiet moments to make you tense and then something stupid happens to make you jump (the signature of a cheesy horror). While I understand this trick, it was overkilled, and almost all of the "jump" moments were actually just a friendly guy popping into the frame quickly. They used this trick like 12 times before we actually see a zombie.
The acting isn't brutal, but it could have been a lot better. The only distractingly bad actor though was Eric Mabius (playing Matt), who just looked like a basic cable sitcom-calibre goofball. I also hate Michelle Rodriguez, she always plays a "tough bitch" who just comes off as filthy unrealistic trash in every movie she's in. The scene where she shoots the first zombie is pretty silly. Although some of the zombies were un-zombie like, it's an action movie and I'm not typically looking for acting chops so I won't dwell on this aspect.
The music was either screamo metal during fight/shooting scenes or violin build ups when something is about to jump out. Two classic 90s action traits. Is screamo still even a thing?
The only real special effects that are in a scene for more than 1 second is the super-zombie, which looks REALLY bad, but at the same time, I remember it being one of the first big CGI things in an action movie, so it's forgiveable, and they use it sparingly so it's not overly distracting.
All in all, it is a fairly solid action movie, with some cheesy parts sprinkled along that will make you semi-cringe (although most of these are in the first half of the movie). I enjoyed what was done well, and didn't enjoy the bits that are recycled 1990s plot points or the excessive jumpy parts, or some of the acting, but I was satisifed. The ending literally takes us right into the first scene of the sequel, which clearly had a plot written alongside the script for this first one. While I do enjoy when movies plan ahead, this goes too far and kinda hurts the closure of this movie.
5/10
Nibs first ever review notes:
I would call a 4/10 a negative review, and a 6/10 as a positive. This sits on the proverbial neutral fence. I know my tastes are very different, I love all genres, but I like them to be realistic (would a person actually do that in that scenario?) regardless of whether it is a crime drama or a kids fantasy. I also like to compare to equivalent movies. I have been reviewing movies for years, but it took a long time to calibrate my scale correctly. Since finding that good rating scale niche, I have rated about 130 movies out of 10. This is however my first fully written review, so hopefully it isn't terrible, and I would hope that they will only get better. I figure I'll do a couple, and if a couple people read them, and not every comment is negative, maybe I'll keep doing them.
Thanks!