A poor sequel, both as a movie and as a video game movie

Rating: 4/10 (4 December 2005)

As an action movie, Resident Evil: Apocalypse serves quite well. There's plenty of it throughout. However, Resident Evil is NOT an action game - it's a survival horror. In this respect, the film has already started to dig its grave. The question is, will it lie in it? The many references that there are in the film, will make fans both smile and scream out in anger and disgust at how the film was written and filmed.
The inclusion of the popular heroine from the series, Jill Valentine, and her co-star in Resident Evil 3, Carlos (and his band of minion soldiers), and the fan-favourite (or feared) monster Nemesis, was a nice touch. It let people who had played the game see the movie, as if it was an alternate time-line. Of course, this is a double-edged sword.
The inclusion of various characters doesn't add to the story what-so-ever. They may as well have just been ordinary citizens of Raccoon City. The only reason they appear to have been put in the film, is to please fans as eye-candy... Nothing else. Jill was part of a group of S.T.A.R.S. members who actually found out about the incident in the first Resident Evil game. Nemesis was brought in to eliminate those specific S.T.A.R.S. members. This is all very well and good, but Nemesis' reason for eliminating S.T.A.R.S. members, other than that he's being controlled to do so, doesn't make sense. They're the elite of the Raccoon Police Department... So what? Who gives a flying monkeys! Tell me WHY they're being killed, not what they are! Don't imply it, TELL the audience.
This brings me to the fact that references to the games seem out of place, or wrong. Many fans will be annoyed that Dr. Ashford was used as one of the creators of the T-virus, when he clearly wasn't in the games. As I said above, the reason for Nemsis' killings and his inclusion of the game, is minimal, and convoluted at that. Fans who know even the most minimal details of the Resident Evil/Biohazard series will be twitching with these "incorrect" details. Especially S.T.A.R.S. been quoted as "Special Tactics and Rescue Squad" (Where it should be service).
Finally, the camera. It moves too much. Sometimes in the action sequences, you don't know if you're watching a horror movie, or "The Matrix". It fails to deliver suspense, because of this continuous switching between the angles.
Overall, the films is below average for me. It has too many unanswered questions, and many tings in the movie seem to assume that you know everything. Fans of the game - unless you are willing to throw all that you know out of the window and bite your tongue, avoid watching the movie.