Oh dear!

Rating: 1/10 (26 October 2004)

PLOT SPOILERS!
Does anyone else here think that Paul Anderson should be handing in his P45 right about now? With the exception of AVP and Event Horizon this man should be hung for war crimes against the film industry. OK so he may not have been in the director's chair for this one (not that it would have made much of a difference anyway) but his screenplay is anything but inspired or original.
But he isn't the one who should be taking all the blame for this piss poor travesty. First time director Alexander Witt, although having a better knowledge of what it takes to make a better movie, has barely improved on the original, and considering what a mess the first one was you would have thought it'd be quite simple to make a superior sequel. Well apparently it ain't as easy as it looks.
As with every bad movie the acting is appalling so i wont even bother wasting my breathe givin it an earful although Sienna Guillory looks stunning as Jill Valantine. The main flaw in this film is the pacing and the god awful clichés that just come at you again and again and again. Mr Anderson claims, so passionately, that he is a huge fan of the games. so why, in all you mystical wisdom, did you choose to have the Nemesis have a sympathetic streak? Why did you take one of the most terrifying characters from the game and turn him into a hero at the end of the movie? He'd better have a damn good reason to justify that.
The timing and the overall pacing of this movie is terrible. rather than use the psychological fear that the games thrived on this movie opts for full on jump tactics every single time. OHH scary. Watch me quiver in my shoes.
The movie starts off well enough. Sights of the town being over run were pretty cool, echoing moments of the far superior "Dawn of the Dead" (2004). But after the movie builds the middle just lags. And then when the climax comes in, Witt chooses to unleash a string of dumb assed action scenes that never once get the adrenaline going. Add to the mix the turning of the Nemesis and you have yourselves a terrible movie.
The fact that it leaves it open for a third film is just upsetting. Leave where it is now. This franchise has done enough damage already.
1/5