"Resident Evil" acts as a prequel to the highly popular Playstation game, following Alice (Milla Jovovich) as she works to isolate a deadly virus that's killed the Umbrella Corporation's entire underground research facility. This outbreak, however, didn't really kill the staff-- it just transformed them into man-eating zombies. With one scratch, one bite from these "undead," the living transforms into their kind. Battling zombies, mutant dogs and deadly lasers, Alice and her crew (which includes Michelle Rodriguez and Eric Mabius) has three hours before the gateway to the underground facility seals up... and three hours before they are unable to stop the virus from leaking out into Raccoon City.
When one strips away the killer soundtrack and the numerous "Alice in Wonderland" references, "Resident Evil" is just another zombie horror-movie. However, the layers of added extras piled on a predictable plot make for an entertaining film, filled with thrills, cool action sequences and enough similarities to the game its based on to please fans and hook new viewers from its opening sequence. This can easily be credited to director Paul W.S. Anderson ("Mortal Kombat," "Event Horizon"), who proves that he is a Resident Evil video game junkie himself by including all the elements players would expect to see in a film adaptation. While he may have added a couple extra elements to move the story along-- for example, the Red Queen, a supercomputer that controls and monitors the underground facility-- he never replaces elements of the game with his original ideas. This combination of director's vision with previously established video game concepts not only keeps the film entertaining for those who've played Resident Evil a hundred times, but also is welcoming to those who may have not played the game since they won’t be the only ones experiencing some scenes for the first time.
Anderson's greatest accomplishment with "Resident Evil" isn't his dedication to the game it’s based on though, but the way he made the film with the relatively small amount of money he had. Despite its moderate budget, the film looks just as expensive and even more detailed than "Tomb Raider" and "Final Fantasy." By casting human "zombies" who could actually dislocate their own joints and substituting computer generated mutant dogs for real Dobermans covered in make-up, Anderson not only saved some much needed money, but also makes the film seem more realistic. While these scenes could have easily looked fake, they are executed so wonderfully that audiences won't be able to believe that the effects weren't created with CGI technology.
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