Movie Picture Milla Jovovich running down the side of a high-rise building...

Milla and Sienna Guillroy, guns blazing, toned bodies flying, as they help a little girl escape a catastrophic accident that has shut down Raccoon City...

And, of course, big, tongue-lashing, scary-looking, zombies...

These are some of the images from an exclusive preview of Resident Evil 2: Apocalypsethat was hosted by one of its stars, Oded Fehr, as part of E3 this week in Los Angeles.

The sequel to the $100 million hit, Resident Evil 2: Apocalypseis likewise based on the video game -- one of the few translations from game to movie that worked. Now to beat the curse of the game-into-movie sequel, they’ve added a new director (Alexander Witt), bigger action and Fehr who plays "Carlos Olivera." Straight out of RE3: The Game, Carlos is the Umbrella Corporation troubleshooter assigned to try to eliminate the deadly virus that threatens to make every human undead. And as the actor who plays him, Fehr was pleased both with special effects and the challenge of a sequel.

A charming guy who takes his success as an action star with amusement, Fehr introduced the trailer and answered questions from a small press gathering. With his former director Stephen Sommers having a giant kickoff for his latest actioner Van Helsingthis past weekend, Fehr praised both Resident Evil 2 first time director Witt and Sommer who cast Fehr as "Ardeth Bey" in the Mummy series and launched his action career. "I don’t really like guns," Fehr admits, who has fired old weapons in Mummy and ultra-modern ones in this. But it was the story that attracted him to RE:2that, from the trailer, seems to have amped up the action to create a franchise reminiscent of Alien-- and with bigger monsters.

"Why are zombies always so hostile?" Fehr was asked.

"It’s more dramatic that way," Fehr said. "We joked about it on the set, what if they walked by you on the street having breakfast or something, where’s the drama in that?"

For Fehr, it’s the character that counts most in movies like this and he is pleased with his work in RE:2. Despite its sci-fi premise, all involved tried to ground the action in real behavior. "I think of Harrison Ford in Raiders," said Fehr. "He’s really scared. He doesn’t think he’s going to live through this, and that’s the way I like to play it."

But the questions were mostly about how RE:2 stacks up to the first. In the sequel, fashion babe Milla Jovovich is back. She’s been undergoing bio-genetic experimentation at the hands of the corrupt Umbrella Corporation which gives her powers beyond imagination -- thus her ability to run down the sides of buildings. "Milla does some amazing things in this movie," Fehr said. "Milla is just a little more than human."

And Resident Evil 2: Apocalypsemay be better than the original. "It’s going to be the action movie of September," Fehr said with a smile. "Can we all agree on that?"

- Blake Snyder