Resident Evil: Apocalypse

During my lunch-break from work a few days ago, I stumbled across an eye-catching film or rather 1337 front cover in the local Woolies. £6.99 for Resident Evil: Apocalypse? Bargain I thought! Tried raking around the DVD bargain bin for the prequel but was sadly disappointed! I think I got the last copy, as the shop assistant just handed me the DVD box which I took from the bargain bin rack - might as well just have stolen from the store!

As expected, Resident Evil Apocalypse was going to take me a ride around Racoon City before it goes out with a bang!

Resident Evil: Apocalypse

Age Rating: 15+
Company: Columbia/Tristar
Genre: Zombie infused action!
Running Time: Approx 90 mins
Region: 2



Incase you lived in a cave over the past few years (I'll forgive you!). The Resident Evil series is based on the highly popular Survival Horror genre of videogames - mostly found on the Playstation 2 and Gamecube. Resident Evil Apocalypse is the second Hollywood film based on the games. It's a sort of re-telling of Resident Evil 3 mixed with Resident Evil Outbreak as Alice hogs all the scenes. But more of that later!
So I put the DVD into my DVD player..and awaited some 1337ness.
I was looking forward to seeing some 'Jill-sandwich' action, as she was so great in the games. We are treated to her sex on legs in the intro of the film, whilst she slips her feet into something more comfortable. Of course her clothes still remain as they do in Resident Evil 3! They offer more eye candy than protection but I'm not complaining. ;)



Having not seen the first film, I was worried I might have missed an intricacy of plot! Thankfully, Alice explains the fully story (probably) of what previously happened to her a.k.a. not much! Basically, the whole city has become infected with the T-virus and zombies are rampaging everywhere! Besides the fact that these cosplayers are out to get some brains we meet a bunch of survivors as Alice escapes from Umbrella labs - naked bar a white sheet wrapped around her of course!
Meanwhile English scientist bearing the name of Ashcroft, pervs on zombies and with his 1337 haxx0rs skillz and controls the local CCTV cameras - Under the excuse that he's looking for his daughter. Noticing the band of misfits which comprises of Jill-sandwich, black guy dies first, pimp0r, media-whore and s0ldier he demands they retrieve his daughter while he gives them an escape route out of the city. Why? It's going to get nuked! We all know what they choose!

They bump into Alice during a rather over the top scene in a church. See below!



Jill becomes h4rdc0r3 and responds with "Who the fuck are you?" and lights up a cigarette. After picking up my eyes off the floor, more action orientated scenes occur with Jill trying to compete with Alice. Sadly, who can compare to a now enhanced Alice infected with T-virus? Whoops was that a spoiler! Some of the scenes was so OTT that was unintentionally hilarious.
I almost forgot about Nemesis, this so called 'monster' was neither scary or dangerous..so much so that Alice and Nemsis go all fight club on us and fight with fists only. I wondered what the point was of this scene, I mean..Nemesis was so powerful in Resident Evil 3 that even a crapload of bullets didn't knock him down. However our Alice can kill him off easily!

Kudo points to the film doing cameo scenes from the various RE games!
Resident Evil 1: "No don't go!" arms out stretched looking up to a helicopter lol. Also, the craptastic slow-motion cameras used for the zombies..even the sound effects are recycled from the game!
Resident Evil 2 - A gas filled tanker crashes into a car.
Resident Evil Cide Veronica - Alice runs like the wind ala Claire Redfield evading bullets from a helicopter. Armed soldiers tell her to put up her hands - which she does and drops her gun and then in mid-air, Alice grabs it again and shoots them. Really loved that scene! Must have studied RE:CV hard.

I liked how the director made his own character better than everyone else, so much so..she comes back to life after death at least twice!
The story was obvious and cliched, the action was way over the top and reminded me of Devil May Cry more than anything! Switch your brain off and enjoy the ride! Expect anything else and end up being disappointed!

Pros
+ Jill-sandwich
+ Good special effects and OTT action scenes
+ RE cameo scenes!

Cons
- Cliche after cliche
- Zombies looked more like bad cosplayers
- er..plot?
- Nemsis isn't scary at all!
- Fight Club :x

Overall: 6.5/10

A good action film - but that's all it is.