If there is one thing less grounded in reality and coherency than Hollywood logic, it's video game logic. When the two are combined, there is the potential for serious trouble.

The thing with video games is that they aren't required to make sense. Whatever story the game cares to create is simply an excuse for blasting the bad guys. Plot holes and absurdities are cheerfully forgiven as long as the virtual dismemberment is above par.

Since films aren't yet interactive, they require more work from the story. This is a point lost on those who brought us the catastrophe that is Resident Evil.

There is a plot, to be sure, but it's about as flimsy as tissue paper and full of more holes than a pasta strainer. The film is set in the future, where the world is practically controlled by the Umbrella Corporation. They have their hands in everything from healthcare, to computers, to genetic engineering.

In one of the corporation's underground labs, a tube containing a deadly virus breaks. This results in a severe lock down in the lab, where not only are all the workers trapped, but they are also killed, presumably so that the virus can't escape.

We then flash to a woman (Milla Jovavich) passed out in a shower. The character is credited with the name Alice, although you would never know that from the film. She is talked at and about frequently, but if anyone ever actually said her name in the film, I missed it.

Alice awakens to discover that she can't remember anything. Before she can really begin to consider this to any great depth, her house is invaded by armed commandos and she is whisked into a train hidden in the basement.

The commandos explain that they are security investigators sent by the Umbrella Corporation to discover why the computer has shut down the lab. This is only one of many, many plot holes in the film. The investigators seem to believe that the computer has malfunctioned, proving that either they or the corporation is amazingly inept if their own security personnel are not versed in lock down protocol.

We're then told that the investigators have one hour to solve the mystery of the lock down before the lab is locked down again. This is exactly the sort of invincibly stupid logic we're dealing with here. To make matters worse, we're told of this one hour time limit very early in the 100 minute running time of the film, creating the unique experience of the film actually showing more than its plot gives time for.

Our group of heroes (are they really heroes? the film never really explains) suffer a setback when most of their number are gruesomely killed by a laser defense system. This, again, raises some questions the film is hoping the audience isn't smart enough to ask. For one, shouldn't these investigators be aware of this laser defense system and come equipped with some means to escape it?

It's at this point that we learn the true nature of the virus. It seems that it is able to reanimate the dead, in effect creating flesh eating zombies. Given that, one wonders why the lab's computer was so quick to kill off all of the employees. You'd think it would have been more desirable for the computer to protect the health of those people at all costs. The movie does make some passing comment about the virus being able to mutate, becoming airborne. But if this is the case, then the virus must be the most intelligent being the film, as it knows not to infect the main characters.

Even more absurd is the late revelation of a cure for the virus. Again, if the computer knows there is a cure (as one is safe in assuming that it would know, as the computer seems to know everything), why does it need to kill off all of the employees. Is it to protect the secret of the virus? Wouldn't it still be a better idea to kill them only AFTER you can be assured they aren't infected?

I could go on and on with the plot holes and inconsistencies, but there's really no point. This is just plain a bad film. When the end finally arrives, it's meant to inspire feelings of dread and horror. The only thing I felt was immense relief that this film was over.