The original film wasn’t the bloody and gory flick everyone was expecting thanks to Sony Pictures wanting an audience-friendly director Anderson instead of zombie flick king George. A. Romero. It also took a rather more modern approach to the storytelling and the familiar mansion setting of the first game was swapped in favour of a state of the art secret lab. Nevertheless Resident Evil was just about on the right side of the fence when it came to game-to-movie adaptations. Coming out when the Resident Evil game craze was at a dip it didn’t set the box office alight but predictably did well on rental providing us with a sequel and one with a bigger budget.

For those who hate Paul Anderson, and it seems there are a few out there, he didn’t take directive control for this film (he was working on, or messing up depending on your stance, Alien VS Predator) but he did write and produce most of it. Stating that the first film served as an introduction he wanted this film to feel more like a Resident Evil game. The statement certainly seems to be true. The film is best likened to the Resident Evil 3: Nemesis game this pretty much seems like the movie take on it. The film focuses firmly on the action side of things and doesn’t really let go from the start and you are forever being whisked away from one scene to the next with very little time to take in what just happened. This can mean, then, that despite some great bits in the film there isn’t going to be a defining moment that sticks out in your mind when you reach the end. This doesn’t mean the story isn’t completely lost, though it certainly seems to be in the shadows in favour of the action proceedings which in fairness is what many people would want. We are introduced to Dr Ashford (Jared Harris) and his daughter (Sophie Vavasseur) who fans will know as being the family that spawned the T Virus, the Dr intending it to be used for good before Umbrella got their hands on him but that’s pretty much the only real Resident Evil backdrop we get.

Like the first film, though, Apocalypse is far from perfect. For those fans who are pedantic about such things then it does mess with the classic Resident Evil timeline somewhat but this wont be noticeable to all but the truly obsessed. Some of the directing on some of the fight scenes could have done with a bit of a calming down. They certainly seem like they should look impressive. Milla runs, jumps and punches with the best of them but it’s a shame that we don’t get to see it in the best light. The camera is all over the place, zooming in and out and all around so quickly that makes it impossible to actually focus on the probably quite-good fight going on. Also with the focus seemingly on massive set pieces it loses its way slightly in the fact it’s meant to be a horror film. You’d think a city plagued by zombies would offer a few good scares, and there are a few jumpy moments but the fact is the zombies and their undead monster cohorts aren’t really used to full effect. Nemesis is bound to be a sticking point for some. He looks okay (just) and manages to utter that ‘STARSSSS’ line he likes to say so much in the game but the film portrays him as a sort of anti hero which doesn’t sit at all well with the whole vibe of him in the games.

All in all Resident Evil: Apocalypse entertains well but, like the original, doesn’t really do enough to make it stand out too much from other films out there. It’s also disappointing that it doesn’t really take full advantage of the zombies running amuck on a city. That said it still is fun to watch and those who liked the first film and the games are sure to enjoy this, whether we get a third film to cap it all off remains to be seen but as a sequel it sticks to what it did well in the first film but doesn’t fix much of the problems either.