Residetn Evil: Apocalypse

Genres:	Action Horror	Sci-Fi Sequel	Thriller
Feminism	Eye Candy	Video Game	African American

Resident Evil: Apocalypse
Reviewed by Joseph M. Davis for Reel Movie Critic
*½
Cast
Milla Jovovich	Alice
Sienna Guillory	Jill Valentine
Mike Epps	L.J.
Directed by Alexander Witt. Drama/suspense/sci-fi/horror. Rated R (for non-stop violence, gore, language and some nudity). Running time: 134 Minutes.
It’s like watching a videogame. For over 2 hours.

Let me start with the question that most of the target audience will be wondering about when debating whether to see this videogame turned film. Yes Milla Jovovich does become unencumbered by the shackles of her skimpy action outfit (towards the end). Other than that this will not be a memorable cinematic experience. The film starts where the Resident Evil left off. Alice (Milla Jovovich of "The Claim") wakes up to a city turned upside down by a runaway virus. Sound familiar? It gets worse.

The city, called Raccoon City, (obviously Toronto) is filled with bad actors portraying the living dead. This is nothing more than a formula zombie flick. At times there are graveyard scenes reminiscent of Michael Jackson’s "Thriller". There are computer animated monsters that are completely fake and unthreatening as they always are. And the lack of imagination in the writing department is consistently reflected in the standard fallback of using profanity for exclamation. The score sounds like money was saved by throwing in the jingles from the videogame. I will throw some kudos to the costume department however for the Nemesis creature that they created. Very well done. And Mike Epps (The Fighting Temptations) is funny at times as L.J. delivering a bit of humanity and charm to an otherwise bland character landscape.

But other than that this film is a poor attempt at achieving anything close to what 28 Days Later was able to do last year. Since I reference "28 Days" I should mention that the king and the pioneer of all zombie films is rarely brought up and that is the Italian film "L’Ultimo uomo della Terra" (1964) starring Vincent Price or in English, Last Man On Earth. This film is a masterpiece. If you liked "28 Days" you will love "Last Man On Earth". It is terrifying and Vincent Price gives a chilling and truly outstanding performance. I would not want my children to see "Resident Evil 2". Not because of the violence, the language or the nudity but because with the brilliant alternatives that I just mentioned I don’t want to stunt their cultural development with garbage.