Simply one of the worst films I've ever seen (some spoilers)

Rating: 2/10 (10 October 2004)

I've actually seen quite a few bad films recently. However I can't recall ever seeing a big-budget film that fails so spectacularly in almost every single respect as Resident Evil: Apocalypse. Paul Anderson's original film was poor fare, and upon hearing of his departure from the director's chair, my expectations of the sequel were raised somewhat - how terribly, terribly wrong I was. First-time director Alexander Witt has made a mess of a film, one where scenes simply do not flow into one another - every scene in the film seemed to be the next in a series of random events that had no bearing on those that preceded or followed them. He also seems to have real trouble establishing the arrival of characters/monsters in a scene - just look at the zombies that seem to appear out of nowhere in the graveyard and the classroom scenes, or when the STARS members encircle the man. the less said about the fit-inducing 'MTV style' of directing action sequences the better.
The characters in RE:A are mere cyphers - anyone who has not played the video games will find no reason to care for any of them, and those that have will be very displeased with what has become of Jill Valentine, Carlos Oliviera and particularly Nicholai Ginovaef. Other than these we have Alice, our supposed protagonist (Milla Jovovich, proving somehow less charismatic than in the first film), Asian Reporter, Angry Black Man, Comedy Black Man, Creepy British Kid and a handful of others.
A very small redeeming feature is the Nemesis creature, which actually looked quite excellent as a man in a suit rather than a CGI. Unfortunately any menace is totally stripped from it by the changes made from the game version, and the 'coming to his senses' scene near the end is cringeworthy.
Don't let anyone tell you this film is merely a fun, brainless popcorn flick - it is nothing of the sort. A good example of how to make a popcorn zombie film is the Dawn Of The Dead remake; this film merely stumbles through a series of embarrassing set-pieces until its exhausting conclusion, which, by the way, promises another sequel. May God have mercy on us all.