Callum N

Some of the casting choices are well appointed, Lance Riddick for example makes for an interesting and engaging adapted character of Albert Wesker. Sadly the adapted and new original story beats of this show are often awkward and delivered in a manner that makes the show feel like a campy dystopian teen drama. This is not an issue on its own, the issue is that its at odds with the tone and scope of its source material. Having one of the major plot threads framed from two 14 year olds unfortunately robs the story of a lot of tension instead it all feels like high school drama. This could have been passable however if the narrative was more focused on just this one plot thread. Because of the two different time-period plot threads the ongoing story feels scattered and meandering. This wouldn’t be a problem if the characters and plot beats were written in a smarter fashion, yet most feel one note and many moments feel contrived. This show suffers from the common horror sin of taking itself seriously while making many of the characters incredibly stupid. If it was an intentional irony that would be fine, but it its not. As a result it becomes very difficult to watch very quickly. This could be avoided if it wasn’t traipsing around with the “resident evil” name and if it was written with a more consistent tone. By forcing itself to be compared to the source material of it’s namesake it is unfortunately dragged down by the weight of the very few things it’s adapted well from Resident Evil franchise and the many elements it’s adapted poorly. It isn’t terrible. But that doesn’t make it good. However, it can still be enjoyed for the time it can kill with a show you don’t need to think too hard about. The story doesn’t really matter. And sometimes thats what you want. A positive note to end on is there’s some entertaining action pieces and memorable one liners (even if they’re out of place). 2/5

Would not recommend to 90% of people. What begins as a wonderful romp of visual world building and story telling during the film’s opening credits and then briefly continues on after with an exciting degree of tension as a cast of men and women enter the zombie infested Las Vegas quickly descends into a movie that is more preoccupied in wasting your time with gory excess than in actually doing anything interesting with the stakes that have been set up. The characters are wasted by being unceremoniously killed off in stupid — (read: predictable and or avoidable to someone with half a brain) — and/or mostly unsatisfying ways (with some minor exceptions) that rather than heightening existing tension instead robs the movie of it’s pace and stakes. A great example is the first woman to die who actually seems like she might have half a brain immediately proves otherwise by telling the shady agent guy that she knows that he’s going to screw them... right when they’re surrounded by zombies. And of course the next thing he does is try to kill her off. And I’d call this a spoiler but it’s really not because as soon as it happens you’re just shaking your head. You can see it coming from a mile off. Other stupid elements include characters just standing and watching other characters get attacked or eaten in slow mo instead of like firing their guns. There is literally a scene where they all watch this person fighting off a bunch of zombies and they do nothing to help her until finally she’s pinned down and then they just say “there’s nothing we can do!” Hmmmm... The lead’s emotional hook is her daughter who totally messes things up by running off to save some refugees. (Because of course) Who went into Zombie land for a reason that’s never properly explained. Just because I guess. And then at the end the daughter who is a catalyst for a number of people getting killed saves the refugees who wind up dead at the end of the movie anyway... Which really just proves the point that Snyder is more interested in wasting your time to stroke his own artistic ego with this latest film than actually making anything that has a point or worthwhile plot. Don’t watch it unless you’ve got A) friends and drinks with you B) are super bored C) have 2 hours of your life you’re happy to waste. D) are playing a zombie related drinking game with friends

Mile 22 has a lot of promise with a roster of high bar players in the action/actor/movie department which is immediately squandered by killing most of them off with little to no impressive fanfare and literally most of the other character’s only reasons for existing seems to be for the sole purpose of having Mark Wahlberg be able to monologue to each of them every five minutes in increasingly irritating and entitled ways like the world’s biggest low bar A—hole that even their own family would probably exclude from parties because literally no one likes him. Not even his pet goldfish would like this character. That’s the punchline. Mark Wahlberg’s character here is so soooooooo annoying. He makes the movie more irritating every five minutes with a poorly written character who has way too much screen time. That being said Mark does a good job with what he’s given. It’s a shame Mark’s given garbage to work with. MeanWhile every other character is wasted with cheap lazy writing, lazier characterisation and lazier camera work or next to no meaningful screen time. And the ending is soooooooooooooooooo lame with no resolution. Finally, the plot twists are lazy, unimpressive and would be boring if they weren’t so annoying. I would only watch this again with someone if the entire purpose was to ignore the movie as it played entirely while we were having dinner or playing cards.