It turned up on Sky Movies last week, so I gave it a spin.
It's okay.
It manages to get the general vibe right, and I really dug the feeling of a town abandoned by a corporation who have left the remaining residents like sickly spectres, but the film does very little with that concept or with telling that story to the viewer (particularly those who aren't so familiar with the games or the lore). The orphanage-set intro goes on far too long and the titles feel cheap-as-fuck, with the impending destruction of the city at 6am failing to inject any real peril (at least that's how it feels when watching it).
Characterisation is one of the key flaws. At best it's sketch-thin, at worst it's cartoonish/non-existant. Leon Kennedy is particularly clobbered by this, starting out as a bit of a clumsy idiot whose sudden transition to supposed badass just doesn't work. At one point he seems utterly confused by a shotgun (despite being a trained police officer), as if he's a total novice, only to then immediately be John McClane levels of proficient with a 9mm handgun. Claire Redfield is also pretty thinly-sketched with generic 'strong woman' vibes - not the political pandering part, but the 'default sullen face, never really scared by anything, and great with guns' parts. Chris Redfield seemingly vanishes for chunks of the flick despite being one of the more charasmatic actors, while Jill Valentine is a total nothing, similar to Wesker.
A big problem is the film tries to cram too much content into roughly 97 minutes, essentially trying to get the most familiar aspects of RE1 (the mansion, the zombie dog) and RE2 (the police station) crammed into the running time. This also comes with the characters, as the film tries to stuff-in too many big names from the games as if it was a Japanese subway train. As a result nobody gets any real development and you never get attached to anyone.
The film has some moments that work better for bringing aspects from the game to life (unlike PWSA's teen-targeted orgy of gunfire and convoluted plotting that skewed quite far from the games), but the film's direction and writing fumbles any sense of tension repeatedly, so it never really packs a horror punch. There's a few gory moments, but sometimes it feels like they have to shoot around a tight budget, so the true potential of an R-rated RE movie doesn't quite come to pass. Similarly, the CGI is occasionally ropey, giving he movie a bit of a throwback feel unintentionally. We're not talking The Mummy levels of shite CGI, but it feels trapped in about 2008 on a modest budget.
The best moments are copied straight from the games, but beyond that the film struggles, its flaws only getting worse the longer the movie goes on. It gets off to a decent start (once that over-long prologue gets out of the way, that is), but it slowly winds down and down and down. The sequel-bait doesn't really leave you wanting more, either.
I've probably complained more than praised here, but all said and done it's an okay movie, better than some of the PWSA movies certainly.
There's a Netflix series coming soon. I wonder if that'll do any better?
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