Director: Zach Cregger
Starring: Austin Abrams, Zach Cherry, Kali Reis, and Paul Walter Hauser
Movie Length: 1 hour 35 minutes
What Mike thought: Boy does the movie studio want audiences to know that this is a film written (with Shay Hatten) and directed by the notable new comer Zach Cregger, the man who brought us the box office hits Barbarian and Weapons.
Definitely aging me a bit, I saw the first iteration of Resident Evil in theaters and played the original Capcom released game on the PlayStation 1. Not much of a gamer, I didn’t finish but it left me a bit shaken by the foreboding nature of the game. Frankly, my memories of the game from decades ago (there goes the aging me again) left me with more of a sensation of being scared than this release
Ignoring previous cinematic efforts, Cregger’s version gives us an unimpressive male medical courier who undertakes a delivery gig that provides him with far more than he could have expected. I applaud the guts it took to completely invert the central character. Rather having an uber-capable Milla Jovovich killing mutated adversaries around every dark corner, we get Bryan (Austin Abrams). Bryan is not particulary wiley nor is he a crack shot with weaponry. Eschewing the premise of a strong female characther is bold but ultimately left me rolling my eyes at his ineptitude.
The film plays much like a long-form video game, which Resident Evil ultimately is. Bryan’s character is akin to picking up the game controller for the first time and having to figure out the mechanics on his own. I understand the approach and it may well work for some viewers, but I just found it frustrating as he fumbled his way through scenario after scenario.
A contrivance that permeated the entire movie was keeping our hero from ever having access to a vehicle for any period. The methodology by which they accomplished this was an unsatisfying way of making sure that Bryan had reason to traverse the terrain by foot, thereby exposing him to an increased level of threat.
I know I’ve spent quite a bit of time seemingly derailing the movie, but it’s ultimately successful in delivering a different version of Resident Evil than we’re used to seeing. As evidenced in his two previous efforts, Barbarian and Weapons, Cregger isn’t a man who’s afraid to tweak expectations. Even though this is clearly less of an innovative product than his two other movies, he still takes chances that the audience hasn’t seen before within this franchise.
The special effects largely hold up, mixing practical effects with CGI. Some of the building crawling creatures didn’t completely work, but more often than not, the creatures are satisfyingly grotesque and ultimately satisfying. We get plenty of gore and scenes that would trigger the squeamish.
Resident Evil takes chances and takes the audience on a memorable ride towards the hero’s ultimate destination; Raccoon City. I didn’t have the fun I experienced with the first Jovovich movie, and as surprising as it may be, I preferred the original. Having said that, I don’t want to take away from Cregger’s vision. It just didn’t connect with me to the same level as when we have a strong female protagonist blasting her way through danger.
Mike’s rating: Resident Evil earns a 7.0
Resident Evil is currently in theatres.
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