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Resident
Evil comes as advertised. Anyone who has seen the trailers knows
what to expect: an hour and a half of guns, girls and zombies. Throw
in a layering of technocheese, bad CG monsters, a little gore and
a pleasingly lean plot and you have perfect popcorn fare for a matinee
or cheap date.
Based
upon the best-selling video games, Resident Evil belongs
in the library of solid B movies like "Pitch Black", "Speed",
"The Road Warrior" and "Blade" - movies that
define unpretentious adventure fluff. Movies with stories that hit
all the right formula notes but display enough verve to distinguish
it from the others.
Describing
the plot of Resident Evil will take less time than actually
watching the trailer but I will tell you this much: an evil megacorporation
has come up with a virus that makes the dead walk. The dead hate
the living. Any living person who doesn't have a gun is eaten alive.
Unfortunately, the virus has been turned loose inside a secret underground
research facility and there are now 500 ravenous zombies (as well
as a few other zombies) on the loose. Our heroes are trapped and
must get out.
There's
not much else to spoil really. The eventual leader of the group
(by virtue of attrition) is the juicy Milla Jovovich (The Fifth
Element, The Messenger), an amnesiac who has forgotten what
role she had in the incident that caused the spread of the virus.
None of that is really important.
All
that you need to know is that Resident Evil has lots and
lots of zombies, people shooting, some frights, pretty tame gore,
and it never stops long enough to be boring. This
is not the type of movie that will survive close scrutiny for plot
holes, but neither is it a groaner. There's no romantic sublots,
no real moral struggles and the minority character doesn't die
saving the others.
Michelle
Rodriguez fights off unwanted admirers
Milla
Jovovich rates a mention because she isn't a hindrance to the film.
Far from the tremendous anchor she was in the Joan of Arc biopic
"The Messenger", Milla here is high kicking, curvaceous
and fits the role. The other up and coming star, Michelle Rodriguez
(Girl Fight, The Fast and the Furious), who plays a carbon
copy of Vasquez from the action masterpiece "Aliens",
is all slinky and mean. Fine girls both.
Director
Paul W. S. Anderson (Event Horizon, Mortal Kombat)
is used to bundling up a paper thin premise, mixing it with zesty
action and running it past audiences fast enough that it feels fun.
In Resident Evil he's fashioned a tasty treat that satisfies
an appetite for action and horror. There's even the promise of a
second course in another year or two.
In
theatres now.
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