TB4000
09-11-2004, 03:07 PM
Resident Evil: Apocalypse Should Stay Buried
I like Milla Jovovich…really, I do. Anyone that can go from playing an orange haired alien girl wrapped in bandages to Joan of Arc to the lead in the live action movie version of one of my favorite video games of all time most definitely is near the top of my “people I don’t hate” list. I liked what she did in the first Resident Evil, even if that movie did seem to want to cater more to the mainstream than it did to the fans. Here we are, two years later, and with the first movie ending on such the morbid note that it did, you know there had to be a sequel. Resident Evil: Apocalypse is that sequel, and while it does get a few things right, it unfortunately gets just as much wrong.
If you’re still reading this, chances are that you know what the whole Resident Evil thing is, but if you just happened upon this article by chance, Resident Evil is a video game series that basically is paying homage to all of those zombie flicks of old, putting you in control of the main character as they attempt to figure out what exactly caused the population of Raccoon City to become flesh eating dead walkers almost overnight. While the storyline of the game is pretty much there in the movie, it seems like they took JUST enough of it to make the fans go, “Dude! I remember her from the game! I fought that thing just the other night!” Other than that, this movie could’ve been any number of action/adventure movies recently released, only not as well done. We still get Milla Jovovich as Alice, lead hero of part one who had the unfortunate bad luck of being captured by the Umbrella Corporation and experimented on while unconscious. Upon awakening, she escapes their evil corporate drone clutches and makes it topside, only to be alone in the city, thanks to the T-Virus released by her captors. Along with a group of people that were lucky enough not to be transformed into zombies, she tries to make it through the city alive long enough to take down Umbrella before they can do anymore damage.
I did mention that they took bits and pieces of the original game series, and those bits and pieces are the only things that kept me remotely interested. Aside from the requisite zombie dogs, assorted zombies, and other enemies, this time around Alice meets up with Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory) of Resident Evil Three Carlos Olivera (Oded Fehr) and The Nemesis (Matthew Taylor), also from part three. Jill wears the exact same outfit, hairstyle, and has a voice similar to the game character, which knocked the movie up a notch for me. Nemesis’ appearances, however, brought it right back down, as he was nowhere near as intimidating and creepy as the game character, more or less just a Terminator-type enemy that they have to keep pummeling until he falls, then gets up again, then falls again. Mike Epps is also included in the cast as L.J., some requisite comic relief, who we all know is going to get his sooner or later. The cast does the best with what they’re given, but what they’re given isn’t all that much.
A major complaint about the whole RE: Apocolypse production is that it just wasn’t scary. That’s it, plain as day. The first movie at least attempted to provide cheap scares, but this one just seems to not care whether the game series is honored or not by at least providing similar scenarios, and it becomes another shoot ‘em up fest. It’s understandable if liberties must be taken, but there are no instances in the game where any of the lead characters gain superhuman strength, are able to run down the side of a building, or are able to jump kick oncoming zombies, killing them in one fell swoop.
It’s obvious that they gradually went from moody suspense to “blow up every set piece we have” throughout the course of the movie, and it definitely shows. I wanted to give Resident Evil a chance so badly, but like the undead that Alice and Jill have to keep beating sense into, I was just a glutton for punishment.
I like Milla Jovovich…really, I do. Anyone that can go from playing an orange haired alien girl wrapped in bandages to Joan of Arc to the lead in the live action movie version of one of my favorite video games of all time most definitely is near the top of my “people I don’t hate” list. I liked what she did in the first Resident Evil, even if that movie did seem to want to cater more to the mainstream than it did to the fans. Here we are, two years later, and with the first movie ending on such the morbid note that it did, you know there had to be a sequel. Resident Evil: Apocalypse is that sequel, and while it does get a few things right, it unfortunately gets just as much wrong.
If you’re still reading this, chances are that you know what the whole Resident Evil thing is, but if you just happened upon this article by chance, Resident Evil is a video game series that basically is paying homage to all of those zombie flicks of old, putting you in control of the main character as they attempt to figure out what exactly caused the population of Raccoon City to become flesh eating dead walkers almost overnight. While the storyline of the game is pretty much there in the movie, it seems like they took JUST enough of it to make the fans go, “Dude! I remember her from the game! I fought that thing just the other night!” Other than that, this movie could’ve been any number of action/adventure movies recently released, only not as well done. We still get Milla Jovovich as Alice, lead hero of part one who had the unfortunate bad luck of being captured by the Umbrella Corporation and experimented on while unconscious. Upon awakening, she escapes their evil corporate drone clutches and makes it topside, only to be alone in the city, thanks to the T-Virus released by her captors. Along with a group of people that were lucky enough not to be transformed into zombies, she tries to make it through the city alive long enough to take down Umbrella before they can do anymore damage.
I did mention that they took bits and pieces of the original game series, and those bits and pieces are the only things that kept me remotely interested. Aside from the requisite zombie dogs, assorted zombies, and other enemies, this time around Alice meets up with Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory) of Resident Evil Three Carlos Olivera (Oded Fehr) and The Nemesis (Matthew Taylor), also from part three. Jill wears the exact same outfit, hairstyle, and has a voice similar to the game character, which knocked the movie up a notch for me. Nemesis’ appearances, however, brought it right back down, as he was nowhere near as intimidating and creepy as the game character, more or less just a Terminator-type enemy that they have to keep pummeling until he falls, then gets up again, then falls again. Mike Epps is also included in the cast as L.J., some requisite comic relief, who we all know is going to get his sooner or later. The cast does the best with what they’re given, but what they’re given isn’t all that much.
A major complaint about the whole RE: Apocolypse production is that it just wasn’t scary. That’s it, plain as day. The first movie at least attempted to provide cheap scares, but this one just seems to not care whether the game series is honored or not by at least providing similar scenarios, and it becomes another shoot ‘em up fest. It’s understandable if liberties must be taken, but there are no instances in the game where any of the lead characters gain superhuman strength, are able to run down the side of a building, or are able to jump kick oncoming zombies, killing them in one fell swoop.
It’s obvious that they gradually went from moody suspense to “blow up every set piece we have” throughout the course of the movie, and it definitely shows. I wanted to give Resident Evil a chance so badly, but like the undead that Alice and Jill have to keep beating sense into, I was just a glutton for punishment.