Up front I'll admit it is as a bad as most reviews say it is. However I really enjoyed the first one and if you did too you might enjoy this one but the first was definately better. I mean this movie was rubbish but I went to it in the full knowledge that it was rubbish and did my best to turn off my brain and enjoy it for what it was. Shaun of the Dead had better zombies, more gore and better in almost every way than this film, with the exception of big explosions and big action set pieces.
Resident Evil Apocalypse has more zombies, more characters, more action more explosions and it has turned out expensive and overblown. With zombie movies less usually more (cheap but effective). The first Resident Evil had a much simpler premise and smaller central cast, and original and interesting looking locations. The contrast of the claustraphobic tunnels crammed full of zombies slowly groping against the harsh sterile cleanliness of the laboratory worked well. The wide open locations of a city make it much harder to convincingly make things look crowded. Toronto, err I mean Racoon City is nice and all but although a few of the locations looked interesting but they should have done more with it. Despite lifting many scenes from the first film they cut early failed to show the spectacular overhead shot that finished the first film. So much could have been done with the contrast of a clean modern city turned to a rotting barren wasteland.
The zombies were not very scary or gruesome. What makes them scary is their relentlessmess and sheer force of numbers but lots of gore and hideous make up would have helped. The Nemisis however does look impressive but is not scary either.
There is no subtext in this film. There is not very much text either, this film is severly lacking in plot and characterisation but even so more could certainly have been made of the material. The potential to make an interesting comment about corporate America was wasted by casting a German (European at least) as the villian. The Robocop films had the villians in the form of the OCP (Omni Consumer Products) executives which were all the more sinster by their being superficially slick and clean-cut but incredibly ruthless and greedy businessmen underneath. Other movies have also used zombies to make interesting commentaries on consumerism but both yet another opportunity wasted. The zombie children could have been truly terrifying, but only appeared very briefly. After one fight scene is over some of the characters break out of their bonds, but if instead they had been shown to have freed themselves at the start of the fight then there could have been some hint of tension, a suggestion that something enexpected could happen. For a brief moment during the fight there was a shot of the girl Angelica and I hoped that she might do something unexpected but no such luck. There were so many scenes that blatantly telegraphed what was about to happen - particularly the appearance of the zombie dogs - alternatively surprises came out of nowhere with no real build up. The flashbacks Alice had were often too late and only worked as additional explanation after fact instead of heightening the situation.
There was something very sexy about the red dress and black boots Alice (Milla Jovovich) wore in the first film. Very much aware of her own appeal Milla Jovovich jokingly finished an interview with the words "me in wet red dress, what more could you want!" but this film again fails to provide a costume to recapture this glamour. She does look rather cold throughout the film and there is a brief flash of nudity but this time around she is less sexy and more a grimier action heroine. Thankfully Jill Valentine (a character from the original video games) provided some additional glamour. She was wearing
her turquoise corset, black shorts and gunbelt and looked a whole lot like Tomb Raider to me, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
With a complete lack of subtlety in keeping with the rest of the movie we are informed that she is a some sort of a disgraced cop by a series of news paper cuttings conveniently left lying around.
In the rare cases they even try, the characterisation in this film is really poor.
Despite all the criticisms I have written I could probably write more but it is best not to give this film too much thought. I enjoyed the first Resident Evil and I went into it with low expectations and managed to enjoy it and I will probably see the sequel too and maybe even buy it up when it is available in the bargain basement bin at the video store. I still wouldn't recommend it and I'd rate it about 2/5.
(I'm probably going to rewrite this later and add some links and stuff, so consider this a rough draft.)