Resident Evil (2002)

Resident Evil (2002)
Reviewed by Eugene Novikov
http://www.ultimate-movie.com/

"I can't let you leave..."

Starring Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Eric Mabius, James Purefoy. Directed by Paul Anderson. Rated R.

Resident Evil may be the Citizen Kane of video game movies. It's efficient in execution and almost artful in imagery. It works both as an adaptation of a wildly popular game and as a movie and story of its own, an interesting excursion into a world of all-powerful corporate conglomerates and frightening biomedical research threatening to go awry at any moment. Director Paul Anderson (Mortal Kombat) painstakingly recreates the feel of a puzzle video game while providing an exciting, frivolous ride through a vision of the future that may be bleaker than anything in Brazil.

Anderson brings us into his world by zooming in from a black screen to the first shot of the virtuoso opening sequence: a scientist working in a hazmat suit accidentally (?) drops a vial containing a dangerous virus, causing the building's (we later learn that it's actually a massive underground "hive") artificial intelligence to go off the deep end, killing everyone inside. The hive is one of the central research facilities of the Umbrella Corporation, an incredibly powerful company that owns the market share in just about everything. For all intents and purposes, it rules the world.

We then cut to Milla Jovovich waking up in a bathtub. She doesn't know who or where she is. She seems to have been knocked out. As she wanders around a mysterious mansion and looks at various items, snippets of her life come back to her. This section of the movie is uncannily like one of those elaborate role playing video games in which your mission is to solve a puzzle by getting clues by looking at, and interacting with various items. It works surprisingly well on screen, both as a momentary diversion and a unique narrative drive.

This is about where the actual plot is set in motion. Jovovich, it turns out is a special operative assigned to protect the secret entrance to the Hive -- that's the mansion. She and a group of other members of a specially trained paramilitary must now infiltrate the hive, disable the massive computer -- known as the Red Queen and manifested physically as a creepy, very British little girl -- and get out before the doors close. Inside, they find that the people who died from the virus have turned into zombies, with no brain functions except for the instinct to feed.

The movie doesn't live down its surprisingly potent first five minutes until the very end. The rest of it is too concerned with a boring, derivative Zombie plot. The zombies, which look exactly like the zombies in every zombie movie ever made, are neither scary nor interesting because they are capable of only one thing: slowly charging, then sucking blood. Far more intriguing is the Red Queen, who comes up with some entertainingly gruesome ways to dispatch potential saboteurs. Its (her?) actions towards the end of the film make startling, cruel logical sense.

Like The Time Machine, Resident Evil has ideas. The concept of the Hive, a gigantic, isolated, prison-like office building is more prescient than we would care to admit in the age of pharmaceutical companies researching pills that all but eliminate the need for sleep. Ditto for omniscient, omnipotent corporate entities; how far removed is AOL TimeWarner from Umbrella?

But the fact that Resident Evil works as social commentary is purely coincidental, and I'm sure I will get bucketloads of derisive e-mails laughing at me for taking the movie seriously. It's meant to be nothing but as thrill ride, and as that it sometimes works beautifully, other times less so. Paul Anderson shows us what he is all about with a grim, memorable coda: he is a director of "mindless" action films that are mindless only if you're not paying attention.

Grade: B 

Up Next: Blade II

Copyright 2002 Eugene Novikov

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