Way overlong zombie fighting, weak scripting and acting, and other problems make this sequel fail

Rating: 4/10 (26 January 2010)

I have never played any "Resident Evil" games, and didn't see the first movie based on the video game series until last month, over seven years after its theatrical run. I could see how cheesy and immature it was, but with all the adrenaline, it still left me reasonably satisfied. That might not be the case if I were to watch it again, but much of it was a guilty pleasure for me with one viewing. If I hadn't liked it at all, I obviously wouldn't have bothered watching this sequel, but I was impressed enough with the original to be interested in seeing this one. However, I was not too pleased with "Resident Evil: Apocalypse", as I found it not only cheesy, but also not very entertaining. It basically has all the flaws of its predecessor plus more.
After Alice wakes up in the hospital and leaves the building, she discovers that the virus which infected the people in the Hive (Umbrella Corporation's underground facility), and turned them into flesh-eating zombies, has escaped and made it to the surface! Raccoon City is now flooded with these monsters, the kind Alice was previously forced to fight underground, and the city has been closed off under quarantine! Alice has been used for genetic experimentation, and as a result, she has new superpowers, which will come in handy in this infected city. A group of Umbrella soldiers who have not yet been infected find themselves having to take on many members of the Undead and creatures known as Lickers, and just as it looks hopeless during a battle in the church, Alice comes and rescues them. She joins the group, and all of them must fight many enemies in order to have any chance of escaping Raccoon City!
This sequel contains some unimpressive acting and dialogue, as well as underdeveloped characters. All the same can be said about its predecessor, but here, it gets worse. So much of the film seems like one big monster fighting scene, and watching it reminded me a lot of "Speed 2: Cruise Control" in that regard. Even though I haven't seen that film in a few years, I clearly remember that a lot of it, probably most of it, is like one big scene! Now, "Resident Evil: Apocalypse" isn't quite as horribly tedious as that "Speed" sequel (I think I've yet to see another film that actually is), but the non-stop monster fighting here is still a big problem. It doesn't help that this first "Resident Evil" sequel skips around too fast, and the slow motion effects, among other things, are also cheesy. At least I found a lot of adrenaline in the first film, which is more than I can say about "Apocalypse". There are SOME exciting moments here, but certainly not enough.
The first installment in the "Resident Evil" movie franchise is hated by many, and I could understand why after seeing it, but since I found that movie so exciting, I couldn't join the haters. When I rented this sequel, I thought maybe it would be a lot like its predecessor, cheesy but certainly not boring, but it turns out I was wrong. It could have easily turned out to be slightly inferior to the original, as sequels usually are, but to me, it turned out to be worse than that. For most of the film, I think I had a puzzled look on my face. Basically, I think the main problems here are that 2004's "Resident Evil: Apocalypse" is even more ridiculous than its 2002 predecessor, and it's certainly not very well written. Also, unlike the first film, Paul W.S. Anderson wrote this one but didn't direct it, and Alexander Witt's direction just might have been another factor. Mindless action is common in modern blockbusters, and it can sometimes be entertaining, but unfortunately, this is one of the cases where it's not.