Resident Evil Apocalypse (2004) : Bad Girls, Big Guns and Bigger Stereotypes

Traveling to China is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because I have countless hours on an airplane to catch up on my movies as long as I remember to load them on my tablet. And a curse because the internet here in China SUCKS so I don't get to stream ANYTHING. So if you saw the latest episode of Walking Dead on Sunday, for the love of God, DO NOT speak to me or offer up any spoilers. I have no way of seeing it over here in the land of eternal smog until I get home later this coming weekend.

So on the plane on the way over I caught up on a few Zombie flicks, and the first was "Resident Evil: Apocalypse". I've seen this one before but since its been a long time. Since I just watched the first Resident Evil last week, I figured the sequel was in order.

The movie picks up right where the first one leaves off: Alice awakens in Raccoon City to find it turned into an apocalyptic mess thanks to her seemingly careless ex-coworkers at the Umbrella Corporation. Half the city's inhabitants are already infected and killing the other half, and Umbrella has sealed off the city: planning to clean-up the area with a nuclear incident.

Joining with a group of survivors, Alice makes a deal with an Umbrella scientist who promises to get them out of town as long as they rescue his daughter. Meanwhile Umbrella has its own plans for Alice, involving a seven-foot armour-clad mutant called Nemesis who's using the infested city as a training ground. Mayhem ensues, complete with huge guns and heroines clad in outfits that in the real world wouldn't stay on during such fierce fighting.

Sienna Guillory plays tough-chick super cop Jill Valentine, complete with super short mini-skirt, tailored tube-top, boots and guns. Her character is such a stereotype its actually entertaining, giving Alice a run for the "toughest bitch" award.

Speaking of stereotypes, Mike Epps plays a character that appears to be a cross between a missing Wayans brother and Huggie Bear. Though entertaining at first, I was quickly rooting for him to become a snack.


The rest of the cast does a pretty decent job of acting, although I found myself wishing there were more Zombies and less people that I was supposed to be invested in. As a summer blockbuster action film, which is what I think it was intended to be, this movie does a good job of keeping things moving along at a fast pace and keeping me engaged. But the Zombies play second-fiddle to super-monsters and evil corporations.

My verdict? On a "Zombie Movie Scale of 1-10" I'd give this one a 5

Sadly, it doesn't live up to the original Resident Evil in terms of plot or Zombie content. Thankfully there still plenty of Alice kicking ass in the movie, which ultimately probably saved it for me from being a 3 or 4. I hope the next RE movie gets back to its roots....

WATCH IT IF: you like watching dominant women shooting big guns and generally kicking ass, want to give your home theatre a workout with the several-thousand rounds of gunfire and explosions, or just want something brain-dead (pun intended) to watch and not think about anything.

DON'T WATCH IT IF: you were hoping to see a Zombie-focused movie, think super-corporations are too often demonized and have a chip on your shoulder about it, or are a card-carrying metrosexual and don't like the idea of watching dominant women shooting big guns and generally kicking ass.

"Resident Evil: Apocalypse" is available for streaming thru Amazon Prime and Netflix, and is also available for purchase from many locations.

More info can be found on IMDB here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318627/

Up Next: Resident Evil: Extinction