Resident Evil Apocalypse 2004 Film Sequel
The Deadly T-Virus Escapes the Hive and Infects Racoon City
Oct 2, 2009
Apocalypse is set only days after the events of Resident Evil. Alice, one of only two people to escape the Hive, regains consciousness in a laboratory, only to learn the city around her is infected.
This is the second film based upon the game franchise of the same name. In this film, several long running characters from the game put in an appearance including Jill Valentine and Carlos Olivera. This time the main enemy facing the survivors is not the zombies, it is the monstrous Nemesis, unleashed by the evil Umbrella Corporation.
Welcome to Raccoon City
At the beginning of Resident Evil Apocalypse Alice (Milla Jovovich reprising her role) is talking to the camera and explaining the events that led to the infection of Raccoon City. Scientists from the Umbrella Corporation opened the Hive after it was sealed at the end of the first film; and they are promptly slaughtered, and released the infected.
Soon afterward, a series of SUVs head into the city to evacuate Umbrella’s key personnel. One vehicle is sent to pick up the daughter of Dr. Charles Ashford (Jared Harris). Dr Ashford is a key Umbrella scientist and the creator of the T-Virus, he is evacuated but the vehicle carrying his daughter crashes. The city is locked down and those trapped inside are left to their fate until dawn when Umbrella plans to detonate a nuclear weapon to destroy the city and virus.
Survivors Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory) together with former Raccoon News weatherwoman Terri Morales (Sandrine Holt) and Peyton Wells (Razaaq Adoti) realise they cannot escape and retreat to a church. Here they are attacked by three Lickers, fortunately they are saved by the timely intervention of Alice. At the same time Dr Ashford contacts them, along with several other survivors, and tells them that he will help them to escape the city if they find his daughter.
The Umbrella Corporation and Nemesis Programme
In Resident Evil, an unlucky group of commandos were trapped in an underground facility and the Umbrella Corporation was a faceless entity. In Apocalypse the man calling the shots regarding Raccoon City is Major Timothy Cain (Thomas Kretschmann). He is also the man who decides that the quarantined city is the perfect test area for Umbrella’s Nemesis Programme. He unleashes the monstrous creature (played by Matthew G. Taylor taking over the character from Eric Mabius) to track down and eliminate any remaining survivors
Resident Evil’s success was in no small part due to the claustrophobic environment of the Hive. Apocalypse is set on a grander scale but unfortunately a plot involving zombies infecting a city has been done many times before.
The Nemesis monster looks very similar to its video game counterpart, but the creature tends to wander around not doing much. It is barely seen and makes the audience wonder if it is only there because someone mentioned the ‘Nemesis Programme’ at the end of Resident Evil.
There are also numerous instances in which events make no sense. When the survivors are attacked in the church by the Lickers, one of the creatures kills a man, but unlike in the first film it does not mutate. Alice is also able to jump a motorbike through a high stained glass window, but how did she manage it unless there was a convenient ramp outside the building?
Resident Evil had a More Realistic Feeling than Apocalypse
The survivors are also seen to take a short cut through a graveyard, in a city in which the dead are coming back to life, is heading through a grave yard the best idea?
Resident Evil seemed more real than Apocalypse. In the first film, a facility was infested with zombies and there was a big CGI monster running around. It seems that Apocalypse follows the same basic plot: zombies infesting a city with a big monster running around. Regrettably in this film Alice seems to have developed new strength and powers after being infected by the T-Virus at some point between the films. Does this mean that she was in no danger during Resident Evil as her body would have mutated the virus if she had been bitten?
All in all Resident Evil Apocalypse is a flawed film that lacks the originality of its predecessor. There are numerous action sequences with Milla Jovich obviously comfortable in her action role. Sadly this is not a great or original film. There are too many inconsistencies with previously established events and the Umbrella Corporation simply becomes yet another evil business only interested in money.
3/5
Not as original as the first film but still worth a look if only for Sienna Guillory’s portrayal of Jill Valentine
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