The primary female characters were Alice (Milla Jovovich), Claire Redfield (Ali Larter), Betty (Ashanti), and K-Mart (Spencer Locke). The first image one sees at the beginning of the film is Alice half naked on the bottom of a shower stall. This is an example of physical and sexual objectification. There is a pattern of horror, suspense, and action movies where at some point in the film a woman or several women are sexually vulnerable and / or physically objectified. It is as if these film makers are saying, "We can have a woman with a lead role as long as she looks sexy doing it. We need to make sure we see some skin somewhere."

Particularly disappointing was the racial stereotyping of Betty. As soon as L.J. (Mike Epps) is hurt by one of the infected, nurse Betty comes to the rescue. 99.9% of the healing was a lot of flirting between the two characters. After the flirting was over with, Betty takes her exit, but not without a 3 second camera shot of her butt as she waved it side to side for the camera. I wonder if the director said to Ashanti, "Move your ass from side to side like that ... oh no, like that ... yeah, that looks sexier." Of all the female characters, Betty was the most objectified character. This is a typical "Sapphire" black female stereotype that goes back to the slavery era in the U.S.:

Sapphire, the wise-cracking, balls-crushing, emasculating woman, is usually shown with her hands on her hips and her head thrown back as she lets everyone know she is in charge. [source]

Not only was Betty the most blatantly physically objectified character in the film, but she is also the martyr. Many people are familiar with how the black male usually dies first in the film. This time it occurs for the black female. This martyrdom is no surprise in the racial hierarchy of American film. It is not popular to have a lead female character, and it is certainly not popular to have a lead black female character outlast her fellow white female protagonists. In films, writers have the privilege of discriminating on which characters are to die first. More often than not, if there is a black character or anyone who is not white in the film, the person ironically gets killed. The opposite is the case for Alien vs. Predator, where Alexa Woods (Sanna Lathan) outlasts her male co-stars and ends up as the heroine of the film. There's one caveat to her survival: there were no white female characters that co-star with her. She outlasted all white male co-stars. A heroine, and a black one at that, is truly atypical in pop movies.

Claire Redfield was the only female character not continuously physically objectified in the film. She was the leader of the group.

How could this flim be feminist friendly and still maintain it’s pop appeal?

1. Heroines should not be required by film makers to be sexually objectified. No woman in a film should be required to be physically or sexually objectified.

2. Write films without black female stereotypes. Black female stereotypes are not necessary to impress an audience.