Men in Black II film review

certificate_15

RESIDENT EVIL

Translating video games into big budget movies seems, increasingly, like a pointless exercise. Consoles and computers are so powerful nowadays, the games already have the look and epic sweep of films.

Paul Anderson's action-thriller, inspired by the pixellated zombie-fest of the same name, is a case in point.

Resident Evil the game is slick and suspenseful with an engrossing storyline and lashings of gore; Resident Evil the blockbuster is a vapid generic monster movie, which barely once accelerates your pulse.

Of course, recent attempts to translate video games have failed to live up to expectations. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was a flop, even with state-of-the-art computer animation, and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider lacked the sparkle and vicarious thrills of its small screen counterpart. Going even further back, Street Fighter and Super Mario Bros were nothing short of diabolical. In fact, the only commercially successful adaptation in recent memory was Mortal Kombat, also directed by Paul Anderson.

The plot of the film is a mere formality. The shadowy Umbrella Corporation has been testing chemicals and splicing genes with horrific consequences. When an airborne pathogen escapes in the corporation's underground research facility, The Hive, the building is immediately locked down. Scientists who become infected with the virus transform into slavering cannibalistic beasties, and the Doberman guard dogs are reborn as flesh-less hounds from hell.

Members of the S.T.A.R.S. (Special Tactics and Rescue Squad) - led by beautiful Alice (Milla Jovovich), gung-ho soldier Rain (Michelle Rodriguez), Matt (Eric Mabius) and Spence (James Purefoy) - are despatched to the remote bio-tech facility, to gauge the extent of the infestation.

The team immediately meets resistance in the form of legions of flesh-eating zombies. With limited firepower, and almost no place to hide, the soldiers search for an escape route, and a means to wipe out the marauding undead. Or is that just bored audiences stumbling out of screenings of the film?

Resident Evil desperately wants to be Dawn Of The Dead, or one of horrormeister George A Romero's other acclaimed zombie films. Unfortunately, Anderson doesn't have the directorial savvy to shock his audience, or the ability to sustain tension, and the screenplay is horribly thin on characterisation.