Resident Evil
Plot Outline: OK, so fast forward a few years into the not-too
distant future. The location is Raccoon City (they couldn't think of a
better name that that?). This massive corporate entity, Umbrella
Corporation, has it's products in nine out of every ten homes. Little do the
people know, most of their revenue is spent in The Hive, and underground lab
where they do illegal research in happy topics like genetically altered
super-beasts and highly contagious viral infection that re-animate dead
flesh. This virus spills, and infects every scientist, technician and
janitor in The Hive; which is run by a supreme artificial intelligence
entity known as the Red Queen. The Red Queen kills all the workers to
prevent the spread of infection to the surface world, and an elite team of
SWAT-like characters is called upon to investigate and regain control of The
Hive.
Enter one Milla Jovovich, lying naked in a tub with no idea who she is. It
turns out she's an agent living a sham marriage in a mansion. The mansion is
a secret entrance to The HIve, and she and her sham/agent husband are
charged with protecting it.
This is the base of the plot, there are a few twists in there I won't give
away that are definitely worth renting the movie to see.
The Look and Feel: The colors are amped up, there's lots of zooms and
quick cuts. It looks like a video game...very well done adaption.
In Between The Lines: Kind of a cookie cutter message that we've seen
before: Corporations are evil. I find it a bit ironic that this is the
message from a huge gaming corporation that is carried out onto film by a
different huge corporation.
Stand Out Performances:
Milla Jovovich: As they say in another one of her movies,
she's...perfect.
Michelle Rodriguez: Pretty much the same character as she always
plays; a tough, pretty girl in a man's world trying to prove herself.
The rest of the cast was good, but nothing that really jumps out at you as
exceptionally good or bad. Very well rounded.
Stand Out Scene: Of these there are a couple. The laser scene is
great: A woman's head slides off after being neatly severed, a guy loses
some fingers, and one guy get's cut into several small wedge-like chunks by
a chain link fence made of lasers.
Another great scene is when Milla regains her memory and realizes that yes,
as a highly trained operative, she can kick some serious ass.
The ending was a nice twist, but I won't give that away here.
Overall: I played the game, but never extensively, and I didn't
bother seeing the movie in the theater because I expected a high degree
of shittiness. Let's face it, most game to movie conversions don't go
well...Super Mario, Tomb Raider, etc...but they did a great job
making this into a movie. Again, I'm not sure how well it stuck to the
entire storyline of the game, but but from what I have seen [of the game],
it translated well. The ending is WIDE open for a sequel (what isn't,
nowadays?), and I may actually be seeing that one in the movie theater.
One complaint I had was the predictability in certain parts, and I think
you'll see what I mean. Also, with the 'R' rating they had, they could have
pushed the violence and gore up a notch, I think for the subject matter it
would have really added to the overall creepiness of the film. But it was
well worth my buck-thirtyfive. |
