The best part is the black guy and... Milla....

Rating: Null/10 (10 September 2004)

Resident Evil: Apocalypse is the kind of movie that only true fans of the series can appreciate. And they're stupid.
Well, I guess I probably am too. I've played all the games, now seen both of the movies, and have also come to realize that I have probably spent upwards of three hundred dollars collectively on this franchise alone. God I'm pathetic...
From a cinematic standpoint, Apocalypse is so horrendous that the token black guy/comic relief is funnier than all the crap in this movie that you wanna laugh at for being so bad, but can't, because it's TOO bad. And I mean that in a good way. Mike Epps is the saving grace of this film; and I doubt he hardly ever even tried that hard to be good while he was on the set.
Paul WS Anderson, the original's writer/director, wrote this one and then left the chair for a more ambitious filmmaker to take over so that he (Anderson) could direct Alien Vs. Predator. That one wasn't as bad as this one, so if you've seen Alien Vs. Predator, please do the math. What Anderson created for the Resident Evil universe was a story that stayed pretty consistent with the linearity of the games, while at the same time allowing him to do whatever the hell he wanted with the movie, which wasn't much. He then left a sub par script with an amateur for a director. That is what this film is made of.
As for Milla, I've been drooling over her since Dazed & Confused. She's a decent actress, and really fun to watch, and really brings absolutely nothing to the table in this case. She's the star, she's engaged to Anderson, and she's hot, so she gets a paycheck no matter how hard she tries, which isn't much. Not to say that she's not still ten times better than anyone else in these movies, which, really, still, isn't saying much.
But saying anything about this movie isn't saying much. The acting, writing, cinematography, make-up, special effects, editing, directing. All of it is unimpressive, uninspired, and undermines the potential of this series.
And the zombies. They're hardly in the movie. And when they are, they're not that threatening or scary. Just bein' zombies. Zombies aren't scary unless the film MAKES them scary. Nobody on board for this project even tried to.
Seriously, if some really clever geeks had gotten together and decided to make what would eventually become the Resident Evil trilogy, it would have been eons beyond what has been brought to the table.
Columbia should have stuck with George A. Romero for this when they got him.
What they were thinking, getting rid of him, I have no idea. I doubt that he would have let this series get anywhere near as out of hand as Anderson has.
From a critical standpoint: 1/2 of 4.
From a fan of the franchise standpoint: 1 of 4.