The Resident Evil film franchise is one that has had a pretty long lifespan, having at least six movies in its lifespan through the years of 2002 – 2016. Though they managed to continue making money with a pretty serviceable box office, the common public and especially fans of the original games were not pleased with how the series deviated from the original sources, taking it in a more ridiculous direction. When video game live action movies were all the range and none were given a respectable treatment, people weren’t too happy when it was revealed that Resident Evil would get its own film, starting off with the titular film in 2002. Waking up with amnesia naked in a shower, a woman named Alice (played by Mila Jovovich) finds herself wrapped up in a covert extraction mission being undertaken by a military unit. Heading down into a scientific lab, the team discovers that it holds a supercomputer with intelligence called ‘’The Hive’’ which plans to lock the team inside to prevent the spread of a viral infection. Said infection reanimates corpses and forces them to feed on human flesh, and the team sent down are now stuck with the newly dead along with fast wall-clinging zombies that are even more dangerous. With most of the team taken out and with the lab about to be sealed away forever, the remaining survivors have to get through this zombie-infested maze before they are stuck underground and left for dead. For something as mindless as a zombie virus movie can be taken, the resident evil games did a decent job at not feeling too formulaic and standard for that kind of story, this film not only lowers that bar altogether but degrades it to such a predictable, unfeeling, forgettable level that It becomes embarrassing even for a video game movie. With a stolen plot, unnameable characters, dated style, corny music, bland action, and a complete lack of care put into trying to make this a Resident Evil movie, this film is the definition of dead on arrival.

Even passing over the fact that this movie has little to do with the games these films are based on, but the film’s attempts at trying to be a franchise is so desperate and above any other thought put into the film, that nothing of consequence or action happens throughout the whole film. In fact, the last few minutes of the film could have worked perfectly as an opener (which it would later become for the films sequel) as what happened beforehand has so little lasting power that it feels like a completely different property. With a pace and structure that’s eerily similar to Alien and other sci-fi films of its type, the following steps after the fallout have no element of surprise or intrigue and removes any furthering of story and makes it a survival flick; two elements that don’t always mess (alien was a survival flick, but it wasn’t planning out a franchise, it didn’t need to map out story details or anything that important). As a result, everything is either incredibly pointless and wasteful or extremely boring and predictable, leaving no room to add worldbuilding or character growth and basically exciting no one for a follow up film. As standard survival films go, this is not one of the worst contenders as its paced fairly decently and even if the characters are nothing, the amount that are taken out is a decent amount for this kind of film. Even though the film is rated R, nothing about this movie is gory, intense, or even barely suspenseful as all the brutality is immediately cut off by a fast edit, so it feels like a cheap way out of showing off any impressive effects.

As far as survival films go, the film’s set of characters are more important than you would think. As the main focus is getting out alive, its important to have characters that are at least relatable enough to make you want them to make it out by the end. Whereas here, the characters are so poorly handled and have such little thought put into who they are and what they do, that the film does not even give them any names. The main character is not even named in the film, only getting the name Alice in the later movies, and everybody else is just there to be zombie chow. None of them even have names worth forgetting about and the acting for them is not much better. The acting from practically everybody has terrible delivery and poor emotion. As an opposition, while the main character is incredibly bland and has no character, she has been left open enough that hopefully she can be moulded into something better later on. One of the only things that comes out shining in this whole movie is Michelle Rodriguez as one of the soldiers. She does not act that much better than the others and is not given much to do, but if there is anything worth remembering in this movie, it comes from her. She performs better than everybody, is the only one with a shred of character, has some legitimately cool moments, and is unfortunately the one who does not get used enough. That and a surprisingly cool supercomputer with the voice of a young girl are the only instances that are worth watching.

One of the worst things a film can do is be dated, and one of the worst time periods for filmmaking when it came to being dated and awkward was the period of the early 2000s. The film borrows a lot of these poor elements that were popular at the time and not only horribly cements it in a time period, but also dashes the tone it was creating for itself anyway. With horrible slow-mo., shaky and blurry shots, a painful rock track, and a set design so bland and lacking in color that it gets boring really quickly. The mansion in the beginning actually looked pretty decent, but its barely seen and is replaced with this forgettable sub-lab for the entire movie. As effects and especially CG can go, this movie is not the worst offender in that regard. While what is used is not that impressive, there’s far worst examples done in movies, it does not hinder the movie that much. The handling of the action’s scenes is far too shaky and unfocused that there is never a chance to witness a cool move, only made worse by the camera’s ability to sit still even in slower moments in the film. While there are some elements of this film that separates it from a typical zombie film with some of the creations like the zombie dogs and the lickers, even though they are cool they are barely utilised in the overall film, and focusing on typical zombies isn’t interesting to watch if your focus characters are this dull.

Video game movies are very rarely good and zombie films can get repetitive really quickly, but when its mixed together without any attempt to truly match it with its counterpart, Resident Evil is the movie your going to get. On the surface level, the actions taking in this movie are not as degrading and shameful as other adaptations as it at least gets the essential outline correct, but without anything solid or worthwhile holding it together. With no thought put into how the story and characters were going to work in a singular film and rather which ones would work in a franchise, the film’s poor choices and confused direction does not seem to satisfy anyone. A poorly handled story that is only made worse with its forgettable characters, odd acting, bland set design, dated feel and lack of any connection to the games, Resident Evil was a complete brain-dead failure. Whatever is done with the films many sequels, let’s hope they get better from this point on.