THE DEAD TIMES

RATING:

ZOMBIE RATING:

DESCRIPTION:

A madman has stolen a deadly viral weapon from New Umbrella. Chris Redfield, Leon Kennedy and Rebecca Chambers must fight through a horde of amped-up Zombies and other bioweapons in order to stop this villainous weapons-dealer before he can unleash the stolen virus on the citizens of New York.

MY VERDICT:

This is the third instalment in the series of CG (Computer Generated) Resident Evil movies and, without the limitations posed by real-world actors, the production offers many jaw-dropping action scenes. I mean, towards the end of the film Chris and Leon, trapped by a horde of mouth-watering ghouls in a tight space, perform some ridiculously smooth moves while in combat; Chris stabbing his bayonetted rifle into a Zombie's torso, leaving it their while performing a spinning round-kick on a Zombie approaching from the rear, ejecting the empty magazine from the stuck rifle, slapping a new clip in, sweeping the Zombie's legs out from under him, reclaiming the gun from his fallen body while rolling before finally blasting away at forward attackers in full auto bullet spray. There are more examples too, especially the final confrontation between Chris and the evil weapons-dealer - how anyone can dodge that many bullets at that short a range is simply unbelievable (yet mind-blowingly entertaining). However, for non-action fans, I did find the movie itself to be fairly underwhelming. The story is very shallow, the Zombies are sometimes capable of full-pelt sprinting and other times limited to the iconic deadly shamble, and the film just seems too tied up in hero-worship; beside Chris and Leon, no one else gets much air-time. Also, it was promised that this film would bridge the gap between the events of games Resident Evil 6 and Resident Evil 7 - something that, in my eyes, it completely failed to do. So, in closing, if you are a fan of the Resident Evil universe you'll enjoy this movie (despite its failings), but if you are burdened with only a passing interest, leave this CG entry well alone.