Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)

nTitle: Resident Evil Apocalypse (2004)

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nDirector:  AlexandernWitt

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nCast: Milla Jovovich, Oded Fehr, Sienna Guillory, JarednHarris, Mike Epps

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nReview:

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nHalloween 2012 was all about zombies here on The FilmnConnoisseur, hope you guys enjoyed it! I’m currently still in a zombie hangover…whichnmeans, I’m still watching and reviewing zombie movies for the next couple ofndays, so look forward to that! I’d been meaning to review Resident EvilnApocalypse for a while now because my initial reaction to this film was not angood one. I wanted to know if I still disliked it as much as I did when I firstnsaw it. Re-watching this second installment in the Resident Evil long runningnfranchise, it suddenly dawned upon me that I needed to do a reassessment of thenfilm; I ended up enjoying it a lot! I guess after having seen six of thesenResident Evil films at the hands of various directors, I could see this one andncompare it against all the other ones in the franchise, and guess what, thisnone has come out on top as a very well made entry into this franchise, not thenbest movie ever made, but certainly better than other films in the franchise innmany ways.

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nThe film picks up exactly where the first one left off, withnzombies escaping the Umbrella Corporations Racoon City facilities. The undead havenspread all throughout the city infecting more civilians. The authorities havenlocked down the city, every citizen quarantined. No one is allowed to escape!nIf they try, they risk getting shot down by the police. Meanwhile, Dr. Ashford,nthe creator of the deadly T-Virus has escaped Racoon City. Problem is that hisndaughter has been left inside! He contacts Alice to rescue his daughter beforenthe authorities blow up Racoon City to smithereens. Will Alice rescue thenlittle girl in time? What tricks does the Umbrella Corporation have under theirnsleeves this time?

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nSo what made me change my mind so radically? Well, I thinknit was the fact that I could see this film within the context of all the othernones and it ended up being better then say, Resident Evil: Retribution (2012), a film I personally ended up not loving for many reasons, too numerous to numbernhere. So what did I like about Apocalypse? Well, one of the first things that Inimmediately noticed was how refreshing it was to see a Resident Evil film thatnwasn’t 95% computer images. On Apocalypse things are tangible, there’s sets, there’snprops, there’s real stunts performed by real stunt men. I mean I loved the factnthat director Alexander Witt decided to shoot almost everything practically, onncamera. One of the pluses that Apocalypse has is that it was made in a timenwhen CGI had not yet overtaken the film industry as predominantly as it hasnnow, this was a time when films where still real. Sets are built, explosionsnare real, stunts are designed and pulled off; this element of Apocalypse comesnin direct contrast to the more recent Resident Evil films in which practicallyneverything in the background is computer generated. Nope, this film has antangibility to it that’s missing from the newer films in the franchise and fornthat I applaud it.

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nThis film is action packed, and that probably has somethingnto do with the fact that director Alexander Witt had been involved as secondnunit director on many action films like The Bourne Identity (2003) and BlacknHawk Down (2001), Twister (1996) and Speed (1994), so he brought that actionnmovie experience to the table, and looking at Apocalypse now, the stunts onnthis one are more impressive then other Resident Evil films because they werenpulled off for real. I mean, these guys went through the effort of planningnthese stunts so they could be pulled off in front of the cameras and not insidenof a computer. So when you see Alice walking down the side of a building, gunsna blazing, they did that for real. When we see Alice running through a hallwaynwith every glass window blowing up, for real. When Alice jumps through the airnas a cop car explodes into a ball of flames behind her…done for real!  When an actor jumps off a helicopter while shootingnhis guns…for real as well. I mean, kudos to this production for wanting to gonthat route, it’s a breath of fresh air; because hey, don’t you just hate itnwhen you’re watching an action film and you can just tell its all computerngenerated?  That doesn’t happen here.nThis is one o the more action packed films in the franchise, guns are shotnalmost nonstop all throughout, I liked that about it, this is a no holds barrednaction film through and through; everything culminating in a big showdownnbetween Alice and the Nemesis. There’s always been a physicality to the Alicencharacter played by Milla Jovovich, but on this one she excels in terms ofndisplaying her fighting abilities and shooting all sorts of guns; all the whilennever losing her sexiness. 

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nThen of course there’s the Nemesis creature, I just lovednhow it looks practically exactly like the video game. Actually, when we comendown to it, this film has so many visual cues that come straight off of thenvideo game. Certain images and moments can be traced down the first ResidentnEvil games. The filmmakers really made an effort to incorporate stuff from thengames, which is something that the newer films kind of forget about sometimes.nIn conclusion, this is one of the best in the series in my opinion. Whenncompared to all the others, this one stands on solid ground. Its action packed,nAlice is kick ass as she’s ever been, this is actually the film in which shenbecomes more than human. None of these films have ever been deep, ornmeaningful, they’ve always been fun action packed and stylish and in thatndepartment, Apocalypse delivers.

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nThe onenthing I do seem to remember hating was the slow motion/blurry effect we seenwhenever zombies are shown, I could have done without it, why was it used? Indon’t know, but it just doesn’t work for me thanks to that ‘effect’ we nevernreally get a good look at the zombies. I remember hating the ‘token black guy’nin the film played by Mike Epps, I used to think he felt totally out of placenon this film, but now I see him as just another crazy character we meet alongnthe way. Bottom line? The film has more good things going for it then bad ones.nYou look at this film and you feel more effort was put into making it than saynResident Evil Retribution simply because most of it was shot practically, and because they went through all this trouble to film things on camera, kind of reminds me of Poltergeist III (1988) in that sense, yet another film in which the director purposely strived away from telling his story through visual effects. I say give this one a second chance, you just mightnend up enjoying it. 

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nRating 3 1/2 out of 5