I've only played the original game a few times at a friend's house, but it impressed me by taking the great zombie cliches of horror, mixing it with science fiction, then making a great, creepy atmosphere by good use of visuals and sounds.

The movie lives up to most of these ideals, and is nicely shot. The atmosphere of horror is reinforced, as is the state of mind of star Milla Jovovich's amnesiac character, by having a story line unfold quickly and without a lot of details. This unfolding is accompanied, mostly, by great cut editing of the film and varying tones and types of film, along with good use of varied camera angles.

A short intro gives a background to the setting about an evil company's research city, and how things have gone terribly wrong. These sequences are like the chapter's from Stephen King's The Stand where the research workers realize they've been exposed to a fatal virus and their meticulous world collapses.

The movie then unfolds into a military/police team from the company, named by their unit badge, "Sanitation," finding Jovovich and 2 other survivors in a secluded mansion that is a secret entrance to the research facility; a guy saying he's a cop and, like Milla, another amnesiac who seems to be her husband, and partner, as they are guards to the entrance.

This military team tries to contain the chaos for the good of the company, like Aliens, down to the macho, cool controlling black man as their leader. When the zombies do arrive, thanks to human conflict with a super computer controlling the research lab, like 2001 or The Terminator, the zombies force the humans into fighting for their survival and escape.

The movie's strongpoints are it's choppy style that makes a nice creepy atmosphere; you know that zombies are about to go on a rampage, and you're going to be "spooked" into jumping in your seat, yet it's all in good fun. The actors also do a good job with what they have; Jovovich looks beautiful as usual, and makes a great heroine, overshadowing the guys like she did in The Fifth Element. Other female characters also upstage the men, whether through espionnage or coping with zombie-inflicted wounds. The military team performs nicely as confused and scared, but dedicated professionals. Funny pseudo-corny one liners abound that actually bring about laughs.

The soundtrack, scored by Marilyn Manson, really impressed me; clanking and quirky electronics mixed with the best of nu-metal; I'll actually go buy the CD soon, primarily for the instrumental tracks.

The only failing of this movie was I expected a lot more gore; it's rated R after all, which caused rejoicing from fans of the game. Too much gore was left to the imagination, probably due to a constricted budget of $30 million. Still, some nice shots of mangled zombies, especially the mangled dogs, make for good images. Some of the effects seemed ripped out of The Matrix, but since so many other movies are paid hommage, slow motion bullet and karate effects are good enough to watch again.

This movie sets a pretty new high for video game to movie adaptations; it feels much like the game, and pays hommage to other films, such as Night of the Living Dead and the end of John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness.

If you liked the game, go see it. If you like beautiful fighting heroines, go see it. If you want a sci-fi movie that entertains, go see it.
Or, you could go see some boring, pretentious art-house junk instead.

Recommended:
Yes

Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older