What a video game movie should be.

Rating: 8/10 (3 September 2004)

Tonight I saw a preview screening of Resident Evil: Apocalypse and am pleased to say it was everything I had hoped for. While the first film was entertaining, it struck me as little more than a generic action film with Resident Evil trappings tacked on, Apocalypse is unmistakably a Resident Evil movie to its core.
One criticism leveled at the first film was the absence of characters from the games, but Apocalypse is sure to please fans of the video game series in this regard. Not only does it feature iconic characters such as Jill Valentine and Nemesis, but more obscure figures such as Nicholai and Carlos from RE3's Mercenaries bonus game. Angie Ashford is essentially a renamed Sherry Birkin from RE2. Not only are the characters present, they're rendered exceptionally faithfully. Sienna Guillory is a dead ringer for Jill, and Zack Ward is excellent as Nicholai.
Raccoon city is nearly perfect as well. The ruined streets are extremely evocative of the games, right down to the streetcars. The Umbrella ads all over the town add to the atmosphere and great pains have been taken to scout locations reminiscent of memorable scenes from the games.
Of course, all the eye candy in the world won't make a difference if the movie itself is dreck, but Apocalypse is quite enjoyable. Paul Anderson's dialogue is a little cheesy sometimes, but never to the point of annoyance.
Alexander Witt gets solid performances from the cast and the movie never descends into campiness. Fans of the games will be pleased to know that while the plot doesn't follow the plot of the games strictly, it does follow it much more closely than the first movie. Along the way it manages to answer such questions as why Nemesis was so intent on killing Jill in RE3 and manages to incorporate Alice, who was created for the movies, into the greater Resident Evil mythos. Best of all, it manages to portray Umbrella Corporation as the shadowy, creepy entity it is in the games, giving the sense that there is much more going on than just in Raccoon City. To top it all off, like Starship Troopers, Apocalypse gives you the sense that anyone can die any minute... or worse.
Apocalypse isn't perfect. Some of the action sequences are a bit derivative, Nemesis' makeup is cheesy and it's pretty obvious Raccoon City is really Toronto (in one shot the CN Tower is visible, and skyscrapers with the logos of Canadian banks are briefly visible.) Still, Resident Evil: Apocalypse stands as a decent action film on its own, and is sure to be a treat for fans of the games.