The 2002 Resident Evil was a film that heavily deviated from the source material, creating something that was honestly not fun to watch or even engaging enough. Now, when it was announced that there would be a sequel, people were hoping for the best and expecting it to go deeper into the roots of the franchise. Unfortunately, Resident Evil: Apocalypse is somehow even worse than the original film, taking source material from the franchise and dunking on it by putting its own spin on boring, lackluster content.
How to Stream or Download Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)
You can stream it or you can download the film from a digital store. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice. if you like the film, check out also Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City.
The Movie Review
The film is directed by Alexander Witt and written by Paul W.S Anderson, not to be confused with Paul Thomas Anderson. Resident Evil Apocalypse takes place directly after the events of the first film. Alice managed to escape the underground facility that she was sent two, together with her squad to contain the deadly virus that turns humans into flesh-eating zombies.
Alice has woken up and found that raccoon city has been infested with the zombies, killing thousands of people and potentially bringing in an apocalypse. This time around though, she bands together with a group of survivors such as Jill Valentine, while fighting enemies such as the well-known monster Nemesis from the Resident Evil 3 video game.
It’s hard to justify the existence of this film, the first film ends with the cliffhanger that leads up to it, yet it feels as though this film was pointless. There wasn’t anything good about it, none of the aspects of the filmmaking actually work, even the action feels bogged down and repetitive.
It seems that Alexander Witt couldn’t work out the design in his direction for Paul Anderson’s writing. The result is a weirdly incoherent film, which doesn’t make sense and has characters acting impulsively to further the plot through random plot devices.
The film feels improvised for the most part, a lot of the characters often say lines that don’t really make sense in the context of the conversation. This is a lot due to bad acting as well, and a lack of professionalism in direction.
Characters
The actors try to do their jobs, yet laughably so their acting is not on point here. Milla Jovovich in particular stands out like a sore thumb, not being able to give out a single expression that you can like in a protagonist. Whereas other actors such as the Jill Valentine actress Sienna Guillory Gives out a quiet and boring performance as well.
Visuals
Visually speaking, this film isn’t horrible to watch at least. It has a pleasant color grading, and a lot of the action is well documented. Although the action itself gets so repetitive, the CGI is just horrible to look at.
Those aspects of the film needed to be great for it to work as a blockbuster, yet they are some of the few aspects that totally bring it down in quality. The worst part about the quality of visuals here is that it could have been much better looking, only if the camera work was supported by some decent CGI, set design, and action choreography.
Music
The music here is just as bland and forgettable as it was in the original film. So somehow, this time around it’s even more forgettable than it was in the original. It’s honestly impressive how boring the music is, it doesn’t elevate any of the sequences, nor can you even remember it after you’re done watching the film. A stale soundtrack really ruins the pleasure of watching an action film, and that is prevalent here to a fault.
The Bottom Line
In conclusion, I couldn’t believe that there would be a film that could be lower in quality than the original Resident Evil. Yet, somehow I’m proven wrong and aggressively at that. Resident Evil: Apocalypse is one of the worst action films of the genre, and definitely the worst video game adaptation to ever be put on screen.
I at least commend them for bringing franchise favorite characters to the screen, though there is no way that any further installations in this franchise could be better. It is honestly heartbreaking to the fans of the franchise.
