Resident Evil: Apocalypse

Alice, a former member of the Umbrella Corporation, barely survived the biohazard in The Hive.  But now the T-Virus has escaped to the surface, infecting Racoon City.  As the streets become filled with the Undead, Alice and a small band of survivors must hurry to escape before Umbrella can destroy the city to cover up their involvement in this disaster.  But more than undead zombies stand before them.  Newer, far deadlier results of the T-Virus have appeared; among them the dreaded Nemesis.  Alice thought she’d escaped the nightmare…but it’s only just begun.

The first Resident Evil ended with a solid cliffhanger and the promise of seeing the zombie action reach the streets of Raccoon City.  Then it was announced that series mainstays Jill Valentine and Carlos Olivera along with the Nemesis, one of the greatest video game bosses of all time, would appear.  Maybe this would be the Resident Evil movie everyone wanted to see.  And then we had to remember some characters would be back and…well I wont say that this is the Mortal Kombat: Annihilation of the franchise.  But as a sequel to a so-so video game adaptation, Resident Evil: Apocalypse somehow manages to do things worse than its predecessor and, therefore, chart the course by which the franchise would proceed.

To its credit, Apocalypse does take place almost entirely in Raccoon City, which is a smart move.  RC is probably the most recognizable setting of the Resident Evil franchise and the film takes inspiration from the two games to use said setting: Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis.  Ok, that’s a good start.  The zombie hordes are handled well and the fight for survival does indeed produce some fun action sequences.  The search for Angela Ashford in her abandoned school is probably the best part of the movie, with some genuine scares and the closest you come to a classic Resident Evil experience.  There’s even greater promise when the Nemesis first appears on screen…but that’s only for a quick instant, time to get into the bad cause I feel like that’s all the good I have to say about this one.

Resident Evil 2 and 3, the video games, both had good stories to tell which ran parallel to one another.  As I said, Apocalypse borrows elements from both: the main characters and villain from 3 and the mission to protect a young girl from 2.  The only problem is Alice.  Rather than spacing these stories around Jill and Carlos, Alice is front and center once again and is ingrained in every facet of Apocalypse, to the point where you wonder why Jill and Carlos are here at all.  Oh and Alice has super powers now, or is at least starting to show signs of developing them.  When she’s able to handle zombies and super monsters like theyre nothing and your video game favorites can barely hold their own, you are bound to lose the good will of Resident Evil’s core fanbase.  Jill and Carlos aren’t even just bystanders.  Sienna Guillory feels miscast as Jill, fighting her accent more than the undead.  I don’t mind Oded Fehr as Carlos, if anything he’s put to more use than Jill. 

Ugh, the Nemesis though.  Basically just a walking prosthetic, this is a far cry from the Bio Weapon that tormented Jill Valentine in the game that bore his name.  Sure he can use gatling guns and rocket launchers but he moves so slow, so tedious and lumbering and every time you see Nemesis on screen, he loses more and more of his intimidation and terror.  And while he may utter his infamous “Stars” line, it means nothing here.  Yeah, Nemesis takes out a small squad of S.T.A.R.S officers in one segment.  But his target in Apocalypse isn’t survivors of the elite team…yep it’s Alice, because God forbid you try and do anything right by the source material.  There’s even an attempt to justify his connection to Alice by some last second revelations but theyre as weak as you’d expect  Nemesis is a means to an end and even then he’s eventually just kind of an afterthought. 

Resident Evil: Apocalypse had a chance to rectify the shortcomings of its predecessor and give fans of the beloved video game what they always wanted to see.  Instead, it doubles down on the poorly received original characters approach and sidelines the franchises most famous faces and monsters.  Some of the action is a little fun but its not enough to overrule Apocalypse’s massive shortcomings.  At this point, if you want a true Resident Evil experience in Raccoon City, just go and play the Resident Evil 2 and 3 remakes, you can thank yourself later.

3/10