Resident Evil

Lore friendly, but completely predictable

Resident Evil (2026)

Let’s start with probably the least noticeable part of the movie: the music and sound.

The music and ambience never really stood out, which is actually a good thing in a horror movie. The soundtrack should contribute to the atmosphere and support what is happening on screen, rather than constantly drawing attention to itself. In that regard, it worked well.

The sound design, however, was noticeably strong. It was well done throughout the movie, especially when it came to the more unique zombie characters. Their sounds gave them much more presence and helped sell the threat they were supposed to represent.

Then we get to the story.
Oh boy.

One of the things I liked most about the movie was how lore-friendly it felt. I was not particularly fond of the comedy aspect, but the movie was structured in a way that generally fit the Resident Evil narrative and atmosphere.

The main character is, quite frankly, an idiot with an impressive amount of luck, and he more or less stays that way until the very end.
There are moments where he becomes surprisingly self-aware, which actually makes him fairly relatable. Unfortunately, those moments are repeatedly interrupted by almost absurd levels of naivety. At a certain point, he really should have learned better, but the story needs him to remain stupid enough for certain situations to happen.
That being said, the characters are played very well. Even the comedic scenes are performed properly, regardless of whether the comedy itself belongs there.
I loved the conflict, the contrast of personas within a body that was infected. It's an awesome feature, to see how the virus takes over and I think it was depicted incredibly, especially towards the second half of the movie.

The movie takes place around the day of the outbreak, or very close to it, and that partially broke my immersion. The situation seems to develop extremely quickly compared with how I remember the outbreak progressing in the original films with Milla Jovovich.
I generally like movies from the same universe to feel as though they could actually coexist within that universe, so the timeline bothered me slightly.
Still, I would describe the movie as broadly compatible with the established story, even if not completely. It seems like a parallel perspective on the outbreak seen in the earlier movies.

Some characters also feel strangely pointless.

They appear, interact with the protagonist, push him slightly closer toward his objective, and then either disappear or die. Almost every supporting role exists primarily as a mechanism to move the main character toward one specific destination.
They feel less like characters and more like narrative tools. Almost a form of deus ex machina, appearing whenever the protagonist needs another push forward.

And unfortunately, almost everything in the movie is predictable.

I do not even consider myself enough of a horror fanatic to have developed some supernatural ability to predict horror scripts, but here I could see nearly every development coming well before it happened. Character deaths, encounters, reveals, decisions, almost all of it felt heavily telegraphed.

The atmosphere also should have been heavier.

There are scenes where the movie genuinely manages to build tension, pressure and a sense of danger, only for the comedic elements to suddenly release all of it. It feels conflicting, almost as though two slightly different movies are fighting for control of the same scene.

The CGI is mostly good.

There are, however, several moments where it becomes noticeably artificial. Some effects have this strangely cartoony, almost excessively "3D" appearance that immediately reminds you that you are looking at CGI.

That is particularly noticeable because the movie contains quite a lot of gore. When most of the practical or more realistic-looking effects establish one visual style, these exaggerated CGI moments stand out far more than they otherwise would.

It creates essentially the same problem as the comedy and drama combination. Individually, both elements can work, but here they occasionally clash with each other instead of complementing one another.

The ending also makes a lot of sense to the existing lore and does not break it.

Overall, I liked the movie.

Unfortunately, unlike the original Resident Evil films, I do not think this is something I would deliberately watch again. It works well enough as a one-time experience, particularly if you already enjoy the universe, but there is not much pulling me toward a second viewing.

A flawed but enjoyable Resident Evil movie, with good performances, strong sound design, respectable attention to the lore, and some genuinely entertaining moments, held back mostly by predictable writing, unnecessary comedy, disposable supporting characters and occasionally immersion-breaking CGI.