Frantic pace and vivid entertainment

Rating: 5/10 (18 June 2020)

Resident Evil: Apocalypse was a massive disappointment for me when I first watched it one decade and a half ago. While the first movie had a clever plot, stunning locations and mysterious atmosphere, this sequel walks off the beaten path. The story is extremely thin, the gloomy locations in a destroyed city are everything but spectacular and the atmospheric passages are replaced by countless action scenes. The latter make the movie somewhat entertaining in hindsight as I have recently been rediscovering this live action movie franchise. Ignore the plot and the lack of atmosphere, grab something to drink and to eat, invite a few friends, switch your brain off and enjoy this shallow but entertaining movie for what it is.
The film starts where the previous one had ended two years earlier as lead character Alice makes it out alive of the secret laboratory called the Hive to come back to the surface of Raccoon City. The dangerous T-Virus couldn't be contained in the Hive and has spread across the city as people transform into monsters and attack everyone around them. The leaders of Umbrella Corporation decide to lock the city down which leads to violent riots. They soon realize that the virus cannot be contained and plan on using a nuclear bomb to destroy the city at dusk. Alice must find a way out of the city and save as many lives as possible during one fateful night. She cooperates with a doctor who has worked for Umbrella Corporation but is willing to turn against them to save his daughter who is caught at school.
On the positive side, the film has a perfect length of ninety-four minutes. Its pace is frantic which makes the movie entertaining from start to finish. Lead character Alice develops from an amnesiac survivor into a skilled fighter who definitely turns against the corporation she had once worked for. The numerous action scenes are intense and spectacular. The threat of a nuclear bomb adds some tension and thrill to the film.
However, there are also numerous negative things to mention. The story is simplistic, shallow and predictable. The new characters aren't as attaching, memorable and unique as those from the first movie. The locations are rather repetitive as the destroyed city is much less intriguing than the complex laboratory from the first film. The idea to transform the only other survivor beside the lead character from the first film into a brainless monster is lacking depth.
Still, the movie transforms a franchise that started as a mysterious science-fiction thriller into an overwhelming action spectacle that walks off the beaten path. The connection and transition between the two movies is nevertheless done rather smoothly. While the movie is lacking creativity and depth, it convinces with entertainment and pace. The film has aged rather well and is actually better than I had remembered it. Still, this movie is nowhere near being a great movie and can only be recommended to fans of fast-paced science-fiction action-thrillers who are familiar with the first film.