Resident Awful

Grade: F+

How many ways can "awful" be spelled? Off-uhl. Auffle. Forget it.

Paul W.S. Anderson, the writer behind such atrocities of modern film as "Alien Vs. Predator" and "Mortal Kombat," has drowned yet another potentially engaging project in "Resident Evil: Apocalypse."

The film begins where "Resident Evil" left off. Alice (Milla Jovovich) stands in the middle of an urban street, her weapon inexplicably and inconsistently having been changed from an axe to a pump-action shotgun.

The entire city has been exposed to the T-virus, which turns normal non-cannibal people into zombies who hunger for the flesh of their neighbors. Not only that, but the major corporation at the head of it all, the Umbrella Corp., has created a new biological weapon, known as Nemesis, and released it on the city. It is, of course, up to Alice and an interchangeable slew of others to make their way through the zombies and defeat Nemesis.

The first in the apparent three-part (minimum) series, "Resident Evil," was not a bad film. It at least didn't suffer from the sort of butchery that its anticipated sequel has. The plot is no more ludicrous than the first; it just fails to suspend disbelief for even a moment. That moment is lost when Alice drives her brand-new chopper through a cathedral's stained glass to land on and kill a monster, then pulls a wheelie so extreme the bike flies into the air, allowing her to shoot and blow it up along with a second monster.

Perhaps it would unfair to blame Anderson exclusively for the abominable display. After all, it takes teamwork to so effectively wreak havoc on an unsuspecting plot and cast.

Director Alexander Witt ("Pirates of the Caribbean," "The Bourne Identity") is certainly capable of better. This time around, however, he seems to have dropped the ball on his former knack for cool action sequences. To paraphrase a comment a friend made on another film, it looks like they filmed the action sequence by throwing the camera back and forth between two people.

And that is just the effect Witt has created. This is the type of camera work that actually prohibits the viewer from being certain who is winning any given fight. There was also not a single special effect worth appreciating.

The film borrowed heavily from the most famous sci-fi effects used in the last 15 years. It used, in chronological order, the thermo-vision of "Predator," the android point of view with computer instructions from "Terminator" and "T2," as well as the grossly overused bullet-time shot from the first "Matrix."

The film borrows most from another recent zombie-flick, "28 Days Later." There are equivalent scenes, plot points and even contextual dialogue. That scene where the daughter's father has to be put down when it's realized he's "been infected," is present here. Even the term "infected" is used exactly the same way in each film, with the disease being transferred by way of bites.

"28 Days Later" pulled off the zombie motif because it revolutionized the concept of the zombie, adding speed and even intelligence to the classically slow and easily duped villain. "Resident Evil: Apocalypse" traces over the concepts used in countless B-horror films.

At least the sound was loud enough to leave a ringing in the ears of anyone who doesn't sit front row to an average of three Aerosmith shows a week. Thanks to the strategic sub-woofer lambasting, one could hardly notice the constant hooting and hollering of those who got exactly that for which they were hoping.

To play on the Modest Mouse album title, it was good news for people who love bad movies.