Resident Evil
Director: Zach Gregger
Starring: Austin Abrams, Zach Cherry, Kali Reis
Genre: Medi Evil
Resident Evil (2026) is pretty amusing and worth watching even if you know nothing about the video games it’s based on. Indeed, if you don’t play Resident Evil – now available in many editions – you might appreciate and enjoy the movie even more, maybe even more than kids who play the games.
Apparently, there are lots of Resident Evil game players who have protested that the movie isn’t fully dedicated to the games’ components. I would argue that’s a good thing. While the film is full of lots of evil creatures and zombie-type characters and there is pretty much no explanation of why any of them exist, the storyline based on the games is interesting and the character interactions are suitably extreme, violent and sometimes even hilarious.
Admittedly, if you don’t play Resident Evil, you won’t understand or appreciate all the iconic or subtle imagery and references. The main character – a courier delivering supposed medical solutions to a lab – uses lots of devices, maps and weapons, all of which are critical to progressing through the games. It’s why many are extreme, ridiculous or make no sense.
Similar to the TV show Stranger Things, which has many similar creatures to the Resident Evil movie, the movie should not be treated as science fiction or a horror film but as a thriller. From that perspective, it’s worth watching if you’re into unimportant, irrelevant, and purely entertaining video games and movies.
Rating: Two-and-a-half Up Hevils
