Back Down the Rabbit Hole
Alice Kicks Zombie Butt in Resident Evil Sequel

When we last left Alice (Milla Jovovich) at the end of Resident Evil, she had awakened in Raccoon City Hospital following her escape from the zombie-infested Hive complex. Staggering through the empty corridors, Alice found her way outside. There she discovered a world in the aftermath of zombie armageddon. Resident Evil: Apocalypse starts with Alice's escape from the Hive and fills in the days missing from Alice's memory.

The Umbrella Corporation (think of it as an evil conglomeration of Microsoft, Lockheed Martin, and Johnson & Johnson) has re-entered the Hive and in doing so released the T-virus that turns the dead into zombies. The company, however, is seeing this as a profitable opportunity for their "Nemesis" project. Using Matt (Eric Mabius, from the first movie) as their subject, the UC wants to create the perfect fighting soldier. The carnage in Raccoon City is the perfect testing ground for their new "recruit."

Whereas Resident Evil was very much a video game movie, RE: Apocalypse is in many ways a video game sequel. The plot reads like another level of the same game. Instead of fighting through the zombie hoard in the underground Hive complex, Alice is trying to stay alive on the streets of Raccoon City. Along the way, she finds some new companions, but they are as uninteresting as the zombies.

The fact that the characters are only identifiable by their cardboard-thin dossiers makes them less than notable. There's the TV reporter (Sandrine Holt) who won't put her video camera down to save her life. There's also a rogue cop (Sienna Guillory) who isn't afraid to put a bullet through your head if she thinks you might be infected with the T-virus. And, finally, there's the friendly military guy (Oded Fehr) who was left for dead by his employer: the UC. Naturally, he's re-evaluating his company loyalty.

Included in the threadbare plot is a bit of an Escape from New York rip-off. A scientist's daughter was supposed to have been evacuated from Raccoon City in the first wave. Because of a car accident, she is missing but presumed alive. (Why alive? I have no idea.) The scientist, using a network of security cameras and payphones, contacts Alice and offers to provide her an exit from the city if she can save his daughter. The catch is that they only have until sunrise to get out. (There's always a time limit in a video game like this.) At sun-up, the city is going to be "sanitized" by the Umbrella Corporation.

Missing from this film is the added complexity of dealing with a crazy computer. The Red Queen in Resident Evil was a cold, spooky kind of villain. The Nemesis is just a big mutant with guns. The fact that there is actually a final "smackdown" between Alice and Nemesis is a bad punchline to a stupid joke. That one scene defines RE: Apocalypse as an action flick instead of a horror/action movie. Unlike the original, the sequel fails to become even moderately frightening. The zombies (whether adults, children, or dogs) are not the real threat in the film. The only threat is the Corporation and the pending destruction of the city.

While I enjoyed the original Resident Evil, with its blend of horror and action elements, RE: Apocalypse is merely more of the same -- only less so. For fans of the video game, it might be worth checking out in the theater. For the rest of us, it's definitely the kind of movie that can wait for DVD.

MY RATING: 5 out of 10.

RATED: R
RUN TIME: 93 min.