Format: DVD from Sycamore Public Library on basement television.
There is a part of me that is fascinated with the career of Paul W.S. Anderson. He’s certainly earnest in what he does; he’s just not very good at it that often. Then again, our boy Paul has managed to stay married to Milla Jovovich for 16 years, starting after he directed her in Resident Evil. He took a break from directing in that film series, but he wrote pretty much the entire series. So, while he’s not on the hook for everything in the first sequel, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, he’s certainly on the hook for some of it.
The problems with this film are legion, and we can start with the name. This is the second film in the franchise and we’re already at the Apocalypse stage? In another medium, this is where I would cue the “That escalated quickly” meme from Anchorman. It would certainly feel like there should be something in between. Instead, the title really goes to the biggest issue with the film.
Normally, this is where I start talking about the plot of the film, but Resident Evil: Apocalypse is almost entirely plotless. I know I’ve said that before, but it’s the absolute truth with this film. This is a film (if you didn’t know) based on a video game franchise, and that’s exactly what it feels like. It’s at a time like this I feel I need to mention that that’s a world I came from—I worked in the video/computer game industry for 12 years. It was a huge deal when video games started getting legitimate film adaptations, but this is the sort of film that gave them an eye-roll reaction from a lot of people.
It really does come down to plot that is the problem. With video games, you genuinely don’t need a great deal of plot, even in a game that is plot-driven. You can, of course, but because the player is actually creating a good deal of the story themselves and experiencing it in a much more personal way and over a much longer period of time, the plot can be much more bare bones. Additionally, it’s the game itself, and the challenges of the actual game that keep the audience involved. With a movie, though, we’re not active participants. We have no role in how the story unfolds, and it’s the story (not the game play) that keeps us interested, or at least should keep us interested.
Roughly, we’re going to pick up where the first movie left off. Alice (Milla Jovovich), the head of security for an installation called The Hive, a part of The Umbrella Corporation, has discovered that the company is doing a series of terrible biotech experiments. The first film is essentially all about those experiments going amok and all hell breaking lose in The Hive. Well, this time, things are going to get worse. The company has tried to open up The Hive again, only to discover that it is filled with zombies, which naturally get out and start infecting the surrounding city, which is given the ridiculous name of Raccoon City. Alice has woken up in a hospital bed in The Hive and gets outside to see what is happening.
Meanwhile, one of the Umbrella Corp.’s main scientists (Jared Harris) refuses to evacuate without his daughter (Sophie Vavasseur). He broadcasts an offer to get people out of the city if they rescue her, since The Umbrella Corp. will nuke the entire city to prevent the zombies from getting out. Involved in trying to save the girl are operative Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory), Umbrella Corp. soldiers Carlos and Nicholai (Oded Fehr and Zack Ward), and civilian L.J. (Mike Epps). We’ve also got a journalist (Sandrine Holt) on board.
Resident Evil: Apocalypse is the poster child for lowest-common-denominator filmmaking. Fight scenes happen constantly (video game!) and people are killed off without fanfare and without any real comment or seeming necessity. Those fight scenes are filmed in ADHD-o-Vision, where there are sometimes two or three cuts per second, making it nearly impossible to follow anything that is happening. All of the characters are essentially the same thing holding slightly different weaponry. There’s almost nothing to distinguish Alice from Jill beyond what we’re supposed to know about them going in.
I don’t normally reference critics when I look at films, but I can’t pass up an opportunity to cite Roger Ebert on this one. At one point in the film, several characters are fighting in a church, and Alice jumps through the stained glass window on a motorcycle, landing in the middle of the battle. As Ebert comments, “This inspires the question: How did she know what was on the other side of the window? Was she crashing through the stained glass on spec?”
The answer is that it “looks cool.” That’s the answer for everything that happens in Resident Evil: Apocalypse. It doesn’t matter if it makes sense. If it looks like it would be cool on screen, let’s wedge it in.
Look, I love the “corporations are bad” message here, but The Umbrella Corporation doesn’t seem to manufacture anything but evil and methods to kill their clients. I fully agree that most corporations are a scourge, but I don’t think they have an actual goal of wiping out humanity.
Why to watch Resident Evil: Apocalypse: “Capitalism is bad” is a great message.
Why not to watch: I challenge anyone to watch this and then explain what actually happened.
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