Resident Evil is more effective as action/mystery than it is at horror. Most of the scares are cheap jump scares emphasized by loud noises or fall completely flat. Not least because this film has aged terribly. We see "state of the art" technology featured prominently that just looks hilarious now, a mere 15 years later - and also some CGI that might have looked pretty cool in 2002, but just looks funny now. One jump-scare in particular early on had me laughing because it was such blatant, bad CGI - another scene with multiple character deaths failed to have an impact because it was so heavily CGI-based (a very, very similar scene in the low budget 1997 film Cube is done with practical effects and much, much better). If you can accept this flick as an action movie, however, it's pretty decent. Most of the actors involved are displaying some of their worst work here delivering lifeless dialogue(bad direction is to blame, I assume), but the pacing is good, the cinematography is more than capable and the plot is intriguing with some minor plot holes and far-fetched elements. If you don't already know what is happening at Umbrella Corp, you will find yourself craving answers. And isn't that the most important thing? This film keeps you invested with driving questions that feel more or less natural.

There's a good movie in here somewhere, a decent plot, good people involved - but a bad director has the power to ruin a potentially good thing, and that's exactly what happened here. Anderson is, quite frankly, a hack. One of the weakest directors working at the moment. And it shows. Because Resident Evil SHOULD work, most individual elements work, most of the cast is talented...it just doesn't really.