Macho women with guns vs. mediocrity

Rating: 6/10 (13 September 2004)

Film adaptations of video games have a decidedly mixed life. On the one hand, they are commercially viable with a built-in audience. On the other, they are often lifeless, barely more than live action versions of the games, less films than advertisements. Occasionally, as in "Tomb Raider", a fantastic lead can overcome the video game-to-file curse. Sometimes, the movie separates itself from the game enough to stand on its own, as in "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within." The first "Resident Evil" had both of these: only a passing resemblance to the wildly popular game series and a dynamic lead in Milla Jovovich. The success of the movie spawned a sequel, and as in the video game world, so often, the sequel is an overly-hyped, rushed-to-production mess like "Resident Evil: Apocalypse."
The film begins roughly where the first one left off. Alice (Jovovich) is one of the only survivors of the first movie, having fought her way thought legions of undead when the nefarious Umbrella Corporation's experimental T-virus infected hundreds of people. When Umbrella tries to investigate the events of the first movie, they unwittingly release the T-virus into the streets of Raccoon City, turning the populace into slavering zombies hungry for human flesh. Umbrella shuts the city down to contain the virus, and Alice must fight her way out with the help of mini-skirted cop Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory), a small team of elite soldiers, and a trash-talking common citizen (Mike Epps). Along the way are obstacles like undead beasts with huge tongues and a giant mutant named Nemesis.
This film is a massive mess of teenage game-boy dreams. The plot is thin and the characters by and large thread bare. Most come and go so quickly that you never even get to know their names before they become a zombie snack. The actors try their best, though, and Jovovich is always a treat to watch in action. Guillory is also quite effective in her role as Butt-Kicking Babe #2, making a rather crowd-pleasing entrance. Epps provides the film's few intentionally funny moments, while there also fine performances by Oded Fehr and Zack Ward as two of the soldiers accompanying Alice. Of all the featured players, only Thomas Kretschmann, as Umbrella's laughably clichéd Eurotrash representative, comes off as particularly mediocre.
But all the girls-on-zombie action in the world can't save this film from itself. The film has the quick-cut action scenes and loud, forced nu-metal soundtrack of a straight-to-video release but the effects budget of a minor studio release. Indeed, hardly a scene goes by that isn't punctuated with deafening explosions. Director Alexander Witt, taking over for video-game-to-film director Paul Anderson (who wrote the screenplay), has made a cold, hard film lacking any of the (relative) depth or humanity of the first film. Sure, this film may be based on a video game, but that's no reason to turn the characters into automatons. In addition, the film ends with a bizarre and seemingly arbitrary sequence that will leave most viewers to bang their heads in frustration...and, of course, opening the door WIDE open for a third film.
What could've been a more action-oriented follow-up to a fine video-game adaptation has become an incoherent and numb series of shoot-em-up action, a film so ridiculously conceived that it thinks nothing of sending its main characters through a graveyard during a zombie assault. Granted, it's immensely enjoyable to watch the female leads getting their action hero on, but both Jovovich and Guillory (and indeed the whole cast) deserve a better vehicle for their acrobatics. Skip the theatre and just wait for the DVD so you can go right to the good parts. 5 out of 10.