St. Ignatius's The Eye: Volume LXXIX Number II

Last Friday night I had a hankering to see a movie—any movie. I wanted anything to take a break from a crazy, homework filled school week. However, when my friend suggested the new Resident Evil movie, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, I was quite reluctant. First of all, it was a sequel. In my opinion sequels don’t have a good track record (especially after Spiderman 2). I was wrong, and, thankfully, after much consideration, I was finally persuaded to see this actionpacked film.
    The film begins where the last one left off. Heroine of the movie, Alice (played by Milla Jovovich), wakes up without any recollection of what she has just been through and finds herself in a deserted science lab. She had been head of security for the Umbrella Corporation, the largest conglomerate in the country, when a deadly experimental virus (the T-Virus) had escaped its vacuum-packed room and began spreading throughout the facilities. One sniff of this and you are dead, but the catch is—you are not truly debilitated. The dead soon become the undead and if bitten by one, you too are infected. These zombies escape Umbrella’s underground facilities and begin terrorizing the fictional town of Raccoon City. Umbrella Corp., with all the powers of a government, blockade the city, and unbeknownst to the townspeople, plan to nuke the infested zombie haven. Alice teams up with Raccoon City cop Jill Valentine, played by Sienna Guillory, and her partner. The remainder of the film features the pretty group searching for a scientist’s daughter who promises them a way out of the doomed city if they can retrieve his child, while encountering zombies and the terrorizing maching, “nemesis”. All this chaos culminates into a twisty ending that will leave you on pins and needles and have you eagerly awaiting the undoubted arrival of a third edition.
    Overall, this movie gets my rating of 6.5 out of 10. Although there was not very much of a thought-inspiring plot, and the acting was quite lacking, the movie made up for this in scenery and action.
    The gritty, gory, and quickly shot scenes are enough to leave one staring at the screen, unblinking. Uneven shots have a great effect on any action movie, especially this one. The goriness is not over the top (not that there is anything wrong with that), but provides just enough excitement.
    However, the movie was not as scary as I had expected. The only terrifying scene is when a reporter is eaten by a mass of undead school children (reminiscent of Village of the Damned). There is a slight touch of humor in movie, which serves as a break from the repetitive zombie killing, but is not always appropriate in such a serious situation.
    Resident Evil: Apocalypse is a movie to see when you just don’t feel like thinking. You could fall asleep and wake up in the middle of the movie and you wouldn’t have missed much in the way of plot development. Even if you find the acting and plot to be sub par, the action will keep you glued to the screen. If you want to see a good zombie flick, rent 28 Days Later. Don’t count on Resident Evil to fill your desire to view flesh tearing beasts. Even so, I still recommend that everybody see this movie on a lazy Friday night.