Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)

 

The first 'Resident Evil' is an okay horrorfilm for the PG-crowd: nothing special yet entertaining if you're up for it. With the follow-up though, they dropped the ball. Hard. Maybe it's because Paul WS Anderson didn't direct this one? It's clear though that this is far less interesting than the first one.

The film picks up right after the first one and the infection by the T-virus is now spreading throughout Raccoon City. The Umbrella Corporation has put the city in isolation trying to contain the disease and - because they're evil of course - see what the results of the infection will be. Soldiers, civilians, police officers and Alice (Milla Jovovich) are left in a city that is now overrun by zombies. 

The plot thickens even more, as one of the Umbrella scientists is looking for his daughter who is still stuck in the city and through payphones he contacts our band of heroes and promises them that he can lead them out of the city but they have to find his daughter first. So yes, it's a fetch quest extraordinaire.

Oh, and Umbrella unleashed the Nemesis creature into the city who kills non-infected soldiers for reasons, I guess? 

Yep, this one is an absolute mess.

Fair enough, the story should be a doozy, but what pretty much kills its momentum is the pacing (or lack thereof) and the incredibly choppy and sloppy editing that is certain to make you lose your interest after about 10 minutes. It's bizarre, as the first film is by no means a masterpiece but it managed to be quite tight and speedy. This one just feels like a slog. It also isn't helped by performances that are less than stellar. Milla Jovovich does her best, but everyone else just feels disinterested and playing it all on autopilot. It's almost as if they all knew this one was going to suck.

It does. So you can skip it and not miss a single storybeat.