Review of Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004) by Halfwelshman — 26 Jan 2012

For the first ten minutes or so of Resident Evil: Apocalypse, you could be forgiven for thinking you're about to watch a decent film. Don't be fooled, Apocalypse is really quite awful. The budget may have increased, but the story is meandering and ridiculous, characterisation non-existent, acting wooden, and script all too often unintentionally hilarious.

It breaks my heart to see decent actors like Thomas Kretschmann and Jared Harris (who's the best thing in this film by quite a way - at least he attempts to imbue his character with a degree of humanity) involved in schlock like this.

It's really quite an achievement for filmmakers to imbue their characters with so little life that they start to resemble the reanimated corpses that they're fighting - almost the entire cast act like they're part of amateur dramatics society, and not a good one at that, this even goes for Milla Jovovich, with all her charisma and ability to kick your face off with her sturdy boots.

The bigger budget really didn't help matters, and just gave director Alexander Witt an excuse to waste money on boring and poorly executed set pieces. Yes, there is more running, gunning and explosions than in the first film, but at least the action the first Resident Evil did have was entertaining (do you have anything to match the laser scene, Apocalypse? I think not).

Unfortunately, Resident Evil: Apocalypse is the kind of film that'll stay with you for a very long time, as its sheer ineptitude and soullessness truly is the stuff of nightmares.