If Resident Evil was the appetizer, Resident Evil: Apocalypse is definitely the meat and potatoes of the series. In all seriousness (and enough with the food metaphors), Resident Evil: Apocalypse is so radically bigger in just about every area it makes Resident Evil seem like just an overly-long prologue.

How is it bigger? Well, there’s more zombies, more fights, bigger sets, and bigger explosions. As much as I enjoyed the first Resident Evil movie, at times it felt like a Sci-Fi channel made for TV movie. The small interior spaces and bad CGI effects made it painfully obvious it was shot on a budget. Lucky for us, it must have been a moderate success because the directors have invested those profits in making a spectactular sequel.

Resident Evil: Apocalypse starts off right where the first film left off. Alice wakes up in a hospital (28 Days Later style) to find an empty Racoon City ravaged by the deadly (or should I say un-deadly) T-Virus. The Umbrella Corporation in dealing with the outbreak evacuates its important scientists out of the city. In doing so, one of the scientists’ daughter gets left behind as the entire city is quarantined.

Several sub-plots all converge around this girl as Alice, police officer Jill Valentine, a reporter, Umbrella Corp security team members, and an exaggerated stereotype of a black guy all work to save this girl in order to ensure a safe passage out of the city by her father. They fight their way through hordes of zombies only to meet up with the Nemesis - a freakishly strong, genetically engineered zombie that was formerly Matt Addison (the only other surivor of the first movie). Alice, who is also endowed with super-human powers from the Umbrella corporation and the Nemesis square off in a flashy fight. Finally whoever is left escape via helicopter just a nuclear warhead hits the city.

There are lots of minor sub-plots going on through the movie that I didn’t include in my overall plot description, but they’re not worth going into detail much. The plot, for the most part, is rather silly, but that’s not the appeal of the Resident Evil movies - it’s the over-the-top action, which abounds in this movie. Motorcycles that go flying through the air and then are shot with a gun and explode, loads of zombie killing, helicopter crashes, that sort of thing.

Unfortunately our beef with the first film still holds true here. Resident Evil: Apocalypse just isn’t a scary movie. I also really missed the Marilyn Manson soundtrack of  Resident Evil. For whatever reason, they decided to make it a more orchestral score that’s just plain boring. Finally the last 10 minutes (which I won’t spoil for you) was so cheesy it left a sour taste in my mouth despite liking the rest of the movie.

If you liked the first Resident Evil movie, chances are you’ll like the sequel even more.  If classic zombies are more your thing, you might want to pass.

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