The streak is over.
The last time I started a review with that phrase, it was to mean something bad — 2022’s “Lightyear” was the first Pixar movie that I didn’t recommend. This time, it’s something good — Zach Cregger’s new take on “Resident Evil” is the first movie based on a video game that I do recommend. Not surprisingly, the man who directed Amy Madigan to an Oscar last year for “Weapons” brings enough good ideas to the table that I actually found the movie to be worth my time.
Perhaps even more impressive is that the film comes from a property that has already failed me on several occasions. This isn’t based on some newer game that nobody has tried adapting before and doesn’t have a history of failure. It’s “Resident Evil,” the zombie horror franchise that had an awful six film run from 2002-2016 and an unsuccessful 2021 reboot. I was perfectly okay with saying that I’d seen more than enough of zombies from the Umbrella Corporation wreak havoc on Raccoon City. But Cregger, no doubt a fan of the games, thought the property deserved one more chance on the big screen, a stubbornness that has paid…
