So, the most basic question anyone wants to know right off the bat is: is this movie good? Well sorry to dissapoint, but you're going to have to wait for that a bit.
The first thing to note about this movie is that it's in 3D and it's good. There is a critical fact to note about movies when they are released in 3D: were they originally intended to be in 3D and were they filmed for 3D from the beginning? One notable example of where this failed was clash of the titans, where the 3D effects were simply tacked on at the end in post-production and the lack of immersion was a total letdown (the only upside to that movie being the presence of smokin' hottie Gemma Arterton).
A very good example of immersive 3D filming where it was designed for 3D from start to finish was James Cameron's Avatar, which was amazing. The thing that made Avatar so good was that in spite of what anyone said about the film, the experience was immersive and memorable and for those of us with high stimulus seeking behavior, it was very enjoyable in the frontal cortex (biological psychology joke, if you don't get it, don't worry).
Resident Evil went ahead with the same technology that Cameron pioneered and from everything that I could tell in the movie, they used it from start to finish to great effect. Visually the movie is engaging and stimulating. The dialog is less than fantastic, but lets face it, given the game it's based on, it's a miracle the characters in this movie even speak intelligible English. There is a bit of a letdown in the character development department, since all the time is spent running from flesh eating ghouls. But even in spite of that the characters could have been made a little less one-dimensional.
The plot is pretty standard fare as far as resident evil goes, which isn't necessarily bad, just don't go in expecting intricate story telling. The cast is solid with Wentworth Miller (circa prison break etc.) as Chris Redfield and Shawn Roberts as Albert Wesker. Granted these characters are Very one-dimensional to begin with, Chris (grr, gritty gritty determination), Wesker (evil mcEvil pants). But you know what, in the end it all works out because I went to see a movie about zombies getting shot up and people running for their lives from hordes of zombies and that's what I got.
So go see this movie if you want to see a zombie movie, don't go see it if you're not looking to see a zombie flick. Go see it if you want an example of good 3D, don't go see it if you don't care about 3D.
Oh, and I almost forgot: the soundtrack is REALLY GOOD.
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