RE Watch: Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)

For better or worse (definitely worse), I am now fully committed to watching all of the live-action Resident Evil movies. Although the first one immediately threatened to destroy all of my enthusiasm for this little project, I am pushing through. The world needs to know the truth about the second most successful movie franchise based on a video game series.

From what I can tell, opinions on Resident Evil: Apocalypse are somewhat varied. Don't get me wrong: no one is calling it a masterpiece, but some fans seem to think it is at least one of the better entries in the series. On the other hand, Rotten Tomatoes says it is the worst of the bunch and Roger Ebert called it "an utterly meaningless waste of time." He was also convinced that video games could not be art so I suppose that tracks. Dude, this is definitely art.

Although I do not yet have the context of the full series, I think I actually enjoyed Apocalypse more than its predecessor. It's not great but it is getting a little closer to what I had always imagined this series was all about. There is more over the top action and it seems to be embracing the campiness of the Resident Evil games. It is also pulling more directly from the source material even if it is a bit distorted and only half-recognizable... a mutation, if you will.

Paul W.S. Anderson was not able to direct because he was working on Alien vs. Predator so he handed it off to a guy named Alexander Witt. Witt is a prolific second unit director who has worked on such movies as Speed, Gladiator, The Bourne Identity and several James Bond movies. He clearly knows blockbuster action movies and Apocalypse continues to push the franchise in that direction. Some of the action is pretty fun, but unfortunately it also uses a lot of rapid fire editing combined with the blurry step printing style of the era that sometimes makes it hard to tell what is happening.

We finally get our first appearance from a major video game character here with Sienna Guillory playing Jill Valentine, although she feels a bit redundant and is constantly being upstaged by Milla Jovovich's Alice. One amusing example is when she tosses a lit matchbook over her shoulder to set some zombies on fire (in slow motion of course) only for it to accidentally go out before it hits the ground. Alice shows up a moment later out of nowhere, smoking a cigarette, and casually flicks it onto the zombies to save her. Nice try, Jill. Jill's outfit is based on her look in Resident Evil 3 (tube top and skirt, no beret) which ends up feeling more like Lara Croft than a police officer. Chris Redfield is not present, I guess because he was not in that game, but we do get versions of lesser-known characters Carlos and Nicholai.

Apocalypse is mostly inspired by Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, which was teased at the end of the first movie. Nemesis himself is brought to life almost entirely with practical effects and looks pretty good in my opinion. In the games, Nemesis is a mutated supersoldier / superweapon and the same holds true here. However, it turns out Alice has also been experimented on and is something of a supersoldier herself. Umbrella has essentially turned both of them loose and pitted them against each other to see what happens. But they didn't count on the fact that Alice would eventually realize that Nemesis is actually her old friend Matt. It's kind of funny how they make that realization so emotional when he was so damn forgettable in the first movie.

Jared Harris has a supporting role in the movie as Dr. Charles Ashford, the creator of the T-Virus. He doesn't exist in the games and so they rewrite the virus origin story here, explaining that he created the virus with good intentions while trying to find a cure for his daughter Angela's genetic condition. His daughter gets trapped in Raccoon City so he offers Alice and her crew safe passage in exchange for saving her. This adds a vague Escape from New York vibe to the proceedings, which I kinda liked.

Resident Evil: Apocalypse was shot in Toronto and the surrounding area (I believe at least one other entry was shot here as well). Ironically, a viral outbreak threatened to shut down production when SARS hit Toronto in 2003. Toronto City Hall makes a very prominent appearance towards the end of the movie with Alice literally running down the side of the building before it eventually gets blown up real good. (Err... sanitized.) There is a decent action sequence that takes place at the Hamilton Cemetery as well.

I can't wrap up a discussion of this movie without mentioning one of its unsung heroes: Mike Epps. He provides some brief moments of comic relief in a movie that otherwise takes itself pretty seriously. Epps plays a guy named L.J. who was being arrested at the Raccoon City police station but then ends up escaping and tagging along with the S.T.A.R.S. folks. He has some great / terrible lines including yelling "GTA motherfucker!" while running over zombies with a car. I read an interesting theory that he is supposed to be a tribute to Dewey, a character that got cut from the first Resident Evil game who was inspired by Axel Foley.

The movie ends with Alice waking up in a lab yet again and then escaping using her newfound telekinetic powers. Sure, why not? With Alice becoming as powerful as she does, I can see it's going to get a lot harder to maintain any real sense of horror moving forward. The next movie is one that I actually have seen before, although I remember very little about it. Let's stay positive and continue this upward trajectory. In the immortal words of L.J., "You motherfuckers are crazy! Look at that big motherfucker, got a rocket launcher!"