The second attempt at a Resident Evil film, well…for some it went better. For others it went worse and there doesn’t seem to he an in-between. But, where do I fall? I actually like this one, well as much as I can like any of these films.
Synopsis:
A deadly virus from a secret Umbrella Corporation laboratory underneath Raccoon City is exposed to the world. Umbrella seals off the city to contain the virus, creating a ghost town where everyone trapped inside turns into a mutant zombie. Alice (Milla Jovovich), a survivor from Umbrella’s secret lab, meets former Umbrella security officer Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory) and mercenary Carlos Oliviera (Oded Fehr). Together, they search for a scientist (Jared Harris) who might be able to help.
We finally get characters from the video games in this film. The first one really should have had Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine, but we got nothing. Jill does make her first film appearance here in Apocalypse and I think he is cast well with Sienna Guillory playing the part. The other character added, felt like a perfect choice, Carlos Oliviera from Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. I say perfect choice for two reasons, Carlos in the film works for Umbrella and he does in the game and two he was very memorable in Resident Evil 3 and his relationship with Jill Valentine was great. They’re no Leon Kennedy and Ada Wong.
Other cast members included Mike Epps as LJ, Jared Harris as Dr. Ashford, Thomas Kretchmann as Major Cain and Iain Glen as Dr. Isaacs, more on him in the next film.
Dr. Ashford keeps the plot moving forward as he recruits Alice and others to find his daughter for passage out of the city. Eventually they meet up and work together. Meanwhile, Cain has sent the Nemesis out to clean up after the mess Umbrella has caused, targeting mostly S.T.A.R.S. members. I will say, for what they did, Nemesis didn’t look half bad.
Alice gets to fight the Nemesis, which was kind of awkward in my opinion. Milla Jovovich is able to move without issue, while the stuntman in make-up is lumbering around. This caused the fight to be short and uninspired.
Most of the movie has Alice and her crew making their way through the zombie infested Racoon City. This was kind of the bright spot of the film. We get to have the zombie movie vibes with some outrageous action sequences, which to me turn out totally fun.
Resident Evil Apocalypse isn’t a great piece of film history by any means. It is fun, stupid and not really one to delve to deeply on. I enjoyed it more than the first for it being more of a zombie film that actually felt like Resident Evil 3 and giving us a couple of legacy characters from the games.
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis has a 6.1 score on IMDB and a whopping 19% on stupid Rotton Tomatoes. I agree with IMDB and have it t 6.1.
Thanks for reading this one and come back for the next film, Resident Evil Extinction. Once I finish reviewing all the live action films, I will rank them all. I do prefer Apocalypse to the 2002 original.
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