For yet another entry in the "Mark and Alex go to the movies" file, we turn to Resident Evil: Apocalypse. The sequel to 2002's Resident Evil doesn't disappoint, especially since it stars Severe Hottie Milla Jovovich. Following a growing trend, the film was based on the game by Capcom in which you more or less have to kill zombies. In the movie, Milla and her friends kill a lot of zombies. This movie, though, has a plot. And here it goes (with spoilers!).

Raccoon City is home to an underground research facility for the ubiquitously-named Umbrella Corporation. The corporation has released some zombie virus into Raccoon City in order to see how well it works, but first it rescues some of its top scientists. One of the scientists has a daughter whose whereabouts are unknown, and he refuses to go to a secret hiding place until she is found. He finds a way to contact Milla and some renegade security personnel (they're renegade in that they've switched from the side of evil to the side of good) and tells them he can evacuate them if they find his daughter. Meanwhile, Umbrella is test-launching its newest creation, Nemesis, to fight Milla, who turns out to be another one of its genetically-engineered projects. Nemesis is big and ugly and has more teeth than head. But the whole thing explodes in the face of the evil, German-accented director of the Umbrella corporation when Milla realizes that Nemesis is her buddy from the last movie, whom we last saw mutating into ... well, into something. And in the end, good triumphs over evil.

Resident Evil: Apocalypse carries on a recent trend of scientifically explaining the existence of zombies. Years ago, Return of the Living Dead introduced us to a scientific explanation for people becoming undead: the military created some sort of chemical that reanimates dead tissue and turns living tissue into undead tissue. In 28 Days Later, a virus of some sort caused people to become zombies. Now, in both Resident Evil films, the trend continues. The "classic" George A. Romero zombie films -- Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead -- never explain why exactly people suddenly turn into zombies. It just sort of happens. These original films were moral plays: something outside our power turned human beings evil (the most likely proxy for "something outside our power" is God; imagine if, instead of burning down Sodom and Gomorrah, God turned everyone there into zombies). In the more modern zombie films, we have done this to ourselves. This trend takes its cue from dystopian literature, wherein, more often than not, something man tries to do to make life better ends up making life worse. Contemporary zombie films show a deep mistrust of science instead of making statements about the consequences of our lack of ethics. The suggestion that, instead of helping us, science will actually hurt us.

Resident Evil: Apocalypse also continues the popular mistrust of the corporation. The name "Umbrella Corporation" suggests that this company, like an umbrella, closes over and controls all things. The same fear of the totalitarian corporation-state is manifested in Robocop, Alien, and Blade Runner (and to a more satiric degree, the WeSaySo corporation from the TV show Dinosaurs). Corporations will go to any length to make money and, more importantly, gain power. The government is powerless to stop these corporations, since they are at their mercy, and the corporations have little care for human life unless it affects their bottom line (although, in Blade Runner, the corporation has little care for android life, but recall that these androids are so lifelike as to be indistinguishable from humans, so there is no functional difference). These films, though, never imply a trust of the government, for the government is usually also subordinated to the corporation. There is a fear of large, nameless, faceless entities which have the ability to control the lives of human beings. No one likes to think that his life is under the control of someone or something else, and in these films, we often see some sort of "renegade" taking control of the situation, releasing himself from the agency of this corporation and taking his life back into his own hands.

This film is quite worth its money, and there will definitely be another sequel, if the end is any indication. If you like lots of shooting and lots of zombies, then this is a great film. Or, there's always Milla Jovovich. I had hot women in front of me and next to me. What a great night at the movies!