Resident Evil DVD Synopsis:
An adaptation of the popular video game, Milla Jovovich and Girlfight's Michelle Rodriguez star in this action-packed horror thriller, directed by Event Horizon & Mortal Kombat helmer Paul W.S. Anderson.
In a secret underground genetics laboratory called "The Hive", operated by the largest corporate supplier of healthcare, medical supplies, and defense technology (as established in an uncredited Jason Isaacs pre-credits voice-over), an artificially created virus (the "T Virus") that re-animates the body is "accidentally" released, transforming the workforce into flesh-eating zombies and releasing the mutated lab animal experiments that they were studying.
Now the Umbrella Corporation has sent in a special paramilitary unit to contain the situation and re-take the facility. The military task-force has just three hours to shut down the complex supercomputer, The Red Queen, and close the facility before the virus threatens to escape and infect the rest of the world

Resident Evil DVD Picture Quality:
Everything looks great; the muted colour palette, with lots of blues of blacks, is carried off flawlessly and the detail is especially high, the downside to this (as found in the recent Time Machine remake) is that a couple of the CGI effects are a little unconvincing, particularly The Licker. As you'd expect there is no sign of grain or digital artefacting in the anamorphic widescreen print with very stable imaging, crucial in such a frenetically-paced film at times. Unhelpfully Columbia, as always, don't state the correct aspect ratio on the box (just "widescreen") but it looks like it is framed 2.35:1.

Resident Evil DVD Sound:
The movie makes full use of it's DD 5.1 soundtrack, the surround speakers being particularly well-used, an ideal example is the quiet subtleness of the leaves blowing menacingly towards Alice (chapter 4 12:50) which segues faultlessly into the sonic asssult on the senses of the commando's break-in (Chapter 4 13:05). My only criticism would be that, occasionally, in places that are supposed to be exciting the speakers are prone to be filled suddenly with excessive sound strength to get the point across.

I think it's worth just mentioning the soundtrack, itself. The unlikely pairing of Marco Beltrami (composer of the Scream series & Mimic) & Marilyn Manson provide a very John Carpenter-esque electronic theme and incidental score. Manson's restraint in particular, not being a classically trained musician but making the conscious decision to score the movie rather than write it as songs, is to be commended, and immediately gives it the sonic credibility that another video-game to film translation, Tomb Raider, sadly lacked (from it's last-minute ditching of it's score for a more commercial techno-rock soundtrack). From the fascist military element of the, previously mentioned, break-in (Chapter 4 13:05) to the child-like waltz of The Red Queen theme (Chapter 12 34:38) to the most melodic thing Slipknot have ever done over the closing credits (My plague), the soundtrack works and I would also recommend that the album is worth picking up.

Resident Evil DVD Extras:
Heading up the workman-like selection of features is a chatty and thoroughly enjoyable scene-specific audio commentary from Paul Anderson, Milla Jovovic and Michelle Rodriguez with Producer (and zombie extra!) Jeremy Bolt. Anderson trys to impart technical info and trivia as the film progresses but is continually (and quite amusingly) interrupted by current girlfriend, Jovovich, on her dedication to the cause in showing her nipples and other parts (!!) and Michelle Rodriguez . One interesting bit of trivia that comes up during the course of the commentary, is that the voice of The Red Queen was, at one point in post-production, re-dubbed by an American girl (because the producers feared a US audience wouldn't understand an English accent!) which, it turns out, made some of the innocently voiced but chillingly implied dialogue seem "sexually suggestive"!!!! Luckily Anderson won the day so, I think, before people (Empire & Ain't It Cool News amongst others stand up!) over-criticise him for making dire genre pictures (Ain't It Cool readers have been especially vehement regarding his appointment as director of the forthcoming Aliens Vs Predator movie) I think this anecdote at least shows his integrity to the pictures he makes if, at times, his technical ability is a little flawed.

You also get a pretty good half-hour making of, made exclusively for the DVD, it's above average and not just an extended trailer, even if all the players are "on script" at praising the movie! Also included are four other, shorter, featurettes on scoring the movie, costume and set designs and a brief, minute long, reel of the various zombie make-up tests that were shot by the SFX team. the point of interest with this segment is that it seems some of the make-up was either toned down for the finished film or not enough screen time was made of the better designs (a shame either way as that's another of the criticisms of this movie by off-line publications)

Resident Evil DVD OVERALL VERDICT:
Whatever people say, Resident Evil is by far THE best video game to film transfer to date. Director, Anderson does a good job, taking over from original choice, Zombie guru George A. Romero, and in a couple of scenes, especially, manages to make the living dead truly walk tall again(!), I'm thinking of the lift scene in Chapter 14 (45.01), a direct lift from Romero's Day of The Dead (and, refreshingly, acknowledged as such by Anderson in his commentary) but such a well-done homage that the unease I felt on first viewing Day Of The Dead came briefly back to me. Another sequence "borrowed" is the slice-and-dice laser defence system, a low-tech version of which features at the very start of Cube, the cult 1998 Canadian shocker. Though, again, Anderson has made it, if not as gory, more thrilling to watch, and is possibly the best of a few very good set-pieces in the film. What seems to be forgotten in other, more critical, reviews of Resident Evil is that these derivative elements are not a fault of the film because the original games were obviously influenced by such sources as Romero's classic Dead trilogy. For continuity buffs, as regards fitting into the game series' timeline, for me it works as a prequel to the first playstation game and is, at least, respectful to it's source material.

Anderson's films are continually criticized for being nothing more than average (or worse!) but I must admit to being a fan of his films, even if I can see flaws in them (see Soldier) they are well-made genre movies if not always well-made movies, and his work speaks to me of wanting to go back to a time and a way that sci-fi/horror movies used to be made (before CG) but incorporate those effects into the mix to the benefit (not detriment) of the film. A lot of mistakes that are made in horror movies these days are that you see too much of the creatures (usually CG). As everyone knows, it makes it really scary when you cant see what it is and your mind has to fill in the blanks, I would go out on a limb and say that Anderson subscribes to that train of thought and, with Event Horizon, for example, and Resident Evil succeeds to varying degrees. With Resident Evil, the afformentioned, Licker is part Animatronics, Part CGI and is the best that that creature could have been realized, and it's not overused (thankfully as it's not 100% successful).

The plot is a little thin (again a hang-over from the original game) but well-paced and there is definite sense of the impending dread of the ghastly discovery that the military team is going to make in the early sequences. Also, the action scenes, generally, are done well and even though a lot of the characters are as clichéd as you can possibly get the top notch cast (especially Rodriguez) handle events with aplomb.

It's a fun movie for fans of the genre or players of the parent game series so check it out either at UK cinemas now or on this nicely done Region 1 DVD.

David Hughes