How can such good video games spawn a movie this trite?

Rating: 3/10 (20 April 2005)

Like all big fans of the excellent Resident Evil video game series; I was extremely dismayed and disappointed by the first movie. The characters, the style, the location and even the zombies just WERN'T Resident Evil, and as I went in expecting to see something very much like the games on screen, I came out of the movie feeling very cold. In fact, the only thing I did like about the movie was the ending, and that's where the last movie should have started. This movie, however, does start there; so is it finally the translation that us Resident Evil fans have been hoping for? Errr...no. Once again, the movie makers have failed to capture the game's spirit, which has been completely ditched in favour of several irrelevant and very two-dimensional characters, a very suspect script and action sequences that are only in the film to keep the attention of the less intelligent film fans. The plot basically follows a bunch of characters that find themselves in the middle of the outbreak in Racoon City, and obviously they decide to make their way out of the city to safety. Resident Evil 3's main villain, The Nemesis, is thrown in for good measure.
To the movie's credit, it isn't all bad. Certain things, like the city for example, look great and are very reminiscent of the game. Sienna Guillory is another positive factor of the movie, as aside from looking great; she does look very much like Jill Valentine as well. However, the good parts end there as from there on out; the movie basically laughs in the face of the fan base it's trying to attract. Dr Ashford and Nicolai Ginovaeff, for a start, were villains in the games; and I know one thing for sure, The Nemesis would never have helped out the good guys in Resident Evil 3. It is a little known fact that the Resident Evil movie was a rip-off of Aliens; and this movie has decided to take much of it's influence from the underrated Alien: Resurrection. We've got the awful Milla Jovovich stepping into the souped up female role that Sigourney Weaver did much better, and then the whole Alice-Nemesis relationship has been ripped straight out of that movie. That relationship, like all character related aspects of the movie, doesn't work because of the complete lack of emotion in the script. This also makes it hard to care about anything that happens in the movie.
While Resident Evil Apocalypse is entertaining in a guilty pleasure sort of a way, even this must be stripped from it's very lacking resume of good points. The film tries too hard to entertain and most of the entertaining elements pop up in the form of another explosion or Milla Jovovich jumping over some scenery and it gets boring very quickly. In my opinion, Resident Evil fans are better just sticking to the games. Leave this.