Based on what I’ve been told to be one of the most popular computer game of all time, development of this movie has an interesting history. George A. Romero was developing the script and was set to direct it. This association really began when Capcom, the developers and copyright owners of the game, asked Romero to direct the TV commercial for Biohazard 2, the Japanese game version of Resident Evil 2. However, as Romero developed his script for the movie, Capcom was concerned about the direction he was taking and asked him to leave the project. After a while, Paul W.S. Anderson picked it up again. He had already been involved with an earlier videogame adaptation (Mortal Kombat) and seemed an apt director for the movie. Making a quick move after dithering for so long during and after working with Romero, Capcom agreed, enthusing the game fans –- and drowning the horror audience in skepticism.

The story is set in late 21st century. A massive conglomerate called the Umbrella Corporation supplies much of the world with computer stuff, medicine and all things scientific. This company also secretly develops military equipment, including biological and chemical weaponry, in a giant research complex deep beneath the earth. But their central computer goes haywire when a reviving virus is accidentally unleashed during a heist, and it hermetically seals off the whole complex killing all employees. A squad of commandos is dispatched to find out what went wrong and a sexy amnesiac called Alice (Milla Jovovich), gradually remembering her ass-kicking super security-agent past, is dragged along (don’t ask) by them. Besieged by the now zombified staff, they try fight their way in to the complex to shut down the central computer, then out of the compound again.

The plot is a loose prequel to the original computer game’s storyline, causing outcry from the fans who were dissatisfied with the changes made to the game they’re worshipping. But Anderson wisely decided to stick to what he considered his game instead –- making a movie. Not wanting to waste too much time on padding exposition, he delivers the contrived masterstroke of giving leading lady Alice temporary amnesia, so that the entire setup can quickly and concisely be spoon-fed to her and the viewer. It’s all totally ludicrous, like most videogames, but despite the odds, Resident Evil manages to find the balance between seriousness and absurdity. This is not a very spectacular claim, but this movie is one of Anderson's most cohesive entries. It has a basic two-reel setup, with characters finding out what’s going on during the first and trying to escape in the second, and this works on a minimalist level most of the time. It isn't impeded by mundane dialogue or incomprehensible tech-babble. Instead, it serves first and foremost as a simple action-horror movie, appealing to its target audience.

Anderson handles his movie in quite a confident fashion, even if his ultimate skills as a feature director are lacking in the big league. He extracts the highest amount of scares possible from his script and he’s at the top of his game with his noisy action. There are some exciting chases through the complex as the depleted team attempts to outrun the swarms of hungry zombies. But the movie gets hurt when a CG creature called ‘The Licker’ joins the proceedings. Awfully executed and launched by a gratuitous and nonsensical plot twist, it only seems to have been devised to reinforce the game’s anchorage. The movie also suffers from being too close in plot and tone to Aliens and Day of the Dead. The best parts seem pinched straight out of these movies, yet without Cameron's breathless pacing or Romero's intense atmosphere -- and his taste for extravagant gore.

Because Resident Evil was shot in Germany with a predominantly British cast, the setting may not gel so easily as a mainstream horror flick with everyone. The cast also struggles with a hodgepodge concoction of accents that try to sound American. But Milla Jovovich seems to cope; she possesses a decent level of physical attractiveness yet she’s still kooky enough, and wasn’t given much dialogue anyway. Beautiful yet bemused, she looks as if she just returned from the bathroom entering through the wrong studio door thinking she’s back at the set for the hair-dye commercial she thought she was doing. Michelle Rodriguez makes a far feistier heroine but she's bitten by a zombie halfway through, and she spends the rest of the movie limping, whining and moaning, hamming up her part as the archetypical she-bitch. Eric Mabius and James Purefoy are mostly portraying the limitation of their acting talents and they can’t be bothered to lend any gravity to their characters. Martin Crewes however delivers a fine supporting lead.

Cinematography by David Johnson is adequate considering the many blue screen shots he was forced to employ, and the production design creates an immersed world of containment devoid of routine visual polish. The score by Marco Beltrami and Marilyn Manson is intense techno in style and aesthetic, and while this may not cater everyone’s liking, it supports the onscreen proceedings adequately.

All this ultimately leads to the conclusion that watching Resident Evil is an entertaining but shallow affair without leaving a lasting impression. Definitely flawed, it still manages to surpass its pessimistic expectations, mainly because it chose to be a motion picture, rather than a videogame on celluloid. It delivers the goods as mindless fun, and really doesn't try to be anything else.