Alice is back and forced to face off against an unstoppable, bio-engineered killing machine in the action-packed sequel to the sci-fi smash hit.
1 Better than the original
I like it a little bit more than the original. Awesome supense. Milla Jovovich, Sienna Guillory, and Sandrine Holt are hot.
2 UMD for PSP Review - Good Movie
This review is really aimed more at the UMD version for the PSP. If you want a review of the movie, there are plenty of those here...
After placing the UMD in the PSP, it's immediately obvious that even at full volume, the built-in audio for the PSP just won't cut it for movies. The dialog is barely audible, while the explosions, gunshots, etc. are blaring. To combat this, try a couple of things:
1. Access the movie menu and increase the volume output
2. Turn off the volume limiter
3. Use some external speakers or headphones
4. Turn off the EQ - EQ should be flat
I used some speakers for the movie, and the experience was great. I hadn't seen the movie before, and it looked great on the PSP's screen. Of the PSP's UMD titles available, this is one of the better ones.
3 ...AND I THOUGHT IT COULDN'T GET ANY WORSE!
The sequel is based on Resident Evil 3...but the first one was based off nothing. The special effects sucked. A two year old could have easily noticed the difference between the special effects and live actors. Nemesis looked good...too bad they screwed the rest of him up. They screwed the character of Jill up completely. She was fine for the first 15 minutes of her screen time...and then the character became pathetic (which wouldn't have been a big deal, if it wasn't for the fact that the character of Jill Valentine is supposed to be stubborn and determined to survive no matter what obstacles are in her way). Like I said for my review of the first one, I'm not asking for the movie to be just like the game...but at least have a few similarities. Can this series get any worse? Well since it's confirmed that there is going to be a Resident Evil 3, I think it's safe to say that the answer is "YES."
4 Very well made without getting away from the source material
I will make this brief.
First, things I liked:
-This one is closer to the games than the first one, there are scenes that are taken straight from the games with some minor modifications.
-The animation blends better with the video here than in the first movie.
-Very decent cutting. After watching the deleted scenes, I noticed they were enjoyable but would have made the movie feel more campy.
-Loved the camera angles.
-The soundtrack's commercial songs seem a bit more polished than the first one's.
-Leads. I don't know who looks better but both Sienna and Milla light up the screen with their beauty. Took some realism away form the movie, but in all honesty I can't complain.
-Deleted scenes. I can understand why they cut them, and thankfully they are on the DVD. Jill's character really becomes my favorite after watching those deleted scenes.
-Outtakes. Not at Jackie Chan level, but amusing still.
Things I didn't like:
-The games' zombie rules seem to have been altered in this movie. It made sense in the first one because the corpses were fresh, here it doesn't make sense in some cases.
-The musical score is not as hauntingly addictive as the first movie's.
-To people who haven't played the games, Jill might seem as a character lacking more background info.
-There are some plot holes, but that happens in the games as well so I am used to it. You might not be.
Recommended if you like the RE games 1-3. Recommended if you need an action fix with bullets, explosions, beautiful women, horror, and an unusual plot.
5 Not as good as the first, doesn't fit in the game universe
First of all, I need to get my biases out of the way. I have followed and played almost every Resident Evil game (both good and bad) from the very first one on the Playstation through the latest and by far the greatest on the Gamecube. When I heard they were making a Resident Evil movie, I was uncertain of how I felt; were they going to remake a game into a movie or would they create a movie that fit into the Resident Evil mythos? The first movie did the latter, introducing new characters while fitting pretty nicely into the mythology of the RE videogames. It wasn't a great movie by far, but it was at least quasi-faithful to the series.
Now we have Resident Evil Apocalypse which falls into the former category as it takes familiar characters and incorporates basically parts of Resident Evil 2 and 3 into movie form. Unfortunately, it falls flat for me. On one hand, I was thrilled to finally see the Nemesis on the big screen. Being the unstoppable killing machine that he is and spouting that famous gravelly line, "STARS!" I was immediately excited to see the movie but I was worried how they would incorporate Alice from the movie with Jill from the video game.
To be faithful to the video games, you can't. It's that simple. By having this movie, it's as if Resident Evil 3 never took place. It takes the premise of the movie: people trapped in Raccoon City with zombies and the Nemesis, and completely changes the story. Every time I started to get pulled into the movie, something would happen that would make me go, "wait, that didn't happen in the game."
That said, my friends who haven't played any of the Resident Evil games had a fun time. I think those who haven't played the video game will have a better chance of enjoying it. Although, video game aside, I think the action is pretty stale and there's not a build up of tension like in the first movie. I enjoyed RE 1 much more than this sequel and so did my friends (both RE junkies and not). However, this movie and this series is much much much better than the majority of video game adaptations. With movies like House of the Dead and Alone in the Dark, even this movie stands as a king above them which is kind of sad.
At any rate, not as good as the first, not very faithful to the video game series and not very thrilling. But, it can be enjoyable for a rent or to see the Nemesis in a movie. Hopefully the third movie RE Afterlife will take place before Resident Evil 4 (the game) and won't deal *directly* with any of the games.
6 Mindless fun, but where's the fun?
Now, the first Resident Evil movie, I didn't see. But hey, I've got friends who liked it, so I went along to watch Apocalypse with them. They all liked it, and they can't seem to understand why I didn't like this movie as much as they did. Yes, surprisingly, the movie is close to the games, but it's cheesy and forgets that while it's a movie, things do need to make sense before you can mess them up.
I was pleasantly surprised at least, that the movie does manage to help me learn the gist of what happened in the first one. Now I don't have to watch it.
But the first problem with the movie is that it jumps into the plot right away. No build up (people say this is scary? all the good horror movies have some sort of build up and suspense, for an example: watch Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining"), which makes the film not scary at all.
The action sequences were tiring at most. Too flashy and perfect. It also seems that characters don't have to have knowlegde of where characters are to find them. For example, Jill and company are fighting off a group of lickers in the church when Alice comes riding through the cathedral on a motorcyle. She's completely in gear and ready to go, doesn't sustain any wounds from the glass, manages to flip off the bike and kill all the lickers. But she somehow knew Jill and company were there. How? Forget how cool her entrance was! And then she manages to KNOW them all?
I'll give the movie this though. Anyone who was a big fan of Resident Evil 3 will appreciate the costume design for Jill and will REALLY enjoy seeing Nemesis on camara. Even though the plot twist at the end is predictable (OH MY GOD! Nemesis is Allice's old partner? you mean we WEREN'T supposed to see that coming?), it was pulled off pretty well. It was also stupid that Nemesis ends up helping our main protagonists through a disneylike "Yeah, we used to be buds" moment. In the game Nemesis was a relentless bio-weapon that had no feelings or emotions.
Really, I'm not sure why this is such a popular movie among my peers. It's mindless, and the parts that should be funny aren't. There was nothing really memorable about the film. For an action film it's shallow, weak, and the main action heroine is much too perfect. Was John McClane in Die Hard perfect? Nope, he still got wounded.
For horror, the movie isn't scary. Too much of it is ruined by building up too much suspesne. It comes off as more of a "OK, let's take bets. Who is going to die next?"
Really, this isn't a "horrible" movie, just a "bad" one. Go on and buy it if you enjoy a lot of mindless action. But if you're like me, mindless action DOES have to make a little bit of sense, or else it isn't "mindless" it's just "stupid".
7 This is how movies is suppose to be
This movie got straight to the action before any plot even started which made the movie even better.Most people judge this movie by saying it's stupid and not having any point,but people who love to have fun with action films,this is for you.It's fun,
scary,and gets you going,and it doesn't have stupid love stories in it.
8 lives up to the video game and its predecessor for a movie
See this sequal
it will blow you away like it did me
I saw the trailer and was hooked
it so is Rated R right
it is so graphic I like had my eyes bugged out half of the time
very good movie
hope it got many awards
a brilliant follow up to Resident Evil
see this movie if you liked the first one
claps alot* you go cast and everyone that made this
can't wait for Resident Evil code Veronica whenever it comes out
this will also stay a classic for horror movies for the next 100 and some years. I'm so watching this one over and over and over and over.
9 great sequel!
first off! to people who are trashing this movie due to its lack of content are stupid. the plot is not subjected in this movie as its an action flick. second milla perfromance was good better then the first and the supporting cast faired well. the only beef everyone keeps pointing out is no light or angles hello! its a dark movie and has visual style dynamics and the sound effects were incredbly loud in this movie then the last. if i had one problem with this film is when filming they made to much noise around my neighbourhood near toronto. thanx guys!
10 Different Director = bad move
I liked the first Resident Evil, the visual style, the camera angles, the lighting, the characters, the casting, the sound track. The fact that they tried to stay true to certain aspects of the video game like the Train, and the scene where the guy was crawling towards Mia Jovavich was right out of the video game. Plus I liked the flow of the movie. I wasn't that impress when I first watched it but I find my self going back to it and watching it time and time again.
The second Resident Evil (apocolypse) is alot different. poor lighting, quick flashy camera work(can you say music video) the movie has no flow, the music sounds like some old nintendo video game music, the cheesy one liner attempts, it just seemed like a bunch of action sequences that had no connection to each other, the flow of the movie was bad. I wish I would have rented this one instead of buying it. This was also the first DVD that the special features are actually better than the Movie itself.
11 Plot, check. Gore, check. Ending, WAIT A MINUTE!!!!!
The second installment in the Resident Evil movie series delivers a punch that equals the first. With more language, more guns, and WAY more zombies, you better break out the popcorn. I rented this expecting it to be pretty cheesy and worth a few laughs. I was wrong. Now, it never really SCARED me too much, but it was still a great movie. The scene in the church with the lickers is pretty good. The special effects are awesome, the acting was phenomenal, but the ending...well, to put it bluntly, the ending was about as good as a pile of 2-day old dog feces. It leaves the story open to a sequal, but the climax of the movie made me remember AVP.... So, overall, 4.3 stars, the ending was just not good. But a fun buy for anyone. Just keep it away from any kids under 11.
12 Doesn't quite live up to the hype...
...then again, does anything? Resident Evil: Apocalypse takes place right after the first movie, both based off and connected to the popular Capcom video game series, which originated in Japan as Biohazard. However, this movie seems very different when compared to its prequel. And it was a very negative "different" - something I couldn't quite put my finger on but noticed after a few times watching this movie.
The main problem which effects this one, and may or may not have effected the last one depending on your point of view, is the lack of realism. I loved the first movie, even if the plot seemed stupid. The characters in that movie were very realistic, and acted probably just as any real human being would when put in a similar situation. But they also had a sense of uniformity, which is something the new characters from RE: Apocalypse lack. I think Anderson's goal was to create 'bigger' characters - ones that stood apart from each other more than in the previous film. I also think he exaggerated this idea - the characters here - Jill and Carlos (both taken from the games), LJ, and Terri - are way too "all over the place" for lack of a better word. I still love Milla Jovovich's portrayal of Alice, the only returning character from the first movie, and I like how they integrated the Angie character (bearing similarites to RE2's Sherry) into the storyline, but the others seem unneccesary and unrealistic. For one thing, I think Sienna Guillory's Jill has way too much of a dominative presence in the storyline. For the people who hadn't seen the first film, it wouldn't surprise me if they mistake her for the flick's main character. Also, the LJ character should never have even been considered in ANY Resident Evil story. One thing this movie had an abundance of was comic relief - and if that idea had been scrapped (like it should have) it wouldn't have been such a problem.
My second problem comes with the directing. I hate how Alexander Witt does this completely retarded shaky camera "effect" (I call it more of a gimmick) whenever zombies begin to attack. It's just annoying, and I wish that Paul Anderson, who had done a great job of directing the first film, would have taken this into his hands as well.
The third problem comes with the enemies. All they did was take the standard baddies from the prequel - zombies, dogs and Lickers - and just recycle them. Not a good idea, because the Nemesis character isn't very intimidating - even if he is the most sinister villian in RE history. Some of the scenes with him even offer yet more comic relief. I think the movie would've been far more interesting if it had integrated new foes - such as mutated crocodiles or spiders or maybe even something completely different. It would offer an environment more similar to that of the games, and that would mean more suspense!
I do have other problems with Apocalypse - be it Alice's new physical enhancements (no, not THAT kind of enhancement) and also the fact that this is more of an action movie than a sci-fi one. But, in the end, it's still fairly enjoyable, if only to continue the storyline from the first film. Also, I should note that I love the ending - it's very smart and twisted. Hopefully, there will be one more movie made to close this story - and hopefully it will be better than this (maybe even branching into the storyline of the recently released Resident Evil 4 game).
Movie score: 2
Extras score: 3
Tie-in with first movie adds in an extra point. Therefore, I deem this a 3-star achievement leaving room for improvement.
The soundtrack features songs from Slipknot, Killswitch Engage, A Perfect Circle and Cradle of Filth/Liv Kristine among others.
13 An embarrasment to the Horror/Action genre
I love the Resident Evil video games. But this movie is sssssoooooooooo dumb I almost started laghing. This is the story line,"O crap, the zombies are attacking!" Than the shooting begins. And it continues through the whole movie, unceasing, unentertaining and unnessary. This is one of the worst movies of last year. So why, you may ask, did I give it two stars. Cuz the comic relief is hilarious! Me and my freind laghed the whole movie. Trust me, if you really want zombie killin action, buy a video game like Resident Evil, siren, The Suffering, or House of the Dead. If you really want a movie, buy the first Resident Evil Movie, its not great, but its infinately better.
14 An insult to film
THIS MOVIE IS TERRIBLE!
I have never seen anything so insultingly lame! How can people actually LIKE this garbage?! If any proof is needed that our education system has went into the toilet, the popularity of this stupid crap is it. This is not a movie, it's a movie trailer with no story to advertise. If I could give it negative stars, I definitely would.
If you like wrestling and have more than two little Nascar numbers adhered to your car, you'll probably like this inbred junk, otherwise avoid it at all costs. Even that "Alien vs. Predator" crap was not this bad, and it reeked as well. The reason they make crappy movies like this is because morons keep paying to see and own them. You people are ruining the world for the rest of us.
If you want to see an actual HORROR movie, pick up The Exorcist, The Shining, Dawn of the Dead (the original, not that stupid remake piece of filth), or Session 9. Those films had a few advantages over this one. For starters, they had DIRECTORS, not Hollywood, pony-knub sporting cel-phone addicts whose parents bought them a career. Secondly, they had STORIES. Actual CHARACTERS with THOUGHTS, say it with me, THOUGHTS...that's right. Their brains were involved in what was happening in the film, they weren't merely posing with guns and puckering their lips at the camera.
This movie is for fans. Do you know what a fan is? It's a person who has already decided that they like something before they have even seen it. that is a form of prejudice. Fans are not flattering to a true Artist, because they aren't evaluating the Artists performance objectively, they are merely "yes-men". Cheerleaders. The true Artist doesn't want cheers for bad work. And the hack actor secretly laughs at the fans when they accept garbage as quality.
I'm not trying to be spiteful, but we are being had. There is an elephant in the living room, and someone has to say it.
If you can't see that ALL movies like this are nothing but commercial garbage to feed the great American cattle drive, then you are either hopelessly ignorant, or borderline retarded. There are lots of great movies to see and own, you are wasting your life watching this crap when you could be seeing movies that keep you thinking about them and their characters for days, weeks, months even. Sometimes YEARS. Life is too short for this level of stupidity.
If you DO like it and buy it and even (gag) watch it AGAIN, remember that every time some moron is driving like an idiot and holding you up in traffic, it is because the entertainment industry is dumbing down the country, and they get away with it because people like you are helping them. Movies should involve your brain. They should not use flashy camera moves to try and hide the inadequacies of the writer and director. Stop helping Hollywood make people stupid for money, after all, they aren't giving you any of the money they make.
Or consider this. The people who make movies in hollywood are the same people who nominate and award Oscars. They don't EVER, EVER nominate or award this kind of movie. That is because even THEY DON'T LIKE THEIR OWN FILMS!!! They pretend to in interviews and in commentary tracks, but obviously they aren't going to say "Well, actually, me and Herbert Bumble-dong only wrote, directed, and produced this film because of all the money we can make off of bovine America". They wont say that into the camera. They say that to their peers, though. otherwise, their peers would think they were fools. Because only a fool would like a movie this bad.
15 better than the original.
I think this is better than the original because it has a lot of action in it but as far as being a zombie movie of sorts it leaves a bit to be desired. For starters, the Resident Evil movies are not very graphically bloody which is what I like with zombie movies. I personally think DAWN OF THE DEAD the original is the best zombie movie ever made because it is realistically gory.
I read the book to Resident Evil Apocalyse and I was sorely disappointed. I thought there really wasn't much about zombies in it but when I saw the movie I changed my mind. Probably because of the action.
I think with this film series they changed genres. The first was really sci fi horror. But the second is really sci fi action.
If you"re looking for a good movie that was made from a video game check out House of the Dead.It has more gore than Resident Evil Apocalypse and is probably a better zombie movie. But I like Resident Evil 2 better.
16 Awesome movie
This is so not the type of movie that I like, yet, when I watched by chance the first Resident Evil I was in complete awe of how thrilling it was. I have never played the video game, actually: I hate video games, period. But I am very thankful for the Resident Evil game for giving birth to the idea of the Resident Evil movies. (So I guess I should say I hate all video games that are not Resident Evil?)
I was very afraid of watching this second part... afraid of being disappointed, because I loved the first one so much. But rest assure, and what a great relief: this second one is just as awesome!! I love the Resident Evil movies so much that I never grow tired of watching them - and this is a person that doesn't' like one bit watching the same movies more than once. When it comes to Resident Evil, no rules can apply.
ps- Milla Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez both RAWK
17 Blows the first out of the water
Would you like to know why this one wasn't a waste of time like the first movie? One reason: Paul Anderson didn't direct it. Mr. WS Anderson seems to have a knack for taking it upon himself to helm larger scale films with infinite potential and make total crap out of them (which he finally managed to steer away from when AVP rolled around), but since he did not direct this installment, it turned out all right. He did write it, and that I can live with, because his scripts are very visionary and he is a wonderful writer, just not the best filmmaker in the world.
I've rambled on about him long enough, now let's talk about the movie. Just a day after the events which took place in Resident Evil, one of the two survivors, Alice (Milla Jovivich), has been taken to Raccoon City hospital and quarantined, where she has been experimented on. Meanwhile, scientists have ventured back into the hive, where they manage to release the hord of zombies still roaming around down there. Just thirteen hours later, the city is infested with them, and Alice, who has escaped the facility, must escape with another group of survivors, including STARS special againt Carlos Olivera (Oded Fehr). However, this proves to be quite a task for them, as they are not only hindered by mindless, flesh-eating zombies and lightning fast undead canines, but Umbrella Corporation has also unleashed their newest weapon, a 7 foot hulking monstrosity with incredible firepower, code-named Nemesis.
While edgy and seemingly pointless in a few spots, Resident Evil: Apocalypse proves quite an advantage over its predecessor. The acting is quite well done, the writing seems planned out well and is whitty while sticking to the main points of the movie {kudos to Mr. Anderson), and the zombies are looking pretty juicy! Not only that, but we are treated to a couple fairly graphic munching scenes. I was also a little relieved the zombies remained slow, because if they had been very fast (ala Dawn of the Dead '04), there would seem to be no hope, as they've got the humans outnumbered by about a zillion to five. But, what really stole the show was Nemesis, portrayed by the hulking 6-foot-7 Matthew G. Taylor. Taylor really lended his performance to Nemesis in this movie, and personally, that is what I felt made this movie worth watching. Nemesis was just plain cool to watch, and any oversized mutant zombie/human/cyborg decked out in a leather trench-coat-like battle suit with a massive rail gun and an enormous rocket launcher is always fun to watch kick some ass.
All in all, Resident Evil: Apocalypse does not fail to deliver the chills, thrills, and cheap laughs that horror/action fans today have come to expect. It even made by heart race a few times. Saw it and theaters and bought the DVD, and still enjoy it.
18 Downtown!
Three questions:
1) I see the survival---where is the Horror?
2) Where are the zombies?
3) Why does director Alexander Witt keep shaking the camera every time things are about to get interesting?
"Resident Evil: Apocalypse" gets one out of three right: lots of Residents---but no Evil and no Apocalypse.
If you're satisfied with a happily mindless, sporadically entertaining, often frustrating, puzzlingly poorly shot flick with little blood and goop and very few zombies, then you'll do just fine here. If you're looking for a full-bore flesh-chewing zombie flick with claws and teeth and ample blood-letting, then look elsewhere.
Witt does keep a fast pace on this one, though: that nasty T-Virus has broken out of containment and into Raccoon City, and faster than you can say "close the blast doors!" the dastardly Umbrella Corporation has locked the place down---with the majority of the city's citizens inside. The rest of the film is simplicity itself: get outta Dodge, or acquire a taste for Brains au vin.
That said, unlike the first surprisingly grisly Resident Evil movie, there's very little Evil. You a)little gore and b)few zombies---and the few flesh-eaters you get are poorly filmed, hidden in shadow, filmed chiefly in a teeth-grindingly awful slow-motion.
Pacing isn't a problem, and Alexander Witt gets right to work, picking up where the last film left off and keeping up a helter-skelter pace throughout. Former Umbrella Corp Special Op Alice (played blandly by a still gorgeous but evidently bored Milla Jovovich)has just checked herself out of a bio-research facility to find Raccoon City overrun with the legions of the Living Dead and their unpleasant bio-engineered buddies.
Throw in a crack squad of besieged soldiers helmed by laconic Carlos Oliveira (Oded Fehr in a throwaway role), Sienna Guillory as the hawk-eyed bad-a** crack-shot Jill Valentine, Mike Epps as obligatory comic relief, shake thoroughly, and stir in some woefully under-used undead Dobermans and bio-engineered abominations, and you've got "Apocalypse". Sounds like fun, right?
Wrong. The movie is frenetically paced, true---but when I want zombie horror, I want to see some red sauce on my plate. I want to see the fight sequences, not just have Witt jerking the camera back and forth in front of some guy who might as well be wearing a K-Mart special Halloween mask every time we get a combat scene. I want to see the undead Dobermans run down their prey and at least savor some tearing and ripping action. And finally, I want some zombies with my zombie flick, thanks!
There are a few bloody nuggets of pure horror goodness that worked for me, and might warrant a watch if you've got nothing better to chew on.
1) NEMESIS: Who can resist a big undead gatling-gun & rocket-launcher-toting lug with chompers that would put Jessica Simpson to shame and who comes crashing through walls growling "STARS"? I sure can't. I wanted to see NEMESIS win, terminating all the boring good-guys with extreme prejudice. The movie really rocks and rolls and bumps and grinds when he's laying down deadly force. Respect his Authori-TA!
2)Two Very Nasty Scenes: I'm not kidding here---"Apocalypse" gets interesting twice---and only for a combined running time of 45 seconds. That said, it's an effective 45 seconds, and it's especially frustrating to think that if Witt had capitalized on that kind of direction, "RE:Apocalypse" might have been a very different film indeed.
I'm not going to spoil the two scenes for you, but one occurs in the guttering candlelight of a cathedral vestry (echoes of the game's mansion), and the other involves a "Blair Witch" moment in a classroom. You'll know them when you see them.
In the end, "RE: Apocalypse" isn't a bad movie---it's just an uninspired, disappointing one. If that does it for you, you could do worse; if you're looking for zombie chewing goodness in the sterile bowels of the Hive, then I'd advise getting your Umbrella Corporation Security Clearance card ready and doing some overtime with "Resident Evil"---the original.
JSG
19 i think this was souly meant for the fans if that
This is not so much a movie as it it simply @$$ kisser to the fans of the game. Plot ides traight out of every zombie movie ever made,charaters either appear and die or jsut live to say stupid tough guy dialogue. The movie wouldve seemed lame at any point in time with plotholes the size of craters. The movie tries to cram alot plot in for the lack of anything inovlving charchter. But i guess what can you expect, not much, since almost every video game to movie has sucked. The first one was bad, this one even worse. The movie seems achingly stale and repetive with some of the msot heavy handed action scenes complete with stale bullet time effects and slo motion and fast motion effects that have gone past expiration date. everything adds to ntohing. jsut maybe some geeks wet dream of the game coming to life. as a movie its hacked to pieces
20 No atmosphere!
From my experience, all sci-fi films need one very important ingredient... and this is ATMOSPHERE. Its the foundation block for all great movies in this genre. From classics like Star Wars to new favourites like The Matrix. They tell not just a story, but also of a world different to the one we reside in. That is the heart of a great sci-fi. Without it, characters, plot, nor action can develop. This is where Resident Evil Apocalypse falls apart. From the beginning we are rushed into an established storyline. It begins with a few words from the narrator, explaining the damage already done... and instantly we are expected to follow the paper-thin characters on their journey to righteousness. Its difficult to really care, when we are given little time to absorb the horror of a city under fire. Scenes flip from one character to another, each with a separate agenda. Everything is robotic, human interaction and emotion is minimal and the impact of armageddon is ignored. Its derivative, ironcially much like a computer game, you get bitten... its game over. That is it.
The influences are all there, simplified, squeazed and chopped together.
'Dawn of the Dead' a generic town is ravaged by a zombie outbrake shown in a TV report like fashion
'28 Days later' she wakes in a deserted hospital
'Terminator' dressed in a full leather with a mini gun.
'Robo cop' Remembers friend and defies command to KILL
'Tomb Raider' Girl with two guns wrapped around her thigh
'Aliens' aliens
'Matrix' the action
In the end, it has little originalty, and fails to improve on past formula. Post Viral-Apocalyptic films like Omega Man, Dawn of the dead series and 28 Days Later do a much superior job in creating a world in chaos.. the hysteria, tension, loneliness, despair, humour. That was riveting.
Frankly, I couldnt care less about RACOON city.
21 Resident Evil
I LOVEDthe movie Resident Evil Apocolypse because the movieis an at the edge of your seat horror movie.but i did not like how the camera angles started to just blur in the graveyard fight scene. you couldnt see what Alice is doing.the story did a good job on continuing from the first R.E.the suspense shocked me.It also has some hilarious scenes in the movie.It will make you pee in your seat.it is a must buy.next get the games forR.E and i mean ALL OF THEM. IT ROCKS.....
22 GREAT ACTION SEQUENCES AND BEAUTIFUL ACTION HEROINES!
"Resident Evil: Apocalypse" is to be recommended to those who enjoy good action films. The movie has some breathtaking action and fight sequences that are nearly non-stop (Along with the unnecessary blood and gore, which seriously detracts from the film). The best thing about the film is Milla Jovovich and Sienna Guillory. They can look incredible and kick serious behind at the same time. Their beauty and guts give the film a great boost! Fans of films like "Aliens" and the "Terminator" trilogy will truly enjoy this one, while others may be turned off by the graphic violence. Whatever your view, "Resident Evil: Apocalypse" is a non-stop action epic that is sure to entertain. Grade: B+
23 Even better than the first
I, unlike a lot of people, found this to be a very enjoyable movie. The thing I think few people take into consideration is the fact that Alexander Witt probably didn't set out to break new ground, all this film does is build on what we were left with in Resident Evil. The special effects are tremendous, a lot more detailed than the first one. The acting in a few scenes is a bit shallow but this is an action movie, of course it's not going to have great acting throughout the duration of the film. The exception to that statement is Sienna Guillory who plays the gorgeous Jill Valentine. I can't think of a single person who could play Jill as well as she did. She seems to have settled into the role with ease. And we can't forget the amazingly talented Milla Jovovich reprising her role as Alice. To watch her fight and shoot is pure exhileration. She also has become so much tougher in this one due to the injections of the T Virus she was given.
This movie starts off with a brief recap of what happened in the first film, other than that it picks up right where it left off. The plot is as follows. Racoon City has become a garden of rapidly growing numbers of undead. The Umbrella Corporation has taken it upon itself to quarantine the city, this means building a massive wall that circles the entire city. No one gets in, no one gets out. We are then thrust into heart pounding action sequences and all the things you loved about the first film. The small group we, the viewers, follow consists of Alice, Jill, Carlos, and Dr. Ashford's daughter. They must get to a designated building to then climb effortlessly onto a helicopter and fly off into the sunset. Things don't go as planned, however, and chaos ensues.
The lead characters couldn't have been cast better, Milla and Sienna's chemistry is evident and meshes very well. The addition of Jill Valentine was a good call and I feel that the franchise will be carried out very well with Jill being the main character.
The special features are surprisingly a nice little bonus. We get a ton of behind-the-scenes footage and interviews as well as 20 deleted scenes. Normally I'm not one for special features but the things included in this are done well. We are also treated to a few trailors to other films.
Overall this movie is worthy of the name Resident Evil. It follows the game very well and the characters are represented very well. This is a must for any fan of the genre and also any fans of the game.
24 My name is Alice... and I remember everything
I think that the second part was worse because of change of directors. It has still the modern-horror style, but it is so different! In the first part we could see real horror, passion and violence in the eyes of our story heores/ actors. They were just ordinary people/marines who weren't ready for an underground war opposit zombies and monsters. Now the characters of this story are killing machines, breaking walls, bricks and shooting every zombie in the head without thinking, even smiling (and, what is even worse, with an unbelievable accuarcy(for example, the scene where Jill enters her police department and shoots all the zombies near civilians) We also see stupid sense of humor, for example, where could you see that marines are flirting with Tv reporter while there's an zombie- dogs close fight attacks? I mean, the first part had much better atmosphere. Still, this movie had included all what we could see some years ago in the video game, so people who had been playing it, could find it interesting now. The previously prepared scenario was excellent, I had thought so many times how all this could be seen as a movie. The scenario was ready, it just hasn't been shown to us in all it's brilliant shining. So, it's directing fault. Still, is it good or bad people must see the second part, if they have seen the first one, which was nice...
25 Dear God they made another one
This is one of the worst zombie movies I have ever seen in my life, and that includes the original Night of the Living Dead.
Apocalypse shows me a crew of people who are supposed to be converting a
video game to a movie, and instead decide to screw logic, reason, and sanity, and just make a movie that will catter to devout, die hard fans of the series. Why does the story have to make sense?? Just slap Resident Evil on the cover and people will pay.
The story begins where the first RE left off. Anna is awakening in an Umbrella hospital and realizes the world is not what she knew. Things are...well they're sh*t Most people are either dead or undead, and the police are trying to create an effective resistance against the zombies. Hotshot, loss cannon S.T.A.R.S cop Jill Valentine takes leave of her suspension and walks into the RPD just in time to cap a few zombies. She then reminds everyone in a tone that is up to par with porn star acting "They're infected, you have to shoot them in the head."
Oh but it get's even better when Jill, her partner, and a reporter are trapped inside a church with two lickers. Anna bursts in on a motorcycle to save the day and the first question I have is, "How did she know they were there?"
Then they all get to battle hand to hand with a bunch of rotting graveyard zombies which is funny because A. How did the T-virus infect the already-dead-6ft-burried corpses? and B. why did they choose THAT moment to unearth themselves?
The choreagraphy looks good, but then again it's hard to not look like a bad ass when your opponent makes no attempt to defend himself.
Later after making a deal with the lead scientist for a ticket out of this nightmare, they go to a school to retrieve his daughter as their part of the arrangement.
Low on people and ammo in a school full of zombie kids, they do the smart thing and split up which means; yep you guessed it someone is going to die.
I loved the scene where they find out a nuke is coming to destroy the city.
Jill asks, "What Yield"
Anna, "50 Megatons"
Jill, "!@$! me"
Now, how does a police officer know the difference between nuclear yields..and WHY does it matter! It's a nuke! I don't think Umbrella intends on destroying half the city.
Watching Nemesis was just sad. Why is he after S.T.A.R.S members? In the video game it was because they were out to expose Umbrella's dirty secret. In the movie its...."because they're the best." stupid stupid...
Resident Evil is how a zombie movie should never be done.
Horrible acting, a storyline full of holes and inconsistencies, and the feeling that the creators of this "movie" cared more about counting the money it would make rather than making somthing decent give this movie the 1 star is most certainly deserves.
Rent it if you want a good laugh, and if you want to watch a decent zombie flick try the new Dawn of the Dead.
26 nemisis?
this is probally one of the most stupid movies i have ever seen. the first one was actually good, this movie was so fake and stupid.
27 Red Queen... say "hi" to Nemesis!
Picking up from where Resident Evil left off, Apocalypse sheds light on events surrounding Raccoon City following Alice's exit from the Umbrella laboratory facilities.
The virus has now spread above ground and the Umbrella cooperation has sealed off the town, which is crawling with zombies. Civilians and security forces alike are trying to survive and find some way to get out. In the midst of this pandemonium, Alice has teamed up with an unlikely group in search of the creator's daughter who is none other than the girl whose image had been given to the Red Queen's holograph back in the Hive.
Milla Jovovich and the rest of the cast carry out their performances very well! The only setback is in relation to the part where she, yet again, finds herself trembling/twitching/hurting/screaming etc Have mercy on us please... Can we please have a movie with Milla Jovovich not acting like that (i.e. EXACTLY as she does in the Fifth Element, in Joan of Arc and in the original Resident Evil)? Is that too much too ask??? It gets tiring after a while!!!
Aside from that, the plot, the setting, the special effects, and the battles are all very good! The film does a GREAT job of establishing a cliffhanger for a sequel, which I would definitely line up to watch!
In short, it is a movie definitely worth watching and one to seriously consider adding to your movie collection! 4? Stars
28 Really, really bad film!
There was a time, long, long ago when the Silver Screen was reserved for for classics, for art, for the Golden Age of Hollywood. Those days are long gone. But at least movies had that special time. Video Games will never be regarded in this way. No matter how realistic and frightening the Resident Evil games can be the world of gaming will never be able to shed the geeky image of friendless, degenerate nerds playing for 11-hours straight. There's no glamour or admiration to be had here. And with the worlds of movies and video games merging closer and closer together (whether we like it or not) we can only expect a Sonic the Hedgehog live action movie soon (and some studio exec will probably cast Ben Affleck in the title role). I may sound like I'm talking nonsense, but, when you think about it...not really. We've already had a Super Mario Bros. movie and Double Dragon and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation and Alone in the Dark.
The first Resident Evil movie was no classic that's for damn sure but it's still a far superior film to this drek. Resident Evil: Apocalypse is so wantonly awful it's almost on par with House of the Dead. No joke! These zombies are not scary! At all! Dawn of the Dead this ain't.
For an R-rated movie the violence is blurred and confusing, why even bother with the swearing if that is really all that is keeping it from being a PG-13? It's shot and cut with no skill whatsoever. The plot makes no sense at all and there are frequent gaps in logic that even the most ignorant viewer can point out. Like why do the long-dead people in the graveyard (conveniently buried underneath only a few centimetres of loose dirt) suddenly come back to life when the T-virus is only supposed to be transfered through blood infection? And that was only just one part of a 'plot' that was constant nonsense. And by the end it was so far removed from the (better) story of the video games that the 'Resident Evil' title is really no more than a way of selling nonsense to people who expect and deserve something else.
Don't get me started on the characters! All I can say about them is that they might as well have been polygons. I know I'm not being really original when I say this movie is like watching a bunch of cut-scenes from a video game but...it is. It is totally NOT worth your time or money. Do not even give in to curiosity.
The DVD is in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and (my version had) Dolby EX/DTS ES 6.1 sound. Plus a bunch of extras I care not for.
29 Decent Sequel **1/2 stars
Resident Evil 2 was quite a good seqeul. It had enough action in it to keep me satisfied. The story although quite lacked in originality and was quite flat at times. But the movie did have some good scares and had way more action than the first movie.
Pros: More Action Than The First, Scary, Suspensful, Enjoyable Cast, Watchable.
Cons: Unoriginal, Flat At Times.
Overall: 2 1/2 stars
30 Disappointing...
I did like RE:A, but I found it a disappointment because the movie makes it too clear that the main characters are going to survive. It takes all the suspense out of the climactic fight scene when you already know Alice is going to make it!
The most egregious example of this is the first time Alice and Nemesis fight. Alice escapes down a garbage chute and Nemesis launches a rocket after her. It goes off three feet from her butt and her only cover is a wheeled gargage bin. Alice not only survives, she's unharmed!
Another example: The deus ex mechanica when they rescue Angela. Jill's exploding-stove trick doesn't work, but Alice just HAPPENS to have a lit cigarette, she HAPPENS to understand what Jill's plan is, and she HAPPENS to be in just the right place to toss her cig exactly where needed.
I could go on, but I don't actually want to run the movie down. RE:A is pretty good, but it could have been so much better.
31 Thrilling sequel!
Set after the events of the original movie, Alice ( Milla Jovovich)has came out of the hospital in Raccoon City to find the entire population of the city has been sealed off and contaminated by the T-virus. She meets up with survivors including Jill Valentine and Carlos whom are part of the S.T.A.R.S. alpha team of the police station, they together must escape the city of horrors or end up dead by zombies, mutants and a powerful new foe called "Nemesis".
Well made and super scary sequel that probably surpasses the original movie in every way since i am a major fan of the video games and enjoyed the first movie, i would have to say this one is great. It's more faithful to the video games than the original movie ever did, but what's cool about this movie is that it's got a better story, more gore, more zombies, more mutants, humor, better action, scares, thrills and chills abound with terrific special effects.
The 2-Disc special edition is awesome just like the movie itself! it's got literally killer extras such as deleted scenes, three audio commentaries, previews, Cast outtakes, six-part making of this movie, featurettes and poster gallery. Oh! there's also perfect picture and awesome surround sound with your choice of widescreen or fullscreen versions.
Also recommended: "Lifeforce", " Nightmare City", "Cannibal Apocalypse", "Resident Evil", "Zombi 2", " Demons", "From Dusk Till Dawn", " Shaun of the Dead", " Hell of the Living Dead" ( a.k.a. Night of the Zombies, Virus, Zombie Creeping Flesh), " Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror", "Dead Heat ( 1988)", " Bio-Zombie", " The Matrix", " The Terminator 1 & 2", " Aliens", " The Thing ( 1982)", " Evil Dead 1 & 2", "Dawn of the Dead ( 1978 and 2004 versions)", "Night of the Living Dead ( 1968 and 1990 versions)", " Day of the Dead", "Re-Animator", " Bride of Re-Animator", " Beyond Re-Animator", "House By The Cemetery", " The Return of the Living Dead Trilogy", " Zombi 3", " Cemetery Man", " Battle Royale", " Versus", " The Stuff", " Let Sleeping Corpses Lie" and " The Beyond".
32 Play the game instead !
I watched it till the middle and wanted to throw it away.I't's an insult to the game.The acting was terrible.The story line was obvious and uninteresting.It was generally meant for those who had played the game.but I can promise you that if you have played resident evil three, you will find nothing to intrest you here.The game has more drama, more suspense more interesting and intelligent twists that the movie appalingly lacked.In my oppinion the movie itself was a good introduction, I hope the next movie will take up from there and give us something worth watching!!!!
33 OK, of its kind
The kind is a zombie movie, with an extra monster thrown in for fun. That about sums it up.
Our Heroines are on the run from the evil flesh-eaters, going through ammunition at a good clip (pun intended). There is the standard cute little girl in need of saving - but this girl turns out to have an odd secret. There is the standard ineffectual babe, though with Jovovich and Guillory around, that's certainly not the only woman's role in this movie. There is the evil alliance of corporation and government in an evil plot and cover-up. You know, the usual.
This is just mindless entertainment - not that that's always a bad thing. It's a fair way to kill an evening, if you have one that needs killing.
//wiredweird
34 BETTER THAN THE 1ST!!!!!!!!
This film, as almost everyone in the world knows, is based upon a very popular video game series and is the best adaptation ever, albeit not the closest. The adaptation closest to its source material would be House of the Dead, as much as you hate to see it written it is. I love House of the Dead by the way.
Now, to the movie. This movie is excellent. This movie has more dogs, lickers, zombies, and the inclusion of the Nemesis, considered to be the best Resident Evil monster. I think those honors go to the lickers, my favorite. This film doesn't add anything new or innovative to the zombie world, but what film in the past ten years has? Zombies are flat creatures. The reason Resident Evil is so cool is that there are more than just zombies included. Sharks, lickers, hunters, dogs, and tyrants! This movie is worth the price I payed when it first came out. I was totally captivated by the action. The film jumped me at times, and I was totally creeped out in the school scene. Mike Epps is definitely worth the price of this DVD. He doesn't try to be a serious character, completely revamping his career, but he sticks to his normal self, LAUGHS, LAUGHS, LAUGHS! I'll admit that I laughed at EVERY one of his lines. Just because it isn't the scariet film ever doesn't mean that you shouldn't view it, ignore the bad, horrible reviews and see it. You owe it to yourself. Give the filmmakers a chance to make a third. Other great zombie movies are 28 Days Later, Dawn of the Dead (2004), Shaun of the Dead, Resident Evil, Romero's holy trilogy, and anything by Lucio Fulci involving zombies.
35 1 Star reviewers.. I think you know who im talkin about...
Hey! Get a life dude. Sorry they didn't ask you to be director.
This movie was flawless and if you want to cry about the detailed
game on how it presents the "T-Virus" then go cry. Don't Place your opinions on all the negatives.
All im saying is.. Get a life. And watch this movie.
36 A good sequel
Hot on the heels of Dawn of the Dead remake and well past our memory retention for it's original, RE: Apocalypse picks up right about where the first one left off. This time, it's an entire city that's being brought down by a virus invested population instead of a claustrophobic high tech lab.
A recap voice over given by Alice (in Wonderland?), played by Milla Jovovich gives the update we need even if we had released what little emotional attachment we had to the first one. I give high kudos for the creators in making a movie that actually surpasses the first one in production value and action thrills. The first was more of a suspense movie, which is fine because the suspense of what they discovered in the first one is gone. We know what they are up against.
This one is actually more like the video game, an action shoot-em-up where the popular characters come together to fight the `Evil'. I'm not familiar with the characters from the game but I was intrigued when I saw Jill Valentine smoke up the screen. Nothing better then to put a hot female cop in a mini skirt, black go-go boots and corset with guns strapped to her hips. Hello Nurse!
Anyway, the situation in the movie goes from bad to worse as the virus catches up with almost all the characters introduced. Only a few remain at the end and the finale is actually pretty impressive with a shameless introduction for a third installment. All in all, this is a good sequel and a great popcorn/action/horror flick with only passable dialogue but well done action sequences and thrills to spare.
37 Videogame - 10+/10+; Film - 1/10.......
This is terrible!
One of the worst films ever made.
I am a fan of Biohazard(Resident Evil) videogame, and compared to it, this film sucks. Although Anderson is calling himself a "fan" of this game, he is not a fan OF THIS game. A TRUE FAN would have never crated something like this.
These are the differences between a videogame and a film:
1 - In film: Nemesis is controlled by a computer(cyborg).
In game: Nemesis is just smart, and he is not controlled by a computer.
2 - In film: Nemesis is created from the T-Virus(Matt was sliced by licker and infected with the T-Virus)
In game: Nemesis was created using "Nemesis Parasite" and Nemesis Parasite was created in France. Besides most hosts possesed by Nemesis Parasite would die; and the hole process is unstable.....
3 - In film: T-Virus samples are stored in funky capsules made after DNA model.
In game: T-Virus samples are stored in normal capsules, without any "cool" crap.
4 - In film: T-Virus is created by Dr. Ashford to save his dying child.
In game: T-virus has a very long and twisted story; it was created by Dr. James Marcus by combining leech DNA and progenitor virus (Mother virus) to be used as a weapon.
5 - In film: In the end of the movie Alice can use a power of her mind to kill.(It sucks!)
In game: There is no Alice; and there is no super crap mind powers.
6 - In film: The whole Raccoon City incident happens because the stupid named "Hive" lab was reopened.(Shouldn't the computer tell Umbrella HQ that the T-Virus was leaked?)
In game: It happens because Dr. William Birkin was asassinated by Umbrella....(Rats were the carriers)
7 - In film: Raccoon City was bombed by Umbrella.(By doing so they tell US goverment that THEY ARE the ones responsible for this incident.)
In game: It was bombed by US goverment.
There are many other stupidities in the film; and it sure is NOT connected to the game(unlike Anderson said). It's for you to decide if this film is good or not, but a true fan would never buy it.
38 apocalpse my a$$
is it that hard to make a video game into a movie? resident evil should have been the perfect film series. the resident evil games have the following scary movie ingredients:a giant spooky mansion/zombies/zombie dogs/gore/mutated animals/evil dead style splatter combat/freakish characters/gore/gore/GORE!The first resident evil "film" was weak,at best.this one... is not has good.the very best thing about it is milla jovovich.she alone boosts this "film" to a watchable level.every other character is...whats lower than cardboard cut out? the nemesis is okay until that god awful hand to hand fight towards the end.and the zombie attacks are sad,they use this cheap camera trick to slow @ blur them,bad acting or bad makeup,the gory cheap flicks get that one right.and the cemetary sequence was just awful and didnt fit the "film".the editing was the worst i have ever seen,and why does the mpaa allow films like saving private ryan,black hawk down,and shindlers list to show what ever they want and get an "R" rating.those are real events and real people.these type of flicks,horror flicks are pure fantasy but you cant see a zombie chew on a guys guts unless its a unrated 20 year old romero film.
39 The T-virus lives!
Let me start out by saying the only reason I watched this film is because of Milla Jovovich. (Alice) Period. Ever since I seen her in "The Fifth Element" she is now on my must see list. Brains, brawn and beauty are her traits that cannot be matched. But now that I see Sienna Guillory (Jill Valentine) I might have to rethink my reasoning.
"Resident Evil-Apocalypse" continues on the path of the popular video game genre. This film is the second in the series of Resident Evils. The always-curious Umbrella Corporation must open the Hive! Of course this leads to unleashing the T-virus again. Raccoon City is built above the Hive, so the virus spreads faster than oil in water. The Umbrella Corporation cannot stop the virus so the decision is made to quarantine the city and nuke it. But what a better situation to try out their new prototype fighting machine Nemesis.
A rouge group of cops and civilians roam the streets. They are looking for a way out of the city. When they cross paths they decide to join forces with Alice. But wait, the inventor of the T-virus is looking for his daughter. He strikes up a deal with Alice for their freedom if they can find his daughter. This action packed film takes you on a roller coaster ride through the streets of Raccoon City. All hell breaks out killing zombies and devil dogs. If you liked the first Resident Evil film then this film will not disappoint.
40 NON-STOP VIOLENCE
The R rating explanation at the beginning of the movie says it all: "Rated R for non-stop violence." They got that right. It is easy to see the PS2 video game elements in this movie. It flows very well and I personally enjoyed this sequel more than the original. The addition of Jill Valentine to the mix was an inspiration. To tell you the truth, she's hotter than Milla.
In this episode, the contagion has broken out in Raccoon City and the population immediately falls victim. Umbrella Corp isolates the city and ultimately unleashes Alice, who has become a project in and of herself since the last outing. Umbrella takes advantage of the situation and unleashes Nemesis into the city for a trial run. Ultimately, he is pitted against Alice. There is a surprise at the outcome of that match.
Meanwhile, Dr. Ashby wants Alice and company to locate his daughter who was in the process of being evacuated when hell broke lose. In exchange, he promises to get them safely out of the Raccoon City.
There is a lot more characterization here than in many horror films. RE is very imaginative and the movie makes use of the rich history created by the game. Good entertainment for the horror fan.
41 the dead is forever among the linving in a good way
great movie it was fun'exciting'action pack'great story'this movie was hot and sexy.i heard they are making a squel to it called Resident Evil Afterlife i found abouth it on the web. but inny way see it you will love it.you will not be left down
42 Not a horror movie, but a decent action flick.
Resident Evil: Apocalypse (Alexander Witt, 2004)
Resident Evil: Apocalypse may be Alexander Witt's first directorial credit, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have more than enough experience under his belt to direct an action flick. His previous credits include work on such things-blow-up-nicely movies as Pirates of the Caribbean, XXX, Gladiator, and Lethal Weapon 3. So you can go into Apocalypse knowing you're going to get, at least, a solid action flick.
Then you take a look at the cast. Milla Jovovich returns, of course, but much of the rest of the cast are also known for solid action-film work; there's Oded Fehr (The Mummy), Jared Harris (b.Monkey), Sienna Guillory (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang), Razaaq Adoti (Black Hawk Down), and Zack Ward (Freddy vs. Jason), among others. Getting away from action films, Sandrine Holt (Black Robe) and Mike Epps (Strays) also jump out of the cast. So you know you have a well-acted solid action flick.
Unfortunately, that's all you get. It's really kind of depressing that one of the few games actually capable of scaring you if played in the right conditions doesn't actually merit a horror film, but there you go. Jovovich reprises her role from the first film, and is here backed up by game characters Jill Valentine (Guillory) and Carlos Oliviera (Fehr). The basic plot of the movie is that the three of them, along with a changing roster of hangers-on, have to both survive the city's undead and get out of the now-quarantined Raccoon City for reasons that the viewer's clued into about halfway through the movie. The result, as noted in the rating, is non-stop violence.
Given that, it's surprising how well the film does work on that level. The situation is quite likely to remind you of Predator, arguably the best film Schwarzenegger ever made (and definitely the best film Gov. Ventura ever made); Apocalypse suffers in comparison because the characters don't have anywhere near as much depth, but the action sequences never fail to be just as much fun. I just wish it had more of the outright creepy feel that made Resident Evil 2 (the game) so wonderful. ** ?
43 Jill Valentine is a smoker...Ewww.
I always imagined Jill to be a goody two shoes who could kick @$$, here she's reinvented as a bad @$$, smokin',shootin', cursin' and for the most part it works. RE: APOCALYPSE begins right after the end of RESIDENT EVIL, somehow the T-virus has escaped infecting the city, Alice has escaped but has been genetically altered into a killing machine now she must stop the horrors loose in the city. The movie is a lot busier than the first with an entire city destroyed by the virus. Alice teams up with Jill a member of S.T.A.R.S a specially trained squad of some sort. The plot consists of finding a missing girl escaping from mutated monsters and escaping the city unfortunatly they also have bigger problems literally, namely THE NEMESIS, the reporter from the previous movie has been mutated into a killing machine programmed to kill the S.T.A.R.S and Alice. The Characters once again seem to bond into a family and it actually made me care who lived or died. The end of the movie was left open for yet another sequel hopefully it will be the last part of a trilogy. EP
44 Is this for real? A GOOD sequel???
Yep, it's for real. There have been very few times in my life where a sequel to a movie was as good to me as the first movie, but this is one of those times.
It was great from start to finish! Tons of action, excellent special effects, and great storyline. A previous reviewer mentioned that you might better understand and enjoy this movie if you've played the video games, and I will admit that he has a very valid point.
I am a big fan of the games, so this movie was perfect in my eyes. I thought they did a fantastic job, especially with Nemesis. I swear it was like he walked out of the video game and into the movie. The special effects make-up guys are unbelieveably talented!
If you're a RE fan, you won't be disappointed.
45 Best Story EVER!!!
It's not like you won't have a clue if you don't see the first movie but if your a major movie buff and and need to know the in's and out's then watch it!
This movie was a great second to the first. It continued where the first movie left off and kept Milla Jovavich in it which was an added bonus.
It may be somewhat different than the video games but the storyline in the movie was put together very nicely. Definitely a change in pace from the first movie whereas almost everybody dies and now most of them survive. Yet, don't get me wrong. Not everyone makes it out alive or is able to resist the T-virus mutation.
The zombies in this movie were excellant as well. They had a eerieness to them being shot in slow motion (in the beginning) and looked very realistic. As realistic as one would imagine a zombie to be. And, beeing a fan of die hard Horror movies, I have to say that these zombies get 2 thumbs up from me! The director didn't focus too much on them so as not to make this appear as another "Dawn of the Dead" movie. He kept up with them and the story line which was great.
I admit, when I first seen Nemisis I was a bit taken back. I couldn't help but thinking the whole movie had just gone down the toilet with an oversize monster. But, having faith in the first Resident Evil and watching on I was quite surprised to see how well they integrated him into the sequel. It was better than to be expected.
If you love science fiction, horror, and the unknown testing of viral weaponry (or however you spell it) and all of those hidden government labs which claim to not be doing what they are doing, then you will love this move and the first one as well. It keeps you on the edge of your seat and keeps your interest up the very last minute, leaving you hungry for more!
46 Much Better Than The First ...
I, for one, hated the first film. I found only the film's last few minutes to be the only noteworthy thing about the entire movie. The first film boasted bad CGI effects, an annoying soundtrack, piss poor make-up effects and its biggest flaw was the fact that it did NOT utilize what made the RE games so great. That has all been corrected in the slam bang sequel, however. Non-stop action and the films fast-pace nature helps the viewer forget about the film's weaknesses. And the film's weakness is mainly the script written by Paul W.S. Anderson ("Resident Evil," "Alien Vs. Predator"). Weak dialogue and a flimsy story are certainly things that may completely annoy a less-forgiving viewer. The film's direction by Alexander Witt is fair but flawed. I, for one, hate the use of slow motion and sped up frames. However, with a bigger budget that improved the CGI and makeup made it possible to make RE: Apocalypse an action packed and entertaining way of spending an evening. Just don't over-analyze the film and watch it for what it is. A 'leave your brain at the door' horror/action film. Admittedly, the last fifteen minutes or so leave much to be desired. But RE: APocalypse boasts some nice gore, top notch T&A (which includes zombie hookers and Milla Jovovich) and cool homages to some older Zombie flicks.
47 Hollywood at its worst!
The first movie was very good although it did not have the same impact as the game did. This sequal however was the worst piece of storytelling I have seen on screen.
Don't waste your money...
48 killed it.
okay this movie was as bad as the first when it came to staying true to the game. first of all this is what really happends in the RE storyline: theres no alice, jill get stalked by nemises and gets infected with the virus in the game carlos meets her and helps her get the vaccine. then Jill is forced to beat nemises in the end with guns no genetically enginnered crap on her.Oh when you
see that part near the end when alice runs away in a building and a copter is shooting at her thats stolen from the character claire redfield in RE code veronica. i can go on, but fans get what i mean, its just an attemp to stay true to the game, yeah right!
As for people who dont play the game maybe you will like it some of my friends did. But to me another sucky video game movie. the games RULE.
49 Worst Movie Of the Year
What is this garbage? Are you people insane? I don't care if you liked the videogame, this is supposed to be a movie. The dim-witted plot is carried out so drudgingly, it bores me to tears. How superficial can a film be? This kind of trash is only suitable for possessed retards with anxiety dysfunctions. The movie deserves not only the lowest rating, but it should be submitted for the Golden Turkey Award, where it would gladly see some glory.
For the parents with genuine concerns that gullibly think videogame violence is the root of leading teens astray, and decided to connect this movie to the former, this piece of unadulterated garbage is a three-pointer for them.
50 closer to 3 stars
i didnt have high expectations to be crushed simply because this isnt that kind of franchise.this isnt like the disaster AvsP is.nothing is.but this is a typical big budget action/horror movie.i dont beleive in leaving my brain,the most important part of most movie goers,at the door,but i didnt have to.i kinda got the gist from part one and this continues from that well.if i were a rabid R/E fan then maybe i would be more thrilled with this.video games turned into movies doesnt really get my undying attention.something about it seems for lack of a better word,''fake''.i liked it enough where as i wasnt bored.i took whatever i saw for granted,i didnt get a headache if everything didnt make sense.so on those terms,its not a bad movie,coming from a person not a R/E fan to begin with.
51 Be Prepared - This is EXACTLY what you think
I watched the third (and hopefully final) installment of the Resident Evil series last night (Resident Evil:Apocalypse).
You should see it if you want to see the most expensive (tens of
millions) and well done violent zombie destruction - huge monsters with
rocket launchers- exploding helicopter machine gun violence - fashion
models with dual machine guns - even a good nuclear explosion - ever put
in a movie. In addition, all the heros are really fashion models
(really, they are.). There is also no dialogue. Really. Not even a
little. Just screaming, barking of orders and commands to "LAUNCH!!!".
The best part about the movie is that the plot is so horribly
unbelievable it borders on comically insane. Characters that were
formerly captured and imprisoned suddenly show up fully armored, healed
and ready to save the day. The story is not even cohesive in any manner,
and is so absurdly indigestible as to be insulting. Suspension of belief
doesn't even begin to cut it and at some points in the movie I was
forced to yell "OH COME ON!!" in disgust. Deus Ex Machina literally
rains down from the sky like a hurricane. It was clearly written by a 12
year old, and a poorly educated one at that.
But the explosions are great. Especially the nuke. Highly
recommended. A+++++
52 Dissapointed, down right pissed off a times
I love resident evil, and the first movie is one of my favorites.
This movie was such a huge let down. First off the Directing was horrid. The action sequences scream of low quality. The director uses quick jagged camera movements to obscure the action in the movie and give the moive a "sense" of action, but people who are used to the matrix/jackie chane show whats going on aspects of a fight sequnce will be aggrivated with the final show down.
Ontop of that the movie down right STEALS from the various RE stroy lines. and re-writes resident evil 3 completly,.
I much rather have had a RE type story or one that could have ran parrel much like the first movie. In stead we get whole a scene stolen from RE code veronica and they actually look less stunning.If it wasn't a complete rip off (say if the character was the same) it wouldn't have been so glaringly bad, but when you go to see a movie you go to see "new" thoughts and ideas not just shifted image stolen from video games with different characters doing things that run logically against the game that the images are being stolen from.
An ok movie for people who have never played the game..
But the action super hero twist and rip-off only serve to tarnish the fact that its supposed to be a "resident evil" movie. The director probably should have looked at some of the movies that RE borrwed from before he went about trying to turn this into a horrible wanna be super hero flick
53 Fast, action packed sci-fi
I was kept very entertained throughout the entire movie, I hope there is a sequel (from the ending it looks as though they have planned for one). I thought the first RE was scarier and perhaps a little more gory than this one, but this is way more packed with action and racing against time type plot with some suspense. All in all I'm going to buy the DVD, so I liked it enough to watch again and again! And I don't even play the video game...but then again I love sci-fi movies.
54 Awesome popcorn flick.
I enjoyed the first movie, and gave it 3 stars, but this sequel truly blows the first away.
This movie is nothing but pure, fast, non stop action, and will definitely not be mixed up as an Oscar caliber movie. But theres nothing bad about that.
Milla looks even better in this movie than the first and her new co-star, Jill, is as hot as they come. The action between the two main females and Nemesis was definitely fun to watch.
The best thing about the movie is that it never lets up and leaves you bored. Its a short movie at 90 something minutes but every minute is worthwhile.
And LJ, from the Friday movies, was histerical in this movie. Every line he had was funny as heck.
And the special features of this dvd really go over the top. The featurettes were wonderful, the outtakes were hilarious, and the deleted scenes were cool in their own way.
As a whole package this dvd is definitely one of the best and this movie is one of the biggest guilty pleasures of all time.
55 Awesome Movie and Extras!!
Man I didn't think a sequel would be just as good as the first!! WOW! I really really liked this movie, it had a different feeling than the first. You could tell they spent more money and time on this one than the first. I loved the whole story and the humour that was added!!
Hey and I even recognized some scenes that are in the FMV in the games! Really cool.
The extras are plentiful and great! The outtakes are really funny!
Buy this movie it rocks!
56 Resident Evil: Apocalypse
I give the movie 5 stars in hopes of giving the current rating a boost. To me this is at least a 4 star movie.
When I watched the first RE movie I pretty much had no experience w/ the game (even now its still a bit limited) and figured I would watch the movie as just a movie (yeah, I know, what choice did I have). Coming out of it I was like "Wow, that was almost depressing"- the ending, that is. It was just "All that for nothing? alright, alright; I guess I can live w/ that." When the 2nd RE movie came out I was actually really excited... more than I thought I'd be! Sadly, I didn't get a chance to see it in theaters.
I watched RE2 yesterday; man, that was just a good movie. For some reason those zombies creep me out more than the nemesis did. The scariest movie I've ever seen is the re-make of the texas chainsaw massacre and those zombies are right next in line! Don't ask me why, theres just something about them that creeps the hell out me! As for the plot, action, effects and characters: everything really seemed to be in sync w/ each other. Its the kind of movie I could find myself watching again and again... if that helps you decide whether to watch it or not, lol.
Yeah, theres a lot of annoying, crazed fans of the games who despise the movies b/c "they don't stay true to the games" or "the directors/writers don't 'understand' the games." For the record, the games are in the genre of 'survival video games.' What do you think the movies are about??? I could argue much furthur but my God, whats the point? They'll never get it.
There is nothing wrong w/ these movies (other than being given poor ratings). The director wants to do a trilogy of these movies; honestly, thats all you need! For the most part, once movies get past the 3rd one they all go downhill! The director knows this and has done his best to bring quality movies to the big screen while also trying to make the fans happy!
To end this, these movies are very good. Of course, they're not for everyone (they're zombie movies, duh) but if you're looking for a good popcorn movie, this is it. And if you're reading this review trying to decide whether to 'buy' it or not, I don't know if I can help you. "I" think they're good, though I'm usually more partial to the underdog movies that no one gives a fair chance... and thats all I ask. If you haven't seen it, rent it before you buy it- thats always my philosophy.
57 5 S.T.A.R.S
i loved this movie soo much when i 1st saw it, i bought it 2days b4 it was uspposed 2 comoe out and everythingits alot scarier then the original movie was and theres so much more action n nemesis is s pimp and a half. i dont get people dawn of the dead is ust zombies and thats it no story line just zombnies chasing people. this atleast has a awesome story line and awesome special effects. i recommend this movie
58 From a die-hard RE fan
I can't remember a time when I didn't love Resident Evil. No other series of video games can even come close to matching the complexity of the story behind RE. For years, I thought that an RE movie would be truly awesome, and lo and behold, they made one. Although none of the original characters were involved, I still relished every second of it, and when I heard there was going to be an RE2 movie, I was estatic.
Now, don't get me wrong. The visuals, the costumes, the characters, the fighting...all are truly awesome in the movie. There are plenty of surprises, lots of zombies, and even some comic relief. All in all, the movie itself was quite well done. My issue is with the plot itself.
As all of you hardcore RE fans know, 'Nemesis' is the title, and the subject, of the 3rd RE game. The second RE game does deal with the scientist's missing daughter, and with a reporter, but the similarity ends there. RE2 (the videogame) follows Leon's and Claire's seperate stories as they try to escape the city: Claire tries to rescue the scientist's daughter, and Leon and the reporter are looking for the G-virus, the new and updated version of the T-virus. Also, the second game brings in more enemies and all kinds of things that would have made for an excellent movie.
I'm thrilled that a third movie is being made, and I hope it follows RE:Code Veronica a little more closely than "Apocalypse" followed RE2. "Apocalypse" is still an awesome movie, but fans, be ye warned: the plot might make you a bit angry.
59 Totally Awesome
This movie is (like the title of this review) totally awesome. This one has a lot more action and is more suitable to the Resident Evil series. It touches more on the coolest monsters in the Resident Evil series, the Lickers. The ending is awesome. Good thing thier going to a third one cause I can't wait.
P.S. - Does anyone else but me think that Milla Jovovich is a little flat chested?
60 KICK BUTT ACTION
People, if you want fleshed out characters and other cinematic niceties, why on earth would you even watch a movie like this? It's meant to be an adrenaline rush, a cavalcade of fights and wow special effects. Who cares about Alice's past? We get enough from the first movie to fill us in. This movie delivers what you should expect from this kind of moviemaking. Milla Jovovich kicks butt in this one, which I think overall is better than the original, which seemed to be nothing more than an extended video game. This time around we get Alice paired up with the likes of Mike Epps, Oded Fehr, Sienna Guillory and others. Thomas Krestchmann who was so good in THE PIANIST makes an interesting villain. There's lots of explosive action and twists and turns. Its dark ending squeals for a third installment. So relax enjoy this movie's mindlessness and appreciate the craft that was necessary to pull it off so nicely.
61 A step above the original.
As a huge fan of the original games I came to the first Resident Evil movie with fairly large expectations. Was I disappointed, a little. As a horror movie it had its moments, as a movie based on a game it wasn't very great. Although, to lend it some credit, Paul Anderson has said it was more of a prequel to the games rather than based exactly on the games.
Luckily Resident Evil: Apocalypse is based on the games and is a lot better done than the first one. First off, there's a lot more action. To me the first one was far to slow, with not much going on. This one was almost pure action through and through. It had great gun fights and well thought out fisticuffs.
It also played out like the games, with different scenes from the game actually in the movie, which I enjoyed. The Tyrant was well done and didn't look too cheesy like I thought it would. The zombies were good, although the moments where the director chose to slow down the film to show groups of zombies moving was a total waste. I couldn't help but think, "cheesy TV movie" during those times. The dogs and lickers were well done, and there's nothing like a creepy classroom filled with zombie children to get some chills wrung out.
Milla Jovavich's character Alice was a big improvement too. Jovavich had a better grasp of the character this time around and played her with some good old camp too. She seemed more confident in the role, which worked for the movie.
My only real complaints about the movie where its lack of constant good scares, only one new addition of the monsters from the game(the Tyrant) and lack of gore. For a horror zombie movie you'd expect a little more gore. Even Shaun of the Dead has more gore than this. But overall, it's a step above the original, and a gigantic leap over other zombie movies based off games. Yeah, I'm talking about you House of the Dead.
62 Resident Evil - Turd
I loved the first Resident Evil movie, and those of you out there who are die hard fans of the games and hate it since it didn't really have any characters from the games get over it. The first thing the first movie did that this one didn't was make characters that you cared about. I loved some of the characters that ended up getting killed 5 minutes into the action. Here on the other hand (Apocalypse) I wanted Jill Valentine to die 5 minutes into the action. I am not sure if it was the terrible acting so much or just the way she was written.
Another major area that Apocalypse falls short? The ending. The ending to the first movie blew me away. The hero wakes up to find that they've been experimenting with her all this time, struggles to get up to find herself in a empty hospital, makes it outside wearing only a sheet of paper to find Racoon City in ruins. The Ending for Apocalypse? It's retarded at best. Sure I don't know what the hell is going on the next time based on this ending, but I don't care either.
Lame characters, no real suspense, not even much Zombie action if you ask me, and everything that makes these films corny.
63 awesome
this movie is an awesoem movie.... i wont go into what happens because it is covered in other reviews.....but if you go into a ZOMBIE movie thinking that this is going to be a highly thought out practical movie you are a RETARD...... this movie has tons of action sexy people and a fun plot line..... if you want a movie that has action this is it
64 The infection is spreading faster ...
I have to admit I loved the first film. It was one of the few films that I thought best represented the video game that it accompanied. Milla was perfectly cast as the lead and the non-linear structure of the film allowed us to see the who, what, where, when, and why of the events. There was just the right amount of terror, the right amount of action, and a whole bunch of originality. I wish, I really wish that I could say the same about it sequel. As the credits rolled and we were brought back up to speed from the last events that occurred in the original only to discover that a new director had decided to helm this project and was obviously handed more money and forced to follow the footsteps of Hollywood. Everything from the original was lost and discarded as a mainstream horror film with maybe zombies (couldn't tell due to the blurry nature of which they ran) moved in to take its place. More money was on the table with, in this case, meant more explosions and less story. A disgrace to the name of both the video game and the original film came in several ways with this inferior sequel, mainly horrible acting, cliched characters, a recycled plot, and especially with a amateurish, craft sale created monster known as the Nemesis.
To begin the characters were very disrespectful to the original. I remember hearing of this sequel and hoping they would build more on Milla character, giving her more to work with and more past stories of her time at the Umbrella Corporation. I was a hopeful viewer who wished for more deeply rooted characters with many layers, but found the Hollywood clichˇ instead. The entire character known as LJ could have been eliminated with the greatest of ease and without any remorse. His lines were the epitome of every other zombie film created while trying to bring his own game references into a franchise that was doing well on its own (the GTA line nearly took my rage over the top). Like any good supporter of films and video games, I don't mind when they bring in more characters from the series, but let us know who they are first. There was no introduction to Valentine for those less familiar with the series other than she knows how to shoot zombies and she was disbarred from the force (see the writing on the wall). This goes the same for Carlos, who just wandered through his part without really contributing anything worth while, and Nicholai, whom I always considered another villain of the series. Oh well, I guess when tons of Hollywood cash is being thrown in your direction, you can just go crazy with creativity and forget the basis of your film. Yet again, who am I to say? Milla was the only one worth watching in this entire film, and even her character seemed to be turning to cardboard by the end. It was a sad change of events for the Resident Evil group.
The bad acting was the only trouble with this film, the horrible script allowed the Hollywood character and plot clichˇs to pour in like the flood gates had been opened. The wise cracking character that always has something to say and obscure pop culture references that try to gain a couple laughs from the audience was present. The no-nonsense female cop that has a strange past, but finds out that she has the heart of gold. The corporation boss that is willing to kill everyone for the sake of science and proves that he has no heart what so ever. Finally, there is the large overbearing monster that was nothing more than table scraps of every other Hollywood big budget horror movie, which discovers the true meaning of Christmas. YUK. Could director Alexander Witt either not do his homework or just try for once to build upon the original instead of slicing and dicing. Not just the characters were clichˇ, but also the story. Lines were replaced with explosions and CGI. Gore replaced the sci-fi element and 1984 Big Brother moments were just the mother load. Seriously, I would love to know what happened.
I would like to end this review by saying that I laughed at Nemesis the entire time it was on screen. For any of you that did not, I question your sanity. The reality, if that is what you want to call it, the creative imagination of the original was lost when Nemesis made his screen debut. It was sloppy and cheap. Definitely not something for Witt to be proud of.
Overall, this was not a crowning achievement for the series. The themes were jumbled mess of save humanity and science is bad. Milla did the best with what she was handed providing some of the better parts of the film, but everyone else were just worthless. I hope that the makers of this film see the error in their ways and the fact that they completely butchered a great concept. Video games are an amazing source of imagination, but sometimes when Hollywood money becomes involved, you get projects like Resident Evil: Apocalypse. I loved the video games, but after the original, this series needs to tighten up to regain control.
Grade: ** out of *****
65 Unforgivable ending
Sorry guys, bear with me, this is a long review, but if you want to know why I gave two stars you will have to read the entire thing.
Let me first state that unlike many people, especially fans of the Resident Evil game series, I thoroughly enjoyed the first Resident Evil movie and although it wasn't anything too special or original, I felt the it was a solid action/sci-fi/zombie/horror movie which never really went wrong. RE - Apocalpyse however disappointed me numerous times. I excepted a generic plot, I expected Matrix style action, I expected hordes of zombies, I expected a lot of things, what I didn't expect were some lame scenes and a lazy plot wrap up.
The gist of the story is that a zombie creating virus has infected the Umbrella Corporation's secret research facility known as The Hive which resides underneath the city of Racoon City (the events of the first movie). Of course a science team goes to reopen the Hive and the bad stuff escapes, no problem there. All of Racoon City starts to get infected and all kinds of zombie hell is breaking out everywhere. Alice our main character wakes up in a "hospital" after her ordeal from the first movie. By the time she walks outside the city is already officially screwed.
First the things I liked about the movie, I love the Resident theme, I like the action/fighting scenes, I generally like the characters and the acting, there aren't too many lame quotes, there are some decently frightening scenes and the special effects are about as good as you could ask for.
Now what I didn't like. *SPOILERS* Some how Umbrella Corporation in less than 24 hours managed to contain the outbreak within a city seamingly the size of Chicago using 30+ foot walls around the entire city. Allrighty then, in all fairness the Umbrella Corporation knew the virus had infected the Hive, so prior to entering The Hive they could have and should have had safety measures ready to be deployed if the virus escaped into the city. Okay I guess I can buy that.
There were naturally a couple of scenes that were lame or dumb, such as Alice jumping via motorcycle into the church where the other characters are battling against some Lurkers, not knowing where she was going to land and who she might squish on the other side. A little bit reckless, but I'll forgive it as a theatrical flair. And of course if a zombie/undead resurrecting virus gets lose one of the first things you would put on your site seeing list is a stroll through the cemetary, right? Well our characters did, and of course the buried zombies don't crawl out of their graves until our characters are right dead smack in the middle of the cemetary. Sigh... well every horror movie has to have the character stupidity moments and maybe the buried zombies didn't have enough willpower to dig themselves out until they started to smell fresh blood standing right on top of them. All right I'll forgive that stuff.
Then a semi-side plot to whole movie is the conflict between Alice and Nemesis (a huge T-virus mutant). The Umbrella Corporation wants to see the two battle it out and test each other. Allright so the two have a couple semi-random encounters which were actually kinda cool, but then we get towards the end of the movie and their "battle" has yet to resolve itself. So we can't have that. Rather than have to two stumble across/find each other in some random cool location and end it, an Umbrella Corporation scientist forces the two to literally fight now. "You and you step forward and end this." I thought for a second I'd stumbled into a "Mortal Kombat" movie, I expected at anytime to hear the deep gravely voice utter the word FIGHT. Needless to say the scene was lame. Once again however ultimately forgivable due to artistic license.
Now we come to the end. A horrible disease ravaged a city the size of Chicago, a huge 30 ft wall is erected around the entire city (we are talking miles and miles of wall), newspapers lay scattered through the streets with headlines reading "THE DEAD WALK", people struggle to escape the city and many do before Umbrella Corporation puts a stop to it. To cover this tragedy up Umbrella Corporation touches off a nuclear bomb and claims the power plant had a meltdown. Fine no problem.
However, some amateur footage of the zombie tragedy ends up in the hands of mainstream news. Reports of disturbing and shocking footage are aired. Oh, wait sorry, never mind the whole thing was just a hoax. All we know is that Racoon City was leveled by a nuclear meltdown. WHAT? Are you trying to tell me no one in the outside public knew about this outbreak? No one noticed the 30 ft wall surrounding a major metropolis? Newspapers had enough time to release breaking news headlines reading "THE DEAD WALK" and nobody outside heard about it or read these articles? None of the presumably thousands of earlier escapees told anyone about the tragedy? None of the remaining people not to mention the reporting local news, government or law enforcement groups made a phone call to the outside world to report what was happening and/or ask for aid and/or say there goodbyes to loved ones, especially in the early hours of the outbreak? How in the world am I supposed to buy that crap?
If you want a cover story say terrorists released a biological/viral disease and before anyone could figure out what was going on, the nuclear plant had a meltdown and obliterated the entire city and any potential explaination of the virus outbreak. There both horrible tragedies reported and simply explained and resolved. But no instead the outside world remains completely ignorant of the zombie disease outbreak. Please. That my friends is why I didn't like this movie. It makes the whole plot resolution unbelievable.
66 Turn your brain off and you might enjoy it
Paul Anderson to me is a guy movie director: he doesn't make 3 hour long character studies or big period pieces, he just wants to have 90 minutes to show people kicking ass and blowing s*** up. Story may be very one dimensional, as are its characters, and dialogue may be hokey, but if I turned off my brain, I actually could enjoy this.
Resident Evil the first film was essentially a prequel to the first Resident Evil game which took place in the Spencer mansion. The movie was written to provide a prologue to the game even though there's Resident Evil Zero but oh well.
After the events of the first film, Alice, having woken up from some experiments done to her, she awakes to find Raccoon City looking decimated(kind of like RE2 and 3). Umbrella wants to know what happened in the Hive so they open it's huge doors, bad idea. The "zombies"(they're not called that in the films) attack the scientists and start to overrun the city. The city people then go to the city's only exit, but someone contracts the virus and turns into one of them. Umbrella decides that it's too dangerous to have the virus this close so they do the next best thing to get rid of it: nuke the city. What follows is a group of people trying to escape without getting infected or killed and rescuing the T-Virus creator's daughter.
The plot is basically Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. There's no mention of William Birkin, Leon, or Claire. It does have Carlos Olivera and Jill Valentine from RE3(the latter also being in the first game). Not an important thing but Jill is HOT. Oded Fehr plays Carlos with a badassness and Milla Jovovich is quite capable in the movie-only character Alice. The big creature is the Nemesis, who transformed from Matt from the first movie. He looks like the game's character and has a rocket launcher and mini-gun.
Instead of Paul directing the sequel, the reins are given to Alexander Witt, a long-time second unit director but first time head director. He sometimes has a tendency to have the fast editing syndrome that plagues a director like Michael Bay with fast shots. This makes the fight with Alice and the Nemesis kind of weird too watch cause he's so damn slow yet it's shot like he's going Bruce Lee on her.
They're making a 3rd one with Paul returning as director. Seeing as how Resident Evil 4 just very recently came out, I'm wondering how it'll have its plot turn out. And here's to having Claire, Chris, Ada and especially Rebecca in the next film. But as for this one, give it a shot since it won't do anything bad and may enjoy it(except if you think the movie sucks).
67 ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK WITH ZOMBIES
Let me first take a second just to say that i have never written a movie review in the past, but i am a person that when extremely pleased or highly dissatisfied often feels the need to say something, so here it is: This movie is without a doubt one of the most worst action/horror/scifi/whatever the hell peice of crap kinda movie you want to call it. What bothered me most outside of the huge plot holes was that this movie was a horrid rip of of ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (which i will add was a much better movie by far than this piece of tripe). What the producers of this movie relied on was the fact that the audience they were going after (young males 16-25) probably have never seen or heard of the movie ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK thus wouldnt know that there wasnt one single fresh or original idea in the whole movie. Yes it was nice seeing Alice and Valentie (pretty faces and nice bodies to attract the boys) kick some butt, ill admit, but when you actualy go to the lengths of stealing another persons movie idea you'd think they could at least make the plot work (i.e. to reanimate dead bodies they MUST be infected with the T-Virus, yet when the wayward team are running through a grave yard, corpes come up from the ground. Can someone please tell me how they, 1) got out of ther coffins from 6 feet down, and then tell me how they were infected with the T-virus?)I wont bore you with more details of the dreadfulness of this rip off, my only point was to warn any of you Resident Evil 1 fans that were thinking of picking this up (by the way i did like part one)If you really want to see a better version (AND NOT A RIPPED OF PIECE OF GARBAGE) of what was meant in APOCALYSE, rent or buy ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK with Kurt Russell, i think you will be pleasantly surprised.
68 One of the worst movies I have ever seen
I am writing this review in the middle of an action sequence on this DVD. Much to my regret, I purchased it earlier today. So far I have interrupted my viewing 4 times to do other things because it cannot hold my interest. The dialogue is some of the worst in history. Even compared to horror movies that KNOW they are corny, this one looks pathetic. I am a horror and sci-fi movie fanatic, and I actually enjoyed the first Resident Evil, but this one fails on several levels.
Firstly, it is not the least bit scary or suspenseful. Whereas the first movie relied on suspenseful silence and scary atmosphere, as well as on great camera work to bring the creatures to life, this movie just thrusts the viewer into a stupid action spectacle, with stupid slow motion effects on the zombies (worse than the first Dawn of the Dead, I swear) and no building up to scary moments to create suspense.
Secondly, there is absolutely no character development. Who are these people and why do we care about them? The answer is, we don't know and we don't care.
Thirdly, we have seen all of this before. There are cliche action sequences (blowing up rooms full of gas) and the token funny and mildly retarded black guy (gotta love stereotypes).
Finally, isn't this whole thing supposed to be about a virus? Then why are zombies coming out of the ground at the cemetary?? How did the virus get into the ground and infect dead bodies? Wouldn't this mean all people should be infected due to an airborne virus? Instead, this is just another stupid ripoff of zombie movies put in here for no reason and without justification.
Not only is this worse than playing a video game, it is worse than WATCHING someone else play a video game. I can't imagine a better way to waste 20 bucks or even 20 minutes. Somebody would have to pay me to watch this crap again. On the other hand, what did I expect from a script writer who was involved in Alien vs. Predator, the second-worst movie of all time?
Buy at your own risk.
69 Alice must fight Nemesis and control what Umbrella put in
We all enjoyed the first film "Resident Evil (2002) that was inspired by the video game series of "Resident Evil". This German-United States-France film bacame such a hit in the movie theatres and in the movie rental shops, they quickly made plans for a movie sequel, "Resident Evil: Apocalypse" (2004).
This second film has elements from the video games, "Resident Evil 3: Nemesis" and "Resident Evil: Code Veronica X".
Milla Jovovich returns as "Alice" for a second go around with her new comrades: Sienna Guillory as "Jill Valentine" and Oded Fehr as "Carlos Olivera". They are in search of irish actress Sophie Vavasseur as "Angela Ashford", the daughter of Dr. Ashford (Jared Harris) who has been kidnapped and is somewhere in Raccoon City. To lend there help against the bio-hazard zombies is Raz Adoti as "Sgt. Peyton Wells" and Zack Ward as "Nicholai Sokolov".
The lickers, the bloody dogs and "The Nemesis" (Matthew G. Taylor) make appearances.
I'm not into rock n' roll music, but the end credits tune I found myself whistling to for a week. Catchy tune.
DVD includes many featurettes, 20 deleted scenes, poster gallery winning submissions and three different audio commentaries to choose. The audio commentary with Milla Jovovich and Oded Fehr is fun to listen to.
Could be followed by a third film "Resident Evil: Afterlife" if all goes well. It could be released in 2006.
70 the best sequel of all time
the first resident evil movie was a real horror master but resident evil apocolypes is something else. this film has a lot more style in it and it reaveled more secrets. the director also did a great job in capturing some of the games scenes. now, this takes place were the first film left of, the people at umbrella have reopen the hive and the virus along with the zombies, mutant dogs, and lickers excape. in less then 13 hours all of racoon city is in shambles. we then learn of the women from the first movies name. ALice awakes in a hospitale and finds that something is wrong with her. she is infected with the t-virus but isen't a zombie, they mutated her. she is the joined by jill valantine (from the resident evil game) and other survivers. now with a entire city full of zombie, mutante dogs, and lickers they now must fight for there lives and escape the city before sunrise, at sunrise umbrella will destroy all of racoon city to barry its dark secret. also Alice must fight a new biogenice weapon called Nemises, a zombie more powerful then the licker and twice as deadlier. in order for them to excape they must find Angela, the daughter of dr. ashford. who made the t-virus. this movie was really worth the wait, it has more action, more thrills, and more effects then ever, see the next big zombie movie.
71 Best sequal of all time!
WARING CONTAINS SPOILERS.'Resident Evil Apcalypse' starts off with a normal day in raccoon city. But some Umbrella scientist reopen the hive and the virus escapes. 13 hours later the entire city is infested with undead Zombies. Lickers. Mutant K9s also known as Cerberus. also the all mighty NEMISES. Also Alice is back joined by video game charicters Jill Valentine. and Carlos Olivera. The movie is FILLED with action and suspense. I'm not going to get into the plot. But if you love movies with TONS of action somewhat horror and two SEXY AS HELL BABES. Than this is the perfect movie for you. Also check out anything feturing Sienna Guillory cause she can act and shes VERY easy on the eyes.
Bottomline SEE THIS MOVIE IT'S WAY BETTER THAN THE FIRST RESIDENT
EVIL! Peace
72 Pretty much on par with the first film
If you dug the first Resident Evil film, you'll most likely dig Resident Evil: Apocalypse even more. Taking place right after the end of the first film, Alice (Milla Jovovich) finds herself allied with a few survivors as they try to escape Raccoon City and the unending zombie onslaught. Paul W.S. Anderson, who had directed the first film, wrote this sequel which is capably directed by first timer Alexander Witt. The bigger budget allows for better special effects, a more expansive environment, and the appearance of fan favorite video game monster Nemesis. Video game characters Jill (the oh so hot Sienna Guillory) and Carlos (The Mummy's Oded Fehr) are introduced, and the solid cast is rounded out by Mike Epps, Jared Harris, and Thomas Kretschmann. However, Apocalypse is really nothing too special, and at times it is quite predictable, although the twist ending is a nice touch, and the door is left open (again) to another sequel. It's not a waste of film as Roger Ebert described it as upon it's release, but it will depend on the viewer whether or not this is worth a look.
73 The best zombie movie since Dawn of the Dead
If you felt the first "Resident Evil" movie didn't quite capture the atmosphere of the original game, you can sleep a little easier now. "Resident Evil: Apocalypse" has EVERYTHING: from dark, creepy graveyards, a gothic cathedral and classic lorries in an "Escape from New York"- style deserted city to a cigarette smoking Jill Valentine and half naked hooker zombies.
Although this sequel clearly had a much bigger budget than the original film, director Alexander Witt has kept it credible and didn't use digital technology to bombard your senses and keep your mind of the lack of a decent storyline. Rather than making you feel like you're watching a computer- made movie where nothing seems real, the special effects help create a desolate and panicky atmosphere with credible characters who struggle to survive in a city that's infested with their undead compatriots, partially decayed K-9s and other creepy lifeforms. The scene where one survivor has to go up against a class of elementary school zombies is just terrifying.
Unlike the director of the "Dawn of the Dead" remake, Witt and producer/ script writer Paul W.S. Anderson have opted not to follow in the footsteps of the fast- moving "28 Days Later" zombies, but has clearly been inspired not only by George Romero's view of walking corpses, but also by his opinion of our western society. The real evil in this movie is not the zombies or even the killer mutant Nemesis (who looks and sounds like he has just stepped out of the original game and into this movie), but a Big Brother- style multinational that puts itself above the law and has no respect whatsoever for morale, decency or anything human.
Even if you've never played the video game, didn't like the first "Resident Evil" movie or don't care for a lot of high tech military action in a horror film, I'd still highly recommend you take the time to watch this one. If you liked both the 1978 version of "Dawn of the Dead" and "Aliens", you're going to love "Resident Evil: Apocalypse". Besides, if internationally acclaimed Milla Jovovich agreed to add it to her rˇsumˇ of, among others, "the Fifth Element", "the Messenger: the Story of Jean of Arc" and "the Million Dollar Hotel", it has to be good!
74 Good flick but
This film is good but overdone. It could've had a simpler plot and it would've been stronger. The monster baddie is cool and kinda reminds me of the leader of the orcs in Lord Of The Rings (THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING) This could've been a horror classic especially with the Laura Croft type female superheroes. Nevertheless, its worth watching...
75 beware the crappy sequel
Resident Evil: Apocalypse is a gargantuan bomb of a movie and why do you ask is beacause it is just plain horrible. Bad writing, acting and the action set pieces are mind numbingly crappy and non exciting. This sequel takes place right after the original in the desolate town of Racoon City where the virus has spread even more and the inhabitants become zombies. Just like the first one this suffers but the first one was a notch better in my mind. Starring Mill Jovovich (Resident Evil, The Fifth Element), Oded Fehr (The Mummy and The Mummy Returns), Mike Epps (Next Friday, Friday After Next), Jared Harris (I Shot Andy Warhol, Igby Goes Down) and Alan Tudyk (28 Days, Tv's Firefly). I hated everything about this movie and the Nemesis creature was laugh out loud funny. This bored the hell out of me. I gotta say this goes down the line for being so retarded like Van Helsing was. The chick who played Jill Valentine and the others sprouted some awful dialouge. "im good but not that good" please. For die hard fans of Resident Evil but beware, these people dont know how to make a good movie if it bit them in the ass. I don't really care what other's say..hey, at least I got some taste. This movie is for no-brainers.
76 The evil continues...
It almost seems a prerequisite now for certain movies to spawn all kinds of aftermarket merchandising, specifically video games (usually sucky ones at that). But to make a feature length film based on source material taken from a video game? Seems poor prospect (who remembers 1993's Super Mario Bros? Or how about 1994's Street Fighter? Man, those were some awful times), but then again I come from a time when video games were pretty simplistic, and had little or no story. Nowadays, the technology has allowed for extremely well developed storylines within games, and the likelihood of seeing the transition from game consoles to the big screen becoming more and more common. I mean, look at it like this, if a game sold how many million copies, you pretty much already have a large fan base more than eager to watch a film based on said game. A built in audience...how can you go wrong? Well, if you deviate from the storyline, or screw up various elements or characters, you may end up with a fairly rabid pack of angry fans looking for blood...Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004), sequel to 2002's Resident Evil film, was written by Paul W.S. Anderson (Event Horizon, AVP: Alien Vs. Predator), and directed by Alexander Witt, a man who has a ton of 2nd director (this is the guy responsible for filming shots of less importance, such as inserts, crowds, scenery, etc.) credits to his name, but makes his directing debut here. Returning in her role as Alice from the first film is Milla Jovovich (as far as I can tell, she was the only one who made it into the sequel). Also appearing is Sienna Guillory (Love Actually), Oded Fehr (Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, The Mummy), Mike Epps (Friday After Next, The Fighting Temptations), and Matthew G. Taylor (Gothika, Detroit Rock City) as Nemesis.
The film begins with Umbrella agents in full biohazard gear opening up The Hive, with predictable results (The Hive was a ginormaous, underground research facility that was sealed due to contamination in the first film). This leads to the T-virus (the contaminate that has the ability to re-animate the dead) to spread into Raccoon City, forcing the Umbrella Corporation, owner of not only The Hive but the city as well, to quarantine the city, sealing many uninfected residents with all kinds of walking dead, many vicious mutations seen in the first film, along with a few new ones. Alice, joined by a small band of survivors, now trapped inside the city, makes a deal to retrieve the young daughter of a scientist in return for safe passage out of the quarantined area. Only problem is, besides the legion of hungry undead roaming the streets and hideous, nasty, bitey creatures on the prowl, the Umbrella Corporation has ideas of their own, seeing the situation as a perfect opportunity to test out their latest bio-weapon, Nemesis. Oh yeah, there's also plans to nuke the city...time is running out (along with their ammunition), for the small group, but they do have an edge, namely, in Alice, as she is more than she appears...
Now you don't have to see the original to enjoy this sequel, as the makers of the film provide a certain amount of back-story at the beginning, but you probably should to get the full flavor. I really wasn't expecting a lot seeing as how this was a sequel and we all know sequels rarely meet the level of the original that spawned said sequel, so I was pleasantly surprised when the film turned out to be pretty good, well, good in the sense that it's a movie based off of a video game. And that's what I think people should keep in mind, especially those disappointed at the lack of substance within the plot. A majority of the plot actually extends from the first, setting things up for this picture, which is heavy on action, light on nearly everything else. I thought the actors did a pretty good job (that Sienna Guillory is one fine, hotsy totsy momma, playing the role of Jill Valentine). I especially enjoyed Mike Epps as the urban civilian caught up in forces way beyond his control, relating some truly funny lines in a completely realistic manner. I normally despise comic relief characters, as they're often played so ridiculously over the top that they distract more than anything else, but that wasn't the case here. The one aspect I disliked the most about the film was the excessive, epileptic, herky jerky camera work and quick cutting, meant to heighten the tension during the more action filled scenes, but it just served to annoy the heck out of me. This type of direction can be effective in smaller doses, but it's used too often here, and may cause some viewers to reach for the Dramamine. Also, I thought it odd that every time the undead were shown, their shots were often marred by jittery cutting, as if to highlight something (I don't know what), but it made me wonder if it was done to draw away from the detail, or lack of, concerning the make up of the characters. There were quite a few characters in this film, each seeming to have their own, little storyline going, but then they're unified nicely once their goals become shared. The special effects are very slick, and the action rarely slows down, and there's lots of guns, gunfire, explosions, things getting blown up (blown up real good). I thought the film a little short (it does list a 94 minute running time), but the ending sets up for a possible sequel.
I won't bother listing all the special features as Amazon details them nicely, but I will say the picture and audio were excellent. This is a two disc set, the first DVD containing the film (both widescreen and full screen format), along with some special features, with the 2nd containing the bulk of the extras. 3 ? stars
Cookieman108
77 They thought they'd survived the horror, but they were wrong
I liked the first "Resident Evil" better. I liked the way it opened and the entire idea of people having to go back into the Hive to find out what happened and look for survivors. There is something to be said for the inherent tension in having to keep going forward when you should be turning around and getting the hell out of Dodge as quick as possible. "Resident Evil: Apocalypse" is about the getting the hell out of Dodge, or in this case Raccoon City, but there is a major problem in terms of the as quick as possible part, especially given that the city is about to be nuked.
The Umbrella Corporation decided to reopen the Hive, which allows the T-virus to escape and turn the inhabitants of Raccoon City into zombies. I might be slow when it comes to modern science, but I really fail to see the practical applications or economic potential of the T-virus given that it is not really regeneration human cells. Now the nuke option is making a lot of sense, which is bad news for Alice (Milla Jovovich), the genetically created ultimate fighting machine, who is trying to lead a group of survivors through the zombies to safety. But since this movie is based on a video game, things get worse. The Umbrella Corporation sends Nemesis, a killing machine that may or may not be a genetically mutated version of Alice's boyfriend, Matt, from the previous film. Apparently shooting people before nuking them is in the best interest of the corporation. Go figure.
Alice at least has some decent allies this time around, with Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory), a demoted cop who is pretty good given that she has no genetic enhancements, and Carlos Olivera (Oded Fehr), who leads what is left of an elite tactical team. Weather reporter Terri Morales (Sandrine Holt) is as close as we get to the damsel in distress with this group, and she is not stupid. The group has a glimmer of hope in that there is a scientist, Dr. Asher (Jared Harris), who created the T-virus and is wired into the city security system so that he can help them take the "easy" through zombie town. All they have to do is rescue his daughter, Angie (Sophie Vavasseur), who was left behind. So this is the "Resident Evil" equivalent of trying to get out of zombie town with one hand tied behind your back.
I understand that there are a lot of things in "Resident Evil: Apocalypse" that are lifted from the various "Resident Evil" video games, but all of that is lost on me. I am sure that this adds another dimension of enjoyment to the film, just like when I watch a "Spider-Man" movie and talk about what shots are taken from which cover by which artist. A lot of this stuff is explained in the various commentary tracks, so there is ample opportunity to play catch-up, but it would all work a lot better if you have actually seen the video games. The bad news is that the sequel seems much more like a video game as the survivors fight zombies, and then they fight mutant creatures, and then they fight the Umbrella Corp., and then they go through the whole cycle again.
Taking the movie out of the Hive and up to the streets works against the tension and the terror, even when you throw in the zombie strippers (yeah, it sounds like a good idea, but it really is not). I think the characters are more interesting this time, mainly because their collective competence level is a lot higher than the first film, but this is yet another film that turns the lights down low and edits like crazy to achieve its effects. I am so sick and tired of movies resorting to that approach instead of just letting us see what is going on. But this is a movie that really does not have much respect for the intelligence of its audience, all of whom would know to shot zombies wearing body armor in the head. At least the movie makes the videogames look really good in comparison, so there is that. You just have to be into playing the games.
78 Apocalypse? Perhaps not, but...
As far as shlocky zombie films go the R.E. franchise is my favorite. I did perfer the first one.
As a "Torontoian" I have to say it was fun to watch if a bit hard to suspend disbelief I found that I had to keep telling myself "that's not Toronto City all It's Racoon City City Hall... or that's not the CN Tower in the background, pretend it's not there."
I think that dispite what the reviewer said the visuals were well done, I enjoyed the fact that "real" effects were used where it was not ablsoutly nessisary to use CGI ie. Milla Jovovich's (Alice) stunt double running down the side of city hall and Milla doing the last 60 feet herself, this was all done in real time and not on a blue/green screen nor CG.
If you expect Citizen Kane from this movie then perhaps you aught to rethink you choice in Genre. It's a *Bleeping* horror/action/sci-fi flick for goodnessakes not high art.
The DVD special features are fantastic also 3 comentaries, the one with Milla, Sienna, and Oded kept me chuckling Milla has a fantastic sense of humor. Outakes: funny. 20 deleted/exended scenes, and featurettes galore about everything you could want to know about the making of and behind the scenes of Resident Evil: Apocalypse.
Can't wait for Resident Evil 3: (Project: Alice(?))
79 Not very enjoyable. *Spoilers*
Well first off, I love the Resident Evil Games, mainly the 1st one and hopefuly RE4. The movie start were the first one left off, Alice in the middle of a chaotic Raccoon City.
This time around Umbrella corp is about to sanatize the city and evacuating the uninfected ones before that but things goes bad and all remaining citizens and rescue teams, like S.T.A.R.S to give an example, are left behind in this chaos.
You learn about Mr. Ahford, responsible for the virus, that he was creating a cure for his daughter, and she didn't succesfuly escape Raccoon City and she is somewhere in the middle of the city, which it is explained earlier. Mr. Ashford contact Alice and other people to tell them that the first ones rescuing his daughter, will be told how to get out of the city before it get sanatized.
You also get Carlos and Jill (with her totally out of place uniform). I think being dressed like that was totally unecessary, even the videogame didn't do that.
A good thing is that you get to know more about the Background story of Alice, which I think was the good a probably the best part of the movie.
Zombies? Yes there are Zombies but not unlike Dawn of the dead or 28 Days later. They are boring and unscary.
One thing that annoyed me a lot about this movie is all the Matrixesques moves (Witch I love a lot btw), slowmotion,....If they are going to "copy" it, at least they should do it right or at least try to be
