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The
Hive: a subterranean genetic research facility owned and operated
by Umbrella. With computerised defences and heavily armed
human backup, the Hive is impregnable and invulnerable. But
something has gone fatally wrong. The Hive has lost containment
of its most lethal and horrific creation: a virus that kills
and then reanimates human life, reducing the entire facility
staff to mindless creatures with a single driving force -
hunger...
Resident
Evil the film was about as enjoyable as a foot
full of verrucas, so one would like to hope that the novelisation
might be a more tolerable affair. Sadly, the book is as pedestrian
as its celluloid counterpart.
Focusing
on the good, the first positive point is the preamble before
the Hive falls foul of its computer. Background and motivations
are always helpful in rounding out a character, and here we
are given much more than the film offered. This includes a
character that in the film does little more than kick the
bucket. Here in the novelisation the character features quite
prominently before the narrative expires her, and all to good
effect.
The
second positive point is the Licker. Remember how atrocious
it looked in the film? Of course, in print, one needn't be
insulted by bad CGI, so the descriptions of the Licker do
it more justice and lend it more impact than it ever received
in the film.
But
that's it for good points. Now to the bad, starting with the
genre of this novelisation: Horror. It's not unfair to expect
written Horror to be, well, horrific. Resident Evil: Genesis
casts a mere glance when something nasty happens, reporting
the carnage without the required splatter-soaked embellishments.
This is very disappointing.
Worse
is the character of Rain. We all remember Private Vasquez
from Aliens, and what a mean, if entertaining, MoFo
she was. Rain is a poor copy of that character, and her aggressive,
snarling attitude - accompanied by a constant stream of expletives
- quickly wears thin. She comes across as nothing more than
a moronic thug, which isn't helpful when she is one of the
main protagonists in the story.
Sometimes,
a novelisation will show a fan what a film could have been.
Resident Evil: Genesis reads as bad as the film looks.
Jeff
Watson
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