Film Reviews

Resident Evil: Apocalypse

• Rating:
• Director: Alexander Witt.
• Starring: Milla Jovovich, Sienna Guillory, Oded Fehr, Thomas Kretschmann, Sophie Vavasseur, Raz Adoti, Jared Harris.
• Details: US/ 93 mins/ (18s).

A film which makes it video game origins appear positively cultured in comparison, Resident Evil: Apocalypse is the mind-numbingly dull sequel to the eponymous original of a couple of years ago. After a brief prologue summarising the events of the first movie, Alice (Jovovich, displaying an Affleckesque range of emotional responses) awakens in Umbrella cooperation labs, having been genetically modified into a killing machine. Since zombies have overrun Raccoon City, Alice has to boot up and do battle with the undead once again. With the city shutdown, a variety of other folks, like maverick Lara Croft-like copper Jill Valentine (Guillory), are pitched against the zombie-folks. An escape plan presents itself if they can rescue the daughter (Vavasseur) of a scientist (Harris). But just to further complicate matters, shady Umbrella operatives, led by the snarling Major Cain (Kretschmann) have unleashed another killing machine Nemesis to do suitably nasty things to any humans left alive in the city... Confused? Not half as much as you will at the end of Resident Evil: Apocalypse. Virtually incomprehensible and worryingly free of anything that could be confused with irony or satire, Resident Evil: Apocalypse is a sub-standard action thriller. Despite being only 93 minutes long, it feels painfully lengthy, depressingly monotonous with its lovingly shot but utterly vapid scenes of utter carnage. Twelve-year-old boys will probably think it 'rocks', however.

Review by Garreth Murphy