Resident Evil The Movie
	Resident Evil stars Milla Jovovich (The Fifth Element), Michelle Rodriguez (The Fast and the Furious) and Eric Mabius (Cruel Intentions). Something terrible is lurking in the Hive, a vast underground genetic research facility run by the Umbrella Corporation, a faceless bio-engineering conglomerate. A deadly viral outbreak occurs, and in response, the Red Queen - a vast supercomputer that controls and monitors the Hive - seals the entire facility to contain the leak, killing all the trapped employees. Alice (Milla Jovovich) and Rain (Michelle Rodriguez) must lead fellow commandos to isolate the virus that has wiped out Umbrella’s entire research staff. The team soon discovers, however, that the workers are…not…really…dead. They are now the ravenous, zombie-like Undead, and they are prowling the hive. One bite or scratch from an Undead causes infection and worse, instant transformation into their kind. Alice and the military task force have three hours to complete their mission before the Undead threaten to overrun the Earth. To access the Red Queen, the team must pass through a series of increasingly horrifying obstacles in the maze-like hive. These include deadly lasers, mutant dogs and a vast specimen room where Alice witnesses the results of Umbrella’s evil experimental research. Alice soon discovers the Undead are the ghastly result of Umbrella’s latest project gone awry -- the T-virus. Initially designed to combat ageing and fight nerve-based diseases, the T-virus has the ability to reanimate dead cells. Alice realises that an unknown saboteur has stolen the virus and freed it into the hive’s atmosphere. That’s how the outbreak occurred. Who would do such a thing, and why? Confronting the giant computer, Rain demands that she guide them to the surface. The Red Queen agrees, but insists that no one who is infected will be allowed to escape. Unless of course, they can find the Anti-Virus first. Standing in their way is a genetically mutated experiment that is now a vicious creature known as "the Licker," bent on destroying them all. The Licker’s strength increases with each victim it slays–making the team’s job even more deadly. Will the team defeat the Red Queen and find the anti-virus in time? Or are they doomed to turn Undead? Who, if anyone, will escape the evil Hive alive?
	By the standards already set by previous video game based movies, Resident Evil isn't bad. Fans will either like it or hate it. The movie doesn't have the same scary feel the games did. It's "jump" scary, like when things suddenly happen that startle you. A Dead woman suddenly clings to the glass she's trapped behind, dead things jerk suddenly. The builings, the factory and the mansion above it, do have a certain RE feel. In one scene, Alice opens a drawer and finds a fun and other weapons. These are kept safe by a lock that requires a code. All the doors in The Hive also require keycards or codes to open. This is something you find in the games as well.
	Umbrella has an odd reputation for killing its own staff. Also present in the movie. When a virus leak starts, the Red Queen (who controls The Hive) promptly kills everyone in various ways. Drowning, gasing, killing the elevators and making people fall to a squishy doom. Corrupt Umbrella employees are also present, like Spencer. Spencer is the guy who tries to run off with samples of the virus and antivirus. He doesn't make it, obviously, but if you'd like so see what happens to him, try checking out the movie. Lovely traps are also part of the RE series. Flip the wrong switch and something dreadfull happens. In the movie, there is a scene is which the characters try to move down a hallway to enter the Red Queen's chamber. On the first trip down, something happens and a security device is triggered. Four people are trapped inside the hall. Then lasers appear! Hurrah for lasers. These lasers then procede to chop up the people in various ways. Not for those with weak stomaches.
	Then there's the Red Queen herself. The Red Queen is The Hive's main computer of sorts. It's like an AI, designed to protect The Hive and such. The Red Queen is also sadistic, plotting, and evil. The Red Queen looks like a little girl. This is because she was modeled after the head programmer's daughter. We don't know who the head programmer is, but this is a movie and those things are never revealed. For some reason, the computer systems in RE always seem to be female or somehow related. Whenever a self destruct sequence is activated, it's always a female voice that says "you have X amount of time till detination. Please evacuate immediatly" and so on. This is probably because to frightened, screaming employees, a female voice is always soothing. Who knows why, but the female computer is still present.
	So, if you look and know what to look for, references can be found. The biggest game reference probably comes at the end, when one of the characters becomes infected and begins to transform. What little the transformation begins to show implies that this character becomes a BOW known as Tyrant. The movie goes on to show you a lab and the destroyed Raccoon City, which leads us to believe the movie takes place around the same time Resident Evil 2 and 3 do.
	Speaking of RE 3... The new Resident evil movie (titled Resident Evil: Apocolypse) is already in the making. The official website is here. Upon entry, you can vew a rather amusing trailer for the movie which features an Umbrella product. Other than the Umbrella commercial, the trailer appears to contain no new footage. So far, few details have been released, though the movie is due out in 2004. From the photos available, the movie takes place with RE 3. Characters from the game (such as Carlos and Jill) are present.
	We do know that Alice is back. If it follows the plot of RE3, we can guess that perhaps Jill Valentine will become infected with the virus. Actors for the cast have been announced. Through this info, we learn that the character that began to mutate at the end of the first movie does become the Nemesis is the new movie. Other characters from the game appear to include Dr. Ashford (Alexia and Alfred's father?), William Birkin, and Brad Vickers (who will hopefully see die at the hands of the Nemesis <3). More actors are listed, but characters they play are not. It does amuse me to know that the same guy who played Lucious Malfoy in Harry Potter is playing William Birkin. I have no idea who Jack Noseworthy is, but he's listed as Vickers. Oded Fehr looks too "manly" to be the Carlos I remember, but I guess that can't be helped. From the photos I've seen though, he does appear to have that "oh, look, the women love me" swagger that Carlos seems to have, so maybe it won't be so bad. Mike Epps is also listed. I can't think of any African-American characters in RE3 off the top of my head, so I don't know who he would play (and it isn't listed)
	Frank Chiesurin is listed as "Sniper" and I can't find any pics of him to decide on who this Sniper may be. I'm guessing a sniper, not Snipper as a character name. Sandrine Holt reminds me of Ada O_o; but, other than that, no idea who she is playing either. Thomas Kretschmann oddly resembles Alfred, but he's prolly going to play some random soldier or some such. No idea who Matthew G. Taylor is. Zack Ward, in my opinion, looks silly, but he's also on the cast list. Other than that, no idea who's going to be in it or what other characters will be present. I am going to go and see it, like the good fangirl that I am ^_~