RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE, 2004
Movie Reviews!

Alice awakens from a terrible sleep to find her worst fears realized--the bloodthirsty Undead, which she and the now-annihilated squad of elite military fought to destroy, have been unleashed on the city that surrounds the secret facility of the Umbrella Corporation. Discovering she was an Umbrella experiment, Alice has been bio-genetically enhanced with new strengths, senses and dexterity--and she will need them. In the heart of the ravaged Raccoon City, a small group of uninfected people, including Jill Valentine, a recently demoted member of Umbrella Corp's elite Special Tactics and Rescue Services team, and S.T.A.R.S team leader Carlos Oliveira, fight for their lives against swarms of Undead and the deadlier and faster Lickers. Running out of luck and resources, the group is rescued by Alice, and they begin to wage an exhilarating battle to survive and escape before the Umbrella Corporation erases its experiment from the face of the earth...

REVIEW:

The sequel to the original Resident Evil film was just good enough. It wasn't a terrible film that would of ruined future movies of the franchise, but it's not exactly a good film either. The plot is basic, as are the characters, and the action sequences are average at best. There's really not anything you haven't seen before but this is also not a film that's unwatchable. There's a hint of emotion going on and because of that we care just a little bit. And because we care just a little bit, we keep watching.

Resident Evil: Apocalypse plays like an episode of the TV series 24. It's action genre story building 101:

- Evil people take down the good people, but there are still some who survived that need to be saved. Enter movie/TV plot.

- The people who survive have fighting skills to beat the evil people.

- Within that group there is also an innocent person who the audience easily attaches themselves to emotionally. In the case of Resident Evil: Apocalypse, an young girl.

- There is conflict within the group as to what to do. Sides get formed. Like an episode of Survivor.

- Our lead character is always right but no one seems to want to listen to them.

- If they only listened to the lead character, things would of gone a whole lot easier and many lives would of been saved.

- One of the leads will die, but they will die in a heroic way.

- There are many unspoken moments of sexual tension happening between a man and a woman while battle scenes occur.

- Within all of these conflicts, there is always an eye in the sky person who is the brains behind the operation and is the one pulling the strings. He's usually a white guy who is either a scientist or a politician. He's the real evil guy we find out in the 3rd act twist.

- The female fighters always look sexy and I'll assume it's the same for the male fighters.

Of course the difference between Resident Evil and 24 is that the bad guys are zombies to their terrorists. But both of those organizations say very little and are always just the ponds in the chess game that the eye in the sky is playing.

You kind of wished that the makers would give a little more effort to the Resident Evil movies. I'm sure their excuse is budgetary as they aren't getting Transformers like money to make the films and therefore there can't be epic-like battles and CGI scenes occurring.

We do expect more from movies than TV though and many episodes of 24 are better executed story wise and action scene-wise than Resident Evil: Apocalypse. And 24 isn't exactly Emmy winning material. It's simple in structure but fun to experience. We've always demanded more with movies because we are paying for that extra oomph! 24 is free to watch, Resident Evil movies are not.

And if you don't have the money to do exactly what you want, then try to be smarter than the rest of your competitors. An insightful script executed to perfection by its directors will always stand the test of time longer than any $200 million dollar budgeted Transformers film.