A movie based on a video game. How good can it be?
When it’s Resident Evil (2002), it’s surprisingly good. The trick is in the pacing and the context. We start off in a bioresearch lab, where a spill mysteriously occurs and the place starts to shut down. Then the elevators start malfunctioning – what’s going on?
Next thing we know a military team has invaded a large home, alarming the already confused occupants. They’re suffering from amnesia, and the team tells them they’re intelligence operatives, responsible for guarding this house. Memories are slow to return, disjoint and confusing.
All the while they and the team are heading towards The Hive, a research lab which has gone offline. What has happened? All they know is the main computer has shutdown the lab, and a rail line terminating at their house leads to the Hive.
Upon reaching the Hive, they discover the suite of labs is abandoned. There are nearly no bodies, and they decide to shutdown the mainframe, which requires the use of an EMP-like device be activated in a specific location.
But on the way there, the team suffers losses as the computer’s self-defense routines come into play, but despite their shock at the loss of their comrades, they press on, eventually reaching their target and deactivating the computer.
And out come the zombies from where they were contained. That’s the core of the movie – this is a movie about zombies in the future. In this case, they are the result of the research at the lab, a weaponized virus which kills and then reanimates the corpses. The movie becomes the Run back to the safety of the outside world! sort of movie. And it’s about the computer that killed everyone in the lab out of concern that the virus might get out into the the world.
And that mysterious bioresearch spill? That’s covered, too, most satisfyingly. And there’s just one more surprise from the labs.
We hardly get to know these characters, yet we care for them because they care for each other, which functions as a social cue for the audience to care as well. It appears to be a well-oiled team, and watching them try to hang together after losing part of the team reinforces that link.
Wisely, pauses are inserted into this breathless sprint, giving us just a moment to think about what’s happening, and try to think of what might come next – and then those expectations are confounded.
If you like being breathless, this movie may be for you. I was surprised to find myself on the edge of my seat. I won’t recommend it, but it was a heckuva lot of fun.
