Stop assuming your audience has ADHD

Rating: 2/10 (23 August 2006)

I need to learn to stop judging a movie by it's cover. Or poster in this case.
The first Resident Evil left me with that trademark Paul W Anderson sense of "that was okay... I guess."It had a couple of nice twists, some interesting visuals, but all in all it was pretty underwhelming, especially in contrast to the atmosphere of the games it was based on.
Resident Evil Apocalypse does something amazing- it makes the first film seem better. It's a mess- visually, plot wise- it's not even glorious adrenalin-fuelled chaos, it's just a bunch of scenes that feel loosely thrown together and don't feel like they form a coherent whole. It's a disturbing trend, I've seen in other recent action/ horrors such as Doom, whereby a few "interesting" visuals and flash cuts, perhaps even some loud rock track while the action steps up a gear, are believed, wrongly, to automatically generate excitement. Where's the soul? What's the point? Give me character development, not a bunch of cardboard cut outs. Give me a real plot or purpose to the story, not the sense that the characters are just wandering around aimlessly, and some uninspired Ripley from Alien Resurrection-esquire hybrid superpowers. Give me a reason to care. Even if the target audience is a teenage market (odd considering the games really captured the interest of many adults) don't assume a good story isn't necessary, and that all viewers have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
I know I'm probably going to watch the sequels. I'm an idiot like that- I never learn. I just hope for future chapters, the creators focus on making the audience feel something, rather than bombard them with flash cuts and strobing images that actually leave them yawning.