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The film’s plot (a term used loosely here) revolves around Alice’s continuing fight against Umbrella, the corporation responsible for infecting the world’s humans with a virus that turns them into flesh eating monsters. The plague has spread to epidemic proportions and the human race is in imminent danger of extinction. The resistance needs Alice – as the only person immune to the T virus – to help counter the plague. What follows is a full scale attack on Umbrella’s facility, in an attempt to break Alice, who is trapped, out.

In lieu of a regular three act structure, we simply follow Alice through a bunch of simulated battles in which she fights for her life against various monsters and backdrops such as Tokyo and New York. She makes her way through Umbrella simulation centre’s different chambers until she meets up with the rebels and together they try to find a way out before they’re discovered and murdered. Simply put, the film is one big, boring fight sequence, occasionally punctuated by the odd pizzazz-less one liner.

Jovovich purses her lips and frowns whenever tasked with speaking, which she and the rest of the cast do with toneless voices and wooden expressions. The fight scenes on the other hand are slightly more animated though if there was ever an argument to be made against the use of slow motion, this is it. It’s overused to the point that the film, which barely clocks in at an hour and a half as it is, wouldn’t have lasted an hour at regular speed.

Rodriguez, professional badass, is one of the film’s few bright spots. She continues her trend of dying in every film she’s in and does so here, in spectacular fashion, no less than three different times. She shows more personality than Jovovich and her face actually has a range of expressions. Engineer, who plays Alice’s daughter Becky, is another highlight and out acts most if not all of the adults in the film. There isn’t much more to her role than looking scared but, through her relationship with her mother, she manages to make us care a little about Alice; a feat unto itself.

The ending, which teases yet another sequel with an all out war ensuing between Alice and Umbrella, looking every bit as bad as this instalment, is by far the film’s lowest point. On the one hand, you’re overjoyed that the credits have started to roll while on the other, you’re wondering where the rest of the film is and despairing over the fact that the series reaps enough profit to justify splitting what is barely enough material for one part, into two. And no, the zombies and fights are not enough to keep anyone entertained. The visuals look terribly videogame-like and the zombies just keep sprouting tentacles out of their mouths, over and over again.