Resident Evil
No doubt about it: Milla Jovovich has got the action heroine persona down cold. Gorgeous with her stunning green eyes, yet able to bring that physicality to the table while showing off her perfect legs. Unfortunately, this 2002 release directed by her future husband Paul W.S. Anderson (which kicked off a franchise of which she continues to be the star) suffers from bad casting, rushed pacing, and pretty abysmal writing, plus it features that ever-present one-note staple of horror: Zombies. With the exception of Milla and Michelle Rodriguez as a female commando, the entirety of the cast (mostly males) are incredibly bland nondescript actors, so much so that they all blend together and there is no viewer interest when they start dropping like flies, just a bunch of pretty boys with serious bad luck. The film attempts to copy James Cameronâs Aliens with a SWAT team of supposed badasses taking on a collective threat in an isolated environment (complete with one mole thatâs out for himself), but at least Cameron was smart enough to fully develop his characters before the roller coaster ride started. Here, Anderson plunges right into the action and keeps it up for most of the movie, only problem being that the viewer just doesnât give a shit about what happens to these people. The commandos find themselves entering an underground scientific complex called the âHiveâ where the supercomputer in charge of security has killed all the people inside when the zombie virus is let loose, entering through a mansion headquarters where Jovovich and her âhusbandâ are apparently head of security, and immediately the plot holes come to swoop us up like, how is it that the commandos or Jovovich donât have any kind of override or password to control the computer from the mansion so that they can have safe passage? Moreso, even though itâs obvious that this computer and its abilities were invented by HUMANS, how is it they seem ignorant of its capability or even have a working idea of the complexâs layout and basically go in blind and at the machineâs mercy in order to âfigure outâ just what happened? Surely if some super-technology was developed in the future, its inventors would provide some sort of safety catch so that human lives wouldnât be sacrificed should things malfunction. Regardless, once inside, itâs just one booby trap or zombie attack after another, and since most of the characters are just blasĂ© clichĂ©s, the showing of one action sequence after another set to heavy metal music just becomes monotonous to the extreme. Also, despite being billed as an ultimate experience in action and violence, the film really isnât that gory at all, and the zombies here are some of the weakest on record, as a couple of characters get swarmed by them only to come back later in the film with little to no explanation (Rodriguez in particular gets bitten up like a Thanksgiving turkey and shows little ill effects until the end). Nonetheless, what keeps the viewer watching throughout is Jovovich and her charisma (even as certain things, like the scars on her shoulders, are never explained), with Rodriguez providing ample support with her cute toughness. Regardless, it doesnât change the fact that perhaps there should be a moratorium on the zombie subgenre, as the only filmmaker to really take advantage of the idea was George Romero (with Dan OâBannon and Edgar Wright coming close), and thereâs really nothing interesting or new that can be done with a bunch of undead people loping around wanting to eat the living. Overall, a quick rush of adrenaline for action junkies, but nothing new here to see otherwiseâŠ
5/10