Welcome to A-Z Movie Reviews. Every Sunday, for the next several months, I will be posting a review of a film in my home movie collection. How it works is, I will be reviewing movies in alphabetical order until I get to the letter Z (Yes, I do have a film that ends in Z). Now I realize there are many ways to alphabetize a film collection, but this is mine so don’t judge me. This is simply for fun.
The Resident Evil film was released in 2002 and before that it was a video game. I loved playing it and it was the highlight of my day when I was a teenager. It was creepy and full of action that felt so real, and I remember I would play for hours. When it was turned into a movie I was so excited and I’m excited to talk about it again for this installment of A-Z Movie Reviews.
What it’s about:
A special military unit fights a powerful, out-of-control supercomputer and hundreds of scientists who have mutated into flesh-eating creatures after a laboratory accident.
One of the other things that drew me to this movie was the fact that one of my favorite actresses was in it. I’m a fan of Michelle Rodriguez’s movies and have been since I saw her in Girlfight. Because she was such a badass in that, I knew she would be in Resident Evil as well.
Although the movie was a bit different than the video game, Resident Evil was so entertaining and the premise remained the same. Like the video game, the film takes place underneath what is known as Racoon City. Unbeknownst to some of the citizens of Racoon City, there is a genetic research facility below known as The Hive which is owned by the Umbrella Corporation. A thief steals the genetically engineered T-virus, and contaminates the Hive with it. Because of this, the facilities artificial intelligence known as the Red Queen, seals the Hive and well, she murders everyone inside. Because the T-virus is highly contagious, the Umbrella Corporation can’t allow it to get out.
The first time I saw Resident Evil it was in the movies with my sister the week of our 18th birthday. It was so much fun and it was one of the first movies I watched that had zombies and badass women leading the charge. Michelle Rodriguez’s character Rain is part of the Military operation that’s working to find out what the Umbrella Corporation has been up to. She’s a tough chick and even when she gets attacked by zombies multiple times, she still tries to stay strong and fight to finish the mission she was assigned to complete.
Milla Jovovich, whom I had only seen in Return To the Blue Lagoon, had a very impressive performance in this movie too. Her character Alice starts off not remembering who she is and how she’s involved in the military operation. Once she does, she starts kicking ass and taking names.
Another thing I love about Resident Evil is the special effects and makeup. The set design and cinematography is very cool and the zombies looked just as scary as they did in the video game. The jump scares were pretty epic too. They nailed those classic “what’s behind the door?” moments that freaked me out in the video game.
Over the years I have seen a lot of the Resident Evil films and the first one will always be my favorite. I don’t know if it’s just the classic aspect of it, but it’s the best one in my opinion. Even when I see it on TV, I will stop to watch it and I never get tired of it. Whether you’re a fan of the Resident Evil video games or not, I think you’ll enjoy this movie.
Other Thoughts
- The opening to Resident Evil with the music will always be creepy.
- That poor woman volunteering to squeeze out of the elevator to see what was going on, only to have the others stuck with her try to push her out as she begged for them to pull her back inside.
- I liked Eric Mabius in Resident Evil so much more than I did in Cruel Intentions.
- That scene when basically everyone from the team gets sliced up after they trip the alarm, still sucks.
- “That homicidal bitch killed my team.”
- How the hell did Rain let J.D. bite her? she herself got bitten by a zombie, she watched JD get grabbed by zombies. She really should have known he was a zombie when she saw him again.
- The Red Queen had zero fucks to give about who she killed.
- Spence sucks and I still have no sympathy for him.
Resident Evil is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
