Movie Review: Resident Evil
There are definitely things to enjoy here, but unfortunately most of them have very little to do with Resident Evil.
On the positive side, the film does manage to land a few decent jump scares. My wife jumped several times, as did a fair few people in the audience, which was probably one of the most entertaining parts of the whole experience. There is something inherently fun about hearing an entire cinema collectively scream when a scare actually works.
The lead performance is also perfectly fine. Nothing extraordinary, but certainly good enough to carry the film, and there are a few moments where the horror atmosphere starts to come together. Some of the creature designs are genuinely unpleasant as well. A couple of the monsters are properly grotesque and disturbing, which at least gives the film some visual personality.
The problem is that this really does not feel like Resident Evil.
The zombies are fast-moving, which immediately puts the film at odds with the slower, more oppressive style associated with much of the series. More frustratingly, almost none of the recognisable monsters from the games appear. Considering how many iconic creatures Resident Evil has built up over decades, that feels like an enormous missed opportunity.
Umbrella is barely mentioned either, which is baffling. The Umbrella Corporation is one of the central pillars of Resident Evil, yet here it feels almost incidental. You could remove the Resident Evil title, change a few names, and this could easily be an entirely unrelated zombie horror film.
There are also some incredibly stupid character decisions. One scene sees a woman get out of a vehicle to rescue somebody, despite the obvious danger surrounding her, only for her to be killed almost immediately. It is the sort of horror-film decision that makes you stop caring about the character because their behaviour exists purely to move the plot towards another death.
The scientists towards the end are another disappointment. Instead of being threatening, sinister or unsettling, they are played almost entirely for comedy. That completely undermines what should have been one of the darker parts of the story. Resident Evil has always had ridiculous elements, but the best games balance that absurdity with genuine menace. Here, the tonal balance just feels wrong.
Then there is the ending, which is abrupt, unsatisfying and honestly a bit stupid. It feels less like a conclusion and more like somebody simply decided the film had reached its runtime and needed to stop.
There are moments of decent horror buried in here, and I liked some of the monster designs, but as a Resident Evil fan it remains frustrating that we still have not received a genuinely great adaptation of the games.
I am still waiting for the film that captures the creepy mansions, laboratories, Umbrella conspiracies, iconic creatures, limited resources and survival-horror atmosphere that made the games so memorable.
And no, Welcome to Raccoon City does not count. That was rubbish.
I give this adaptation a 6/10.
