Resident Evil

Chicago Tribune Robert K. Elder

One of the few video game movies to truly re-create the gaming experience -- from the three-dimensional maps to the structure of encountering increasingly grisly and dangerous foes at higher levels of play.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

About as good as the genre gets.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

A splattery futuristic zombie thriller, designed as a jolt-a-minute freakout for young audiences who were numbed into submission long ago.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Is this the future of horror or just some bizarre fluke? Don't ask me, I'm having too much fun to care.

USA Today Mike Clark

Evil's one strong presence is lead Milla Jovovich -- and not because the script gives her supercop/soldier anything interesting to say.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

The dialogue is nothing to speak of, but the movie has a dynamite opening sequence in which the corporation turns on its workers, leaving them, if not dead, then with "virtually no intelligence," like office workers everywhere.

Chicago Reader Hank Sartin

Hits the ground running and never looks back. But after an hour of propulsive pacing the shock value wears off, and all that's left is pop-up carnage.

Variety Scott Foundas

Despite a promising setup, pic never really goes anywhere, instead immersing viewers in a kinetic onslaught of flesh (namely, that of Milla Jovovich) and flesh-eaters (most of the rest of the cast).

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

There's a psychological undercurrent. The movie occupies a zone where science fiction and nightmares collide and intertwine.

Film Threat David Grove

Technically impressive horror film and sometimes fun to watch, but totally undistinguished.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Ellen A. Kim

Like many video games, Resident Evil has a drearily long setup, then a lot of blood and gore, then an overextended ending.

New Times (L.A.) Luke Y. Thompson

Jovovich isn't at her best, but that's mainly because her character is required to be in shock most of the movie, except when she remembers that she's a Charlie's Angel, or happily sheds clothing to maintain that R-rating. Frankly, most of us can live with that.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Handsome and sometimes creepy, but formulaic in the extreme.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

While computer games can boast an abundance of nifty graphics and odious villains and plucky protagonists on long journeys, they're invariably a tad wanting in the cinematic essentials -- you know, stuff like plot and characterization and theme.

Washington Post Richard Harrington

In the end, it all looks and plays like a $40 million version of a game you're more likely to enjoy on a computer.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

The movie has a frantic staccato style that is more game-oriented than cinematic.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Too grim and humorless to even qualify as trashy fun.

LA Weekly John Patterson

The interchangeable males all resemble Freddie Prinze Jr., and Anderson's direction is no less anemic, making one yearn for an Escape/Quit button that, sadly, doesn't exist in this medium.

Boston Globe Loren King

A video game cum movie that substitutes shrieking decibel levels for a coherent plot and any resemblance to originality.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

It's so incoherent that at first you wonder if the reels are being shown out of order.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The movie is "Dawn of the Dead" crossed with "John Carpenter's "Ghosts of Mars," with zombies not as ghoulish as the first and trains not as big as the second. The movie does however have Milla Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez.

Los Angeles Times Jan Stuart

A ditsy and dizzying spook-house thriller in high-tech, high-hemline gear.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Mildly grisly, assaultively noisy and tremendously boring.

Miami Herald Charles Savage

Such a bad movie that its luckiest viewers will be seated next to one of those ignorant pinheads who talk throughout the show.