Mundane

Rating: 4/10 (11 October 2007)

Video game based movies are a shaky ordeal. The original video games have their visuals and story so a director trying to make a movie based off of one might feel cheated since he/she won't really have to imagine much, just recreate and transpose onto the screen. That way the film will be faithful and fans of the game (the only real surefire audience) will be happy. However, directors who are presumably naturally creatively thinking people, won't want to stop there and instead add a bit of their own flair to the film. The first entry in this now franchise had that from Paul W.S. Anderson. It wasn't a great movie, but it was enjoyable with its action scenes and overall design which included some fun on screen deaths and gore.
This sequel is pretty much a direct continuation and goes right from the ending of the first film, but soon into the film you can see that things are missing. The design is pretty good and you feel like you are in the devastated Raccoon City, but the plot is tissue thin and the action very mundane. Action movies never really need deep plot (just watch the first "Resident Evil"), but they do need visual flair (also shown in the first "Resident Evil"). Here the action scenes are just one after the other quickly edited chaos and carnage. If you manage to see the deleted scenes on the DVD you'll see they're mostly dialog, Essentially any shred of a plot is there, while the film as released is just action. But done in a mundane way. And naturally the end sets the scene for another sequel. --- 4/10
Rated R for violence and profanity. Ages 13+