Review of Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004) by Jamie J — 23 May 2011

Much like the undead cast this is thoroughly mindless entertainment. Which wouldn't be a bad thing if Paul W. S Anderson had a fucking clue as to what the Resident Evil video games were actually like. Seemingly more based around Resident Evil 3 than 2 (even taking the Silent Hill cue and mimicking camera shots in places) Apocalypse shows the aftermath of events in the first movie.

Despite having the physique of a twelve year old boy, Alice is back...and kicking more undead arse, by that I mean some utterly ludicrous fight scenes and even a motorbike through a church window. The special effects are a touch better this time however, the Cerberus dogs don't look entirely covered in pink goo, and the lickers have a better touch of cgi wizardry than before. The inclusion of the Nemesis however is utterly baffling, in the games Nemesis is an unstoppable killing machine that struck fear into the hearts of whoever came across his undead arse, in Apocalypse he is a man in a rubber mask who is taught by Alice how to love. I shit you not.

Urgh.

For a mass market zombie movie though Resident Evil Apocalypse achieves what it sets out to do, but to be even mentioned in the same room as the George Romero classics would be unforgivable. If you want a bit of mindless fun for 90 mins, and you arent necesarrily too big a fan of the games, then you could do far worse.