After unexpectedly enjoying Resident Evil, I pushed on and continued with the sequel Resident Evil: Apocalypse. This movie picks up almost immediately after the first film leaves off, with Alice waking up in an abandoned hospital and the T-virus raging throughout Raccoon City as the zombie apocalypse begins.

I think this film surprised me even more than the first Resident Evil movie, because it was my understanding that the films decreased in quality as time went on. But that decline clearly hasn’t started yet because Resident Evil: Apocalypse, dare I say it, is a superior film to the original Resident Evil (the lack of questionable CGI is a big mark in its favor). With the first film almost completely contained in the Hive, the sequel moving the action to Raccoon City makes perfect sense.

I really like how the film actually goes back and shows how the T-virus got loose in the city to begin with, with the meddling Umbrella executives making the situation worse by forcing the Hive open, allowing the surviving zombies (and the virus) to get loose. The montage that shows the early moments of the zombie apocalypse actually has a moment that had me laughing out loud. Remember when i reviewed the first movie and I wondered aloud if this was a universe where zombie films didn’t exist? Well, I think this movie confirms that zombie movies aren’t a thing in the world of Resident Evil because there’s a funny scene where the Raccoon City PD are hauling in handcuffed zombies in the police station and treating them like regular criminals. It’s so ridiculous, I couldn’t help but laugh.

Regarding Jill Valentine…I could see in her first five minutes onscreen why people took issue with her appearance and I completely agree with all the criticisms. Here’s the thing, when you adapt a story from video games, you are not necessarily obligated to duplicate the costumes in exact detail and I think the creators of this movie forgot that. That being said, Jill is such an absolute badass in this film that I’m willing to partially overlook it. The same goes with Alice. She was already a major badass in the first film, but she took things to a whole different level in this movie. I really loved the stunts she did with the motorcycle.

One thing that I wasn’t expecting at all was to see Oded Fehr in this movie (aka Ardeth Bey in the Mummy movies). I’ve been a fan of his for years and if I’d known he was in Resident Evil movies I probably would’ve started watching them years ago.

The biggest issue I have with this movie is Nemesis. I have a hard time believing that this…monstrosity…is supposed to be that one character from the first movie. Yes, I get that the ending of the first film was heavily implying that this character was mutating…but honestly, did that much time pass between the first and second movies for him to mutate that much? Not only that, but the makeup for Nemesis is just…I don’t like it. It’s a significant improvement over the bad CGI Licker from the first movie, but it still falls short and could’ve been better.

I admit, I honestly thought the sub-plot of rescuing the daughter in exchange for escaping Raccoon City was going to work out for our heroes. That moment, when we find out the villain has been aware the whole time…man that hurt. If you’re going to do a twist like that, that’s how you do it. At least the villain got his comeuppance and then some, it was very satisfying when he tried to take the easy way out and I heard the empty gun go *click*.

While Resident Evil: Apocalypse does have its fair share of problems, it is a marked improvement over the first film with a healthy dose of “Oh BLEEP” moments scattered throughout.

Let me know what you think about Resident Evil: Apocalypse in the comments below and have a great day!

See also:

My Thoughts on: Resident Evil (2002)

Film Reviews

Become a Patron of the blog at patreon.com/musicgamer460

Check out the YouTube channel (and consider hitting the subscribe button)

Don’t forget to like Film Music Central on Facebook