To be honest, I have never seen any of the other Resident Evil movies or played any of the games. Shameful, I know, but it does provide me the vantage point of viewing the film on its own terms. As for understanding the plot, I had no trouble. All the information you need going into the movie is that there are lots of zombies, the Umbrella corporation is behind it and Alice (Milla Jovavich) kicks ass. The film creates a post-apocalyptic world that has been overrun by zombies, leaving few human survivors. The creation of this world is quite impressive with hundreds of decaying undead overwhelming decaying buildings that are surrounded by desert in all directions. It looks great and feels reminiscent of Tank Girl and the Mad Max films. In this barren wasteland food, petrol and cigarettes are in short supply. However, makeup appears to be plentiful. It also appears that the survivors of the zombie plague tend to be young, attractive men and women. However, if a human character is ugly or wears a suit, you know they’re evil. Speaking of evil characters, the chairman of the Umbrella Corporation would win the award for worst costume design with his blonde hair, sunglasses and suit combo. And despite the situation, survivors of the zombie plague always seem to make time to apply makeup, eyeliner and cut their hair nicely. The most disheveled a face gets in this movie is being a bit unshaven. Or getting mauled by a zombie.

Ah, zombies. They’re great. They’re flesh hungry beasts in massive numbers. They’re just ordinary people turned into the walking undead, rotting and yet moving and feeding on human flesh. For the most part, the zombies in the film are George Romero-esque. However, they do tend to shriek rather than go for the classic moan and they do occasionally jump or run. The film works best when it’s indulging in Romero-reminiscent zombie gore-fests with a bunch of zombies versus a bunch of people with guns. The result is plenty of flesh eating, mauling, shooting off heads, slicing off heads and blowing holes through heads. The amount of blood and action is very satisfying with plenty of cool zombie carnage. Seeing zombies die never gets old and the special effects are really impressive. The bloodshed is mostly very old school with lots of squibs and practical effects. There are also some really impressive digital effects work, particularly in a great scene that pays tribute to Hitchcock’s The Birds.

It’s not all zombie combat though. There are plenty of moments where characters are exploring dark rooms with flickering lights and everything seems quiet but the music is foreboding and it is not long before the character (whoever they might be – there are several moments like this) discovers some horror. At these moments the film makes use of the horror convention of having the terror pop into frame accompanied by a loud noise. These moments are actually well executed and provide more than the one-off cheap thrills, unlike the way they were overused to no effect in the remake of The Hills Have Eyes. The first five minutes are easily the creepiest.

It begins with Alice waking up on the floor of a shower and follows her slowly exploring the strange place she finds herself in. Alice moves cautiously, examining her surroundings and watching for signs of imminent danger. It’s very reminiscent of a players experience in a survival-horror game. (I may not have played Resident Evil, but I have played similar titles such as Silent Hill and Forbidden Siren.) There’s no dialogue at all. It’s just the character and the shots telling the scene. It’s actually a shame there aren’t more moments quite like this in the rest of the film. The lack of dialogue works so well here and a lot of the dialogue that is in the film is redundant and would have been better left out. Not that it’s all bad, but characters conversing does not automatically equal character development. Not that you need character development in a film like this. The character of Chase (Linden Ashby) is a perfect example of nailing a character. He’s seen in a few shots, has a couple of moments where he says a single line and is instantly recognizable in his cowboy hat. That’s all that is needed for one audience to connect with the character enough to care about them when they’re in danger.

Put simply, this film is quite uneven. It nails some things, then fails at a similar element later on. It is often cool and exciting, but looking at the film as a whole, it doesn’t add up to a complete experience. Not that you’d expect a film like this to be brilliant. Even despite the ending that blatantly foreshadows the sequel I admit I enjoyed Resident Evil 3: Extinction and I find myself excited about the next installment in the series.