Review #116: Resident Evil 2: Apocalypse (2004)

Cast/Notable Credits:
Alexander Witt (Director): 1st Movie

Milla Jovovich (Alice): Resident Evil

Sienna Guillory (Jill Valentine): The Rules of Engagement (1999), The Time Machine (2002), Helen of Troy (2003), Eragon (2006)

Oded Fehr (Carlos Olivera): Resident Evil 3, The Mummy 1 (1999) & 2 (2001), Texas Rangers (2001), Deuce Bigalow 1 (1999) & 2 (2005)

Thomas Kretshamann (Major Cain): U-571 (2000), Blade 2 (2002), The Pianist (2002), King Kong (2005), Next (2007), Wanted (2008), Valkyrie (2008)

Razaaq Adoti (Peyton Wells): Amistad (1997), Black Hawks Down (2001), Doom (2005)

Jared Harris (Dr. Ashford): Natural Born Killers (1994), Oceans Twelve (2004)

Mike Epps (LJ): Resident Evil 3, How High (2001), Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001)

Sandrine Holt (Terri Morales): Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002), Starship Troopers 2 (2004)

Zack Ward (Nicholai): Freddy vs. Jason, Transformers (2007), BloodRayne 2 (2007), Alone in the Dark 2 (2008)

Trailer:



Resident Evil Link

Short version of the plot: Raccoon City has been infected with the T-virus and zombies roam the city. Trapped inside are a few people lead by Alice trying to find the daughter of a top level Umbrella Corporation scientist for exchange of safe passage out of the city.

Initially I liked Apocalypse better than the original film, but after a few viewings it just didn't hold up over time. I think at first I was drawn in by the idea of a city barricaded in full of blood thirsty zombies...and the nice skimpy Jill Valentine outfit...but after watching it a couple times, I pulled the wool blanket from my eyes and saw the lesser film of the two Resident Evils.

Maybe the cynic in me surfaced for this film. My first problem I had in the film was the barricade around the city. Within 13 hours of the discovery and breakout of the T-virus and zombies out of the Hive, the Umbrella Corporation had set up a wall around the metropolitan preventing anyone from leaving. Really? 13 hours to build the Great Wall of China around Raccoon City? The Chinese gotta be jealous of the Umbrella Corporation.

The next thing I didn't like about the film was the Nemesis project storyline. I know it probably has something to do with the video game storyline and lore, but I didn't like it in the film. So zombies have overrun the city and the Umbrella Corporation decides to play a game of cat and mouse with their experimental super zombie soldier (Nemesis).

They turn the super zombie soldier on anything that resembles a plausible challenge including the surviving members of an elite police force named STARS. Nemesis easily wipes them out during his campaign trail of wrath and destruction through the city. Yawn!

Eventually he comes across Alice and friends. We learn that Alice has mutated with the T-virus into some type of super soldier woman and the other dude that survived from the first film also mutated and turned into the mutant super zombie soldier. Now they must battle each other to survive. Boring.

Lost in the background of the film is the true interesting story...the zombie infestation. That storyline takes a backseat to many other useless plot lines in the film. The zombies pop up occasionally, but I never felt that the survivors of the city were in any intimate danger from them. The only real danger the survivors faced was whether they would escape the city before the "nuke" came in and cleaned up the mess. Should have made the zombies more dangerous and prominent in the film!

Another thing in the film that bugged me was the random events and action sequences put in to pass the time. I was pretty bored with most of those scenes. There were many scenes that offered no little to the outcome or storyline of the film.

Out with the negatives and In with the positives!

This sequel actually delivered better in a group of likable characters compared to the last film. The first Resident Evil, I only cared about Michelle Rodriguez and Milla. Apocalypse actually gave the audience a little bit more from it's secondary characters.

Carlos and Mrs. Valentine gave us some pretty strong supporting characters. Carlos is a bad*ss soldier that can easily be rooted for. He is played by Oded Fehr, who was the stud from the first two Mummy movies. NOT BRENDAN FRASIER! The other guy. The Arab.

On to the sweet Mrs. Valentine. This is where my focus on the movie gets tainted. She's so sexy wearing her blue tube top shirt, black mini skirt and black leather boots. Yummy! I just can't focus beyond that. The whole movie could have had her walking up and down the street, and it would have pleased me.

Milla did a wayyyy better acting job than she did in the first movie. It's probably her best performance out of the Resident Evil trilogy. She does a fine job being the "tough" super chick.

Overall this sequel lacked the punch needed to carry the series further (even though they made a third). It was a great idea with the city being locked down and infested with zombies, but I believe there was poor execution in the final product. I'm surprised that Paul W.S. Anderson didn't direct, but was less surprised when I saw that he wrote it.

Misc. Movie Trivia:
-Film opened on September 10, 2004 and made $50.7 million at the Box Office ($23 million opening weekend)
-Natasha Henstridge was originally casted for the role of Jill Valentine
-Snoop Dogg was originally casted for the role of LJ...now that would have been fun!