Resident Evil as a franchise is one of the most successful genre game series there is, whether it could survive in films was confirmed by both the original and by Apocalypse. Making a third, although using a tried and tested method capitalised upon by DOOM, had its risks of being caught by sequelitis, the horrible disease which eventually afflicts and drags down franchises that don’t know when to stop.

The film is essentially the same as any before it. Super person vs. Zombies, super person wins, eventually. Until either killed off by a sequel or the Zombies disappointingly are gone. However this time, it’s even more doom-full then before, pretty much everyone has died and from zombie horror the movie has transformed to post-apocalyptic thriller. A confusing start giving you flashbacks on the first of the series is followed by a dull, emotionless introduction by the main actress herself, Milla Jovovich. Let’s be honest, she’s better doing cool flips and cutting up weird mutants then she is at the sparse bits of dialogue she has to struggle her way through.

Ok ok, she is one of the coolest and sexiest heroines on screen, unless you’ve seen Underworld…

The film centres around miss impossible joining a group of survivors, trekking across the west of America looking for anyone left, with a few crazy zombie… or zombie crow… scenes thrown in.

Worryingly the Zombie Crows were the scariest part of the film

As with every film of it’s type, RE3 relies upon so many cool scenes that even if the film were to be absolute throw-it-in-the-fire trash you’d be able to remember those scenes to recount to your mates for years, to the point all you can remember is them, and suddenly think “I want to see them again!” And in this category, as with it’s predecessors, it does remarkably well. From the “Sorry Stevie” opening to the final words it gives you plenty of moments to smile at and want to quote or mime at any possible opportunity. However, sometimes you’re just left thinking “well why didn’t she just do the funky flamey thing again”. The film didn’t ever really set a pace of increasing “cool” to keep you satisfied, after a bit you find ordinary fighting just plain boring.

And I’ll admit, the girl in aviators was both hotter and cooler then the main character, which took away her thunder a little. I’ve always been someone for a lass with a shotgun.

The cool fire thingy… if only she had just kept doing it the film would have been a lot shorter

However, maybe I’m being a little harsh. The fight scenes are pretty cool, in fact very cool. They’re just not as good as they could be. There isn’t a sense of escalating intensity like there should be. That is until the big baddie starts sprouting tentacles… The rhythmical music makes the fights even more high-adrenaline then they already are and adds something resembling urgency to the occasional image of emotionless faces as they face up another enemy, somewhat of a saving grace for those moments.

Attempting to include too many characters resulted in an under-exploration of the main ones.

As much as this film is supposed to be slightly tongue-in-cheek, the evil genius behind it all is just too much of an evil genius. There is no character exploration, no doubts, he is needlessly cruel with no background reason… to his own scientists. And this doesn’t stop here, it is true of almost all the characters. The acting is shabby, dialogue poorly written and clichéd, character relationships shallow or unexplored at all. I know this is a game-based horror sequel but a little effort would have gone a long way to improve the non-action sequences. Most of these are taken up bull the dull actionless and dialogue-dumbed travelling through the middle section of the film, followed by the similar lack of intensity in the psyche up for the last fight, which included some almost despairingly fake crying.

The final fight is equally disappointing, no cloud of flames, just a clone with a keyboard. The final boss manages to last a grand total of five minutes weirdly interchanging between. Animal roars and completely unaltered vocals, which jars you out of the moment somewhat. What’s worse is that immediately before the film does away with all the unnecessary characters it introduced in the first place, leaving you with no idea what happens to them at all.

After such successes as the first two of the series, and other game-based horrors DOOM and Silent Hill, this film was a disappointment. It stuck to a formula which had been perfected already and failed to hit the par of what game fans would be looking for. On the plus side, the ending was a perfect lead up to a much more spectacular sequel. But once sequalitis has been caught, it might never go away.